boys

Zeb and I had a rough evening. Watching this makes me remember why I love him. I really like the little sentences he uses- "doggy say..." and "kitty cat say..." He insisted on wearing these sunglasses for an entire day! He calls glasses "eyes".


and this little guy must know when his big brother is stressing me out- because he becomes angelic or falls asleep right on cue. Plus- he has given us TEN straight hours of uninterrupted sleep the past few nights.Isn't he so cute?

Here is little Zebby with the crazy dog eddy in Ashland. He loved him to death- even after this knockdown! Watch carefully because it's at the very beginning.

the rest of our easter weekend in MANY pictures!

Not too far from Ashland there's a little town called Millersburg (we had to drive through Friedricksburg to get there) that's full of delicious cheese and lots of Amish! Amish country is absolutely beautiful and the people are so interesting. Driving through their towns and seeing the way they live is really neat. I can't believe that we hadn't been before! I felt a little awkward driving around and staring at them- but they take advantage of the situation as well by selling goods so I didn't feel so bad.
They don't love getting their pictures taken so I took this one through our front windshield as we drove upon the buggy.

The best part of the day was our "tour" of Heini's Cheese Chalet. The Amish supply most of the products used in the cheese- and many of them work there as well.
They make something like 70 types of cheese and you can sample ALL of them. I have never eaten so much cheese in my entire life. I think that my favorite was the pizza cheese! They also had (cream) cheese fudge that was DELICIOUS. I was just a little sick to my stomach that night- but all the tasting was well worth it.
Zeb loved sampling all of the cheeses and really wanted to buy an Amish hat so badly- too bad his parents are way too cheap to spend the eight bucks!













That evening we had a dinner of hot dogs and s'mores in the backyard fire pit! Zeb was in heaven- he absolutely adores hot dogs and marshmallows. And later that night we played some exciting rounds of "euchre"- Ohio's own card game- and ate some more cheese from Heinis.
We have the greatest cousins and family members in the entire world! It was so fun to talk and laugh with Amy and craigo. I sure wish that we could see all of the cousins more often.

On Easter Sunday we went to the Ashland branch and then returned home for one of the most delicious Easter meals I've ever tasted. Kathy is part greek and she made the best greek food! We had Baklava- greek custard- grape leaves- and spanakopita. Oh- and a great big lamb cake. I think that the cake was my favorite part of the dinner! We also had an insanely fun easter egg hunt. The weather was perfect and the eggs had money in them! Zeb slept through the event but I made sure and found some eggs for him. I think he may have gotten enough money to buy a new train :)
I already miss all of the great food and company! It was so nice to have a mini vacation and I wish that it could have lasted longer.

I already miss them all.

Our weekend was absolutely wonderful. I know I've said it a trillion times- but it is so nice to have family live on this side of the country! and it makes it even nicer that we've got the starkeys to house and feed us all :) Spending Easter weekend in Ashland was heaven. We ate and laughed and played and ate some more!
Ike loved getting to know his cousin (second cousin once removed actually), Sophie, better. Zeb was in heaven playing with Hank and the ginormous dog Ed. I cannot believe how much fun Zeb had with the dog!! He ran around with him all weekend giggling hysterically. This dog was so good with all the kidlets.We also thoroughly enjoyed playing with Katie and little Taylor! Nothing like a Leisy and Laney sandwich to make you smile. And check out our hair in the pictures. It's the first time EVER that we've had such different hair lengths!!










Saturday we spent nearly all day in Amish country! We hadn't ever been before and it was so great. The Amish are such interesting people. Once Laney sends me some of her pictures from that day- I'll post some more.

so excited for the weekend!!

I can't wait for the weekend to begin. Tomorrow Laney, Taylor, and Hanky arrive! and then Saturday morning it's off to Ashland- one of our favorite places in Ohio- to spend the Easter weekend with the fabulous Starkeys! We have been so lucky here in Ohio to see family so regularly. I don't think I've gone longer than a month without seeing family members of some sort! We are definitely spoiled.

We'll take lots of pictures and have lots of fun this weekend so that we've got something interesting to blog about on Monday. Until then there may be some postless days.













My two turkeys continue to make my life crazy and unpredictable. Zeb has been making some marked improvement in tantrum throwing. He's slowly but surely learning to share and not scream quite so much when he wants something. I can actually come home at the end of the day and not want to rip my hair out or banish him to eternal timeout. The above picture is him trying to workout with us at the church. He loves to follow along with our "firm bootcamp" DVD (which I highly recommend if anyone is looking for a great workout dvd).

Ike is still so so good. He's cooing and talking and smiling like crazy. I am so glad that those first eight boring weeks are behind us :) Somebody at the park approached me today and told me that my two little boys look exactly the same! I'm still not sure who I think Ike looks like- but to the unbiased eye, apparently, he looks like Zeb.

easter playgroup

here is zebby anxiously awaiting today's easter egg hunt! for playgroup the kids had an egg hunt at the church building. The weather turned a bit chilly this week so we had to stay indoors- but I think zeb enjoyed himself all the same.



Here's the after shot of Zeb enjoying his spoils with his pal Ellie. These two are so mean to each other sometimes- but still manage to stay friends. Last week the two of them went at it over a doorknob. They both claimed that it belonged to them (and in Ellie's defense- it was at her house and therefore was more hers than his).

2 month

Today was Ike's two month well check. The kid is 50th percentile in everything- just like his big brother. He weighs 11 pounds six ounces and is 22.5 inches long. He was such a champ for his immunizations. Just a short little screech and then a nice long nap. I am so glad that our Pediatrician's office is on Kent's campus- it means he can run over and be the one to hold down the kidlets while they get their shots.





before







during









after




This kid just keeps getting better and better. He slept a straight eight hours last night. Thank you, Ike.

This kid is just so easy to love. I can honestly say that coming to love this kid has been a much faster process than learning to love zeb! Maybe it's because I can actually enjoy his boringness. Perhaps it's because he is so darn good. And possibly it's just because I am better at loving then I was before. I am not one of the mothers that feels an instant connection to my fetus in utero. It takes time getting to know my little rugrats for me to really like them. I still don't enjoy newborns much- but I do like my Ike.

waaaay too much time.

I giggle every time that I look at this picture. This website is pretty funny.








Obviously I have a little too much time on my hands. I don't have seminary this week because of spring break- so I am staying up late and doing nothing of value.

Easter Egg hunt!!

Zeb, Ike, and I decided to try and do something exciting this morning before conference (it starts at noon out here so we had plenty of time). Kent has a class from 8-4 today and I knew we'd be inside for the majority of the day listening to conference so I wanted to get OUTside. I had heard about an Easter egg hunt at one of the Christian churches nearby so we decided to check it out.

We ended up running into friends from Ann Arbor (it was so fun to see the Webers!) and another family from the ward so it was a lot of fun.

Zeb LOVED the egg hunt (really it was an egg "pickup"- nothing was hidden), making his own sparkly cross and resurrection bracelet, and coloring his "Jesus loves me" coloring page- but was traumatized by the other events.










He would not get near the Easter Bunny. He does look a little dingy to me but was rather pleasant otherwise! Ike had no problems with him.

And here is Zeb FREAKING out after the man in charge asked the kids to "shout hooray for Jesus". It scared him BAD!

They had Pizza at the end and Zeb got some prizes and candy! He actually nabbed one of the giant "special" eggs in the hunt (we lucked out and he ended up in the 0-2 age category so he was about the only kid walking on his own- plus I made him go for the big egg first!) and won a stuffed animal and some good chocolate!

It was bound to happen

Zeb watches me put on my makeup everyday and begs to play with my mirror and mascara tubes- so I knew something like this was bound to occur. I'm just a little irritated that he did it to my bronzer. Has anybody tried cleaning up powdery bronzer? It's ridiculously hard.
I was attempting to make dinner (that has been the HARDEST part of having two children. Why do they BOTH get so needy at dinner time?!?!) and had distracted Zeb with a Thomas dvd (or so I thought). He climbed up onto the table, pulled my makeup bag out of my purse, and proceeded to bronze his face and arms, his clothes, and the surrounding carpet.

I had to vacuum everything up that I could and then scrub and scrub with carpet cleaner for at least thirty minutes. I pounded out his clothes on the balcony and let them soak for an hour in stain remover. Everything has been restored to its proper color and Zeb is now terrified to touch my makeup bag. I took the picture AFTER we had the discussion about why he shouldn't play with my makeup. I think he actually felt bad about it.

big fat lip

That creature at the top of my blog was really grossing me out- so I decided to post this cute picture instead. It appears that Ike has inherited his dad's big fat pouty lip. When Ike gets frustrated or really hungry- he sticks out his big fat bottom lip before he cries! It is so funny.
Zeb has the exact same lip. Here is a terribly blurry cell phone shot of him at almost the very same age.