Feeding Himself

Taking the scoop....

Halfway there....

Made it!

As you can see Jack is learning to use a spoon himself. A lot of it ends up on his face so I have another spoon ready to clean it off. Sometimes he does really well though :) He loves his oatmeal!

Bucket Races and more

Jack recently discovered our big buckets on the floor in our pantry and decided that he really likes pushing them around on our kitchen floor. So Garrett joins in the fun and it looks like they are having bucket races.

Some of our tulips on the side of our house that have bloomed. The day I took this picture it was cool and windy, which is why they are leaning.

Last week Nikki got to bring home Cuddles again from school.

"I gotta pickle! I gotta pickle! I gotta pickle, hey hey hey hey!"

Jack loved the homemade dark chocolate I made Easter weekend, the only kind of chocolate he can have right now (milk free).

Easter and Jack's 1st steps!

We started out today with the kids hunting for eggs that the Easter bunny hid around the house. Then the kids discovering the fun stuff in their basket. We were going to go to my brother's house for cinnamon rolls but didn't have time so my brother brought them to us on their way to his in laws. So then we proceeded to get ready for Easter and watch conference. In between sessions we went to visit my in laws and then my sister (who just had surgery and was feeling miserable). Then came back to finish up the 2nd session of conference. After that it was off to Grandma Laverne's for Easter dinner. Everything was delicious and we enjoyed talking and playing with/watching the kids afterward. Then I decided to work with Jack some more on teaching him how to walk. And thank goodness I had my sister in law there to take some videos because he took his first steps! I tried to add a video to this post but it wasn't working. I was able to post it on my facebook though. Anyway, it turned out to be a very good day and great Easter! I kind of got these pictures out of order but oh well. They are all from Easter Sunday.


Jack enjoyed watching the kids outside with their kites at Grandma's house. He climbed right up on the top of the couch and had lots of fun. He likes to do this at home too but I think Grandma's couches worked better for climbing.

The kids did an egg hunt after dinner. I couldn't get Garrett to look at the camera long enough to take a picture. He kept looking around for more eggs, just in case. (We forgot to bring their baskets so they had to use bags instead.)

Here's Nikki's loot.

Had to get a picture of the table setup before we messed it up. It looked great Laverne!

Jack was happy with mommy after he got some yummy food in his tummy.

Krista and Laverne starting their Easter feast.

Here are the boys waiting to get some of that delicious ham!

The kids had a great time sitting at the counter on bar stools. Their Easter treat bags were waiting for them on their plates.

Garrett got a spy glass and two little bugs to look at with it.

Jack has that look on his face like he's saying "Excuse me, I'm trying to open my egg. Leave me alone." So funny.

Nikki liked the ring pops that were in the shapes of bunnies and ducks.

Here's a picture of the basket before they tore into it. Since Jack can't have chocolate the Easter Bunny brought him some healthy snacks. Turns out the kids would have been perfectly happy with just having their eggs. They were so excited about finding all the eggs first that they didn't realize there was a basket hiding somewhere for them. I had to coach Nikki to go look for "something else". She found it pretty quickly on top of the washing machine.

Chocolate and Eggs

With all of Jack's allergies (milk, nuts, eggs) I did some looking on the internet and found some recipes to make that he can have. One of them was for special dark chocolate (and this was a Hershey's recipe). So last night I decided to try and make it. This is the first time I've ever made any kind of chocolate. It was very easy and all the kids loved it! We will be bringing some samples to Easter dinner tomorrow.

Speaking of Easter, we did our egg coloring today while "watching" conference. Yeah, I pretty much missed most of the afternoon session even though we had the volume turned up on the TV in the family room. But Nikki and I did enjoy the morning session and had two activity packets that we were working on together. Garrett's not quite ready for conference yet and Jack slept for both sessions.

Jack was having fun with the tablecloth and kept picking at the cotton where the rip is. Finally had to pull him away and then he was ready for a nap.

Garrett and Nikki are each showing off their favorite egg. They colored 10 eggs total.

Now Garrett and I are showing our favorite eggs. Nikki made mine and it says "I love you" on it.