Easter

 Finding Easter Eggs at the egg hunt

 More eggs

 Gracie with her friend Lauryn at the hunt

 Owen was more interested in the balloons

 The Easter Bunny came!

 Finding eggs at our house

Jack

The Easter Bunny came a couple weeks ago and the kids were very excited about all the candy.  Nick and also took them to a community Easter Eggstravaganza!  There were a lot of activities available for them to do.  Owen won a big Easter basket and Gracie got to play on all the air filled entertainment provided.  She loved the slide and the big blow up train that were there.  It was kind of a rainy day, but Gracie and Owen still had fun.

Easter Day was somewhat relaxing.  We went to church, but didn't have any other big plans.  It was a really nice day, so the kids got to have an egg hunt outside and played out there most of the day.  Josh and Julie came to have dinner with us. 

The following day, Jack came home.  He is our new yellow/white lab.  He came from Story County Animal Shelter and is about a year old.  He was a stray.  We had been to look at him a few times the week prior, but actually got to take him home on April 9.  He is such a good dog, but still has a lot of puppy in him.  He likes to chew and has taken a liking to my shoes, the kids' stuffed toys, and socks that happen to be laying around.  Fortunately he has not destroyed anything so far.  He stays in a kennel at night and during the day while we're gone.  It didn't take him long to get used to going in there when we tell him to.  I take him for walks in the morning after I run and after school when I get home.  We keep him on a leash all the time, but hopefully he will get used to our house and we will eventully be able to let him off once in a while.  He is pretty mellow and good with the kids except when they are running around.  He gets excited and nips at them.  Owen seems to be a lot more tolerant of it than Gracie at this point.  We're trying to teach her to not run away from him.

Gracie and Owen are doing well.  She was sick this week, but it didn't last long.  She came home from school on Tuesday and was throwing up, but slept most of the evening.  She stayed home with me on Wednesday, but was feeling much better.  We got some stuff done at home, painted her name on her wall in her room, made cookies, watched movies, and in the afternoon, I took her for a walk in the jogger.  Jack came, too.  She is continuing to do well in school.  She brings her artwork home all the time and is getting better at coloring inside the lines.  She did get into trouble a couple weeks ago for saying a bad word at school.  She said "oh s*#t!"  Nick and I try to filter our language around her and we were trying to figure out where she had learned this.  The other night I heard her muttering something under her breath that sounded like "stupid, stupid, stupid...."  When I asked what she was saying, she said "nothing."  Then she said, "We dont say shut up, right?" Then followed that up with "Shut up Charles."  (Charles is a wrestler.)  We had a talk about what is not ok to say.  I figured out that when she goes to wrestling practices she absorbs a lot of langage that she hears from the older kids.  I think it's time that she stays away from the wrestling room, even though she loves to go when Nick lets her.

Owen is getting so much better with words.  We are starting to understand things that he is trying to say.  He loves balloons, balls, and bikes.  He is starting to go for longer periods of time using play-dough and markers without putting them in his mouth.  Making some progress!  He likes Jack and is able to ignore him when Jack starts to nip at him.  This works better than Gracie's method of running away.  He is starting to stay up a little bit later in the evenings, which is good.  It gives us more time to do things in the evenings now that it's nice out and staying light longer.  He and Gracie both love to ride on the 4-wheeler and mower with Nick.  Anything outside usually satisfies them.  Owen can see our neighbor's basketball hoop from our house which is probably over 100 yards away, but tends to wander over that way by himself if he sees them outside playing.  We need to get one put up at our house.

We don't have any big events in the near future.  Just everyday stuff that keeps us busy.  Nick is supervising free-style wrestling 3 nights a week right now and I have started my next class for grad school.  The weather continues to improve and there is only a little over a month left of school at Ballard.  This year has flown by!