Easter Day

On Easter weekend we went up to David's parents' house. David's brother, Tyson and his kiddos were there as well. We had a great weekend together with Gram's indoor AND outdoor Easter egg hunts. She always had the best food and treats on Easter.
I can never get enough Cadberry eggs in my belly. I think my girls had more sugar this weekend than ever in their little lives.


This, sadly, is the only picture we have of the girls in their little Easter dresses from their grandparents. They're snuggling up in sacrament meeting (a rare thing indeed).

Outdoor Easter egg hunt with Gram.






Just realized that I don't have a picture of Hazel on the hunt. Oops. I think I spent most of the day enjoying little Eloise without the camera.
Happy Easter!

Easter Service Project

So today was a perfect example of why I started my toddler blog. I wanted to come up with a service activity that we could do as a family this Easter, to keep it more Christ-centered. I found these little birds and thought we could make them for a local children's center called the Christmas Box House. I called the shelter and they told me that they currently had five children at their shelter, so our plan was to make five of these "love" birds (to show the kids how loved they are) with hand-written notes from my girls. Sounds simple enough right? And if I were to post the pictures of my girls making these birds, writing their notes, and taking this basket of love birds to the shelter, it just might have passed for a perfectly planned activity that was a great success.

Fledgling Friends from Family Fun

But the point of this blog is NOT to make activities like this look easy! Let me just pull the curtain and reveal the back stage realities of this activity. The birds were delivered with love, but not without a few little mishaps along the way. Everything started out so well. We had a lesson on the Easter story and the Resurrection. We talked about how we want to remember the Savior this Easter by doing service. We made the birds, wrote the notes, and all was on track. Then, right before we left, my three year old started crying because her love bird's wings were uneven. She refused to eat dinner and when she started telling my husband and I that she'd never be our daughter again, she was put in time-out.

(She chucked pieces of her magnetic calendar out from under her door one by one... and her underwear. She knows that really ticks me off.)

Once she calmed down enough to come downstairs and get in the car, we were on our way. Then my sweet little girl (same one) lost it again. Her little sister got to choose what movie was on in the car, and that was pure injustice. To give her credit, she had stayed up late with the babysitter the night before and needed to call it a day, but our goal was to DELIVER THE GOODS. We pressed forward. Once we arrived at the shelter, Hazel (over-tired 3 yr old) offered to carry the bag of candy. I should have known that that was a bad idea. Once she realized that after her behavior that evening she wasn't getting one bite of that candy, she started pouting again...

We did deliver the basket of love birds and candy and wished everyone a Happy Easter. We speedily drove home while our precious girl (yep, same one) cried about not getting the biggest carrot in the snack bag. She was sound asleep within 30 minutes of returning home and we are left with HOPE for a brighter, more sane tomorrow...and the age of 4. (I hear it's better than 3).

My girls drew pictures and wrote "Happy Easter" on little notes with John 3:16, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life."

Happy Easter!

Road trip to Eugene

April 9-17th

Honestly, this was the best trip ever at the farm. I've come to my Dad's place in Eugene every summer of my young life. I still crave cinnamon sugar toast every time we pull into the drive late at night. My grandma would always make me that special treat as she hugged and kissed me hello. Those eight acres are full of memories of picking cherries and delicious fruits from Grandpa's grafted fruit trees. I've gathered hidden chicken eggs and chased baby peacocks into the deep tall grass. I've watched sunsets with my Dad on our two-seater swing that just slightly clips the trunk of the old oak from which it hangs. We ate popsicles every night down by the barn and threw pieces of bread to the peacocks through the hexagonal openings in the chicken wire. Their deep freezer still smells of popsicles when I open it now, even though they don't buy them anymore. My Dad and I climbed Spencer Butte with our binoculars so we could watch for my grandma waving at us from the back porch of the house. Late night movies with much too buttery popcorn, homemade waffles and fresh eggs, long drives to the coast, climbing onto the sitting tree--all of these memories are wrapped up into one place that means so much to me.

For the first time, my two sisters joined us there at the farm and we literally had so much fun. My Dad was an incredible host. I never knew he was such a great cook! He made fish and homemade hamburgers, shrimp salads and the best sandwiches everyday for lunch. My grandma made her famous spaghetti sauce. Yum. We went for long walks, hiked the butte, went bowling, horse-back riding, roller-skating, and played some mean games of croquet.

This trip made history and I look forward to doing it again. I had SO many pictures, I had to group them together into collages...This first one is a combo of roller-skating, bowling and the girls' trip to U of O.



I had no idea that roller skates came in this size!


Most of these are from a good long walk we took around the old property that used to belong to my grandpa. We visited "ole feller," the biggest and oldest tree in the area.

Old feller.



Next to Old Feller are the graves of the family dogs, Blitz and Buddy.

Horseback riding. The middle picture is my dad demonstrating how to properly sit on a horse (our instructor was pretty intense).

A beautiful hike to the butte and a tiny easter egg hunt for the girls.

Croquet! One of my very favorite games.

These are Ellie's first pigtails. Can you find the bald spot?

Here's four generations. Isn't my grandmother lovely?

And on the way home, we had to stop a couple times for an emergency potty break. David got the fun job of holding Hazel's legs--the joy of having girls! But anything was better than the drive there when we ran out of gas in the middle of Idaho (thank goodness for triple A). The girls also woke up crying just as David pulled over for a rest. Then an hour later, Hazel threw up and caught it in her hands. We pulled over and cleaned her up and then right as we pulled into the farm, she threw up and caught it again. Poor thing.

What a wonderful trip!!

Wish Bone

David found two Cornish hens on sale at the grocery store and cooked them up for us one night (delicious). It was our girls' first time breaking a wish bone. Hazel wished for a unicorn and Lottie wished for a toucan.