Happy Birthday Uncle Jared-Our Soldier Hero!

Happy Birthday Uncle Jared! We are proud of you and the service you give so we can be free and safe. Hope these pictures brighten your day! Jacob and Noah dress up as soldiers once a week, sometimes more. Jacob asked me to take and send these pictures to you for your birthday. Happy Birthday Jared! Love, Tim, Wendy, Jacob and Noah
P.S. Jacob sent you a letter this week, it will possibly take a month to get to you.
The last picture: "Hey Daddy can to church with my shades? It is so sunny here, I need my hat and shade, right? What do you think, can I can I? I am just in style..."

Jacob's Happenings

Jacob has been quite the busy boy lately. He has three more weeks of pre-school left, which he has learned so much from and made a bunch of new friends. Tomorrow, we register him for Kindergarden, a bit nerve-racking! Where did the five almost six years go? He still is into building with his lego, pretending everyday with dressing like who he want to be for that day, soldier like his uncle Jared, drode from Star Wars or his newest one, Zelda from Wii.
Over the first week of April, General Conference weekend, Jacob and Tim built Jacob a school desk. One that Jacob can do his school work and drawings. It was so neat to see them work together to complete this wood project, Jacob worked longer than expected on his staining his part of his desk.
Jacob is really into science right now and doing experiments...surprised! The apple does not fall far from the tree in this family. Tim is of course beaming with pride! For our FHE activity tonight, Jacob did his first science experiment with his world globe and a flashlight. Way to go professor (our nickname for Jacob).
Earlier this week, Jacob showed me more science, this time chemistry when he was doing dishes and working with the dish soap bubbles. Check out this big bubble! Jacob is a great help to me, he does the dishes every week day and lately he has learned how to clean his bathroom, I just don't know what I am going to do next year without him. Noah is going to have a very hard time, perhap hard time than me, Jacob is his hero, sidekick and playmate in all Noah does. We will miss you son! (By the way Kindergarden is the whole school day here, not a half day like back at home). That is why we are all a bit nervous about it. Oh boy, tearful!

Our Celebration of Easter-My Favorite Holiday

This year we wanted Easter to be a celebration of the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ more than basket, Easter bunny and candy. Each year, I am learn and love Easter more and more, so amazed that it happened and what it means for me and my family. So about three weeks before Easter we had three weeks of family home evenings in which we taught and explained the events and happenings that lead up to the resurrection of Christ to our boys. One evening we watched "The Lamb of God", which was a great summary and opened up questions that Jacob had about why somethings happened to Jesus. It was an neat experience seeing our boys understand the resurrection and the comfort it gives us as a family to know that because He gave His life for us, we will someday be resurrected and live together forever as a family. We made a new family tradition in which we make "empty-tomb rolls", an activity in which our boys learned about the burial of Christ. Jacob and Noah enjoyed being the soldier guarding the tomb (oven) while the rolls cooked. Thanks Megan for the idea :).
We always had fun watching our boys find the 50 Easter eggs we hide for them around the house. We planned to have the hunt out in our backyard, but it RAINED! We also colored eggs and found our Easter baskets that morning. Jacob could find his for a while (the Easter bunny is getting smarter), so he told us later that he prayed about it and then found it.
Grandma and Grandpa sent us an Easter package, complete with piggy banks. The banks have three parts to them, one for mission, one for tithing and one for fun. Jacob has been saving his money for long time. I asked him where he wanted to put his money, he put all his dollar bills in the mission area and only the coins in his fun area. I was so proud of him; he'll make an amazing missionary someday! Noah saw what Jacob was doing with his money and followed Jacob's example, placing all his bills in his mission area too.
I am continuely thankful for the gospel in my life, what it means to me and the direction it gives to me and my family. I am so grateful for the knowledge of it, for the peace and comfort it can only give.

Grandma Time

March and April has just flown by and now we are just about into May. Grandma Webb came to visit us March 31 thur April 9. We LOVED having her here! She was an incredible help to me, as we got our food storage updated completely, a huge job done! It was so nice to have someone to talk and do fun things like see our L.D.S. temple here, the aquarium and botanical gardens with. While she was her she watched the boys so I could trim my seven rose brush in our front yard and go grocery shopping all by myself.
The Friday night she was here she watched the boys while Tim and I got to go out on a DATE! We went to our favorite place here in the city, it was heavenly. Thanks Grandma for coming, we love and miss you already! See you in a week!