Adventures with the Ross Family

Today was the Easter Egg hunt at church!  Both kids were pretty excited.

When we got there, Jax immediately ran to work on crafts.

He was gluing tissue paper to a cross.  This was by far his favorite thing to do!

Julie's age group was up first to hunt!

She gathered up a few eggs.  I think she was mostely wondering why she was gathering eggs in the first place!  But she seemed to have fun!

Jax's group was up next.

He was very much in "hunting mode" and he was off like lightning!

After all that hard work, Julie really needed a snack....

Love her plan of attack on that messy cupcake.  And yes, she was wearing it as well in the end!

Lastly, Julie joined in the crafts too.  Jax had was making his third creation and Julie realized she was missing out!

Afterwards, we came home and hung up our creations.  Jax really wanted to hang them on the front door so everyone could see them, but we settled for the front window instead.  You know, in case it rains or snows (shudders) because you know...it is Spring!

Hmmm...I think they add a lovely touch to our window....

It's Valentine's Day!  Jax was so happy because he couldn't wait to open a box that Alma had sent.  He had no idea that I had gotten them something as well.  He was pretty excited to open his gift.

Julie received The Little Mermaid bath toys and Jax got the Angry Bird Eary Bird set.  He was so excited since he wanted the Princess Leia bird.

I tried to get a picture of both of them, but this is the best I could do.  Julie was chomping on heart candy and Jax just wanted to play with his toys.

They played for a long time, but what really gets me is when Julie pulled up a box and sat in it!  Julie was watching Pingu while reading an Elmo book.

After naptimes, we went and got the mail.  I love how Julie has to accessorize just to go to the mail box!

Jax was so excited to get a letter from Alma!  He loves getting mail and boxes and get so annoyed when a letter or box is for someone else.

And finally, we were playing with our toys again.  The box had been cast aside and she was playing with Ariel!  (And getting soaking wet!)

It was a nice and quiet Valentine's Day!

We had our Ash Wednesday service at church.  I had planned to go by myself.  It didn't start until 7 o'clock and that is when it is bewitching hour with Julie (aka bedtime!) and I was pretty sure that Jax didn't want to go. 

I was wrong.

Once I told him that I was going to church and he found out I was getting a cross on my head, he wanted to come!  And then he told me he remembered last year where Justin and I had crosses on our heads and he thought it was a T and wanted an A on his head.  I was very surprised he remembered that!

And so Jaxson and I went to service.  And he was so good!  He was eagerly awaiting for his cross on his head.  And when time came, he was such a big boy!

When we got back to our pew, he looked at me and told me I looked funny in my cross!  Ha!

After service, when we were walking out to our car, Jax asked me about Jesus being on the cross. 

When we have read the Bible to him, I give him the bare bones story of the cruxification.  He knows that Jesus was on a cross with nails and that it hurt.  In walking to the car, he asked me if the nails hurt Jesus.  I told him yes.  And then he said that he didn't want to go on the cross with the nails.  That it would hurt him.  I told him that he didn't have to because Jesus did that for him.  He seemed relieved.  I think he was just trying to figured out the reason why we have the cross on our heads!

And when we got home, he proudly showed his cross to Daddy and Julianne!  I was glad to share the time with him, but I'm not sure I know any other 5 year old that get excited about having a cross on his head!

This year, I have a house full of superheros.

Spiderman and Wonder Woman were all ready to check out our church's Harvest Festival on Sunday.

Our church had a bouncy house this year.  Which was a hit with Spidey!  He could have cared less about Trunk or Treating.  He wanted to jump!

Once Wonder Woman voiced her opinion that she wanted to move on (as she couldn't be in the bouncy house) we tore Spiderman away to play games.

I guess he won!  Candy for everyone!

After games, we went Trunk or Treating.  Jax saw his Sunday School teacher who he just adores so we had to get a picture!

And afterwards, we headed back to the bouncy house!  (What else?)  And he loved the slide as well, since his costume was so slippery...he slid down fast!

The kids had a blast!  Jax even rode the ponies this year.  And Julie wanted to, she just needs to wait one more year.

On Halloween we took the kids to a Trunk or Treating event and then we went Trick or Treating at the mall! (Where it was warm inside!)

But can you see what is wrong with this picture?  (Beside the fact that Jaxson cannot take a "normal" picture!)

Christmas trees up before Halloween??

Trick or Treating was right up Julianne's alley.  She loved taking a piece of candy and putting it into her basket.  Then she would inspect her candy and try to eat them while we were still collecting candy.  (Including the wrapper!)

Anyways, the kids had fun and they have a bunch of candy that they can eat on for the next month!  Yikes!

Easter was really a weekend celebration in our house.  We decided to let the kids have their Easter baskets on Saturday.  We knew Sunday would be busy and usually after church, Julianne has to take a nap immediately! 

I'm glad we did this because Sunday morning felt a little more relaxed.  I tried to take some pictures of the kids...this was the best one of them:

But this is my personal favorite.  This picture sums up their entire relationship.  Jax loves Julie so much and Julianne just wants to be left alone!

Little Miss Sassypants (love the hand on the hip!) posed for Daddy to take this pic:

After their naps/quiet time, we went outside to hunt for some eggs.  Jax really got into this!  Julianne could have cared less.  And once she "found" an egg, she just wanted to open and close it!

Afterwards, I tried to get some more pictures of the kids.

Silly me.  Julianne was way too busy opening and closing eggs.  And Jax looks thrilled to be having his picture taken.  So I gave up!

In all, it was a great Easter weekend! 

Christ has risen!  He is risen indeed!

 

Today our church had a Easter Egg Hunt for the kids.  They also had all sorts of fun activities...decorating cupcakes, crafts, and even the Easter Bunny was walking around!

Jax and Miss Maddy (one of his teachers in Sunday School) decorated a cupcake.

They let the little kids find eggs first.  This makes me laugh cause the eggs were in plain sight and yet most parents were having to help their kids.

Julie looks tortured here, but I assure you she did have fun.  Once she "found" the egg, she would immediately stick it in her mouth.

After the little ones, it was the bigger kids turn.  (Since when did Jax become a bigger kid?!?)  This was the four and five year olds.  It was funny to watch them as well.  They weren't too observant and I still had to help Jax out.  Oh, but he loved to find the eggs.  He was so excited that he found a really, really big Easter Egg!

After finding our eggs, we went to see what was in them!

Julie enjoyed her candy.

Jax played with his car erasers.  He was zooming them all over the table.  Afterwards, he went and made a cupcake for Julianne to take home. 

Julianne saw the cupcake and wanted it right THEN!  But we waited until we got home before we let her dig in.  She was one happy girl!

Christmas is here at last!  Jax was counting down and let me tell you, it was a hard last couple of days.  He was just so excited and couldn't handle it which resulted in multiple time-outs because he could not act good!  I think every kid goes through that, I remember my mom saying the same thing about us girls.

So anyways, it was finally Christmas Time!  (as Jax says.)

We finally lit the Christ candle and ate our pulled pork sandwiches.

Before we went to the Christmas Eve service at church, we let the kids open some presents. 

Jax loved his red Angry Bird.  Julie opened up her kitchen.  And Jax was pretty excited about that too.

Angry Bird and Pig insisted on heading to church with us.  They all sat together contemplated the Christmas Eve Service.

The Christmas Eve service was great.  First, it was geared towards the kids (And bird who has anger issues and klepto pigs.)  They received activity books about Christmas so it gave them something to do in worship.  And instead of doing a separate children's sermon, the Pastor had the kids come up and he explained the Christmas story for all of us.  It was great.  Look...Jax is paying such good attention!

After service, we went home to eat dinner.  And then the kids started getting cranky and it was time for bed!

And so I leave you with Jax and Justin playing Angry Birds:

Well, isn’t Jax a lucky boy?!  Our Life Group threw him a little dinner party tonight!  How sweet is that?

After some yummy chicken enchiladas and yummy sides, we got down to business!  Opening presents!

While opening his gifts, Jax was very enthralled with the balloon.  Which just goes to show that kids don’t need the most expensive presents to be entertained.  

Jax loved his presents and enjoyed checking them out after they were all out of their packages.  In between the admiration of the balloon, of course.

And then we had cake!  This is actually the second time around of lighting the candles.  Jax saw the candles the as soon as Mary brought out the cake and he went crazy and blew them out immediately.  We didn’t even get a good start on the Happy Birthday song.    Atleast with round two I got a pic of him.  And we all got the hint and didn’t try to sing to him again.

This Red Velvet cake from Costco was awesome.  No, beyond awesome.  That may just be my pregnancy taste buds talking, but I’m pretty sure I’m right.

Afterwords, we came home and did our bedtime routine.  Which means we had to watch Elmo.  How fitting that Elmo’s World was about birthdays.  It was Dorothy’s birthday!

 

I tied his balloon to his stuffed monster so that way it wouldn’t float to the ceiling.  And while I’m glad he enjoyed his birthday balloon, I’m just glad it wasn’t a box.  

This morning while we were getting ready for church, I told Jax it was his birthday.  I asked him how old he was and he answered he was two!  (Even demostrated with his fingers in all!)  I laughed and showed him he was three, he could hold up three fingers!  That got him pretty excited.  

So at church this morning, anyone that Jax talked to got told that Jax was three.  One, two, three…fingers!  How cute is that!?

When we came home from church, Jax opened his gifts.  

He is now a proud owner of a Magna-Doodle.  He loves this thing!

While walking out at church, Justin casually mentioned that we should take Jax to Chuck E. Cheese.  I thought it was a great idea, but there was one conflict.  The Seahawks game!  We decided that we would go there in the afternoon and eat there for dinner.  With our “problem” being solved, we turned on the tv to a score of 21-0.  The zero was for the ‘hawks.  Oh boy.  No need to worry about the conflict…we headed out for Chuck E. Cheese for lunch!

Jax got so excited when he saw the mouse.  Although he calls it a cat.  It seems that Chuck E. Cheese advertises and sponsers shows on PBS.  So Jax immediately recognized him and wanted to go inside.  Good job, PBS and Mr. Cheese.  You’re plan worked.  My kid was immediately for this even though he had no idea what to expect!

The first order of business?  The slide, of course!

He chatted on the phone too.

Both Jax and Justin got in on the fun with basketball.  Clearly, Jax gets distracted easily.  

This skee ball thing was one of Jax’s favorites.  Problem was, he had terrible aim.  So, his ball occasionally went into the next lane and scored for the next kid.  I was just glad he didn’t hit anyone with those balls.

This was his solution to his bad aim.  

It didn’t help much.  Good thinking though.

Bob the Builder and him drove around…he loved Bob cause he had boots on.  Even at three, he knows that boots are totally in right now!

And you can’t fully enjoy Chuck E. Cheese unless you have atleast one meltdown.  

This was short lived since he quickly got preoccupied with something else.

Jax liked to drive this train around too.

Whew…

I think any parent that survives Chuck E. Cheese deserves an award.  It wore me out.  Or maybe I deserve an award since I’m 33 weeks pregnant and was chasing after him half of the time.  He ran so fast.  Poor Julianne and I had to keep up with him!  I think we won’t need to visit there again for another year or so.  Ha!

But as for the reward, I’m not asking for much.  Just maybe a t-shirt that says, “I survived Chuck E. Cheese with my child and lived to tell about it.”  Hey, it’s the truth!  

But in all seriousness, Jax had a blast.  Justin and I had fun watching him get so excited about all the different games and rides.  It was a good choice for a spur of the moment afternoon fun.

And our birthday celebration wasn’t over yet.

We came home and cooked.  Jax helped me make his cupcakes.

Once we had frosted our cupcakes, we started Despicable Me.  He’s been eyeing the preview of it on iTunes so we thought we’d watch it with him.  He thought it was funny, but as we guess, he only got through half of it.  He doesn’t sit still long enough for movies yet.  We’ll finish the rest tomorrow.  In the meantime, Jax was one worn out kid!  I’m glad he had fun on his birthday!

Tearing into his presents.

Our family of three…soon to be four!

Jaxson working the camera!

Self timer shot…priceless!

Finally, we got it!  Merry Christmas everyone!