Easter 2013 in Pictures

Saturday morning before Easter...

Reesey's first egg dyeing experience!

Reese took a T.O. from egg dyeing...

And came back with a bat

I love us!

Jaxon was very methodical about decorating his eggs

Easter Morning.

Reese LOVES granola bars. Every morning she makes a beeline for the pantry and brings us a granola bar. So stinkin' funny!

Jaxon has wanted a Bible for a long time!
Thank goodness the Easter Bunny was listening

We have read the Bible each night since Easter.
Mainly we read the same 5 stories about Jesus' crucifixion.

Off to hunt for eggs

Reese was really into it.
It helped the Bunny left eggs exactly where she loves to play
Smart Bunny!

Even Luce got into the action

Jaxon and I went to Mass. He looks so big in these pictures

We met Brian & Reese at Grammy Sue's after mass

First try! Pretty good picture I think. 

This series of pictures is my favorite of all time! 

Jax, "I'll hold Reesey's hand."
Reese is not digging it

She's outta here!
J, "REEEEEESE! Come back!"

Let's try again.
Reese is clearly done

Mama, "Keep smiling Jaxon! She might stop screaming."

Seriously. She's a crack up! Trying to escape ANOTHER picture!

Let's try a sibling picture again. This time Jaxon followed Reese

More interested in Phoebe

Almost perfect!

Success! Well, almost. At least no one is screaming.
Even if they both look like they are plotting revenge on me.

After Grammy Sue's we stopped at my parent's to collect more eggs.

Every good party ends with a topless girl. Wait? What?

Trophy Winner

Jaxon finished his first season of tee-ball last month. He is getting so good! I'm really happy we started him in a winter league. It was a nice way to ease into the game and our new life as a baseball family. He's now in more serious league and he has learned a lot. All he ever wants to do is practice hitting, catching, or throwing, much to Brian's delight.

I believe his motivation this season stems from the trophy he earned in his first league. Oh.My.Word was he excited to receive a trophy! He looked at me and said, "I earned this? Did I get this trophy because I was a good player?" I took this opportunity and told him that if he tried really hard with Coach Rob, he might earn another trophy.

Last Game with the Rattlesnakes

Jaxon's biggest fan.
She will yell to him and clap while he's playing

He's stunned to be receiving a trophy! 

Best buds.

Proud boy

He was so proud of this trophy that he wouldn't let it out of his sight. He carried it everywhere... the bathroom, bed, dinner, church, Target. Everywhere. I was so worried he would break it that I told him he couldn't carry around any more. He insisted on taking it to church, but would put it in my purse for safe keeping. No problem. When we got home he asked me to carry it inside because he didn't want to walk with it in the garage in case he tripped. No problem. I got it. Yeah. I got it so well, I forgot it was in my hands, along with a million other things, and I dropped it. On the tile. And it broke. In at least 3 pieces. UGH! I still haven't lived that down. a month later. Oh well. I imagine it won't be the last time I break his heart.

Happies and Crappies

I have totally slacked on Happies & Crappies! Let's see if I can even remember this week! 

Happies

* I've been worried about Reesey's speech, or lack there of, for several months now. I reached out to the speech therapist at my school and she hooked me up with one of her professors at the University, who is doing a Word Learning Study with toddlers. I contacted her and Reese has an evaluation on Monday. This is a happy because I'm confident she'll qualify and will hopefully receive some (free) services. 

* While at the baseball park on Monday, a dog passes by Reese & me. Reese points to the dog and says, "Woof woof"  Holy happy mama!!! 

* Jaxon is starting to take an interest in reading. He has been asking me to point to the words as I read then he points to them and repeats what I say. It's a good start. 

* I snuck out to Target by myself this week. That is ALWAYS a happy!

Crappies

* I didn't get to the gym at all this week. Ugh.

* Reesey has a touch of the stomach flu. Seriously, can she catch every germ out there? Sheesh!

* My kindergartners were W-I-L-D WILD! Yikes. Well, wild as in very chatty. When I asked why they were talking so much while I was trying to teach, one girl told me, "Because talking is fun and listening is boring." Nice.

* You all know about my unconditional love for Ricky Martin right? A little history here and here

Best day of my life. September 2005

NYC Evita. June 2012

Albuquerque April 2011

 Well, he is the new judge on The Voice Australia, random, I know. Anyway, it started this week and I was super excited when he posted a link on Twitter to the first episode. I started my Monday by watching the first episode. So fantastic! The Voice Australia is like the The Voice America, where they have 2 episodes in one week. So Tuesday, I went to their official website, clicked on the 'View Episode 2" link and I get this

CONTENT UNAVAILABLE
The video is not authorized for your location (US)

What does that even mean?!?! I though this was the WORLD wide web. As in available ALL OVER THE WORLD.

GRRRRR! I'm so flippin' mad! I've tried literally a million times this week, from my laptop, from my phone, from the iPad, from Brian's laptop, from Brian's phone. Literally a million times (or 100 Billion Courtney :) ). Every day. Over and over.   I am so desperate I'm considering Tweeting Ricky Martin himself and begging him to post a link. Hey, that'll be one heck of  a Happy if he Tweets me back!! I just don't quite understand Twitter.

Pretty bland week. Could have been better, could have been worse. 

Rats, Snakes & Alligators! Oh My!

I should be writing about Easter, seeing as that was yesterday, but I our Easter weekend started out with waaaay more excitement than dyeing Easter eggs.

When we first moved into our house (2 years ago in 3 days) we had a huge issue with pack rats. They had invaded the built in grill in the backyard and it took Brian months to get rid of them. Fast forward to this winter and Brian found more than 5 pack rats dead in our pool and skimmer. They were back!

While Brian & I were on our mini-vacay, our neighbor came by the house and saw a rat run through our yard and under our house. When we came back I started noticing a God awful smell. It smelled as if we had either left a poopy diaper out or Lucy was pooping in the house. It was nasty. Finally, Brian checked under the window where the neighbor reported the pack rat sighting. Sure enough, the builder had left a small opening under the guest room window. And guess what? The pack rats had made themselves a nice little home in our wall. Super.

Last Thursday night, Brian decided that 9:00pm would be a great time to cut into the wall to find out what was going on. Holy nasty smell Batman!!! I've never smelt such an awful smell in my life.

The first hole.

There was some serious nastiness inside that wall. And with each panel Brian cut, more nastiness. He just kept pulling out pack rat crap. Plus he sucked up at least 2 corpses with the shop vac.

After about 45 minutes he called it a night and decided to come back to it the next morning. 

To make things a bit more interesting, he found another little critter. Well, more like a 6 foot Bull Snake. Yep. a nice snake in the wall chasing those nasty rats. 

Brian is not one to catch a snake so he called the fire department, per our exterminators suggestion. 

They were here in less than 5 minutes and got straight to work chasing this snake around the wall. 

I stayed outside with the kids because a certain little person wanted to catch the snake herself, I think. Sit on the truck she wanted no part of. We couldn't get any closer than this or Reese would flip out!

While we were outside, Brian and the firefighters were inside catching the snake. It was caught fairly quickly, but not without a few heart stopping moments, according to Brian anyway. 

Remember how I said Brian didn't do snakes? Well, when the snake came out he said, and I quote, "I jumped on the bed like a little girl when I thought the snake was getting away." Sure enough. This picture was taken from the top of the guest bed! Wimp!

Look closely. The head is coming out of the cooler.

The tail is to the left of the cooler on the carpet. 

Brian had to let a day pass before he could go back into the room. The thought of more snakes scarred him!

After hours of cleaning out the wall, and finding another corpse and maybe a live one, we are left with this...

Never a dull moment around here, I tell ya. 

Brian is now in the process of disinfecting the room and repairing the wall.

Poor dude. I definitely don't envy being the husband in this situation!