Easter #4

Meili got hit with her sickness the hardest on Easter day, so some of the pictures are pretty sad. She did get excited about the Easter bunny, but then she spent a lot of the day sleeping. Grant was almost back to himself by Easter day.

 (Look at that face!) 

Meili has been talking about Big Hero 6 for at least a month now, and has watched it SEVERAL times since getting it, but if you ask her what she got for Easter, she will say "marshmallow chicks." Like that is the highlight of the whole day. And they're still sitting on our kitchen table-uneaten!

 Grant got a little lawn mower that blows bubbles, which Meili has also kind of claimed as well. But they do a good job taking turns at least.

 The Easter Bunny also left a trampoline in our backyard. (Yes, and still Meili only mentions the marshmallow chicks.) 

I had visions of Meili running outside, so excited, jumping up and down, smiling. This picture is quite what I expected. She's had more fun on the tramp since then, but the day of, she tried to jump for a few minutes, but it was cold, and she was still tired, and after jumping for probably she had a coughing attack that she couldn't get over, and asked if she could come inside to watch a movie. :(

There you have it! Another Easter in the books!

Easter #3

The Friday before Easter, after Baby Animal Days, I took my kids to my parents house. The plan was to dye Easter eggs with some of my nieces, and the next day was the Easter egg hunt at their house. Sadly, Grant had started to get sick earlier in the week, so it put a little bit of a damper on the weekend. Grant miraculously slept through the night on Friday even though he had coughing all day long. But when Meili got up the next morning, she was running a fever. All in all, we were able to have a good time, but after Christmas and Easter this year, I'm ready for a holiday with no hiccups.

Easter #2

We dyed Easter eggs the Monday before Easter. This year was a tie-dye kit which wasn't really all it was "cracked" up to be. (Ha! Ha! Get it?)

 I tried to figure out how to get Grant more involved, but Easter egg dying is tricky for littles. So he sat contentedly with his sucker, until he was done and then he needed a "ball"-(aka Easter egg) desperately. I gave him one, and he crushed it in his hands immediately.

Meili could just keep switching eggs from one color to another all night long. 

Easter #1

The weekend of my 30th birthday was a busy one. A little backstory: for Valentine's Day this year, Josh tried to plan an overnight getaway for us. But he was trying to surprise me until he found out that I was planning to go to dinner with "my Bunco girls." The following week was the 14th, so we figured it would be super busy and more expensive to do anything that day. So we rescheduled for a couple weeks later. Then I ended up getting sick that weekend, and ruined the plans again. Since then, Josh has tried again and again to plan something for just the two of us, and something always seems to come up. My birthday was no different. I told Josh earlier this year that I was turning 30, so he needed to do something cool for me, or I would plan something myself-and it would be expensive. On Friday the 27th, I went to dinner with the sisters in Josh's family, and Saturday the 28th, my Aunt turned 80, so we had a big family party for her, and the 29th-my official birthday was Sunday. And the following week was Easter. So Josh is still holding a grudge against me for going to the Bunco dinner in February, because we have yet to do anything with the two of us for Valentine's Day or my birthday.

It'll happen. I'm not worried. Being too busy doing fun things is not the worst problem to have.

For the big day, it was Fast Sunday-also not the first way I would choose to spend my birthday-although I decided in the end that there was something kind of special about fast Sunday on your birthday. I was also asked to teach the lesson in the Sunday School, and even mentioning that it was my birthday didn't get me out of it! Then we had an Easter Egg hunt with the Anderson family.

 (Courtesy of my sister Bethany.)

 Josh's dad was diagnosed with leukemia in February and spent the month of March at LDS Hospital in Salt Lake, so we were all excited that he could home in time for the Easter egg hunt.

 Meili filled that bucket twice with Easter eggs. Candy is never in short supply with the Anderson family. (It's a good thing too, because Easter candy is my favorite.)

 Grant kind of caught on to finding Easter eggs this year. If he was by himself, he would do really well. But being distracted with so many other things, he really just wanted to open each egg and eat the candy as he went-which slows him down considerably.

In the end, I didn't do anything really out of the ordinary for my birthday, but I spent it thinking about my Savior, and surrounded by really amazing family and friends. I don't think I can really complain about that!

Baby Animal Days

The first Friday in April, I went with my brother's family to Baby Animal Days at the American West Heritage Center. Since having kids, this has been one of my favorite traditions each year, but this year might be the last. Or I definitely need to figure out how to do things a little different. It seemed so crowded to me, and we were there for over 2 hours, and my kids did like 4 things-a train ride, pony ride, saw baby cows and goats etc., and... actually right now I can't even think of anything else. We pretty much just stood in line the whole time. Plus, Grant was sick, and I decided to take him with me because he was going to be miserable that day regardless, so I figured I might as well have him outside, and less miserable than he would be at our house. But he was pretty tired by the end, and every time he coughed, I felt the judgement of the world on me. Luckily, Josh got the tickets for free from a connection at work, or I would have been REALLY upset. 

I definitely made it sound worse than it actually was, but I definitely will not go next year unless I figure out a different way of doing it.

 Grant did like the animals he saw, and he is fearless when it comes to petting anything.

 And Meili was a cute litte cowgirl, and of course, loved the pony ride.