Happy Easter!

We really should be saying, "Happy Resurrection Day," because that's what it's all about isn't it?  Nevertheless, we did throw in some traditional holiday celebrating as well.  The Easter bunny did find our house last night and managed to hide Landon's Easter basket in a very unusual location.

Landon found his Easter basket in the bathroom.  He was so excited and asked me why I hide it in there?  Um, it was the Easter Bunny sweetheart!?

Landon got some quarters, a couple pieces of candy and the movie Dispicable Me.  We immediately watched the movie, and, it was ok...

Landon pretended he was a dinosaur most of the morning.

We also managed to snap our traditional Easter photo by the tree in our front yard.  In case you want to see how much Landon and the tree have grown, click here. 

This tree was planted in the Spring of 2008, when Landon was just a few months old.  Since it was planted around Easter weekend, I have made a point to take Landon's picture standing (or in his carseat), next to the tree on Easter every year since.  In case you are wondering, I think the tree and Landon are growing at about the same pace.

Easter would not be complete without a couple things.  Green shoes, I think they kind of rock.

And, kisses for your Momma.  As we were heading out this morning, Landon said, "I really like your necklace Mom.  You are so beautiful."  I'm sorry, can you say that again, I didn't hear you.  Ok, so I did, but I just can't hear that enough.  What a sweet, sweet child!

We enjoyed a wonderful brunch with our wonderful family around noon.  And this evening, we are spending time with more family and friends.  What a blessing this day has been!

Dyeing of Easter Eggs

For the past 5 or 6 years, I have been dyeing our Easter Eggs with silk ties (or anything I find that is 100% silk).  I learned this from the best, Martha Stewart, and you can find the instructions here.  This afternoon, after I realized that Landon was not going to take a nap, we started dyeing our eggs.  It is seriously so much easier than breaking out all those cups with different colors.  Uggh, the mess gives me nightmares.

Step 1:  Gather all necessary items. 

Step 2:  Wrap a piece of silk around the raw egg. 

Step 3:  Wrap a piece of cotton around the silk and secure the layers with a rubber band.

Step 4:  Cover with water and 3 tablespoons water.  Boil for 20 minutes.

After the eggs have cooled, unwrap and enjoy the beauty!

I went furniture shopping and came home with a...

FISH!

No, they do not sell fish at the furniture store, my car just happened to take a detour.  I honestly don't know how that happened, and didn't plan that at all.

 

Landon is just smitten with his new fish, which does not have a name. He has already asked to hold it, and to feed it an M & M.  Instead, we opted for fish food.  We'll see how long this lasts.

Landon's fish is going to go downstairs in his new bedroom.  Hopefully, we will work on moving him down there sometime soon as well.

Wish us luck!

Dan Wardell comes to Fort Atkinson

As a special treat, I picked Landon up from daycare early today, and we headed to the Fort Atkinson Community Center for story hour with Dan Wardell.  Dan Wardell is the host of Iowa Public Televisions Kids Clubhouse and his road trip brought him to Fort Atkinson!  Yippee!

Landon had been super excited about going, except when the time came, he didn't have those same feelings.  While he was excited to see his other daycare friends there (and Bernice), as well as his cousins, Eryn, Nolan and Derek, Landon was really upset because he had to be waken up from his nap when I picked him up from daycare.  All Landon really wanted to do was go back to sleep. :( So instead of sitting on the floor with the other kids, Landon chose to enjoy story hour from my lap.  

The room was full of excitement!

 

 There were so many kids there, they didn't all fit in the picture!

Even though Landon didn't have the same enthusiasm a the other kids, I think he still had a good time.  At the end of story hour, Dan handed out kites to all the kids.  Landon thought that was pretty cool.

Saturday shopping

On Friday night, my sister came up to see us.  She was really getting a jump start, as us girls were taking off early in the morning to head out shopping.  Since my sister moved, I really miss seeing her everyday, but I am so happy she is happy!  Anyway, when she came on Friday night, she brought one of her cakes to share!

Is that not the prettiest cake ever?  She has only been through one set of decorating classes, and her cakes look so amazing!  Such talent.  Landon thought this was Elke's birthday cake, so we got in a good round of "Happy Birthday."

The picture above was taken on Saturday morning.  Yes, that is snow that you see on the deck.  Yuck. 

Anyway, back to shopping.  Jodi and I headed over to pick up Eryn and Cathy, and us girls set out to take on Rochester.  Our mission was to look for a flower girl dress for Eryn to wear in my sister's wedding.  (Please excuse the really horrible picture of me below.  This was after 9 hours of shopping and being 7 months pregnant.  Thank you.)

I'm not sure that we all got what we were looking for, but we had a great time nevertheless.  I love these girls so much, and love spending time with them, but I am exhausted.  On a side note, I have the best husband in the world.  I came home to a clean house, and the laundry done.  How lucky am I?  I am off to put up my feet and enjoy a piece of cake.  Night, night!

Happy Birthday Elke!

I can't believe our baby girl is 6 years old today!  Man how time flies.  I only wish she was feeling better. :( 

Landon's new bed

We are slowly working towards moving Landon downstairs.  Everything is pretty much ready to go, we just need to make the commitment.  That, may be harder for Mom than anyone else. So we ordered Landon a new mattress and box spring, and picked it up late last week.  Landon thinks it's pretty cool so far.  Landon's Grandma Debbie gave him a beautiful Amish made crib when he was born.  When he outgrew the crib, it converted into a toddler bed which he is currently using, and then converts to the head-board and foot-board for the full size bed, which we will do as soon as we are ready to move him. 

On a side note, I love etsy.  It's an online shopping place where you can buy people's handmade art, etc.  It's sort of like ebay, except you don't bid, you just buy.  Anyway, going with the jeep theme room, I ordered a vintage gas pump wall decal.  I think it's kind of fun, and it was so cheap and so easy to put up.

Warm Sunday

What a roller coaster this weather has been.  What should we expect, it is Iowa after all!

We woke up this morning to temps already near 60 degrees, and it didn't take long for the sun to warm things up to almost 90 degrees!  Needless to say, we pretty much lived outside today. 

It would have been a great day to clear out some of the dead from plants, etc.  However, the very first plant I touched, right outside the front door, quickly changed my mind.  As I picked up some of the hosta leaves, a snake greeted me and slithered into some ornamental grass that was next on my list.  Um, most of you know about my deep fear of snakes and well, I was done.  Landon and I spent the rest of the afternoon in the backyard, on the patio. 

By the time we got back outside after supper, the cold front had moved through and it was back into the 60's and super windy.  We still enjoyed our day!

 

Oh Elke...

Elke appeared to be getting better after everything we went through two weeks ago.  And then, she started with the licking again a couple days ago.  She appears to only be licking two nails on one of her front paws.  This morning, I called Dr. Marty and he wanted to see Elke right away.  Have I said how much I really love Dr. Marty?  He is such an awesome vet, and totally dropped everything to see her.  He just goes above and beyond, and I think that is because he has such a bond with Elke.  He took care of Elke at a point in her life when she was so sick and we can never thank him enough for that. 

Anyway, there are so many reasons why dog lick their paws, so it can be so hard to diagnose.  He researched quit a bit when we were there, and knowing Dr. Marty he continued to do so after we left.  For know, she is on a cocktail of meds, and we will see if we can clear up whatever is going on.  Maybe it's not a food allergy?  But what is it?

28 weeks

Oh my goodness - I can't believe I am 7 months pregnant already!  Things are going so well, and we feel so blessed to be having such a healthy pregnancy.  Let's hope everything continues to go this smoothly!  I am really feeling like I am growing like crazy.  Most of me just thinks that I look extremely overweight and not pregnant, but I have always battled these self image issues.  Regardless, I will set all that aside and just keep doing what I'm doing as everything is going so well.  

Now officially in my third trimester, baby Merrill and I are in the home stretch (part of that makes me extremely sad by the way).  He is estimated to weigh about 2 3/4 pounds and is about 15 inches long.  He is blinking his eyes, sucking on his thumb and his brain is developing billions of neurons.  Such a miracle!

Our first bike ride...not exactly successful

No April Fool's Day (or a couple days late) jokes here.  Temps were up near 70 this afternoon!  Laundry was on the line, the doors were allowing a nice, fresh breeze to enter the house, and Landon and I headed out to give his bike a test run. 

Landon has been used to riding his bike in the house, and hasn't wanted to take it outside.  I think he was mostly afraid of getting it dirty.  But I convinced him it was time to give it a try.  

So he strapped on his helmet and headed down the driveway.

We did several trips to the shop and back.  Landon really seemed to be getting the hang of it!

Here is a video of him riding as well.

Hills, however, seemed to be too big of an obstacle.  So, it was off the bike and time to push.

Our "Yay Landon" quickly turned into, "Oh no Landon!"

Daddy came home, and it was time for Landon to show Daddy his mad bike riding skills.  Landon took off like a pro.  Only that same hill that was so hard to ride up, was way to easy to ride down.  We were not far and quickly took off, but neither of us could catch him in time.  The bike went down and so did Landon.  There was blood...and tears...and my stomach was in knots.

The end result...

Seriously...my poor baby.

Um, it may be just a smidge before I can get Landon on his bike again. Seriously, the poor thing.

Just another Friday night at home...

Jer was busy working on a project for work.  Landon, of course, wanted to follow suit.  I love these guys...