Happy 2 week Birthday Katie!

Introducing Katie Nicole Boyle

Susan is definitely earning her keep. Since i had to run to school yesterday for about 3 hours and was all but no help.

Little Katie has been awake and alert more than Jackson was at this age. She had her eyes open and was looking around a lot yesterday.

Here you can see what dark hair she has. She night look exactly like Nicole but she got my hair. Of course it will probably all fall out and she will be bald.

Jackson thought Katie's flower clip was pretty cool.

The New family

Six Days Left:

Until our new little baby joins our family. My sweet friend Teresa decided my feet were really ugly and I needed a pedicure before showing them to the nurses at the hospital. Just kidding, she was just being really sweet and took me to get a pedicure. Steve didn't have a patient in the morning so we were able to go and relax. It was a fun experience! Now we have to get Steve to the spa to get his calouses chopped off. My at-home pumice stone just isn't doing the trick!

Last week we went to the LA Museum of Natural History. If you are going there to see dinosaurs... well, there are two. There is however this really great kid's discovery room where Jackson found some deer antlers and after much coaxing and demonstration he realized they were safe to put on his own head. 

Some other notes about Jackson: 

1) He is getting the toilet thing down pretty well. He has had a few days without any accidents at all, and he is going by himself occasionally at home (althought that is intermittently successful...). Today he even went "poops" by himself- he put the toilet seat down, but his little guy seat on there, got his pants down and yelled to Steve when he needed a wipe.  Yay!

2) Jackson has been reading to himself when he is supposed to be taking naps or when he wakes up in the morning. He has a lot of books memorized. He has an "ABC" book and we sing it to him, "A is for apple, B for balloon, etc". He only knows the letter A so he was looking at the pictures saying "A is for apple, A for balloon, A is for Cat and A is for Dog... etc." This morning he was reading "Where the wild things are" I was watching him from the doorway, he hadn't seen me. And he said something like "Max no supper..." *turn page* "Max's room" *turn page* "Grew." *turn page* "and grew"... It's so fun to hear him! His languge has exploded even in this past week, so it's been fun to see what he comes up with.

3) He will pick up his little guitar and strum and sing along. His favorite songs currently are "Twinkle Twinkle" and the "ABC song".

4) For the last few weeks, Jackson has asked us to keep the door open "like this:" and then he holds his palm wide open. Which we are doing since he's not getting out of bed or anything.  He did complain of being scared last week, so I rummaged in the closet and not being able to find the night-light we used when he was a babe, I plugged in some christmas lights. And now they are his "special lights"... "so I not scared". He has been sleeping on his "big boy bed" exclusively for the past week. He just decided one night to sleep there and has been ever since.

And that's our cute little Jackson. He is such  good buddy. I look forward to sharing a new little baby with him.

Happy Easter!

We have definitely had eggs on the brain lately- we are trying Potty Training Round 2. This time, to motivate Jackson, I filled easter eggs with treats and little toys and he gets to pick one to open when he goes in the toilet. The first couple of days I was getting discouraged... but today was a little better. We press forward (with plenty of eggs to go round- Jackson makes me pick one too sometimes, when I use the toilet.)

Last year we celebrated Easter with dinner and coloring hard-boiled eggs.  This year I made Jackson this awesome Easter Basket:  I won't lie: I told Jackson he could help me. I would say "Where should we put this egg Jackson?" And he would show me the spot and I would say, "Um, doesn't look good there... how 'bout here." Statement, not question. Sorry Jackson, get your own art project!! But Jackson did choose the bunny you see among bunny images on google. He also picked out the butterflies.

We spent the morning at a park in Pasadena w some friends in the ward. The kids had a tear-free easter egg hunt. Here they are all lined up for their parents' pleasure. 

Here is Jackson and Quinten showing off their awesome eggs.

Steve thought it would be a great idea to hide some eggs in the rose bushes... the thorny rose bushes. Leave it to Steve for a good time!

After the egg hunt the kids ran around forever. Steve passed out on the grass like one of the homeless. Eventually Jackson decided to join his daddy on the grass, and that was the end of Steve's nap. But there's nothing better than cuddling with Jackson!

After a good solid nap for Jackson at home, our sweet neighbor Mallie invited us to an egg hunt for the kids in our apt complex.  I helped Mallie hide the eggs, then the kids ran around again, TEAR-FREE! Woo-hoo! I'm pretty sure all Jackson ate yesterday was candy.

Here are the little love-birds. Two weeks until we add a little girl to the equation!

Today we enjoyed a nice service, with some French Horn during sacrament meeting. And I enjoyed a nice sharing time by the Bishop's Wife. It's amazing how the simple things can touch us the most. We finished the evening with a dinner with some friends (We were lucky enough to inherit a bigger table last night at about 10:30). Steve being ever-frugal decided to chow on the ham bone. Love that Dr.Boyle!

We had a lot of fun this Easter, and we are grateful for the time to reflect on the joyous occasion of the Savior's resurrection. My favorite thought from the day is a quote from a general conference talk by Elder Wirthlin, October 2006. I remember this talk because it was just after Grandpa Egbert passed away. He said,

"Each of us will have our own Fridays—those days when the universe itself seems shattered and the shards of our world lie littered about us in pieces. We all will experience those broken times when it seems we can never be put together again. We will all have our Fridays.  But I testify to you in the name of the One who conquered death—Sunday will come. In the darkness of our sorrow, Sunday will come."

Happy Easter!