Happy Easter!

Here we are dying eggs. Never too many photos of that tradition. Ezra even ate part of one egg this year.

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Easter egg hunt in Bloomington. With our spoils. Levi and Ezra had to split up during the hunt because they have different fields for different ages. It went well, but was quite chilly.

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Here's a photo of our first t-ball practice of the year. It was like 40 degrees and wet. Levi is in gray sweatshirt and blue hat. The head coach is in yellow jacket - he had some good ideas for getting the kids excited about teamwork. We are the Quantum Graphics Orioles and our team colors are hunter green and yellow. Our first game is Saturday April 30 at 10:15 a.m. at Maetzold Field #3 near downtown Hopkins.

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Below is a photo of our house on April 20. The fresh snow on the ground (covering our poor tulips) is now melted. We have decided to paint our house the color sampled closest to the front door. Valspar exterior "Drizzling Mist" @ Lowe's.

On Saturday before Easter, Levi and Ezra and I spent a couple hours painting in our new heated garage. In the morning it was just Levi and I; we painted about 21 boards in one an hour - about the same pace as when Grandpa and I did it the weekend before. We should be complete with the painting of the boards by Tuesday when the contractors come back to start the work.

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Now, for a milestone in our family. On Easter Eve, Levi was eating crescent roll all of a sudden Momma noticed that his bottom front tooth was gone. We think Levi swallowed it; but don't know for sure. Levi didn't even tell us that it was loose; I think he wanted to surprise us. Anyway, we'll be loosing a lot of teeth around here in the next 10 years and its good to have the first one under our belt.

Possible color switch

We're going to have the siding on the garage removed and replaced next week, and new siding installed on the addition. Therefore, we're painting the siding in our garage this weekend - before it is hung.

I asked a guy at work who is very good with photoshop to mock up a version with Christina's top choice.

Our house looks like a rainbow threw up on it right now due to the swatches of trial paint that I put on last night.


Add a comment if you have a strong opinion on the color, but do so quickly, I need to go buy the paint in the next 24 hours.

Sam out

Sharing a crib still

Not sure how much longer Roman (left) and Ivy are going to like being swaddled like that or be able to share the same crib.. so I snapped a photo. :)

FSHS

Father son and holy spirit. We had a successful and fun baptism this weekend. Thanks so much to everyone who made it so special. The photo above (click the picture to enlarge the view) shows Roman (on left) in Kirby's arms along with Jacob. Erik is holding Ivy. Kari (Ivy's other sponsor) is in England and wasn't at the baptism, but we did splash some of the holy water that Kari brought us back from the Middle East into the baptism font. (and we talked to her later along with her hubby Brian on Skype, which was cool.) We did the baptism during a small private service on Sunday before our regular church service. Uncle Rolf did a find job of splashing the water on the babies and making the day a fun and relaxing one.

There was a lot of joy - we shared food and fellowship Sunday when two beautiful babies were recognized by the church as entrants into the family of God; those babies had responsible sponsors who will remind them of their relationship with God, and we were with a church congregation that not only prayed for, but honestly knows and cares for our family and Roman and Ivy.

There was also a lot of understood loss - within our own family. We were all sad for Wy and Star who found out that this pregnancy didn't work out. There was also a gaping wound for two men that I admire so much -my dad and Christina's Grandpa who were both at Levi's baptism in 2005 (CLICK HERE TO SEE A PHOTO). We also missed our other grandmas and grandpas, who surely would have enjoyed holding onto these beautiful twins. There were other things missing too - like aunts and uncles - both near and very far - who wished they could be here. Oh, and the warm spring weather was missing - although it peaked through during the weekend enough that my mom went for a walk and said she came back warm from such a walk for the first time in months.

The loss is real, but I DO TAKE COMFORT believing that those we missed so much were there with us too - through God and Jesus and within those who were with us that day, including Ivy Elizabeth and Roman Webster.

2 things. 1. I'm exhausted. I have had a total of about 8 hours sleep in the past two days. I'm not quite sure why I didn't the first day - oh yah, on Saturday night I was cutting veggies and making a pasta salad for the brunch we had on Sunday (My mom made an awesome egg bake and a fruity French toast baked dish as well and Christina's parents brought food too.)

The other reason I'm tired is I stayed up until 1 putting in a vapor barrier in the garage and then got up again at 5:15 to finish it so that I could be done before the sheetrockers came Monday morning. It was nice to contribute some man hours to the construction effort - I just wish the timing was a little different. Oh, and in the middle - like I think from 3:00 to 3:45 last night, I held Roman and giving him a bottle and trying to get him back to sleep.

The second of my two items is this - we found out that one of the producers of the Food Network TV show Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives lives on our block. He and his family were at our block party at our house last summer. I didn't talk to him about his career at the time. Even though I'm vegetarian, I love that show. Next time I see him, I'll suggest the show goes to Grand Forks and visit the Red Pepper. It fits the genre nicely, I'll say.

Speaking of The Pepper, I am using a UND Sioux logo on my inter-office instant messenger chat this week. Kind of a fraud? Yep, you could say since i'm also a bigger gopher's fan. However, I'm from Grand Forks and the gophs have been out of it for four weeks now in men's college hockey.

Have a good night. Sam out.

Let there be light!

We now have light in our upstairs. A very exciting development. Next weekend we'll prime the walls. The tub has been dropped into its spot in the master bath. The overhead fans have been installed in the bathrooms and a ceiling fan has been put in the master bedroom. Oh, and the Zip Wall finally has been removed - we have our living room back and the view/connection between the old and new space is great.

Christina's cousin Erik played his guitar tonight to get our two big boys to sleep. He did great. Both were asleep in about 15 min. Erik's in town for Roman and Ivy's baptism on Sunday. Erik is one of Ivy's sponsors (along with his sister Kari).

A picture of our home taken on March 27. There's hardly any snow left now.

Like the Elmo? Levi colored it this morning. It is special paper that works like a stained glass window sort of.