First Bath

James lost his umbilical cord while my parents were here, so on Wednesday, April 14th my mom and I gave him his first real bath! It was so fun to finally get him all nice and clean.

A Visit

My parents and Michael (now 13) came to visit! They flew in on Saturday, April 10 and stayed for a week. It was sooo much fun to have them finally come and see our life in Ohio. And of course to meet James! James was only 11 days old when they flew in, so I was kind of thinking we wouldn't be able to do much . . . . but I have to say, we definitely packed it in. Maybe a little too much. But we wanted to show them around and have a fun week. And we definitely had fun! The weather was gorgeous while they were here - in the upper 70s all week, which was so nice. And James and I did just fine. Thanks again Mom, Dad, and Michael for coming!! We loved having you.

The Itinerary:

Saturday
picked them up from the airport
showed them our house and freshened up
Molly Woo's for dinner (a really good Chinese restaurant up at Polaris Mall)
walked around Polaris Mall
found James the perfect blessing outfit
ate 4 Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory candy apples

Sunday
blessed James in church
made Zucchini Pasta for dinner
Grandma and Grandpa took the girls on a walk around our neighborhood

Monday
drove 2 1/2 hours up to Kirtland to see the church sites
ate a picnic lunch
bummed to find the Kirtland temple was closed for tours, so had to settle for outside pictures
stopped at a nice outdoor mall outside of Cleveland
dinner at nice Italian restaurant - Brio
bought 3 more Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory candy apples to eat on the ride home
watched our Jim Gaffigan DVD - hilarious

Tuesday
boys went golfing
girls took Annie to her dance class
Grandma spoiled the girls at our favorite toy store right next to the dance studio
went to a matinee show of How to Train a Dragon (so cute!)
walked around Easton (the outdoor mall)
got Graeter's ice cream

Wednesday
trip to the Zoo!
made pulled pork sandwiches for dinner
went to Jeni's for dessert (a chic little ice cream place with some bizarre flavors)
introduced my fam to Ticket to Ride

Thursday
boys went to the Olentangy Indian Caverns while the girls relaxed at home (I needed a slow morning:)
spent the afternoon at Slate Run Farm
played on a little playground in the metropark
walked around German Village and explored The Book Loft (craziest book store ever!)
dinner at BD's Mongolian BBQ
played more Ticket to Ride
snacked on Dan's caramel popcorn

Friday
made the trip to Dayton to see the National Air Force Museum (forgot our camera)
Birthday dinner for my Dad at Cap City Diner - got stuffed on their gigantic desserts!!

Saturday
cried at the airport saying our good-byes (It went by way too fast!)

Pics from the week:

Easter

Dan's cousin's wife, Amy Redford, sent us these adorable Easter cookies for a baby present welcoming James to the family! Thanks Amy!! Aren't they adorable? She's an amazing baker, and makes the cutest cookies ever. In fact she has her own company - check it out at www.onecutecookie.net. And seriously, I still can't believe Dan and I have 3 baby chicks!!

We didn't take too many pictures on Easter this year . . . probably because it fell on Conference weekend, and so we didn't get all dressed up in our Easter dresses. We just hung out in our pjs for most of the day:) But the Easter Bunny still hid the kids' baskets for them to find in the morning. Annie found hers in the fort in the basement.
And Leah found hers in the linen closet.

Our 3 little Easter chicks!
It really was the perfect relaxing Easter - we still had Mary with us and got to eat her yummy homemade cinnamon rolls, I sat on the couch watching conference and holding my 5 day old baby boy, we listened to amazing talks about Christ and teaching our children the gospel, I got to watch my sweet little girls color pictures on the floor, and we ate a nice dinner together as a family. I loved it.

James's Blessing Day

4 Days Old