Update on Us!

I haven't been very good at blogging the last few weeks, but really, not that much has been happening that would be of any interest! Mostly I have a few random pictures to show first:

Here are the kiddos having a little picnic lunch during Conference...um... 2? weeks ago? It was probably 3 actually... We get that look a lot from Jaina...

Here are Reilly and Jaina in the dress and shirt Grandpa and Grandma Kerrigan brought them from their cruise! They are pretty cool, and though the dress fits a little big, if Jaina keeps growing at this rate, it could even be too small by the end of summer! I never know what size to get for her anymore...

(No comment on Reilly's hair or expression...)

Our kids favorite breakfast is cereal. Seriously. They almost always eat an assortment of Oatmeal Squares, Frosted Mini Wheats, and Crispix, with Raisin Bran Crunch recently added into the equation since Daddy introduced it.

Speaking of Daddy, Jeremy left last Monday night to spend time in Las Vegas touring an office or two, attending the NUCCA Conference, and hanging out with our friends the Noordas. He has been gone 8 days now, and we are so excited to have him back late tomorrow night! It has been a rather interesting week. It didn't help that our dryer decided to die a night or two before Jeremy left. We paid $40 for the washer AND the dryer 3 years ago, so we can't complain too much, but it's still an annoyance, especially when we have lots of rainy days like we've had lately. Thankfully there has been SOME sun, and I upgraded my "clothesline" to dry a few loads outside. I have to say that the only "clothes" I enjoy hanging out are the diapers. For some reason they're so much prettier than a load of towels...

My wonderful mom took 6 days out of her life to come visit us and take care of us for a lot of Jeremy's trip. We found some great prices on a ticket flying into Cedar Rapids, and it has been so worth it to have her here! The kids were so excited for her to get here, and thoroughly enjoyed all the attention and fun. The only damper in the week was poor Jaina, who ran a high fever Saturday and Saturday night. I'm having to chalk it up to teething, because she hasn't had any other symptoms other than being a little extra crabby lately... anyway, here are a few pictures from today, shortly before my mom left!

These kiddos are sure going to miss their Grandma!

This is what we had for dinner tonight:

I just couldn't resist; it sounded so good! (German pancakes)

And one more thing: Last week we took a few pics in the same dress Jaina wore LAST year for Easter (it actually fits now, and is almost too short) to compare to the one in the post below. Here they are. I can't believe how big she's getting!

Easter Weekend

Hey, I'm not quite as far behind as usual... :)

The Thursday afternoon before Easter weekend we suddenly decided to get out of town and go to Chicago for a few nights. It was a little crazy, and that is the first time I've done all the packing for everyone, by myself. Normally it would just be a little stressful, but doing it while pregnant was a little intense... We left town about 5:30 pm and pulled into Chicago (well, Glenview, about 2 blocks from the Chicago Temple) at nearly 9 that night. Of course our kids were all keyed up and had a hard time getting to sleep that night. We did have a nice 2-room suite that Jeremy scored on Hotwire, in a really nice hotel. Here are some pics from our hotel. The inner courtyard (above the lobby) was really awesome.

We went with some friends, and had the opportunity of doing a temple session together, while they watched our kids Friday. (we watched theirs later in the day) It was so nice - I really don't remember the last time we were in a session together! Friday evening we took the kids back to see the temple (they had been asking and asking!),

visited an LDS bookstore, and ordered Giordano's Chicago-style pizza.  After that we walked around an amazing electronics/appliance store called ABT. Pretty awesome. We were sad to learn it was a stand-alone store. We probably could have spent hours there, even with the kids. They even had a huge fishtank, which the kids thought was pretty cool. We drove home the next morning, not quite in time to catch General Conference. Thankfully, we have to watch it on the Internet anyway, so we just started really late...  

Easter Sunday we had a fun breakfast of Aebleskivers (pancake puffs) and cinnamon rolls (not homemade), talked about what Easter is really about, and then let the kids get dressed up in their new Sunday clothes and hunt for Easter eggs outside. They had a pretty good time, even if it was a little cold!  I think Jaina was slightly traumatized when I took her candy away after she had six or seven pieces. I've made a mental note to find different things to fill some of the eggs with next year... The are actually still working on their Easter bunnies. :)

Here is a picture of them on Easter last year (when we were in the Twin Cities for the weekend):

And here are pictures of them last Sunday! (they were better at posing last year, apparently...)

Behind again: St. Patrick's Day

I know most people are posting Easter pics today, and yes, we took some, but we've got to keep things in order here for me, because I am chronologically OCD...

I hope to have even more fun with St. Patrick's Day in the future, since Jeremy's family IS Irish, but it was impressive enough this time that I managed these shamrock pancakes. :) We also had green milk and OJ (well - I didn't have green OJ - I just couldn't do it) and the kids thought it was fun. Jaina has one green shirt, and it was dirty, but we found something with at least -some- green on it later for her. :)

Happy Half Birthday!

Reilly turned 3 1/2 the end of March, so he and Daddy did the traditional ice cream outing to celebrate. He was very impressed. I'll try to put a video up soon on our video blog. It's worth seeing...

Roommates

Finally they were both well enough and we moved Jaina into Reilly's room last Saturday. (to make a room for the baby in a few months)  The first night was a little worrisome: Jaina was so excited she talked and jabbered for over an hour! Reilly finally went to sleep during it, and Jaina learned to throw herself down and fake being asleep when she heard Daddy coming. An accomplishment for both. :) Since then, it's been fairly boring, and they go to sleep quite well most nights.

I am so excited to finally get out the spring/summer clothes! Of course Jaina has almost grown out of quite a few of hers already, and Reilly's are STILL a little big for him. Here is Jaina modeling one of her fun new dresses (that had BETTER fit for at least a month or two!) last Sunday!