Grandma Emily visits!

This is Brent's step-mom, Emily, who recently came out from New Jersey for a visit. We all had a nice breakfast together, and then when Brent left for a bike race, Emily got to join me and the boys for a trip to the park. Emily, we were glad to see you, and I'm glad that we wear the same size shoes!

Brothers...

Gage is clearly the only one who picks up that someone is taking a picture here. Big Bro is much more interested in what's on TV. Gage doesn't care much about the TV yet, which is great most of the time, unless I'm really trying to get something done and, therefore, wish that he, too, could get temporarily tuned into Jake & the Neverland Pirates, instead of being tuned exclusively into Channel Mama.

If you could hear the words that accompanied this picture, you'd hear, "Peek-a-boo!" And the "-boo" is like the sound of "book" without the "k." It is so darn cute! Gage never tires of this game, and we don't often get tired of playing it with him either. One of my favorite renditions of the game is when he covers my eyes with his hands and says "boo."

More snacktimes...

I, honestly, can't remember if these hot dog buns were a legitimate snack or just a good prop for a picture. Our kids are big snackers (probably because Mommy is too), but Brent is kindly encouraging me to decrease the number of snacks--or maybe just the amount of say, goldfish, that I often throw down at a given snack--and promising me that the kids will survive.

Our latest favorite snack is a Clif Bar Kids' Fruit Rope. They've been on a HOT sale at King Soopers lately, and let's just say that I have STOCKED up!!! (My personal favorite flavor is strawberry, but they're all pretty good.) These are healthy, quick and easy snacks, so I usually grab three on our way out the door.

Yogurt is for eating?

This post makes me laugh--everything from Brent's subject title to the order of the pictures. First, we have Gavin demonstrating that, indeed, we like to eat yogurt around our house. And then we have Baby Gage, whose yogurt-filled body really just says it all: We LOVE yogurt around these parts. (Gage won't drink milk, but yogurt subs for a solid source of his daily calcium intake for sure.)

Running in the rain...

I've got to give Brent credit where credit is due, because this was his great idea: He suggested that, on Easter afternoon, Gavin ride his bike next to me while I jogged. I'll admit that I was nervous to suggest my "normal" route (a big loop on a dirt trail behind the rec center near our house) due to the distance and my sweet boy's little legs, but that didn't stop me. We headed out to the dirt path but only ended up as far as the "Red Park" (Gavin's current favorite park in the neighborhood), but once I strategically mentioned the pond on my running route, he was back in the game. And when we had passed the pond, he insisted on going all the way around the field!!! My little 3 1/2-year-old dude held his own on a bike with no training wheels all the way around Mommy's running path, and it was honestly debatable sometimes as to who was faster! I was so proud of him, and it felt so liberating to have him on two wheels and me on two feet. On the back half of the run/ride, we stopped to look at nature and talk about birds and possible coyote sightings (none to speak of that day). And we did stop at the "Climbing Wall Park" (his old fave) on the way home, just before it started to rain. What a perfect way to end our Easter day together!

Bath times...

There is nothing that melts my heart more than seeing one of my children "nakies" in a bath towel. (If your heart also just stopped when you saw this adorable picture of Gage, I don't blame you one bit.) My sweet baby is growing up more every day. He's full of all kinds of new words, he's become quite proficient in saying "yes" (complete with the "yes head" that uses his whole body to demonstrate an affirmative response) and he's running these days to keep up with (or get away from) his big brother.

One of the favorite Easter basket surprises was a bottle of apple bubble bath that Gavin asks to use in his baths a lot now. You can see that this provides hours of free entertainment, what with the bubble beards, mustaches, goatees (is that really how you spell that word?!) and more.

Besides putting the bubbles on himself, Gage also really likes to give Gavin a bubble beard lately. I love to watch my boys in the bath together...until the whole thing goes south, that is, usually due to some issue about whose turn it is to be in the front. This sometimes results in the removal of our eldest son from the bath.

Easter at Grammie's house..

We just keep using that adorable sweater vest until it refuses to fit both of our children. I guess you just have to do that with things that are so excessively cute.

We spent Easter at Mom and Jim's this year, and Grammie put a pinwheel in Gage's Easter basket. We've had lots of fun with it at home. Besides the standard blowing into it, the kids discovered how much fun it was to watch it spin super fast under the water in the bathtub.

Grammie and Papa Jim hid lots of eggs for the boys inside the house. The idea was for Gavin to find the eggs with a "G" on them and leave the unmarked eggs for Gage. It worked pretty well for the most part; the hardest thing to do for both kids was to save the yummy contents inside the eggs for later.

Thanks, Mom, for such a yummy Easter lunch and the healthy, yummy treats in the boys' Easter baskets. We all appreciated your thoughtfulness and our time together.

I think that I took this picture of the two of us. Gavin and I had a really fun Easter adventure together that I'll write about in the post after the next one (best recent bath time shots). Stay tuned!

Easter egg hunt...

We went again this year to the annual Easter egg hunt in Eldorado Springs, put on by some friends and members of First Presbyterian Church where we used to attend. It's a wonderful ministry, and it's so much fun for me to follow Gavin around as he hunts for eggs. He was hilariously methodical this year as he looked for eggs inside. (Some of the youngest kids' hunts were relocated due to weather.)

"Grandma Mike" came with us this year, and she chaperoned Gage and his cousin, Madison, since the boys' hunts were happening at the same time. This picture was taken during the singing portion of the morning. They do such a good job of telling the real Easter story and leading the large group in worship songs.

Aunt Jackie brought both of her daughters this year, too. Isn't Madison's dress so cute and festive?

Easter eggs...

Gavin and I had a lot of fun decorating Easter eggs this year. We also decided to make our own set of Resurrection Eggs (a set of twelve plastic eggs, the content of which tell the Easter story), and this was the year that we told Gavin the real Easter story. To teach about resurrection, you have to first teach about death, and this made me nervous. But between Grandma's cat dying and my decision to tell Gavin more about his great grandparents in heaven, God paved the way for a good conversation about Easter.

He had such good questions for us all season, like "But why did they hurt Jesus like that?" We have some great Easter books, and by the end of April I feel like Gavin had a good grasp of what it was all really about.

He is risen! He is risen, indeed!!!

Gage eating...

It literally felt like an overnight decision that Gage made to start using silverware--or at least attempting to--one day not too long ago. He does surprisingly well with it, though his latest favorite trick (wearing his bowls and plates as hats) has been leaving him pretty messy after meal times.

We finally caught it on film: the face that Gage makes when he wants Mama's or Daddy's drink. And I wish that you could hear the accompanying sound with this funny face: a low-pitch "ooh, ooh, ooh" that he only does when he wants what we have in our cups, even if it's the exact same thing as he has in his.