And Husband of the Year 2008 goes to...

ME! Now, I know it's early to be naming Husband of the Year 2008 so soon, but I'm sure that after reading this post, you will not only agree with, but will also applaud and support, the decision. A certain wife of mine (who will remain unnamed) was making a lovely dinner tonight of meatloaf and baked potatoes. During the course of said dinner baking in the oven, there was an occasional "popping" sound. These strange noises were followed by a very unique and untantilizing smell remarkably similar to the smell of something burning. Upon investigating the smell and looking in the oven, we discovered that not one, not two, but three potatoes had exploded and coated the inside of the oven. (Disclaimer: Exploding potatoes are obviously not the fault of the person who placed the potatoes in the oven. Potatoes may explode even after being forked multiple times. No guilt is being implied by the posting of this announcement.) Anyway, being the good husband that I am, I cooled off the oven, kept the kids away, and proceeded to wipe out the remains of not one, not two, but three potatoes. (As further support of my nomination and election to Husband of the Year 2008, please note the smile on my face in the attached photograph, even during the actual cleaning process). As further acclaim of my loyalty, diligence, and sheer amazingness, as I was so cheerfully and dutifully cleaning, an anonymous bystander (again, remaining unnamed) felt inclined to make fun of the way I say potato (which, apparently, sounds more like bah-TAY-toe). Because of my outstanding husband-of-the-year-related skills, I continued to wipe every last crispy "botato" morsel from all five sides of the oven, despite the open ridicule. I am deeply humbled and grateful for this recognition and thrilled to accept the title of Husband of the Year 2008. Please direct all congratulatory prizes and monetary donations to my home address. Thank you to all my fans, including, but hopefully not limited to, Chelsey, Emily, and Ryan.

Our big little boy

Amy took Ryan to the doctor on Thursday and we found he is growing quickly. The pediatrician told Amy that he is now:

24 inches (90th percentile)

11 lbs 7 oz (50th percentile)

and his head circumference is in the 25th percentile. So, we have a very tall little guy with a small head. :) The pediatrician assured us he is doing fine and we thought it was funny that his head was small since they always told us it was big on his ultrasounds. Since Ryan is growing so fast, we decided to take some pictures of him in my blessing outfit before he grows out of it. We thought it would be fun to bless him in it, but since I was born five weeks premature, I just don't think it's going to work for him when we bless him next month. He looked pretty cute in it though, even if we couldn't button up the neck:

We're glad to know Ryan is growing as expected and we're so glad to have him in our family!

Four Thousand One Hundred...

...pages. This is how many pages are in the Harry Potter series, books one through seven. I finished book seven this morning and can now say that I have read the entire series in only 24 days. This may seem fairly fast to some of you, but be sure to take into account that a) I'm nursing a baby b) it's still too cold to go outside to play c) we have one TV which is constantly claimed by two little girls who like Barbie movies d) Jason is currently on his OB rotation and is frequently gone and when he is home is studying and e) I love reading! The best part about this "accomplishment" is that the yucky month of March has gone by quickly! The worst part is the realization that maybe I could have done something a little more worthwhile with my time.... Oh, well. New moms are given certain privileges and leeway, right?

Happy Easter!!!

We hope everyone had a Happy Easter! We really did. We had a lot going on, but still managed to fit in all the traditions. Daddy was on call from early Saturday morning to Sunday morning, so Mom and Dad called the Easter bunny and convinced him to come early on Wednesday. It took some convincing and bribing, but he agreed, so the kids got a visit:

Chelsey grabbing a handful of candy. Emily poses for the camera while searching out some candy.

Chelsey finds a patch of carrots - Easter bunny style!

Ryan didn't really get into it much... Even when the eggs were hidden right by him in plain sight, he just ignored them.

Chelsey is so cute with Ryan and he really loves her. She can always make him smile by tickling his chin. They have become really good friends.

On Friday afternoon, we found some time to dye Easter eggs...

Friday was also the day we had a huge snow storm. We got about 13 inches dumped on us in one day, just as all of the snow had almost melted. This is the depressing view from our front window on Saturday morning:

Luckily, if you turn around from looking out the depressing front window, this is the view you see... It's the only thing that keeps us happy and sane:

We also got to go to church together as a family on Sunday after Daddy got off work. Mom and Dad sang in the choir and it was a beautiful Easter day. Here is a picture of all the kids in their Easter outfits. Aren't they cute?

Anyway, we hope you all had as good of an Easter as we did. We are so happy with our little family and we're grateful for all of your love and support. Thanks for all the nice cards and phone calls and love coming out of Idaho. We're so glad to have great family and we enjoyed our holiday. We love you all!