C'mon Easter Egg Roll Tickets!!!

It's that time again...

The Easter Egg Roll Lottery opened today!

As you remember, I was really hoping to go to last year's event on 4/1/13

but since I hadn't had baby # 4 yet, we just had to do our church's egg hunt instead.

Here are some shots of our family from Easter over the years.  Above, Chandler on his 2nd Easter (he was only 5 days old on his first).  Below, our first Easter as a family of 4.

Boys are getting bigger...

Maverick's first Easter was a little challenging to get a family shot.  This is probably the best one:

When Chandler turned 5, Daddy and Granddaddy Bob weren't here for Easter.  They were at the Masters in Augusta, GA.  They are heading there again this year, but it's not Easter week.

And here is 2013's Easter shot.  I was still waiting on that baby to come out...

Jamison will be almost 13 months before his first Easter.

And for those of you that would like a little more info about the Easter Egg Roll...keep reading...

The White House Easter Egg Roll is a tradition that dates to 1878. Originally, young children in Washington, DC, would flock to Capitol Hill every Monday after Easter for egg rolling and a day of activities. Members of Congress grew tired of the growing crowds and passed an Act of Congress which prohibited egg rolling on the Capitol grounds. The event was moved to the White House in 1878 after President Hayes was approached by young children to use his backyard to roll eggs. Nearly every Easter since, the White House has invited young children to roll eggs on the White House lawn.

Today, the Easter Egg Roll has grown from a few local children rolling eggs on the White House lawn to become the largest event held at the White House, filled with live entertainment, sports and interactive cooking demonstrations. And, of course, the traditional rolling of the Easter eggs. The Easter Egg Roll promotes healthy and active living and is designed for children 13 years of age and under.

Maybe we'll be lucky enough to win tickets again this year.

Here's hoping!

Jamison at 11 Months!

Jamison is 11 months old!

Stats: 

Weight: 21 lbs, 2 oz

Height: 28.75"

I almost didn't get stats because our pediatrician is suddenly requiring appointments for weight checks and I wasn't about to come another day or frankly wait more than 5 minutes for a task that I'm completely capable of doing by myself, but I digress...

Here's my Cutie Pie:

This little guy loves being outside.  He is so close to taking his first steps, it's scary.  We've never had a walker this early, so I'm not sure I'm ready for that.  Brighton was the earliest at 15 months!

Here's the on the couch shot.  Almost impossible to get.  Derek was the camera man and I was the baby placer.  You had about .8 seconds to get a picture before he was on the move.

Jamison cut his 5th tooth on his 11-month b-day.  It is the lower right one next to the middle two.  His sleep is still unpredictable at night, but most nights he will wake for a quick feed and settle right back down.  Occasionally he will not wake at all.  This month he has started to shake his head "yes" and "no".  His vocabulary still consists of "bye" but he jibber-jabbers almost constantly.  He likes to be part of the conversation.  He is still taking two naps, but I've had to shorten the morning one to one hour, so that he will still go down easy for his second nap about 1:15 p.m.

He will walk while pushing a toy/shopping cart/etc...

His favorite foods still seem to be meat and grains.  He loves some sweets too.  I never would have given these other things to my first babies, but well...it's just too hard not to with the 4th.  He has already had (plain) doughnuts, and shortbread cookies.  I can't wait to see what he does with his smash cake on his birthday.  

I'm really looking forward to this summer and all the fun times we will have outside and in the pool.  Bring on the warm weather...we are ready for it!

NO MORE SNOW!!

These are our Snow Wreaths that we made on New Years Eve in hopes to see some snow this year.

Let's just say they have worked. 

They are coming down today.

Bring on Spring.

Please.

Weekend Happenings...

This weekend was pretty busy for us.

We spent Saturday morning bundled up at a playground celebrating with some friends for Asher's 2nd Birthday.  Luckily it wasn't freezing rain like they had predicted.

I thought it was cute that Maverick kept following the Birthday Boy around wherever he would go.

Later that afternoon it was time again for our small group to meet.  It was so nice to not have to worry about dinner (minus the two banana puddings I made) and for the kids to have fun playing.  Here's (most) of the littles happily playing together.  What a fun time!

Dr. Jamie

Jamison is quickly approaching toddlerhood. 

My baby is growing up too fast!

One of his favorite toys is the stethoscope from a doctor's kit that we have.  He likes to hang it over his neck, which I think is quite advanced for a baby to do, and crawl around with it on.

Of course, when I try to get pictures of this, he just wants to ham it up for the camera.

Maybe we'll have an MD in our future, or a comedian...

Pinewood Derby

Today our newly formed Cub Scout Pack had it's first Pinewood Derby!

Derek is the Cubmaster and therefore does the lion's share of the work, and it is A LOT of work.  Luckily many of the other dads helped out today and overall it was a great first event.  Our pack borrowed the track from another pack since they are expensive (think 2-3 thousand dollars!).  Granddaddy Bob helped Brighton, who is an unofficial scout, make a car so he could join in the fun.

Here are all the race cars lined up ready to go.  In all, eleven cub scouts made cars, so it was a good turnout.  Chandler and I had talked about how to be a good sport and congratulate all the scouts for a job well done.  We tried to emphasize that not everybody can win a trophy and that's okay.

Chandler, ready to race!

Here's the pack with the leaders:

A boy that Chandler has known since preschool just joined our pack.  He is in Kindergarten, but just turned 7, so he was able to join in January.  His car won fastest overall.  I did not witness this, but was told by several people that Chandler gave him a pat on the back and told him, "Good job!"

That makes me proud to see that hopefully good sportsmanship is sinking in.

Chandler won 2nd place for originality (his race car looked like an army tank).  Hopefully next year we can improve the aerodynamics and get an award for speed.  We can always try!

Happy Valentines' Day!

I know that my Valentine's Day isn't "Pinterest" worthy, but I do try to do fun things for my kids when I can.  For breakfast, I cut biscuits to look like hearts and topped them with cinnamon/sugar and red sugar crystals.  Each of the boys got a DVD of their favorite cartoons currently:

Chuggington

Power Rangers

Scooby Doo

This little cutie didn't need any sweets.  He is sweet enough :)

Our Valentine's Plans got messed up and I didn't even know it.  Derek planned to take me
out to The Melting Pot (hadn't been there in YEARS!) but with all the ice/snow etc... we decided 

to reschedule for next week.  My consolation prize was a bouquet of flowers that I put in 

my favorite vase.

For dinner I made a crockpot meal that I had arranged for one of my mom's groups to make for Valentines' Day.  Unfortunately, the meeting had to be rescheduled due to the ice/snow, but I figured I could go ahead and try it out.  It was a chicken/tomato/artichoke dish served over rice.  Everybody ate it, but it wasn't as "wow" as I'd hoped for.

That was our Valentines' Day.  Hope you had a good one!