Easter Comes and Easter Goes

Oh how we love Easter at our house!

We've had "resurrected" toys and imaginary friends around here all month. Trying to teach a 3year-old the true meaning of Easter has been interesting to say the least.

I think we found a fairly nice balance this year between the sacred and secular nature of Easter. Hopefully we'll get better at it through the years. What do you do to find this balance?

My absolute favorite pic of the kids this Easter.

Thanks to cousin Anna for a beautiful hand-me-down dress that was new-to-Emma for Easter. Thank goodness for generous cousins!

And Emma's free dress allowed me to SCOUR the internet for a dressy outfit for Grant. Finding dress clothes for a 4 month old is quite difficult. The stores evidently don't think boys should go to church until they are 12 months. Believe me, sometimes I think the same.

I did find one at Kohl's. Little dapper dude. He looked so handsome.

Mom didn't get a new Easter Dress because I REFUSED to buy one in my post-baby-fatty-fat stage. I don't want anything permanently in my closet this horrific size.

And Dad wore a yellow tie to match Grant that I believe is from our wedding.

Greg and I both agree he looks a little hung over in these Easter morning pics. But I can assure you they are just tired "why do we have to get up so early" eyes. If he was indeed hung over, he didn't share any of the good stuff with me. :)

Friday night we colored Easter eggs. JJ and Zac joined us. Emma insisted on wearing her swim suit, which proved to be quite precognitive as she SOAKED herself and the table by plunging her hands into the egg color cups to retrieve the dyed eggs.

Her hands looked like oompa loompas by the end of the night. Which I thought would wear off the next day... or at LEAST the day after that... and when they didn't I honestly took Clorox and sprayed her hands. Came right off, but I felt a little cruel pouring cleaner onto my daughter's skin.

Grant celebrated the Easter weekend by sitting in his blessed BUMBO seat for the first time.

LOVE. BUMBO. SEATS.

My babies are always so happy and content to sit in this seat and see the world. It makes my dinner prep time and clean the house time so much better.

And just because he's cute. He used to HATE his car seat, but I think after 4 months of being forced into it, he is learning to tolerate.

The Easter bunny came to our house on Saturday morning. It was a great decision, as our church is early on Sunday morning and Emma would have been distracted all day.

We thought she would be screaming for joy when she saw Tinker Bell and her fairy friends. So I got out the video camera SURE that this would be a moment for her wedding video. We taped her coming down the stairs, wandering over to the toys, and then....... she just STARED. No reaction. No smile. No nothin'. I stopped filming. Maybe next year she'll give us the wedding video reaction we were seeking. Guess she was tired? In better news, the fairies have not left her side since Saturday morning, so I think she was pleased. (thank you Target clearance!)

Saturday was packed full of fun. We may have kinda sorta slept through the ward Easter egg hunt... but Emma will never be the wiser.


Grant's new outfit from Auntie JJ.

We did manage to make it to Greg's grandparents Easter Egg Hunt. Emma had a wonderful time. She really appreciated the THRILL of the Easter Egg Hunt this year. And by the third one, she was a pro.

Greg's grandparents hide plastic eggs filled with toys and candy AND real eggs. After Emma was sorting through her eggs, she took the real eggs and through them into the grass proclaiming, "I don't really want these eggs. I just want the eggs with candy in them." SMART GIRL. Why would you want a yolk when you can get jelly beans?


Sunday was a BEAUTIFUL day in Arizona! Sometimes Easter runs a little warm, but this year it was perfect.

We enjoyed Easter with my Aunt Sharron and about 10 other dinner guests including family and friends. The food was FANTASTIC and the company was delightful.

Our cousin Erin helped Emma search for Easter Eggs. She is always so sweet and helpful with Emma. Emma adores her.

Couldn't get more than a FEW still shots of Emma and the Easter Egg Hunt, because this girl is FOCUSED to find candy and was constantly moving.



AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH... all the loot a little girl could desire.


Hope you enjoyed your Easter holiday. We sure did!

And we are so grateful for our Savior's sacrifice and love.

Some things never change.

1991 - 1996: Was continually missing instructions/cues in youth orchestras because I was talking to my stand partner. Oh well. I was having fun.

2011: TWENTY years later. Missed the first FOUR measures of a piece of music (in our last Tempe Symphony concert of the season) because I was talking to my stand partner. Oh well. I was having fun.

I'm a talker.

At 13 and 33.

And probably at 53 and 73 and 93 too.

Always bitter sweet to say goodbye to another TSO season. Bitter to leave the music, my friends and a fantastically therapeutic night away from home. Sweet to have my Mondays back with my family... at least until August and I start my 4th season.

PS - Greg took the picture during our warm-ups last night. Although I was probably only warming up my mouth... by talking. :)

PPS - Thank you Mom and Dad for paying for violin lessons and violins and everything else associated with playing an instrument. It is my most fulfilling hobby as an adult.

Why Mothers go NUTS.

This story is true. No names have been changed to protect the innocent.

Phone call last week between Greg and I:

Greg: Hey. What are you doing?
Tam: Well, I can't get Grant to eat because he is too busy smiling and talking to Jesus, and Emma is breastfeeding Elmo. GEEZ. It's no wonder some mothers lose their minds.

Back story -
There is a picture of the Savior on the wall behind our couch. I kid you not, EVERY SINGLE TIME I breast feed Grant on that couch, he will not eat because he is too distracted by this picture. He looks DIRECTLY at the picture and smiles and talks and coos for a long time. I thought it was cute for awhile, but now I've had to switch breast feeding couches so that he will actually eat. And Emma? Well she's just decided that her baby is Elmo and she would like to breast feed him like Grant. She even pantomimes taking off the front of her bra, switching "sides" after 2 minutes, and burping him.

And just when I thought things were crazy enough... I get "My Little Ponies" posted around the table just to watch us eat. Each of us had two ponies assigned to our plate. No spilling during this meal, those ponies were running a tight ship.

**sidenote** - Emma has become obsessed with My Little Ponies. I found about 20 ponies on Ebay for $12. SCORE! I'm planning to keep them and have her earn them through various tasks and/or good behavior.

Thank goodness Grandmas are around to keep us sane. My Mom sent an AWESOME Easter package. Emma was so excited to open the mailbox to this loot. Thanks Grandma Krebs!!

And last night Grammie Lou had us over for an Easter feast before she visits Texas. She had a darling Easter egg hunt for the kids and Emma is still talking about all the eggs she found. She wanted to eat her jelly beans for breakfast. Sounds reasonable, right?

And just a few tid bits about baby Grant at 3 months old (for the record).

Here he is pictured with cousin Tate. Destined to be best buddies.

Grant continues to be a very calm and very pleasant baby. We feel so blessed!

He has begun drooling like crazy and I can actually see the spike of a tooth on his bottom gums already! Emma didn't receive any teeth until she was 10 months old! And in addition, he has begun to really chomp and suck on our hands and his hands.

He smiles all the time at pretty much anyone who will look at him. And we have started to hear some mild chuckles. Still no belly laughs, but mostly short guffaws and always super darling.

Grant sleeps well. He goes to bed around 7pm, wakes up 10 hours later at 5am for a feeding and then will go back to bed until 7&8am. The 5am feeding is always rough for me, because it takes me awhile to fall back to sleep and then I'm super groggy when I wake up at 7am. But 5am just seems TOO early for me to get up for the day.

He is starting to refuse sleep outside of his crib. Emma did this too. They just begin to prefer the dark room, comfortable crib and tight swaddle. No more sleeping on-the-go for this little dude. He wants the comfort of a mattress. Although it totally cramps my errand running, I'm grateful that he sleeps so well in his own bed.

Grant's hair has continued to shed. He is looking more and more like Old Man Grant with an awkward toupee. Emma had a toupee at his age as well. I can see his second set of hairs growing in and I hope they hurry up, because his hair style is KILLIN' me. :)

He had a double ear infection last week. Woke up in the middle of the night with a temp of 102. Scared me to death. Got him to the doc the next morning and on antibiotics by noon. Thank goodness for modern medicine. He was back to normal within 24 hours.

I spiked it - just to see what it would do. Makes his head look even bigger than it already is. YIKES.

We love our little baby Grant. He is such a happy, content little guy. I just fall in love with him more and more every day. He makes this Mom stay a little further from going INSANE with a 3-year-old.

Conference at the Cabin

Greg and I have decided that General Conference weekend is like a free vacation twice a year.

Cancel all obligations. Check.

Eat until your stuffed. Check.

Sit on the couch and watch TV for 8-10 hours. Check.

This year we decided to take the vacation idea to the next level and enjoy our Conference weekend at my grandparent's cabin.

Laura came with us and then we invited JJ, Zac and Alexander.

It was a perfect weekend getaway.

Zac is an avid fisherman and enjoyed the beautiful lakes close by. This provided Emma an opportunity to go fishing for the FIRST time. Alex let her borrow his fishing rod and she was VERY excited.

Emma sporting her Kentucky sweatshirt. We had to represent while we watched the basketball game on Saturday night. Unfortunately, the wildcats did not hear us cheering loud enough and lost the game. :( Oh well. There's always next year. It was fun while it lasted...

One funny story-

The final game was Monday night. So I told Greg that if the Cats made it to the final game, I would NOT be attending my symphony rehearsal. After Kentucky lost, I said, "Well, I guess I'll be going to my symphony rehearsal". And Emma's response? "Mom, that's not gonna do us any good". Ha Ha. Clearly wondering in her little brain what symphony has to do with basketball.

And baby Grant enjoyed himself as well. A weekend full of eating and sleeping?

This baby is a pro.

Thank you General Conference for filling our spiritual tanks,

Thank you cabin for filling our emotional tanks,

and thank you excessive food for filling our physical tanks (maybe over flowing).