On the first night of Passover...

...I'm watching The Prince of Egypt.  I've been thinking about it all day really, as I read Facebook updates of my Jewish friends preparing.  Today I realized, or maybe just remembered since I've always known, that the story they celebrate is my history too.  Sometimes it's so easy to think of "us" and "them;" Christian and Jewish. But they are our spiritual family.  Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Moses are my spiritual history too.

So tonight it's personal.  Tonight it's my history, and the opening song made me cry:

With the sting of the whip on my shoulder,
with the salt of my sweat on my brow:
Elohim, God on High, do you hear your people cry?
Help us now, this dark hour!

Deliver us!
Hear our call: deliver us!
Lord of all, remember us here in this burning sand.
Deliver us!
There's a land you promised us.
Deliver us to the promised land!

Deliver us!
Hear our prayer: deliver us!
These years of slavery grow too cruel to stand.
Deliver us!
There's a land you promised us.
Deliver us out of bondage and deliver us to the promised land.


As I listened, I couldn't help but think back to all the times I have offered this very prayer: Deliver me!  I am so thankful for a God who listens to the prayers of a single person.  Even the most unimportant prayers are heard.  I may not have been completely delivered all the times I've asked, but my burdens have been made light.

As we approach the celebration of the most important event in human history, I find my heart full of gratitude for all the very many ways I and all my ancestors (biological and spiritual) have been delivered.

Easter outfits

So we had Easter at church today, since General Conference is next Sunday.  I made Erin's dress, and bought an outfit for Patrick.  I bought myself a dress too, but didn't get around to getting a picture of myself.  Ooops.

It's beginning to look a lot like....

...what exactly?  Because on the first glance, it's not looking like spring.

But if you look a little closer, you start seeing small things.  Like buds on the trees beginning to open.

And birds that we haven't seen in a while.

And GREEN grass.

And this would have been a different post if I had posted those pictures earlier.

Anyway, Erin decided to be helpful today and thought the fish were hungry.  So she fed them.  All the rest of the can of food (a little over half).  So we had to go to the store and get more food, and got a new decoration.  And since we got a new decoration, I decided we should get more fish.  We wanted dither fish, since our cichlids are so skittish.  Dither fish are smaller fish that swim around and make the bigger ones feel safe since smaller fish wouldn't be around if there were predators.

We got 3 large tiger barbs.  Hopefully they won't get eaten.

Is anyone really surprised?

So I went grocery shopping today.  As we were done and headed back up to the front of the store (walmart), we passed a display for the movie "How to Train your Dragon."  I'm excited for this movie for a number of reasons...the main one being that it has dragons in it.

So anyway, I was looking everything over...you know, oreos with dragons printed on the package, hats, tshirts, pajamas.

And then I realized it...the pajamas come with a hooded cape.  The hood has a dragon's face printed on it, and the cape has wings.

And I just absolutely had to get Erin a pair.  I would have gotten Patrick one too, had they had a size smaller than 2T.

Anyway, Erin loves the wings, and I just had to take pics for you.

Crazy but good few days!

Thursday our friends Aubrey and Dave and their daughters Myla and Savanna came to town for a temple trip and my birthday.  It was SO great to see them and Erin and Myla always are so adorable together.

Erin is only a month older than Myla, but she's quite a bit taller!

Savanna decided she wanted to ride in Erin's stroller

And a pic of my pantsless cutie from today, because I didn't take any of him with the girls apparently.

St. Patty's Day dinner

So, the kids didn't like the stew.  Not surprised really, lol.  They loved the soda bread though.  Erin kept saying that the flash was "hot" on her eyes.

Self explanatory

I love to see the temple

Okay, I totally should have posted this Wednesday, and here it is Saturday.  I've been spending a lot of time on familysearch lately (Matt and I both have the same vikings in our lines!  Not a surprise, really, but cool to find out anyway).

So Wednesday was shopping day.  I went went to the distribution center to see if they had pedigree charts to buy, and they don't since it's a smaller one.  But that's okay, because I can just copy them on our printer.  Anyway, we got there a few minutes before the center opened so I took the kids over to the fountain for a bit.

It was great to talk to Erin about the temple and how it is Heavenly Father's house.  We talked about the letters on the words above the door and I told her what it says.  She wanted to go in, and it was kind of sad to tell her that we couldn't right then.  But then we went into the distribution center and she seemed to be okay with that. lol

Patrick's vocabulary

I've been letting myself get frustrated lately because Patrick hasn't really been talking.  He babbles all the time, but other than "Mama" and "Dada" hasn't really said any real words.  I realized yesterday (and it was emphasized this morning) that I just need to listen more closely.  I guess having a 2 1/2 year old who speaks so much better has made me forget what first words are like.

Yesterday at church, I got hung up talking after Relief Society.  Matt went and picked Erin up from nursery and then she came looking for me.  She wanted to cut across the cultural hall though, so they missed me in the hallway and it took several more minutes for us to find each other.

When Patrick saw Matt, he clapped his hands and said "Yay! Dada! Yay!"  I'm SO sad Matt didn't hear him because it was so incredibly adorable!  And I realized that he's probably saying things that I just don't hear as words.

So this morning I put him in his high chair with some pancakes.  I have been asking him every day when I get him down from the high chair if he's all done, and using the sign language for "all done" with it.  He's been repeating the sign readily and even a couple times doing it without my prompting him.  Well this morning, I looked over at him and his tray was clear (he'd thrown all he didn't want to eat onto the floor), and without my saying anything he not only did the sign but said "Ah duh!"

So I've realized I just need to be patient with my little guy.  He's getting there!

Yogurt, rashes and teeth

So, because antibiotics are so harsh on little bodies, I decided to have Matt get some yogurt for them on the way home from work yesterday.  Erin loves it, but Patrick's never had it before.  Since he's been doing so well with utensils lately I decided I'd let him try to feed himself.  I knew it'd be messy, but I knew he'd also eat more if I just let him have at it.

And then Erin had to take a picture

On another note, I think Erin's diaper rash from the diarrhea has turned into a yeast rash.  Anybody got any good over-the-counter solutions I can try before getting something from the doctor?

And I checked Patrick's mouth this morning and he had no teeth still.  He was getting extremely fussy though, so I put him down for a nap at 11am instead of at 2pm like normal.  And he slept for 2 1/2 hours.  Well I just checked his mouth again for fun and he's got FOUR teeth!!  They were NOT there this morning.  He's got the 2 bottom middles and the 2 on top aren't on the middle but are the ones on either side (that's going to look so funny!).  So it took him a while but he's certainly made up for it!

Random picture post

Just some pictures that I haven't posted before that I've taken in the past few weeks.

Erin was dancing

A little sibling love

This morning, Patrick falling asleep on the floor

And Erin joined him

"Well" child checkup

Yesterday Patrick had his "well" child check.  Why the ""?  Well, because he was sick.  lol  He weighs 20lbs5oz and is 29 1/2 inches tall, and has hit all his developmental milestones and looks great in all those areas.  But he's got an upper respiratory infection.  I also had her check Erin's ears since she was complaining on Saturday that her ears hurt (but not on Sunday...). She's got a double ear infection.  So they're both on antibiotics right now.

Patrick seems to be doing better this morning, but even though he hasn't had a fever all this time he's had his cold, last night after his first dose he woke up at 2am with a fever of 101.6.  Luckily the ibuprofin knocked it out.  He also slept in until 9:30am which is extremely unusual for him.  I know that antibiotics always make me feel worse before I feel better though, so hopefully that's all that this is.

It's so sad when babies are sick!