So, I did have a plan for this post, but the computer, or blogger, or my ineptitude on the computer had other ideas. My pictures came out in completely random order and I can't get the cut and paste to work....so rather than starting over, which would likely result in no post at all, I am electing to go with the order in which my pictures have arranged themselves.

This is Jack and Chris waiting in line to meet Mickey. (more on this to follow)

This is Cole yesterday after his first taste of rice cereal. He was quite delighted with it.

Orlando!:

Jack feeding dolphins at Sea World: He was slightly more interested in the fish than the dolphins, but I think he liked it pretty well.

Cole even got to go on some rides. This is the Dr. Suess merry-go-round at universal.

Back at Sea World....the walrus was huge!

And back to Universal...Jack was thrilled to meet the Grinch; Cole didn't much care.

Cole got to meet Things One and Two...again, I don't think he much cared.

Jack loved meeting the Cat in the Hat. The Cat's ride was probably his favorite. He went on it at least 5 times and kept asking to go see "the fish in the toilet". Oh my, the potty humor is starting already!

He also loved One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish.

At Disney's animal kingdom we wasted most of the morning at Rafiki's Planet Watch (if you go, don't bother). But the afternoon redeemed the park... the Everest roller coaster was awesome. Jack loved the drums in "Africa", the Nemo show (not what I expected...an actual Nemo broadway style musical), and joining the conga line at the park exit.

Back at Universal (we really were only there one day), waiting in the baby swap room with PoPo.

Cole was easily the coolest baby in Orlando. I can't believe how well he kept these glasses on!

At the end of the day at Magic Kingdom...both kids asleep in the stroller at the same time?!? It really is a magical place!

Waiting in line to see Mickey...this is the most ridiculous change to Disney I've noticed since I was a kid. We stood in line for about an hour...for 30 seconds to take a picture with Mickey and Minnie. None of ours turned out (I hope my mom or Chris has a good one). It would have been just as long or longer to meet any of the other characters. What happened to the days when they just wandered around and interacted with the kids? If your kid insisted on getting one of those little autograph books filled, this is all you would have time to do!

And now we're to Easter. The day before, the weather was beautiful and a family in our ward hosted an Easter egg hunt. It was a great time, I'm glad they make it a yearly tradition!

And now we're back to Sea World to look at the sharks!

And back to the Easter Egg hunt, where the best eggs were apparently in the window wells.

The crazy Easter bunny hung a basket on the curtain rod!

Cole is now rolling over...this was the first time (just funny that this was the picture...love the little #1 finger, I couldn't have posed it better)

Coloring eggs...Jack asked me for a week before this (and just about everyday since) when we were going to "paint the eggs".

And just cause he's so cute!!

We've had a fantastic last couple of weeks. Orlando was so much fun! Thanks so much to my parents for coming along! I don't think we could have done half of what we did without their help. Let's do it again in a few years when we can ditch the stroller and take the kids on the roller coasters!

ABCs

Jack is my little singer lately. I love his little cracking voice. He has quite the repertoire, but "ABCD", as he calls it, is his go to song.

Jack has been wanting to say the prayer for the last few weeks. Jack's dinner prayer tonight (with NO prompting):
"Heavenly Father, thank you for the day. Thank you for the food. Thank you for the family. Thank you for the kitchen. (singing enthusiastically) I looked out the window and what did I see! Name Jesus Christ, Amen."

2 Years Old!

Jack's 2nd birthday was yesterday. We had a little party for him when he woke up from his nap. It was just us, but still pretty fun. Matt did the decorating. Jack picked a monkey theme...he kept telling me it was the monkey's birthday.
His big present from us was a tricycle. He isn't quite big enough to pedal it well yet, but I think he liked it. The big hit was the "batcave" from Grandma and Grandpa Mac. He will sit and play with it all by himself for pretty long stretches. Cole liked watching all the festivities...especially the balloons.I won't ever be asked to work for the Ace of Cakes, but you can tell it's a monkey!
It sure tasted good!Dinosaur hunt.

Chris sent a box of instruments that was quite a big hit. He's been marching with them today.

Sorry this is so dark. He loved having Happy Birthday sung to him.

Utah

In January Matt had the dreaded night rotation, so I headed off to Utah with the boys. I'm not sure flying with a 3 month old and a two year old by myself ranks very high on my list of favorites...but we made it. Lindsey was able to come up from New Mexico with Liam the same week. We missed Matt, but we had a great time (and we would have missed him at home too).
We went to Build-A-Bear--Jack loves his new frog...

Cole is obviously thrilled with his dog. Jack loves giving Cole his "puppy". (I don't know why this picture is turned, it's not on my computer...?)
We went to the aquarium...

We relaxed...
We had so much fun, but were happy to come back home.Jack has had a tough time staying in his bed lately. I can't say how many times I've gone in to check on him before I go to bed to find his light on, his toys out, and Jack sleeping on the floor.Cole is getting to be a good little napper too.

Christmas

I'm a bit slow to post again, I know...it's been pretty busy around here.
The weekend before Thanksgiving, our little town has a Santa parade...I was really surprised at how big it was. Jack had a great time watching the floats and the animals go by and picking up all the candy. He made off with quite a haul...it seems like a lot of people threw whole handfuls just to him. He was loving it!
Cole was so good and stayed pretty much exactly like this the entire time.Over Thanksgiving, my family was able to make it to see us. It was so much fun to have everyone there, especially since we won't be getting together for Christmas this year.Since we had family in town, we took the opportunity to bless little Cole. We just did it at home since everyone was leaving on Sunday. I liked having it be so small and low key. We're grateful Sasha(a member of our bishopric) was willing to take time out of his holiday weekend so we could do it!
We spent most of the weekend just enjoying each other's company and watching our cute little boys play. We made it down to the nearby outlets to do some shopping on Black Friday (wasn't nearly as bad as I'd expected!). I came back with these little boots for Jack and was hardly able to get him out of them for the next week or so.We also discovered that both Jack and Liam quite enjoy Rock Band. No one else really got to play.We also took the boys to do "gymnastics" at the community center. They had a great time running down the tumbling track. Lindsey and I even did a few cartwheels! (i definitely don't have pictures of that.)
A few weeks ago we got our tree. Jack has now finally decided to leave the ornaments where they are. He's been wanting to redecorate, and often brings me ornaments so I can help him hang them back up
Jack is pretty good playing with Cole. He's always trying to help with him and especially likes to help me bathe him...he uses a cup to pour water on his feet and helps with lotion, too.
Last weekend we had snow on the ground, so Matt took Jack sledding at the little hill in the park across the street. He LOVED it. Unfortunately we don't have pictures of the actual sledding, but we took a few as they were leaving.,We finally got Cole's smile on camera! We've been trying for weeks, but it hasn't worked out. Now we have a picture AND a video! He's such a fun, smiley little guy!