Happy Easter!

I thought that I would share our Easter day with everyone. The following are some pictures that we took yesterday. When Jace was eating breakfast, I set up his basket in his room. He was so excited when he came in there, to see all of the new toys. The soccer ball is one of those bean-bag types with the stretchy outside that is so popular now, he LOVES it. He immediately started throwing it up in the air (the only soccer ball that he's seen before is at the playground we go to, and that is what the boys do with it to entertain him). He also loved the basketball hoop (I couldn't believe I got almost all of this stuff at the Dollar Store...) and the stacking and sorting toys. Then, of course, the chocolate bunny. While he was napping, we put an M&M or a jelly bean in each of his plastic eggs and "hid"/placed them around the living room. When he woke up from his nap, he used his basket from that morning to collect the eggs. Kristine and Vance came over for the "egg hunt" and they brought Caesar, their dog. Caesar first discovered that the eggs opened and had candy inside. Once he did things got very exciting. He was popping them all open and both he and Jace were eating the candy as quickly as they could. It was fun. On the downside, Jace is, once again, sick. We took him to the doctor today, and he has ear infections in both ears. He's doing pretty well, however, he's a trooper. Spring Break is over, we start back to school tomorrow. I am already holding my breath for summer break to begin. I hope you all had a wonderful Easter, please comment or e-mail and share your Easter stories with us, we'd love to hear them!

Discovering the treasure inside the eggs with Caesar (Kristine and Vance's dog).  

Collecting eggs. 

He ate almost the entire chocolate bunny, he finally gave up and handed it back to me. :-)  

Playing basketball! 

Jace enjoying his new toys. 

Jace's Easter Basket with gifts 

Mid-Term Grades

Mid-Term grades came out today. They are as follows:

Thomas:
Beginning Tennis - A
Math Physics - A
Western Heritage - A
Differential Equations - B
Elem. Spanish 2 - B
Thermodynamics - A
Research - A

Beth:
Beginning Tennis - A
Public School Art - A
Instructional Technology - A
Techniques of Early Childhood Ed. - A
Math for Elem. Teachers - A

We're pretty happy with them. Jace still has some crud (congestion, cough, incredibly runny nose, etc.) but he doesn't seem to have gotten any worse and his fever has gone, so I think we are over the pneumonia scare for now. We are going on the OBU marriage retreat this weekend. We will be gone Friday night and Saturday. We love you all.

The Castle

Okay, here's the story. My parents sent us a gift card to walmart.com, so we have been deliberating about what to spend it on. Since it's on-line, and can't be used at the store, we didn't want to waste the postage for things like paper towels and shampoo, so we were trying to decide and finally decided to spend it on something totally fun that we wouldn't normally buy anyway. So we found the CASTLE. We knew immediately that our little bed jumper - ball player would love it. So we bought it. It takes up the entire living room, but he loves it. He jumps in it, plays with the balls, etc. It has a 120 lb weight limit too, so he can play in it probably until he's too old to want to. So - Mom, Dad, this may not have been exactly how you envisioned we might spend that money, but while it may not have been the most responsible purchase, it has brought a lot of joy into our home every time it is inflated. Thank-you so much. The following are pictures of him in his new castle.

The CASTLE! 

Playing with balls in the castle. 

Poking mom with the spear - something dad showed him how to do.  

Pushing the balls through the walls of the castle (so far his favorite feature, tied with its jumpability). 

Jace's new toy 

Jace playing in his new castle.  

Our Date

Well, for those of you who don't know already, Thomas and I won a $50 gift certificate to Belle Arti Italian Ristorante and two free movie passes to Behind the Mall Cinemas in Hot Springs off of the radio. SO - on Saturday, we got a baby-sitter and went on a date. It was wonderful. The restaraunt was fancy and beautiful. Thomas got veal marsala, and I got filet mignon that came with pasta stuffed with ricotta cheese, crab and lobster meat, and covered with a cherry vodka cream sauce and baby shrimp. Does that sound incredible or what? Well, it was. They gave us bread with a pesto sauce that was delicious. The atmosphere was romantic and quiet, it was great. Then we went to the movies and saw Meet the Fockers. Our choices were pretty limited, but we thought it was really funny. The movie theater was really old and small, so it was... interesting, but it was free. :-) Jace had a great time with the sitter, she had never watched him before, but he took to her immediately, hugged her right away and everything. We saw her last night in Wal-Mart and he cried when she said good-bye at Wal-Mart, so it's obvious that he really liked her, which made me feel good. We are going on the OBU marriage retreat this weekend and she is watching him again, so I am really looking forward to that, especially now that I can feel totally comfortable leaving Jace with her, knowing he's having fun. If you don't remember, we have gone on the OBU retreat for the past two years, they pay for our hotel room overnight and give us money for meals. It's just Friday night until noon Saturday, so it's a lot of fun. We have speakers and sessions, so I'm excited about this weekend! Anyway, just wanted to let everyone know what a great time we had on our date Saturday night! I have pictures I hope to get up by this evening (of Jace and his newest toy).

Jace is sick... again...

Well... Jace was having a lot of trouble breathing, was coughing a lot, and had a low-grade fever when he woke up. So, I took him to the doctor today, and, you'll never guess... croup AGAIN! I am worried because he has yet to have had a bout of croup that did not turn into pneumonia pretty quickly, and I really hope he doesn't get pneumonia again. I wish the weather would level out. Today it was beautiful, warm and sunny and someone told me that tomorrow it might snow. I really think that has a lot to do with it. Probably not as much as day care, but I'm sure it contributes. Anyway, I wanted to let everyone know. We're hoping it will be over quickly and that he will stay healthy through the rest of the winter (which seems to be lasting forever). Love you all. Please keep our little guy in mind. I will update soon with any progress.