Easter Egg Coloring

In the past, we've been slacker parents when it comes to coloring Easter eggs. We've never gone to all the trouble since Sterling was born, except last year at my Dad's where we didn't have to prepare and clean up. So since he is old enough this year, we had Jamie and the girls over to share in the fun and the Rowe's for conversational/moral support (since Eli is still too young). Michelle even thoughtfully brought her camera and took pictures (most of hers are posted here since they are so much better than ours).
Jamie was a little alarmed when Doug asked if we were doing naked eggs, perhaps wondering what exactly she had agreed to when she said they'd come do eggs with us... However, he just meant the kids and pointed out later that she's the dirty one for thinking he meant anything else. Feel free to defend yourself Jamie. ;)

Wanna cracker?

Evie makes Daddy pretty

Brooklyn & Anna

"Naked Eggs"

For more Easter egg photo's go to: http://picasaweb.google.com/Crickettess/EasterEggColoring

Spendin' the Dough

There is this great toy store downtown! They have all sorts of unique toys and lots for the kids to try out. This is where we decided to take Sterling to make his first purchase with his Reward Chart money. He had been talking and talking about Annie & Clarabel and was sooo excited to get into that store. Doug wanted to make a big deal about it, so we took the actual piggy bank that Sterling had been storing his dough in and we hopped on the train and took *"a vacation" downtown (as Sterling would say). When we got to the block with the toy store on it, Sterling ran to the door beckoning for us to come in. He went straight to the trains, picked out Annie & Clarabel and then the kids played for a while. When it was time to go, Doug whipped out the piggy bank and the lucky lady behind the counter got to count out *$9 in change- she was thrilled.

* We had some great books from the library and one was called Tremendous Trains- in it the passengers are going on vacation, so now the MAX takes us on vacation. He asked me the other day where Daddy was and I told him that he took the train to work. He replied, "Oh. Dadda went on vacation."

* We had an FHE lesson on tithing, so this was the first time he payed tithing, too.

Here is Sterling's Reward Chart. We decided to make House Rules 1st and then base his Reward Chart on those. I laminated it, hung it on our fridge, and use dry erase pens to give him stars or smiley-faces when he does well. If he hits Evie, for example, he will get a star erased until he can go for a while without hitting. At the end of the day, he gets $.05/ star to put in his piggy bank. If he gets all his stars for the day I give him a $.50 bonus for being so good. It took him about 2 1/2 weeks to save up $10.00.

It's a Boy!

Hylton Noah

The first picture is his face profile, and the second shows the four chambers of his healthly little heart and heartbeats.

My doctor says he is measuring oversized at this point and expects that to be exponentially more so when he is born (big surprise for us, right?).