Easter Pictures

Thought I'd put up a few pictures from Easter. The kids had a good time, and I had a hard job of choosing just a couple of pictures to put up! The rest are posted at Helquist.com (see the March 2008 link to the right).

I'll do my regular write up on Wednesday, but for now enjoy the pictures.

Cute cousins, ready to find Easter eggs!
No matter how many times we tried to tell Jens that Easter is about Jesus, candy was definitely the most important part for him.

Cute Jill is delighted with her egg.


Both Jens and Abbie hogged the new bike as much as possible, even if they weren't having any fun. At least the other person isn't getting to use it! Sharing is such hard work.

March 24th

Hi Everyone--

I skipped last Wednesday's update because Jens and I were flying to Florida! It is always an adventure to travel with a 2 year old, and this was no different. He was very good and everything was exciting. So exciting, in fact, that he didn't nap or fall asleep until the last 20 minutes of our flight into Gainesville, and at that point we had been traveling for 11 hours, so he was just too tired to keep his eyes open. Of course, that little nap gave him the energy to stay up a little once we got to Grammy's at 1 am. He wanted to check out all of their toys, although his new "big boy bed" with car sheets and comforter were an enticement for bedtime. He has done pretty well with it, staying in bed at night and even napping in (or next to) it. He has also gone in the potty four times since we got here--a couple of Spiderman fruit snacks is apparently all the motivation he needed! I guess we will try to do full bore potty training when we get home. Ug. I am not really looking forward to it.

We have had a very nice visit in Florida so far, although the weather isn't quite as nice here as it is at home. Yesterday was beautiful, though, and the kids had a great time with their Easter baskets in the morning. Jens was the best he has ever been during Sacrament meeting, and he went to nursery with Grammy. He was very excited about going, and Grammy reports that he was the best child there--sang all the songs, answered all the questions during lesson time, shared nicely, and enjoyed snack a great deal. She also thought he was the cutest and smartest, but she is his grandma, so she has to think that. After church we did Easter egg hunts, first one for the little kids, then one for the "big kids"--Jessie, Loren, Peter, and me. It was very fun. We hade a delicious dinner and, of course, bunny cake for dessert.

I am enjoying being with my family--we always have nice talks, and Jens is loving playing with his cousins. I am already dreading the flight home on Thursday, although we are excited to see Mike, who couldn't take off work to come with us.

Have a happy week, everyone, and I will try to post pictures in a while.

March 12th

Hi Everyone!

I just finished washing Jens's car seat--you all know what that means! Yes, puke everywhere. Mike and Jens went to Fry's with Keith, a friend from work. Sadly, Jens got carsick and added some excitement to the errand. He is in cheerful spirits, though, so we don't think he is sick, just momentarily pukey.

The past week has been a regular one for us--some highlights: I went to lunch with my good friend Wendie on Thursday. She is so nice! Jens came with us, which made the lunch a little less peaceful than I would have liked, but I always enjoy seeing Wendie, and Jens really likes her, too. Saturday morning I helped my friend Michelle paint her family room. It looks really nice! The dads took the kids to the park while we painted, then we all met up for lunch. I do enjoy a project. Saturday night, Mike very kindly babysat for our friend, Sophia. Her husband is in Malaysia for work and their two nieces just recently joined their family, so they went from 2 kids to 4, so Mike volunteered to watch the kids and we went out for dinner with Natalie and Michelle. It was a nice break for all of us, and the kids seemed to have a great time with Mike. He is so great!

Sunday I awoke with the startings of a painful and irritating head cold. I think my head has gained five pounds, it feels so heavy. Surely I will feel better tomorrow.

We have been enjoying beautiful weather and have been spending lots of time at the park.

Jens has been pretty interesting lately--very conversational and entertaining. He is a cute little person who makes me smile. He got the Leap Frog letter fridge magnet thing, which he loves. It plays the alphabet song and he will dance like crazy! He also loves the Raffi cd we have lately. Every time a new song starts he says "I LOVE this one!" Also, for those of you wondering how our sandbox rules are going, they aren't, and there is sand everywhere, inside and out. He scooped it into his bike's carrying pouch and brought his bike inside, then decided he didn't want the sand in the pouch and tried to empty it out on the floor. ARGH!

I was going to send a picture, but Mike is doing something with our photo library--something about organizing and putting them all together or something. So maybe that will be done next week.

Oh--one more happy accomplishment--I finally finished putting all of our pictures into books through December of 2006! I am trying to dwell on being happy about that instead of reminding myself that it is now March of 2008. I have all of my 2007 pictures printed and sorted, so that will be my next project to tackle.

March 5th

Hi Everyone!

We are continuing to enjoy a beautiful spring. All of the trees and bulbs are blooming and we just can't seem to be outside enough.

In Mike excitement: This is what Mike makes. He just got one and it even works! He was pretty excited.



Even more exciting then processors from Intel, I would say our number one thing this week was filling up Jens's sandbox. Oh. And primary activity day. It was a tie. Since Jens managed to dump out 200 pounds of sand last year, we decided to downgrade and just get 100 pounds this year. We are trying to talk about keeping the sand in the sandbox, putting the lid on the sandbox, keeping rocks out of the sandbox, not throwing sand, and shaking off our clothes before we come inside. The first day he was really good about all of those things. Now, not so much. We have to have a lot of reminders.

Primary Activity Day was Saturday. We had a carnival with 6 booths based on the parables of the Savior. We were in charge of the Parable of the Sower booth, which involved throwing ping pong balls into bowls. The kids had a blast and Jens was in heaven. There were kids everywhere and he got to eat Raisinettes and a popcorn ball. On Sunday he was convinced there was going to be another party at the church building. There wasn't, but luckily, Nursery is just as good as a party to him.

Also this week we played with our friend Harrison Hyer, both on Friday and Tuesday. Jens and Harrison are good buddies and had a fine time, except that on Tuesday I had both boys while Chelan was at a doctor appointment, so I took them to the park where Harrison got a big eyefull of sand, which made that part not fun at all.

I joined the children's book of the month club (think BMG, but picture books) and we got all of our new sign up books this week. Jens loves them all (I got 10 for $12 plus shipping) and although the quality of the paper seems to be slightly lacking, I figure that for Jens it doesn't matter. He is pretty good about being careful with his books now. He really likes "The Happy Lion" and even knows what bonjour means. I am going to buy the rest of my required books and quit, though, and I am going to quit the Disney Movie Club, too. But I am glad I did both of them.

I made spring green pasta soup last night and it was so good. I think it is one of my favorite light soup recipes of all time. However, if any of you decide you want to make it, saute the leeks and garlic before you add the broth. I love asparagus being in season!

I think that is all. We aren't very exciting around here, although we are going to have friends over for dinner tonight, and I am helping my friend Michelle paint another room in her house on Saturday. Oh, and Mike liked the U2 show--he said it was really neat and he was glad he went. And he is riding his motorcycle again, a sure sign of warm weather!