Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We hope that everyone had a nice St. Patrick's Day today! Ours sure was warm. Jack got to play on the playground with some friends which was fantastic and I got my first sunburn of the year (didn't think the sun was that strong in March!) Here are some pictures from the St. Patty's parade that we went to on Saturday. It got a little long winded towards the end. Seems like everyone wants an excuse to walk in a parade these days! Here are some of our favorite entries:

The Pipe Bands

Irish Dancers complete with costumes and wonderfully curly fake wigs


and... The Irish Wolfhounds

Anna missed the parade by sleeping but Jack really enjoyed the pipers, dancers, and fire engines!

What a Park!

This morning we set out to find this incredible park that I had heard about on the news. It was built by the West Jordan community and is the biggest playground of its kind in the state. (And it's free!) It definitely did not disappoint!. We had a blast and Jack was in toddler heaven climbing stairs, going down slides, and swinging.

Anna just slept the whole time we were at the park so we got a picture of her when we got home in her new Bumbo.

Our Funny Kids

Anna is a really smiley happy baby

Not to leave Jack out, here he is with Christian


And finally, Jack showing his favorite dance move, the run-around-in-a-circle-till-I-fall move.

Two Peas in a Pod

We've been hearing from people that Jack and Anna look alike so we went and looked at Jack's baby pictures. I guess they do have similar noses and mouths. I think Anna got her father's big blue eyes though, and Jack's are shaped like mine and are green too. Who knows... maybe most babies look alike at first.

No Peanuts for our Little Peanut

Jack has always had pretty sensitive skin and so we were only slightly concerned when he developed hives after we tried to offer him a peanut butter sandwich, but we mentioned it to his pediatrician just in case. After a long morning of pokes and pricks at the allergist we found out that Jack is definitely allergic to peanuts and possibly eggs and dogs (I know... that is a strange grouping of allergies huh?!) So we will be armed from here on out with Benadryl and an EpiPen. Luckily, the allergist said that real intense allergic reactions are pretty rare so hopefully that will be the case here. I have to admit that I was pretty sad when we got the news for a number of reasons. After getting over my innitial fears, I realized on a lighter note that I was sad Jack would never get to experience all of the wonderful peanut butter candy and confections that I have grown to love and crave. For example, my favorite flavor of Ben & Jerry's, Chubby Hubby, has these lovely chocolate covered peanut butter filled pretzels. Oh well, I guess he won't miss what he hasn't tasted. I think it is going to be a big adjustment at first, but we'll get used to studying ingredient lists and eating safe ice cream and fruit candy like Skittles and Starburst. I guess that means that I will just have to save Chubby Hubby for really special occasions, which is probably a good thing.

Random Pictures

Shaggy No More

As you probably noticed, Jack was getting really shaggy as of late. So here are some pictures from Christian's first time cutting Jack's hair. We put on Horton Hears a Who to distract him and it went pretty well. He got really giggly when Christian used the clippers. Thanks Christin and Colby for taking pictures since our camera is out of batteries.

Some Pictures of the Kids

Consequences of Stinky Smoggy Air

Since the air quality in Salt Lake has been the worst in the nation for the past week, we had to have as much fun as we could indoors. We went to the mall and let Jack run wild in the indoor play park and let him have his first ride on a carousel (thanks for the tokens you left when you visited Katrina!). He just kept saying "whoa" over and over again. It was pretty cute. Here are some other pictures from our time at home. We tried to catch Anna smiling and so that one is a little blurry.

Ping Pong Champions and other going ons

Wow, so much to tell about, but we'll start with the biggest and most important news, Mary and I are the reigning ping-pong champions of our ward/neighborhood. Yup, and we have the trophy to prove it. One of my friends from work who also happens to live down the street got a ping pong table for Christmas, so they decided to host a couples tournament. Mary and I, based on our pre-tourney qualifiers, were seeded #4 out of the 9 team field. We blazed through the winners bracket, beating 3 other teams to get to the final game. Since it was a double elimination style tournament, the pressure was off in the championship game, and we lost the first game, but came back to win the decisive second game in sudden death OT, 24-22. Thanks go out to Christin and Colby for holding Jack so we could focus 100% on the matches.

Mary would like to thank her 7th grade gym teacher for instilling in her a love for table tennis from an early age, and to Anna, for sleeping through the matches and not being a distraction, and to her husband who didn't get mad when she forgot it was her turn to hit the ball (yeah, it happened a few times but I did have some fantastic shots to make up for it!).

The major award:

This is just a nice picture after a snow, too bad it's all melted now.


When Mikie was in town over the holidays, we went to the Nickel-cade, had fun playing skeeball (high score of 360,000...beat that!) and used our ticket winnings, all 75 of them, to buy some sweet fake moustaches. Mine is called "The Scoundrel", while Mikie's is "The Bandit" (that's why he's doing some kind of "crossed pistoles" pose)

Maybe I should grow a moustache...hmmm

Blessing Anna Claire

We blessed Anna at church this morning. It was a wonderful day with gorgeous weather, a blissfully happy/sleepy baby, and lots of family.

Jack took his nap during the luncheon we had after church and so he missed the family photo-shoot. Here are some pictures of what happened when we tried to make him take some pictures right after waking up.

Newborns looks so very peaceful next to an almost two-year old!

He isn't quite sure he likes holding her yet

A little more interest...

Finally, a kiss on the nose