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!

I want to play with Grandpa!

Last Friday, my parents came down to visit us. Main objective of their trip is to see and spend time us and sew my dress for Tammy and Lorin's wedding in May. We got the dress done at ten o'clock last night, it took three days to complete from start to finish. We were all pleased to have it done and how it turned out. It is a beautiful dress and I really like the sage green color. Mom and I had a blast talking and getting update on all the news, both in her area and mine. Dad took the boys to the Dinasour Museum and to McDonald, they had a blast! Jacob and Grandpa played many games of chest and WII too. We couldn't have finish the dress without Dad playing and taking care of our boys.
Saturday, we took them to our Aquarium and Botanical Gardens. We saw the a farm and farm animals that we didn't see the last time. It was such a fun day, complete with going out to lunch, what a treat! Grandpa and Grandma went to church with us and get a tour of Jacob's school and met his friends there.
We love having Grandma and Grandpa here and we asked them to move in with us ;). Jacob had the hard time saying goodbye to them, he said, " I don't want letter or phone calls, I want to play with Grandpa!" Jacob asked if he could go home with Grandpa...don't we all wish that! Only 50 days and we will see everyone at the wedding!

Birthday Medals and Bite Marks!

So since Tim and I have been married we have celebrate our birthdays together. I am use to this as my dad and I would sometimes have our birthday celebrations together at home. (His birthday is four days before mine). Tim's birthday is three days before mine (a year and three days, Tim is a year older than me). Don't forget that is that, every year it get more important. We celebrate Tim's birthday with a nice homemade (whatever he wants me to cook) meal complete with birthday cake, candles and singing. We celebrate mine by going out to dinner, which we all just LOVE. This year we went to Macaroni Grill, it was incredible.
After getting home from eating out, we went in the backyard to play jump rope with Jacob. The weather was in the 60's and sunny so why not play outside (don't worry, it more like winter this week). Noah was in the house and we thought he would come out with us. But a few minutes passed, no Noah, so we went in to find him. Noah had made his way to the kitchen, opening the dish washer to use a his ladder and then he was tall enough to reach our birthday cake. Yummy! He had one side completely gone within a few minutes! It was he way of decorating the cake for us to enjoy. Note to parents and ourselves: If their is cake in the house, the kid(s) will find it. Look close and you will see the bite marks on the picture. We also found out when we lit the candles, Noah is scared of fire (look at his reaction in the picture). Jacob stated, "Mom, you know why I was covering my mouth in that picture? I didn't want to blow the candles out until it was time!"
Jacob made medals for Tim and I for our birthday. He colored mine red and Tim's yellow. He said that the medal were rewards for how well we had play the Wii. Both boys placed all the candles on the cake, trying to man that project and count to 32 was an experience. Next year, I plan to pre-count the candles before letting the boys have-at-it!
P.S. We sing to both of us, but I get to pull out one candle every year from the cake ;). This will especially be important when Tim turns 50 and I turn 49!

Basking In The Sun!

The week after Christmas we traveled to Mesa, AZ to visit Grandpa Webb. We had an enjoyable time there and made many fun memories. We went to the zoo, mall, a park, an old ghost town and saw the Mesa Temple Lights. We also swam in the hotel's swimming pool, yes, it was warm enough to do so, 74 degree! For New Year's Eve we went to Organ Stop Pizza Place, where we listened to a man play a hugh organ for two whole hours. We heard Fathom of the Opera, Disney songs and Star Wars to name a few. After that we topped off our evening by walking around the Mesa Temple and seeing the lights. We went back and toast with grape sparkling cider the new year, in bed by 9:30. We spent time with Grandpa Webb and our boys had fun with their grandpa and other relatives that we hadn't met. We plan to go back and visit again (in the winter, not the summer) we had a terrific time!
P.S. Jacob favorite part of the hotel was the waffles and pool. Noah was the refrigator in our room, just his size. Sorry, unable to download pictures right now.