Happy Easter

What a week it has been! To start March is over which means Kyle's nasty stache is gone as well (hooray!) My attractive, clean cut husband is back. I'm still trying to find something I can do to get back at him to gross him out like he did to me... Ape legs April maybe? With it being a new month that also brought a proper goodbye to the bottle. We have been meaning to get rid of the bottle for Abby for quite some time but with the move to Japan we let her have it a little longer than we liked to help her adjust. So in March we said goodbye to the pacifier, and in April its goodbye to the bottle. Only big girl cups and sippy cups for us now. She seems to be doing alright without it. Obviously from the picture below you can tell she doesn't need it to fall asleep, but every now and then she refuses milk all together unless it's in her bottle. Hopefully she will warm up to the idea of it in a sippy cup now cause milk does the body good!

 

We also discovered that if Connor is getting tired we just have to put him in him jumper. He will jump himself right to sleep. Poor guy loves and hates that thing all at he same time! He just keeps jumping, and jumping, till all of a sudden it is quiet and we look over and he has passed out. He is getting to be such a big boy sometimes I can't believe he will going on 6 months soon! Now that he is getting 2 meals of oatmeal a day and is getting somewhat on a schedule, he is doing much better at sleeping through the night. I am only having to wake up for him about 2-3 times now, and that's mainly because he rolls over in the middle of the night and scares himself. We are looking forward to starting baby food with him this month.

 

And so the love and interest between Abby and Connor continues. Connor is always entertained by Abby and now it seems as if Abby is wanting to include Connor when she plays. I am starting to see a similar look between the two as well. This week I had 3 people tell me how much they look a like... Guy at the dog park, lady at the commissary, and a friend from our squadron. I guess we just make cookie cutter looking kids, but at least they are cute little cookies :)

 

We adventured into dying eggs this year (something I wasn't up to last year so we skipped the whole tradition all together). Even though it was messy and a pain to clean up, I'm glad we did it cause Abby loved it! Kyle missed the experience because of work so Connor was on watching duty to make sure Abby did a good job on all our eggs. She made 1 egg for all of us, and then she got 3 for herself. With some guided help from myself she did a really good job. It was our learning activity for the day where we talked about different colors and what happens when you mix colors. She loves any kind of art activity from coloring books to egg dying. I think we have a future artist on our hands. 

 

 

Along with our egg dying we also had several Easter activities this week building up our excitement for the real day. On Wednesday we got together with some families from our church for a little Easter party. We had Easter treats, Easter books,  Easter craft, and of course an Easter egg hunt. I was dying of laughter watching Abby cause she didn't really know what to do. I tried to help her but she would get so distracted with her OCD of having to open each egg before getting another egg that she ended up with 4 eggs total. Oh well, at least she had fun. So me being a mom that wants her kids to succeed decided we would "practice" finding eggs at home before our other planned Easter egg hunt coming up on Saturday with some squadron friends. 

From Wednesday to Saturday I would hide the eggs around the house and let Abby find them. Not only was it a great way to help her practice hunting for eggs but it totally entertained her for hours!!! I lost track of how many times I hid eggs all over the house just to have her find them and ask for me to hide them again. We will probably still be hiding eggs all over the house in July :).

Saturday came and we had a fun brunch with some friends that are in our squadron and live on our street. They have kids right around Abby's age as well so we put together a little Easter egg hunt. I could not believe the improvement Abby made from Wednesday to Saturday! In fact she was TOO good at finding the eggs that she would take them from the other kids! What did I do... I created an Easter egg monster! She would run around picking up the other kids eggs and putting them in her bag while I would take them out of her bag and put them back without her even noticing. Everyone thought it was hysterical at how focused she was. I learned several lessons that day 1) Abby likes a little competition 2) practice actually DOES make perfect, and 3) Easter egg monsters can be created over night apparently, or in Abby's case 3 days. I'm not even worried about next year, she will get enough eggs and chocolate for the whole family to enjoy. After all that's why you have kids right? They do the hard work to collect the candy for us to eat :).

 

 

 

On Thursday there was another fini flight in the squadron. This time it was Bluto's. His wife, Florencia, and their two cute little girls that are 1 and 3 lives right across the street from us. They were so nice and welcoming to us that we will be sad to see them leave. He is going to Korea for a year while Florencia and the girls go back to the states to be with family. That's the problem with this military life, you meet great people but they are constantly moving in and out. Luckily the F-16 community is really tight knit and rather small so hopefully our paths will cross again down the road. We will miss our neighbors, but look forward to who ever will be moving across the street from us now. Hopefully some more friends for Abby, Connor, and me.

Even though we made the big move across the pacific, the Easter bunny was still able to find us! Abby got a new Easter dress, sidewalk chalk, sand toys, bracelets, and some new Minnie Mouse sippy cups (don't you like the bribing of Minnie on sippy cups to help her forget about the bottle?) Connor got a new church outfit as well and some yummy baby oatmeal and baby food to try. The Easter bunny also left eggs and peeps all over the house and backyard. I know, I know, you are probably thinking why feed the fire with ANOTHER egg hunt when she is already an egg monster?! But I, I mean the Easter bunny, couldn't resist to watch the maniac one more time go crazy in her element. I had to unleash the beast one last time before locking her crazy egg monster side away for another year. We had a fun morning, then headed off to church. Since we are a whole day ahead from the states we will have next Sunday to watch general conference. We are so excited to hear from our beloved Prophet Thomas S. Monson and the Apostles. We always love conference and Easter time. We are grateful for our Savior and his atoning sacrifice, and love how we are reminded this Easter season that he is risen and that he lives!