A Toothless Wonder!

A proud moment! Jonah did it - he shed his 1st AND 2nd baby tooth/teeth. :)
Above: Before, with all 20 baby teeth neatly in place.
Below: Bottom 2 teeth conveniently "removed" (we'll call it)...

... Jonah proudly showing his new look!

So the story goes like this:
After a month or two of a somewhat wiggly bottom tooth, one day in May, Jonah made the "mistake" (?) of showing Jared how extremely wiggly his tooth now was. SO Jared decided the tooth had to GO. We all filed upstairs to our bathroom where Jared proceeded to "lasso" the tooth with dental floss. However, Jonah wouldn't hold still long enough for Jared to attempt the extraction that way. It did, however, cause some "disruption" in the gums, which then started to bleed a little. So Jared, under the guise of wanting to simply "dab" the blood and saliva out of Jonah's mouth and away from the offending tooth, Jared grabbed a tissue and wrapped it around the tooth. After waiting the obligatory 5 seconds, to confirm the task at hand, Jared made an executive decision. With a quick jerk, the tooth was no longer attached but was now resting in said tissue. With a look of concern/fear/confusion, Jonah looked at Jared as Jared proclaimed, "What?! What just happened? Look what's in my tissue!!" Jonah stared in awe, ran to the mirror & immediately showed off his toothless grin! (...and... a quick repeat for tooth # 2 and that was that!) It was quite a scene. Merrik is of course now asking when he will loose a tooth and get a visit from The Toothfairy!

OH - the TOOTHFAIRY! So, that night, the teeth were placed neatly under Jonah's pillow. The following morning, which would've otherwise been a quiet Sunday morn, Jonah came bouncing into our bedroom at 6:00am, literally yelling, "LOOK WHAT THE TOOTHFAIRY BROUGHT ME!!!!", whilst waving his monetary treasure for all to see. In spite of being torn from a peaceful sleep, it was very cute!

A Home of our Own!!

~ Home Sweeet Home ~

The Cowden Family Homestead!!!

... AND after only 8 years of house hunting, 5 different realtors (Bless their hearts!), and multiple towns in 2 states, FINALLY a home of our own!!! YAY!!!

COME VISIT ANYTIME!
The door is always open.

Enjoying North Carolina!

Jonah thinks he's a teenager & should be able to pick up his "little" cousins. Here he is w/ Tyler, who's 3&1/2. Cute! (this was at 1 of the 2 graduation ceremonies for my bro)
Slliiiiiipp! Slip-n-slide!

...it has multiple uses. Thirsty?

Alli (me) with my adorable twin nephews - Ben (on the left) & Dan.

Rachael & I have had to relinquish the Burton Twin thrones to these two! It's a good thing they're cute!! :)

Watching Jared play w/ all the kids on the trampoline, us grown-ups (if you can call us that) realized that all the youngest grandkids here are BOYS!!

Jonah still couldn't let go of the whole saluting idea. :) So here's to you, strawberries of North Carolina. You are so yummy. And we salute you.

Merrik w/ his bucket 'o berries.

The Fam. (poor Merrik looks like he's about to sneeze - bless you!) I've made the long drive south to visit family many, many times & it's usually just the boys & me. So this time, we were THRILLED to have Jared with us! Yay!

Arrg! Shiver Me Timbers!

M & Jonah were invited to a Pirate birthday party. Man, were they disappointed to have to dress the part! ...needless to say, they had a super fun time!

Quabbin Reservoir!! Google it. :)

Another favorite hiking spot - the Quabbin Reservoir!

If you google this, you'll find all kinds of really cool historical facts. But the gist of it is - this huge reservoir supplies Boston & it's surrounding towns with water. Back in the 1930's, 4 Massachusetts towns were leveled, burned & flooded to create this amazing reservoir.
We brought Flat Jake so he could learn all about it!
This is above one of the dams that supports the reservoir.

Easter Fun!

*These pictures are out of order, but...*

AJ, Rach & Alexis came to visit the day after Easter. So we extended the fun & had an egg hunt with them, too! This was at the end. Boy, are they worn out!
This was Easter afternoon. Jared, the boys & I went to the noon session of General Conference & then to lunch at Bill & Dolores's house. Here are the cousins! Merrik, Jonah, Jacob & Jisela with their bags of newly found eggs! (some even had money in them - cool!)

Jonah & Merrik with "Flat Jake" - he's our visitor from Colorado! (a self-portrait of my nephew Jake, visiting us for the month of April for a school project - he's come to learn all about Massachusetts!)

On our way to church Easter morning, we made a pitstop at Buffumville Lake to show Flat Jake all the crazy floods we've had! Yes, that is a submerged roof just behind them. Yikes!

At home on Easter morning. M is clearly excited about his new coloring/sticker book! Yeah!

Oh yes, and don't forget the chocolate bunny!!!

The Easter Bunny was very good to the boys. Looks like fun!

Rock Wallin' Alli!

Why yes, that IS a real rock wall I was climbing!!

OK, so maybe not. Our Young Women's (youth group) that I work w/ at church went to the local YMCA for one of our activities. It was loads of fun. I've never done this before. It was a blast.
Nothin' makes your butt look big like being strapped into the harness. Nice. :) But man, was this fun!