Sunday, April 19, 2015

Easter



On Wednesday, before Easter, we went to the Larsen's house and dyed Easter eggs with Elizabeth's friends.  She thought it was fun but really just wanted to eat the eggs and she did, with the shell on.  It was funny to see but sad to see her trying to get the shell out of her mouth- silly girl. She mostly enjoyed playing with her cute friends.  Later that week we dyed eggs as a family; I love dying eggs and trying to be so creative.  Elizabeth did a couple (but mostly just dropped them on the floor) and then quickly lost interest and Ben did one or two (but wasn't there the whole time because of meetings).  It was fun and they turned out cute. 
 
 
 
She did not like the hard boiled egg but, being 2, quickly changed her mood!
 
 
She is 'hiding' from Dad. Close your eyes- :I can't see you, you can't see me." but you have to keep one peeping open to see his reaction.

 
Adding stickers
 


Easter weekend I was pretty sick (flu-ish yuck) so on Saturday Ben took Elizabeth to an Easter BBQ with a bunch of our friends. They had fun and, although they were too late for the egg hunt, Elizabeth got to bring home an egg on a stick for our flowers- she was very proud. 
 
 
 
Since getting out our Easter decorations Elizabeth has been playing with the Easter eggs and we have been prepping her for the Easter egg hunt.  I told her that the Easter bunny would come and take the eggs, put candy in them and then hide them for her.  The magic was not lost on her on Easter morning as she hesitantly looked around the living room at all of the 'hidden' eggs. It took her a minute to realize that she could pick them up and that there was candy in them and then there was no stopping her.  She got a fun Easter basket with girl church/princess stuff, a beautiful stuffed rabbit (thanks Grandma Baker) and some bubble stuff.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
Making cinnamon rolls

I tried to make cinnamon rolls but they weren't ready in time, so we had them for lunch.  We all got ready and went to church in our new Easter clothes (the Easter bunny wasn't going to bring anything to the parents but he decided he needed to clothe the 'baby' so I got two beautiful shirts).  It was General Conference so it was a little hard to keep her reverent, sitting and in our row but we managed and we WENT (that is what matters, right?).
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
She fell asleep during the last speaker.
 That afternoon, between sessions, we had an Easter egg hunt with the neighbors in our back yard.  The Woods had family in town and a nephew to hunt with Elizabeth, she was a little older and got the hang of it quickly but soon learned to share her eggs with the little guy. It was fun to see her so excited and to enjoy a beautiful Easter day.That night we went to the Newson's for a delicious traditional (at least to me) meal of Ham and cheesy potatoes- yum!

 
Holiday's are always magic with children but to have that magic come from something gospel related is pretty cool.  I loved watching Elizabeth play out the resurrection story in FHE with her nursery cut outs and talk about it long after.  I loved having General Conference on this special weekend and being able to stop everything for two full days to focus on the gospel and the love of our Heavenly Father and our Savior for us.  It was a wonderful Easter.

Photo SHOE- t!

Working for Crocs Ben has had the chance to learn a lot of new things and have a lot of different job titles.  One of the things he has been doing for a while is being a fit tester for new shoes.  Ben is the sample size and so they will bring him new shoes, not yet on the market, and have him wear them for a week and give them feedback.

At the beginning of April (4/2) the male Crocs foot model got a bad blister and was unable to be photographed.  So, knowing that Ben was the perfect size, they asked Ben to step in as the foot model.  First, Ben had to meet with the photographer, who was responsible for okaying his feet to be shot.  They then sent him to get a full pedicure, working out some 'trouble areas' and a calf massage.  Ben was grateful that they said he did not need to get anything waxed.  The next day he was instructed to wear loose fitting shoes, so his feet could breath, and was an official foot model that afternoon.

It is hard for me to think about this without having to suppress a chuckle.  My husband is a foot model.  MY HUSBAND is a FOOT MODEL.  I am married to a model; so basically... I am awesome! No, he didn't get paid more.  Yes, he does now LOVE pedicures but no, he probably wont get another one (unless the modeling continues). Is he going to quit his job and join the big league in the world of body part modeling? No, he said that it was actually kind of boring; because it was just his feet he just had to stand around for a couple hours.  But you never know, if the shoe fits....!?

Ben's feet will not be on posters and billboards however because his feet were shot for the web videos that are featured online; videos showing the shoes being warn on actual feet and in motion (yep, he even had to walk).  The shoes he modeled will not be out for a couple more months but be sure, when they are, I will proudly be posting it to the world!!

Look at those well pedicured toes...
On St Patrick's Day, Crocs had a professional photographer take pictures of their entire staff and they then chose three faces to be in a Mother's Day e-mail and Ben was chosen.  The marketing team wrote his quote (but we think it kind of fits).  Here is what it kind of looked like (only the title and Ben's picture- I didn't get the rest of the e-mail):
 

March

St Patrick's Day

I have been pretty sick for the last couple of holidays so I was excited to do something fun for St Patrick's Day.  Growing up we really didn't do anything for St Patrick's Day except wear green and have corned beef and cabbage. We decided to keep with that simplicity, except instead of corned beef and cabbage (which Ben isn't a fan of), we had a green meal.  It was fun for me to make a green dinner, we had: Chicken Pesto Pasta, Broccoli, Rainbow Jello, Rainbow Juice and green four leaf clover rolls.  II tried to make the jello layered but the last layer was too hot (blame my impatients) so it didn't really work and the juice (rainbow sherbet and sprite) looks a little like mucky water- but it all tasted good.)  We had rainbow rice crispy treats for dessert. Elizabeth doesn't really get it and I am sure she didn't notice that the food was all the same color but someday she will enjoy it and it was fun for me.
I really tried to make clovers but after a few I just tied them like normal.  Although my roll making skills are not great, they are definitely improving.
 
Trying to sneak a roll during the picture.
 We also had a Stones Birthday Party for Evelyn, who was born on St Patrick's Day.  She had a princess cake that Mom made and I think Elizabeth and Devin looked at that cake the majority of the time- it was beautiful.  Mom planned some fun games for the kids to play and it was cute watching them all work together.  As always, it was fun to have everyone together!
 
 

It's a... BOY!!



Typically you find out the sex of your baby in an ultrasound around 20 weeks but with a new blood test (that looks at the chromosomes in the mother's blood) impatient people, like me, can find out as early as 15 weeks! We decided to do this test and had the doctor write the results for us in a sealed envelope.  
The Newson family has a curse (good or bad) that gives the family one girl (always the oldest child) and then ALL BOYS.  (Jeremy's family altered this a little bit with Aimee- so there is hope) So I wanted to have a girl to prove to the curse that we were not having all boys. Ben, who guessed correctly with Elizabeth, said we were having a boy and so did the majority of our family; we had 19 votes for boy and 7 for girl.  And..... the curse stands strong and we are lucky because we now get to welcome a baby BOY into our home!!

 


PREGNANCY UPDATES:
17 Weeks (2/21/2015)- I just thought I would show you the pregnancy progress. I am MUCH bigger this pregnancy than with Elizabeth. I was pudgy before getting pregnant so I have been able to pass it off as pudge for a while but it is starting to move upwards (which ruins the pudge image). I can still kind of 'hide' it with sweaters and stuff but not for much longer.
*The short sleeve picture is with Elizabeth.
 
  A couple weeks later (March 3) we got to have the big ultrasound and see pictures of our little man.  Ben came with me and we brought Elizabeth. He was squished tightly on my right side so, if we didn't already know, finding out his sex would have been tough. Elizabeth thought it was funny that they put jelly on my stomach and, when I was done, the doctor let her lay on the table and pretended to look in her tummy.
 2/21/15- We decided to announce to the world (or facebook) that we were expecting and took some cute pictures of Elizabeth to make the announcement.