When you have a mini van...

You have to initiate it by taking it on a road trip, so that's just what we did. Chris got off staff duty (24 hour duty) at 9 am April 23rd and we took off for San Antonio. The plan was for me to drive and take care of the kids while he slept. Well, if Ben would have cooperated it would have been great. John, who I was actually the most worried about keeping him occupied fell asleep an hour into the drive. Ben, on the other hand, refused to fall asleep, and was about done with the trip by Austin. Poor Chris spent the rest of the drive down there trying to keep Ben consoled. Needless to say the minute we pulled into Dave & Sarah's driveway, he hopped out and went straight to bed. I knew we needed to be out of the house, so that Chris could rest, so I had made plans to meet two of my former coworkers and their boys for lunch and playtime at the park. So we were back on the road again for another 30 minutes to reach Kara's house.
Ben and John nearly had meltdowns by the time we finally got there. When she said she was way out there, I didn't realize that not only was she on the other side of San Antonio, but when you turn on Petranco, you go until you think you are in another town before you reach her house!! Love you Kara! We beat Judy & Kaleb there, and Camren was napping, so John immediately took it on himself to make himself at home. Camren had just celebrated his one year old birthday a month prior, and had a lot of his toys in the living room, so John sat right down and began to play. I tried to put Ben to sleep, but of course, he wouldn't have it. A new place with new things to see and people to entertain.
Camren woke up shortly after Judy and Kaleb arrived, and of course the boys wanted to play instead of eat, even though the adults were starving! I was impressed though. John had never really been around boys his age, and he actually played really well. Kaleb & John are 2 months apart (our first baby, Pepin, was due a week after Kaleb was due, and we got pregnant with John shortly after we lost Pepin so Judy and I were pregnant together much of our last year at work). Camren being nearly a year younger than the other two , wasn't quite sure what to make of the two boys playing with his toys.
After lunch we walked to the park. Ben fell asleep (finally) on the way to the park and woke up on the way back from it (nearly an hour-hooray!) John also couldn't keep his eyes open on the way back from the park. I guess his hour nap in the car didn't cut it! He even fell asleep on the way back to Dave & Sarah's house. Poor kiddo. Here's some pics from the park:

Both Judy & Kara ended up having the same wagons. John rode with Camren. I was impressed, cuz Kara was pulling 60 pounds of boy uphill most of the way.

John exploring the playset

Camren's favorite spot, the swings

John soon joined him
and stayed in this "flying" position
the entire time. It was really funny. He was as straight as a board and loved going higher and higher!

Judy & Kaleb took a turn on the swings, while John went exploring

Checking out his "new" friends on the swings!

Easter

Easter was a wee bit strange this year. Last year we hosted people at our house. This year our small group went over to the Pflugs. I'm not sure if it was the fact that we didn't have it at our house, or that we were tired, or that it was rainy, but I had a hard time reflecting on the true meaning of Easter. Maybe it was the fact that the boys and I were having a ridiculously difficult month with sleeping and obedience issues. I think all I wanted to sing that Easter morning was the song, Just You and Me. That song has carried me through these past few months, realizing that these crazy nights of no sleep and days of raising our two under two will pass, and all that matters is Christ, and knowing Him, and making Him known. My favorite line in the song says, "It's just You and me here now, only You and me here now. And You should see the view when it's only You, when it's only You." Putting Christ at the center and focus of our lives puts everything into perspective.
But, alas, I had a hard time doing just that on Easter morning/day. We had invited Chris's platoon sergeant and his wife and daughter to church with us, and they came. I was so excited, but I spent most of the morning praying that God would meet them there. I know she grew up in church, but was turned away do to recent circumstances. He, I don't think has much church experience. It was really neat, b/c we got to go see them the night before and have dinner together and just talk. It was a really neat/relaxing evening. They have a daughter who is just a few months older than John, and are expecting a baby boy in Aug/Sept.
So, I digress. Easter, we went to first service, and then came home, cuz I had to prepare what I was making for the lunch. I started getting really weak and dizzy and tired, and didn't really want to go, but felt like we had helped organize it, so we should go. I think we slept maybe 3 hours the night before due to one of the boys waking up every hour. Once we got to the Pflugs it ended up being a great time. I had some good conversations with Laura & Lisa, and Steph & I played a ridiculously long game of Uno with Lisa's oldest, Taylor. I don't think I have ever played for that long. Both Ben & John ended up napping there which was amazing and wonderful, allowing us some good time of fellowship.
Coming home seemed so anticlimactic. Like there should be something more. I guess Heaven is going to be the fulfillment of the something more. We will never feel that way (that longing for more) again once we are in Jesus's presence. I can't wait!
Before the kids got too cranky, we did manage to sneak in an Easter photo (or 3-when you have two under two it's hard to get everyone looking at the camera at the same time, and sometimes you catch smiles and most times you catch one and not the other smiling).


***notice they are both smiling, but at something on the ground. Go figure!

Fun at Nana's

So, the weekend before Easter, we went out to Chris's mom's house just cuz. It turned out to be the perfect pre-Easter thing to do. While Ben napped on Daddy's chest, John enjoyed:

Filling plastic easter eggs with candy. He would open them put the candy in, close them, open them again, take the candy out, close them, and start all over again!



Then he went exploring. He loved looking through the barb wire fence at the animals their neighbors had. A horse came right up to him, and John almost got to touch him, but the horse ran away before I could lift him up to pet it.



Then he went on an "Easter egg" hunt, except the eggs were real eggs that their chickens and their neighbor's chickens had laid all over the land. Here he is finding one under a 4-wheeler. If you look really closely just to the right of the front wheel there's a speck of white (that's the egg!)


When Ben woke up we ventured over to Tom's house (their neighbor) and saw his livestock. John was in love with the cows. That was one of his first words to say both the name of the animal and the sound it makes (First was actually doggie and bowwow!). He kept trying to feed them or get them to come near him, but they stayed their distance.


(he was also fascinated by their big pool of water and I believe a few random rocks made their way into it! Oops!)

Next we went to the bunnies. John thought they were ok, but Ben LOVED them. He giggled and giggled with delight. Tom was keeping this cage for Easter bunnies, but was raising the rest for food.






Nana picked up a 3 week old bunny. Unfortunately she probably picked it up a wee bit too early and it's mom may disown it. Oops.


The pigs caught both of my boys attention, John's only for a little bit, until he saw some flowers that he could go run in and blow the petals off of (dandelions!!!). Then he met some neighbor kids and "talked through the fence."



Ben would bounce up and down in excitement whenever a pig would walk near him. It was too cute!

We left shortly after seeing the animals, cuz we still needed to make it to Sam's and home so the kiddos could sleep. It was a great day though, and we will definitely have to do it again!

Note to self...

...don't get too engaged in talking to your husband when he gets home from work. You might find your explorative, curious, toddler son does this:



I had opened the windows that day (end of March) as the day was gorgeous, and it was a nice breeze. I was sitting in the chair that you can see the blanket on in the pic. I knew John was behind me playing, and the next thing I know it sounds like he's outside. Sure enough he figured out how to tear out the screen and climb out. Boy am I in trouble when he reaches his teenage years!!!!

Transition to Big Boy bed

So the last week in March, we started putting John in his big boy bed, as Ben was getting too big for the cradle and would soon need to sleep in the crib. We started with naptimes, and a few times he got in and would stay in. Often I would hear him rummaging through the things in his room, and I'd have to go back and put him down. A few times I caught him:
He had a full time of reading books before he conked out on the floor. (I did transition him to the bed after I took this pic!) Since then I have also walked in on him falling asleep while sitting up reading on the floor.


Another day I found him like this:
He had grabbed the baby powder off the changing table (right next to his bed) and proceeded to dump it all over his bed (see below pic). He slept in the crib that naptime and for a few days after that until I had the time to gather up all the baby powder so that we could use it later (yes folks I'm cheap-besides it was 3/4 of a bottle!)


This incident convinced me that Chris was right all along in that we needed to buy a shelf to put stuff on, so that John wouldn't get into it. Well funny thing. Shortly after we installed said shelf, John started climbling up onto the changing table and getting into things. One time I actually walked in on him laying down on the changing pad, almost asleep. The kid hates the changing table for its actual purpose, but apparently it makes a great bed!!

All in all, it really only took a week (max 2) and he was sleeping naps and nighttime in his big boy bed. Now that Ben is in the room, our hardest task is keeping John from going over and climbing into the crib to wake Ben up!!! He does love his brother!

Random cuteness

John loves "helping" & figuring out how things work.

Brothers

One of my favorite pics of Ben!

John has recently decided that he loves taking pictures with me, and then having me turn the camera around so he can see what the picture looks like. He also now wants to push the button instead of me pushing it!! Oy, he's going to be an independent little one!!

John is our most random sleeper. We have so many pictures of random positions he ends up sleeping in. One of these days I may just do a post about the random sleeping habits of John. This one he's using his bear as a pillow and is almost cross-legged, sleeping across the bed, rather than up and down in it. Crazy kid



Random goofiness!

Brothers, actually smiling and looking at the camera simultaneously. A rare moment that is for sure!

Tummy time!!!


Apparently John has only just recently started saying please, b/c this is a video of one of his first times (taken March 22). I thought it had been a lot longer than that!

This is one of my favorite things Ben does. He's been doing it for a few months now, and I finally caught it on tape!

The real Evie arrives

So, 6 days after we held the shower at Bible Study the real Evie was born (March 23rd)! We were able to go meet her. It took us a while to get up there, b/c first we had to wait for the boys to wake up from their naps, then we had to get everything together, then we had to stop at the gate, as we were borrowing the van we now own, to get a visitor's pass, and finally we had to figure out how to get to the labor and delivery ward!
Don't I look ready for another one?? Holding Evie made me ready to have a baby girl! But I am definitely content to wait!


Ashley had to show me the only trait Evie shared with her: her fingernail beds. She pretty much is David's mini me!

We ran into the Skoogs up there and after "ooohing" & "aaahing" over Evie we all went out to Schlotzsky's for dinner. Ben had a blast! He enjoyed eating the paper, flirting with Stephanie, and dancing to the YMCA with daddy.
Hmm, let's try this
Hmmm, not sure what I think about the taste.
Guess I'll have to try a little more to make sure.






And yes, even John got into the dancing!