Our Easter Celebration 2009

We had a wonderful fun-filled Easter full of friends and family and trying new activities. The week of Easter we started with doing an Easter egg hunt with our ROCKstar playgroup at the park. It was REALLY fun! Lots of friends and food. Everyone brought 12 filled eggs (for 2 and older kids) and so everyone got to take 12 eggs home after the kids found them all. It worked great! Dallin caught on really quickly and really cleaned up. He had 12 eggs in NO TIME. Kate...well...she took longer and after she collected about 5 eggs, she started putting them back. In the end, she was one of the kiddos who ended up with "mercy eggs" to get her 12.ROCKstar 2 and up Easter egg hunt! Dallin is the red headed kiddo in the middle of the group!Kate found an egg! ALERT THE MEDIA! Kate taking a break from hunting Easter eggs to "bust a move". Hmmm...hence the "mercy eggs"Dallin with his haul after the hunt. Kate with her HEAVY load after the hunt!

I LOVE this picture! I had to put it in. We stopped by my mom's before the ROCKstar hunt to pick up some Easter baskets to use. Kate REFUSED to leave without Nana and started to cry, so....Nana quickly got dressed and came with us! Kate was in HEAVEN! She and Nana spent the whole time together swinging and throwing rocks in the little brook. Nana gathered the rocks and Kate would throw them in one by one just giggling! She really has a special relationship with her Nana and it is so fun to see these beautiful moments!

The next big Easter activity was trying out the flashlight Easter egg hunt put on by the city. The kids were WAY excited to look for easter eggs in the dark with their flashlights (with mom and dad, of course). It didn't turn out as well as we had hoped. It was $10 for both kids to participate. Then there was nothing to do while we were waiting (except dance...and my kids did that!) . Finally when it got dark enough, the paren't assisted hunt kids lined up, but they didn't separate the age groups so when they yelled GO my kids barely picked up 2 things each and the hunt was over. They were a little bummed about the lack of treats (especially after the wildly successful ROCKstar hunt) so we went out for ice cream. There are so many city activities. I pick some to try out and then we can try new ones the next year or repeat if we liked it...this one was not a repeat.Daddy and Dallin at the flashlight Easter egg hunt. (The yellow around his arms, neck and legs are the glow sticks I made him wear so we wouldn't lose him in the dark. Yes...I am a paranoid mom.)Kate and Mommy at the flashlight Easter egg hunt. (Yep, she is fully robed in pink glow sticks!)

Then we went to Tammy and Will's and did the traditional Easter egg coloring. It turned out really fun. We tried doing speckled eggs, which you paint with sponges. It was actually WAY less messy and MORE fun that I thought it would be. The kids were able to do it quickly and easily and the eggs were TOTALLY bright colored and RAD! Only later did we find out that the paint does not dry well, so we weren't able to use these to hide on Easter Sunday, but we have sure enjoyed eating them!Kate coloring Easter eggs. She was very careful with the sponges and painted pink, purple, and yellow on the eggs. Dallin painting Easter eggs. Yellow...and only yellow. Is there any other color? Our family on Will and Tammy's tarp-covered porch coloring Easter eggs! We DID eat them ALL this past week too! We LOVE our hard boiled eggs! Tammy coloring her egg--we voted it "coolest egg". It looked like a purple dinosaur egg. (The adults got to color the cracked eggs! Yippee!)A close-up of Tammy's rad dino egg! The Easter eggs that the kids colored. Hmmmm...can you guess which ones Dallin did? LOL...yep...the whole bottom row of ALL YELLOW "golden eggs" is Dallin's and the top row of pink/purple/yellow is Kate's. The adult Easter eggs. The top left 2 are mine (blue/green speckle and pink/pruple speckle) and the bottom pink/green speckle. The pink and green stipe on the bottom is Will's. The purple dino egg up top is Tammy's.
Finally, it was Easter Sunday. We had explained to the kids the reason we celebrate Easter, but I am still wondering how much sank in. I am looking for ideas to drive this home more next year. The kids put out carrots for the Easter bunny the night before, and sure enough...he brought LOOT! Kids putting out carrots for the Easter bunnny!
Dallin came downstairs the next morning saying "WOW! OH WOW!" They got some things to use at the pool this summer and to use in the garden and outside. They were so excited! Dallin was especially excited about his spider-man stuff. The kids' Easter loot---pre-discovery. Kate finds the carrots that we left the Easter bunny--or what is left of them!Dallin on Easter morning with his Spiderman pool stuff! He was WAY excited!Kate shows off her Easter chalk

Then we got ready and went to church with Nana and Papa and the WHOLE family. That was really neat. We stayed for Sunday school since Papa was teaching. Dallin kept "helping" with the lesson. "He said baptism! He said Joseph Smith! He said temples!" After church we came back to Nana and Papa's house and had an Easter egg hunt for the little kids. They had a great time and made out like bandits-lots of animal crackers, teddy grahams, princess/spider-man fruit snacks, pringles, even a couple of little toys! Even Maddie got in on the action. Dallin and Kate on the Easter egg huntDallin hunting for Easter goodies! Running after goodies on the Easter egg hunt!Kate scores some animal crackers on the Easter hunt.
Kate is on the hunt!
Maddie on the hunt (with help from mom and dad!) I know it is hard to tell from this picture but she and Kate had matching dresses and bows(I made the bows!) I think I put a picture of all 3 kids matching together in my Family Update post in March. Maddie is my lil joy! Love that little girl!

Then they got to come in and get even more goodies from Nana and Papa. They were in heaven! Kate got ponies and Dallin got a viewfinder. Dallin and Kate getting Easter gifts from Nana

Then came the big kid hunt...oh yeah...it was ON! We were running around in the backyard looking for stuff everywhere. I think I may be eating Easter candy FOREVER! YUMMO! I love the candy they make for Easter! TReeses eggs, cadbury minis, sweettart chicks and eggs....it is manna from heaven! Then we had a big family ham dinner and called it a day.

Daddy and Dallin on Easter SundayMy beautiful gifts, Kate Alivia and Dallin Christopher on Easter Sunday. My little man-Dallin Christopher on Easter Sunday My princess, Kate Alivia, on Easter Sunday A close-up of Kate's Easter hairdo. I'm afraid it doesn't do it justice. It was really cute! Also, I made her Easter bows this year! (and Maddie's too!)

It was a really wonderful Easter season but the sacrifice of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, is what really made it beautiful. I am grateful for His perfect love and for all of the blessings I have each and every day. My uncle passed away this Easter. It was sad, but something about the fact that he passed away on the day that the Lord overcame death and made it possible for us to live with Him again as a familiy forever through His atonement made it seem so fitting and gave us much comfort. This year more than ever, the true meaning of Easter has stayed on my heart as I hope it has for all of you. Happy Easter!

Texas Weather

We had our first brush with severe Texas weather a couple of weeks ago. I was a cloudy day but nothing really notable...no strong wind, no pounding rain (maybe some drizzle every now and again), no extreme temperatures. I had just broken my broom in half trying to bend it back into shape after getting it stuck under the fridge (yes...i buy high quality brooms...lol) and thought I might go to Wal-Mart to get another. My mom called all frantic about torando watches and severe weather warnings in our area. I looked outside and not seeing a lot thought "yeah, ok ...another sure disaster that we won't see a drop from". I loaded the kids into the car and sat for a moment. Now it was raining and the sky was gray but it wasn't anything terrible and I REALLY needed that broom (my children had eaten? since the other had broken). My mom called again panicking about the weather warnings and such (4 in hail at the mall 20 min away...ummm...sure mom....I though). Again, I looked around (it had stopped raining) and pondered...should I go and get the broom anyways? Probably Nothing will happen. It never does. The weather didn't look that bad...just a little thunder storm. No one will know. Christopher even called and told me to stay home (yes...mom had called him too...she is like the early warning system since none of us have tv or anything lol) I was set to go and then I had "the feeling"...the one that sets off every alarm in your body. I felt like an idiot because the weather was fine..no rain, no black clouds...nada but there I was rousing my sleeping children from the car and frantically running them into the house then I started chucking things around the garage and made just enough room to SQUEEZE our little Dodge Neon inside. I ran upstairs grabbed a flashlight and a blanket and before I had made it all the way down the stairs again I heard it.....TEXAS SEVERE WEATHER!!!
Thunder and lightening and rain, but most notably the hail started coming down (not just here and there), pelting the windows and the house. It looked like popcorn popping on the lawn. It kept getting bigger and it was hitting the windows so hard I thought they would break. I gathered my drowsy babies off of the couch (by the window) into the middle of the room. By now, the hail was quarter size and some golf balls in there. The noise was deafening and I was amazed that the windows didn't just shatter. I finally took my kiddos into our little emergency bathroom just in case and just as we entered it...it stopped. Just as suddenly as it had begun it was over and the sun came out. The yard was completely COVERED in hail stones. It looked like we had a snow storm--you'll have to look closely at the picture above to see it...I took it through the window since I was too scared to go out just yet). (Dallin thought it was a snowstorm!...poor kid) and he ran out and grabbed some to eat(after I was less scared). I took some pictures of what was left by the door(in my hand at the top), but it was nothing compared to what had been coming down. This happened about 2 weeks ago and now all of the roofs in our neighborhood are peeling off and blowing around. LOL It is kind of funny because Dallin thinks they are treasures and keeps making pathways to our house with the shingles that blow into the yard. I don't have the heart to throw them away.
I learned a lot from this experience
1) It is JUST A BROOM!! No one will notice a dirty floor when you have no roof!
2) Children can sleep through ANYTHING (except my am alarm)
3) Listen to your Mother!
4) The weather here really can change COMPLETELY in 5 minutes...again and again.
5) and most importanty...listen to the Spirit I am very thankful that I listened at that last moment (and grateful that the Spirit kept on) and kept myself and my children safe from harm. Hopefully, I can learn to listen earlier in the future!

Shall We Dance?

I previously posted about the kids pretending that they are dancing together at the ball. Usually, Dallin will yell "Princess Kate! I need to dance with you at the ball" This time, both kids were getting ready for church and one at a time they started swaying in front of the TV and then they started dancing together. It was really cute. Normally, they don't fall down quite so much though. Kate was really being a stink and kept making Dallin drag her around the floor. LOL

Happy Birthday Christopher!

Yesterday was Christopher's real birthday. We did most of the celebrating last Sunday, but we still did some fun things as a family on the "real" day. We bummed around, took a walk, and enjoyed pizza and ice cream sundaes (Christopher's had sparkler candles that his mom sent). He even received several birthday calls and a gift from his parents on his special day!
Happy Birthday, Christopher! You are a great gift to our family-a supportive husband and a hands on dad. We love you!

Family Update

Dallin

• Dallin continues to amaze us and horrify us simultaneously every day. He is such a funny character and he is developing more and more.
• Dallin KEEPS GROWING!!! I joke that I am going to bring the Jolly Green Giant to kindergarten. People typically think he is 6 years old. He will be 3 1/2 at the end of this month. He wears a 5-6 shirt and 4-5 pants. He has outgrown his underwear (now in a 7) and his shoes (now in a 10). He weighs about 50 pounds and is about 4 feet tall. His size is probably one of his greatest blessings and his greatest trials. He is able to physically do things most kids his age can't. He is VERY good at gymnastics and sports. He is agile and strong. However, he can't really be picked up and tossed around like other kiddos his age (or his little sister) and that is hard for him. He is also able to actually DO many of the things other 3 year olds can only dream of because he has the body of an older child. This has caused MANY problems since he is quite imaginative and intelligent. He can also really hurt someone just by throwing a tantrum or hitting/kicking like 3 year olds can. It is tough sometimes but we are trying to explain to him that he is bigger so he has to be more careful than other kids his age. On the plus side....he will be the best kid on the field when he starts soccer next year!
  
• Goodbye Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and SuperWhy.....HELLO HANDY MANNY! While Dallin still likes the others, his new obsession is Handy Manny. He sings the little jingles from the show, says the catch phrases, and is constantly stealing tools from the garage and "fixing" things around the house. He puts on his belt and pretends it is a tool belt. He really wants a Handy Manny doll with the tools, but I think he will be moved on to another phase by birthday time. The other day I came downstairs to find him with a screwdriver by the lightswitch. When he turned around, I saw that he had actually unscrewed four of the screws (it had 6) and he told me he was "fixing" it. I wasn't sure if I should be horrifed because of how dangerous that was or amazed at the dexterity of my little man. Thanks so much, Manny! We have let him help daddy fix things around the house so he can do it with supervision and keep putting the pilfered tools back in the triple dead bolt locked garage (yes....he CAN open it). He DID help install our Texas license plates last week. He was very excited!
  
• "Ave uhhhhh! Ave uhhhhh! Ava!" Dallin has a new little friend in one of the playgroups we have joined named Ava. He sounds like Wall-E running around yelling out her name all the time. He wants to be with her every single second. He can be really pushy but I have seen him play what she wants just to be with her. The big problem is that he fixates so much on her that he doesn't really want to play with the other kids and he doesn't want them to play with her either....hmmmm. I don't think he is old enough for me to be worried about this yet, but still we are trying to promote being EVERYONE'S friend and not controlling anyone else.
• "I'm Prince Eric! Where are my glass slippers? I am going to dance with princess kate at the ball!" Ok....yes, I have subjected my son to the princess movies (cause I like them so much MORE...and let's face it there is a limited amount of time that he will be into it anyways) He has phased out of it a little bit, but every once in a while he will still pretend to be Prince Eric and he'll want you to check his foot for a heartbeat. Then he will slow dance with his sister in the living room pretending that he is prince eric and she is a princess. All in all, not too bad since he is at least pretending to be the GUY...LOL umm...except the glass slipper part...apparently, he wants to be "the man" and STILL get to wear the glass slippers....LOL oh well...let him have his cake and eat it too! You go Dallin! (Yes, the shoes in the picture ARE nana's high heels!)
  
• "Knock Knock? Who's there? Boo. Boo hoo? Don't cry...it's only a knock knock joke!" Ahhhh...the classics. Dallin is developing a sense of humor and he thinks knock knock jokes are the funniest thing ever. This is the only one he really knows. He has made up some....but "Knock knock? Who's there? Pants. Pants who? An apple!" isn't quite as funny to the untrained ear. Dallin, on the other hand, thinks it is HILARIOUS! Unfortunately, he has also started in with body part/potty humor and any mention of a bum or any other body part is sure to elicit a giggle from him. He has tried to make me laugh with his "mom...smell by bum!" but it usually ends up with his nose in the corner. What can I say?....I guess I am just not a good patron of the comedic arts.
• "I am the dad to Kate" Dallin loves to take care of babies. He is always asking to hold Maddie and feed her a bottle. He tries really hard to make sure she is taken care of and is very responsive when she cries. I have caught him trying to play house with Kate. He is the daddy, she is the mommy, and they have a doll, but I guess that Kate doesn't play as the mommy right so Dallin is now the daddy to Kate and if she is whiny he will practically hog tie her to "feed her" her sippy.
  
• "This is the best lunch you ever made!" Dallin says this to me a lot when I cook something he likes (not necesarily something that is actually an amazing meal...one time I got this comment over kraft mac n cheese).
  
• "It's from my dad!" A question Dallin gets ALL THE TIME since I have dark hair is "where did you get that RED HAIR!" He is so used to it that he will answer it himself now...but don't think of touching it! That is forbidden "Don't touch it!" often follows this phrase.
  
• "Yellow is my favorite color! It means happy!" Dallin LOVES yellow and always has. It was the first color he recognized. He will pick the yellow one no matter what!
• "Let's hang out!" I've noticed Dallin says this a lot when he needs a break because he is tired and wants someone to sit with him. He will plop down on the couch and say it. It is really cute.
  
• "You're the best mom ever!" Dallin says this when I do something nice for him or he gets his way. A couple of times, it has been unanticipated and that is a sweetness I love to savor.
• "Katie bug" Dallin loves his sister and STILL calls her Katie Bug (not just Kate). He picks on her but NO ONE else better try it!!
• "the present ripped itself" Dallin has been telling little lies lately. Nothing major, but I do let him know that he is lying and ask him to tell me the truth (which he usually does). The one was after he helped me wrap a gift for his friend's birthday party, when I came downstairs he told me the present was ripped. When asked if he ripped the present, this was his reply...ummm...yea.
  
• "I want a job to buy a house, and a car, and some food and some air, and a patch, and maybe a tree" This was Dallin's reply when he was asked what he wanted to do when he grew up. He said he wanted a job and when he was asked what he wanted to buy with the money from his job. This was his list. It was pretty well thought out I thought. I mean, everyone needs some air to breathe. Oh...and Patch is the cat..lol
  
• Mom: Dallin, mommy is going potty before we leave. Do you want to go potty? Dallin: (looking annoyed) Moooomm. I'm not touching myself! I'm just touching my leg! Ok...so since Dallin has potty trained, he became enamored with a certain part of his anatomy so we broke him of it by making him go potty every time he touched himself because that MUST be the reason he was holding himself, right? (wink wink) Well, I guess it kind of back fired here. LOL
  
• Mom: Dallin, I love you so much. You are growing up so fast! What am I going to do when you are not my little boy? Just stay little, ok?

Dallin: I can't do that, mom. I have to grow up and drive the car.
Mom: But I will miss you being my little boy. What will I do?
Dallin: It's ok mom, you can come with me.
Conversations like this one....priceless.

Kate

• Kate has really sprouted and is definitely in the terrible 2s. She is soooo funny. So much spunk in such a tiny little package. She speaks in full thoughts all the time and it has been quite enlightening to hear what is on her mind.
• Kate is still at the other end of the spectrum...our pint sized princess. She is about 24 pounds and only 2 1/2 feet tall. She wears a 2 shirt and 18 mo -2t pants. She is STILL in a size 3 diaper. She recently outgrew her shoes and is now in a size 6. Her eye teeth are coming in but there is no sign of her 2 year molars yet.
  
• "Pincess! Pincess!" Kate loves the Disney princesses and anything that looks "princessy". When she wears her big puffy dresses, she'll twirl and play with the skirt saying this over and over. She love to wear tiaras and love ANYTHING with Disney princesses on it!
• "Pink Pink Pink!" In traditional girly girl style, Kate is obssessed with the color pink (any shade really) and will point it out loudly to me over and over wherever she can find it. She also associates pink with being a princess. She is learning her colors and can often name the basic colors all correctly (pink, purple, blue, yellow, red, green) with only an occasional mistake.
  
• "Madison so cute!" Kate LOVES Maddie too! In fact, every baby is now Madison. Everytime Kate sees Madison she has to say "Hi Madison! Madison so cute!" It is funny! The girls really like each other, but occasionally there is a flare up of jealousy especially over nana!
  
• "Weed! I weeding" Kate loves to read (weed) and you can often find her with a book "weeding". It is really cute to hear her tell the stories (some of them she almost has memorized). Her favorite right now is "Bark, George" She hasn't been as careful with books lately so she has been confined to board books unless supervised. :(
• "Eyes! Eyes! Make-up!" Kate loves to watch mommy get ready in the mornings and will stand up on the toilet seat beside my sink while I do whenver I let her. She especially likes it when I clean my contacts. She insists that I put a drop of contact solution on her little index finger and then she will poke it in her eye. She does it on both sides. It really cracks me up and I want to put a video of it on here as soon as I can. She also like it when I put makeup on her AND me (I don't really...by the time I have used it there is no more on the brush and she just gets the sensation...but that is enough for her). She really struts when she thinks she is all primped.
  
• "Date do! Danks!" Kate is very VERY good about saying thank you for EVERYTHING! LOL It is almost overdone, but I would rather that than have her seem rude so I let her go on and on. She gets a lot of compliments on her hairstyles. (The picture is from Valntines day when we did her hair as a heart!) I guess she is used to it because a lot of times when someone tells her they love her hair she will just smile and say "Date do!" without prompting. GOOD GIRL!
• "al wight?" Kate is very cute if someone seems upset or hurt and will always ask them if they are alright....over and over and over again until she receives an answer.
  
• "water! water! water!" This means I want some water...right now!! She will keep saying it until she gets some.
  
• (pulling up her shirt and pointing to her distended belly) "Mommy, my tummy big...I go poop!" This may seem nasty, but I thought it was very funny and was very excited that she actually went upstairs and PRODUCED! This was the first time that she has completely initiated the process! Yippee!! (I thought the picture of the queen on her throne was just too funny to pass up!)
• Kate is a master pixie--delicate and cute and can be sugar sweet, but don't be fooled. She is also a master of the stink eye. I have yet to catch this on film, but it is a look like no other....you know she is giving you "the look" She does it a lot with strangers....."Oh what a cute little girl! ...(stink eye)...."Oh! Oh my!" Yep, that is my girl. She is very shy and for a while she would cry and hide when strangers said hello, now she just gives them a crusty stare and kind of hunkers down a little. It is soooo funny seeing a handful of nothin be so feisty.
  
• Kate has also decided she won't take a decent picture to save her life. It probably started around the time we tried to do family pictures. She screams and cries and throws herself on the ground and arches her back throwing tantrums...won't do anything you ask her to do and makes herself a general nuisance. She will do the occasional snapshot around the house, but heaven forbid you should want something nice...you will be S.O.L. It is a shame because she is sooo beautiful and darling and Dallin has finally started taking WONDERFUL pictures so I was really hoping for some nice ones with BOTH of my children, but alas....maybe when they are grown!
  

OTHER UPDATES

• Christopher now works FT for Sears in their call center handling delivery issues. He also works PT for UPS sorting packages. We are really looking forward to eventually having just one job! His job with Samsung disintigrated a few months after we moved down here and after using up our savings we had to do something else. We are happy for the opportunities and are hoping that he will be able to become a UPS driver in the next couple of years.
  
• Because of Christopher's job disappearing at Samsung, I have had to go back to work FT at Wal-Mart as well (yes, it takes all 3 jobs to make the same amount as we were making working 60-72 hrs at Samsung). I unload the truck, pull pallets, and generally take care of the receiving stuff. It wipes me out, but I have lost 10 pounds so far.
  
• As briefly mentioned before, our family adopted a cat before Christmas. We named her Patch. We had been looking at pets for several months prior. We often checked the local animal shelter to see what they had available for adoption. We first noticed Patch in October on the shelter site and thought she looked really cool because she was white with a little black "soul patch" on her chin. We often checked back and she was still available. She was even pet of the month in Nov. So in December we called our landlord and with his ok, we went down to the shelter and asked to see her. She came home with us and the rest is history. It took her a few weeks to warm up completely after 3 months in the shelter, but she is wonderful! The kids LOVE her and she puts up with more than she should have to (and keeps coming back for more...there may be something wrong with her survival instinct..LOL)