Easter 2013

Easter Sunday this year dawned...well, not so sunny.  Or warm.  At least not to begin with.  It turned out to be a decent day, though, by the time we left church.  We had a great service, as always, celebrating the resurrection and saving power of our Lord Jesus.  I am so very thankful that I belong to Him, that He has made me free!

 

I tried again to coordinate our "Easter outfits".  It's a little more subtle than last year, but we are both actually coordinated with Deacon's little sweater vest.  Oh, he was SO handsome!  And bonus!  We found our friends, Larry & Kristen, as we were picking Deacon up from the nursery so I was able to have Larry snap some quick photos of us after church.  Larry was our photographer at both of Deacon's birthday parties.

As we did last year, we waited until after church to do Easter baskets.  I'm not even trying to deal with a kid who is either a) strung out on all kinds of candy, or b) pissed because we gave him the basket but told him he couldn't have any of the candy in it.

 

It was fun to watch him discover the basket and then look in it to find all the goodies.  We gave him a few books from the Target dollar section (that place NEVER fails me), some eggs filled with various candy including gummy bears (one of his faves) and peepsters (have you heard of these?  chocolate covered marshmallow, holla!), and a battery-operated Percy train.  He loves the other battery-powered train on his train table, and he loves Percy (Thomas' best friend :) so we figured that would be a hit.

 

 

And oh, boy...he's been introduced to Peeps.  These are Jeff's all-time fave Easter candy (I say yuk.) so I'm actually surprised of course, he shared with Deacon.  Well, what's not to like when you're a kid with a major sweet tooth??

 

Yeah, he's a fan.

 

 

 

I'm just gonna eat ALL of this candy right now, mkay??

Spring Fling 2013

 

Deacon went to his 3rd Spring Fling today.  Our church hosts this event every year and it's always a lot of fun for kids and adults alike.  The event caters to kids, but I think their parents enjoy seeing how happy they get just as much.  I know I do.

 

At this stage, I'm always curious to see how Deacon is going to react to something he's done before -- like going to the beach for the first time since last year, or an annual event like this that he was an entire year younger for last year.

 

Last year, he was in the "up to a year old" egg hunt so he was "big man on campus", you might say.  He was almost a year and a half old last year.  This year, he was in the 2-3 year old egg hunt so Jeff had to coach him a little bit...

 

"Buddy, you're gonna have to step up your game a little bit for this one...a lot of these kids are older/bigger than you so you're gonna have to bring it."

 

It was quite eye-opening for us as parents, too.  Considering the egg "hunt" is just a big open field with hundreds of eggs dumped on it, we had to really rush around to help Deacon get the 7 or 8  eggs he ended up with.  He still gets distracted easily so we had to keep after him to "keep looking for eggs".  But he did great, picking up the eggs he found and putting them in his basket (vs. licking them and putting them back on the ground, or worse, in other kids' baskets, like last year :).  It was a lot of fun to watch him.

 

[um, apparently he gave some kids the stink-eye...]

 

 

We also took a hayride.  Deacon loved this last year, and this year was no different.  We were able to be first in line for the next tractor (they had several running) so we got the benches right at the front of the trailer so Deacon was able to watch the tractor as it pulled us.  That happened last year, too, so I was thankful for that opportunity again.  Deacon really enjoyed it.

 

 

And then we took a pony ride.  I really didn't think this was happening this year because when we saw the horses + pony, I asked Deacon a couple of times, as he watched them, if he wanted to ride and he would always say "no" with his eyes as big as saucers.

 

Well, then we were talking to some friends and they asked him about the pony and he said he DID want to ride.  Right.  I'm thinking we're going to get back over there and he'll change his mind, but nope.  He got on, with Daddy close by and Mommy capturing the moment.  There were no smiles, and he balked a couple of times, but he stuck with it (the ride was only about a min long).  I was proud of him for trying it.

 

 

The weather was definitely not what we would prefer (it's actually kind of funny to look at photos of the first Spring Fling, and the second one, and notice how different our clothes were in each one), but it didn't keep folks away and we had a good time watching Deacon experience his 3rd Spring Fling.

 

Kids are never bothered by cold or hot, rainy or snowy weather anyway.  :)

playing at the park...

A couple weekends ago it was so nice outside, we decided to take Deacon to the park.  We grabbed lunch at McDonald's and went down to Soundside Park in Surf City for a picnic and playing on the playground.

 

Deacon loves being outside and every time we take him to this park, I'm amazed at how much more he can (and will) do than the last time we were here.  This is the same park we had his 2nd birthday party at, and he tackled more this time than he did only 5 months before.

 

He seriously is growing up before my very camera lens eyes.

 

I got so many great shots of him this day at the park that I had a hard time narrowing down what I was going to post here so just prepare yourself for a massive (adorable) photo explosion...

oh my soul.

Y'all, I don't know if there's anything that's made me more proud than hearing my little boy singing praise and worship songs.  It so blesses my heart and fills it up with such love, it very nearly stops me in my tracks when I hear his little voice singing praise.

 

We've heard him singing bits and pieces of different songs here and there, but this one song seems to be his favorite.

 

Or it's just Jeff's favorite and we play it ALL.THE.TIME.

 

That could be it.

 

Anyway, we've tried several times to catch him on video singing with his sweet voice, but everytime we try, when he sees the video camera (or phone recording), he stops.

 

But if you give a child a microphone, things change a little bit.  :)  We ended up having a microphone left in our Sunday School classroom last Sunday, so we put this song on to see if he would sing.  Boy, did he!  Of course, he gets distracted easily (as you'll see), but you'll get the idea, and you tell me if it isn't the cutest thing you've ever seen.  :)

play dough!

Our next door neighbors always remember Deacon at Christmas -- so thoughtful!  This year they gave him play dough which was great because I've been thinking that we should have some of that on hand.  We decided to get it out a couple of weekends ago.

 

I think Mommy and Daddy had just as much fun as Deacon.  :)

 

Deacon did really great with it and it actually occupied his time for at least 30 min or so.  YAY!  The key, though, is having Mommy or Daddy there playing with him, because I tried to get it out one day while I was working from home and it didn't interest him as much because I wasn't standing there by his side, making stuff with him.

 

That's understandable, I guess.  I always liked it more when MY parents would play, too.

 

Anyway, we had a good time with it:

 

Can you tell I wasn't planning to have my photo taken, ahem??  Mommies, you should always be prepared cuz you never know when that photo opportunity with your kids is gonna hit.

 

big boy bed!

We have reached the end of an era in this Wenzel household -- the era of my sweet baby boy sleeping in his crib.  We moved Deacon into a big boy bed a week ago and it went soooo much smoother than I thought it would.

 

Jeff decided he wanted to make Deacon a toddler bed so we could use the crib for the next one to come along (ahem, no announcements in that department, just be advised).  Now WHERE that next child might sleep in this house we've yet to figure out but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.  :)

 

The bed is beautiful, as is anything my husband puts his time and talents to, with a contrasting base made up of 2 drawers and the railings for the actual bed part.  The base is stained the same color as the dresser in Deacon's room.

 

And Deacon LOVES his bed!  We have found him in his room (when all is too quiet), just laying in his bed.  Because he can.  He can get in and out of it all by himself, and I guess that's the novelty of it at this point.  It is precious.

 

We had the big "unveiling" or intro or whatever you want to call it last Sunday night (Feb 10).  Jeff was already in Deacon's room with the door closed, ready to hit "record" when I opened the door to let Deacon walk in.  And you better believe I had that camera strap around my neck!

 

 

Our boy is definitely a rule-follower (most of the time).  We gave him 2 rules for this bed: no toys in the bed and you wait to get out until Mommy & Daddy come to get you or tell you can get out.  And he has done wonderfully with both of these rules (and can recite them to you, ahem).  The first night I saw his lovey hit the floor when he rolled over with it in the one open space that it could fall out.  Our little rule-follower got up on his knees, looked over the side of the bed at his lovey on the floor, got down and picked it up, glanced toward the door and then climbed back up in bed.

 

:: fist pump :: Good boy!

 

He slept all the way through the night without incident.

 

The 2nd night didn't go quite as smoothly -- he did fall out and got a little freaked out about that.  I heard him cry out about 2am and when I looked at the monitor, he was on the floor.  I sprinted across the house to desperate shouts of "Moooooommy, I fall OUT!  Mooooommy, mooommy, I fall OUT!"  When I got to his room, he was standing there with his lovey in one hand and his blanket in the other, reiterating that he fell OUT.  I told him, "That's okay, buddy, we just get right back in bed if that happens," and I scooped him up and put him back in.

 

That's the only time that's happened to date.  And things have gone as smoothly as they ever could since then.  I am so proud of him for how he's transitioned to his big boy bed.  Truthfully, he was probably ready for this way before mama was.  But then, that's the been the case with most things the last 2 years, since I can't seem to get him to slow down growing up.

random Christmas-ness // part IV

Okay, here's the last of the photos I'm going to post from our time in IL over the Christmas holidays.  Seriously.  I'm ready to move on so I'm sure y'all are.  But I just couldn't resist posting some of these random shots of our time with family...

 

This was one of Jeff's favorite games growing up.  Deacon seemed to like it pretty well, too.

 

 

Tickles from Uncle Tim...guess you can tell he and Jeff are brothers, huh?  :)

 

 

We kept that fire going all day, every day.  I LOVED IT!