Easter Sunday

We had a great Easter this year. Saturday, we decorated eggs at Jamie's.

Sunday morning, Lyric slept in until 7:15 (haha), and then we did Easter baskets. This year, Lyric really started understanding the whole Easter Bunny idea, so that made it extra fun. I attempted to do bunny footprints, but they ended up looking like baby footprints! My mom will have to remember how she used to do them!

Then we headed off to church for Easter Sunday. We did our traditional picture taking after sacrament meeting.

After church and naps, the kids had an egg hunt at our house. We filled the eggs with pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters. I think we learned that they might appreciate this when they are a little older! They were asking where the candy was! My mom bought the girls these slips that were supposed to go under their Easter dresses. When they arrived in the mail, she realized that they would be about two feet longer then their dresses! They were "costume" slips, meant for plays. She decided they would be fun to wear after church, the girls absolutely loved them!

We then headed to my parents' for the rest of the Easter festivities. My 25th birthday happened to fall on Easter this year. This is the first time this has happened. Jamie made me the coolest looking Pepsi can cake. When I get my camera back, I need to post a full size picture of it. It was amazing! She knows that Pepsi, either diet or regular, is my absolute favorite! It tasted just as good as it looked!
Next, we had our annual Easter egg competition. Last year my mom won, and this year it was my dad! The evening ended with a little Rock Band. Jamie and Tucker along with Mike and I, decided to go in together and buy this game. We figured it would be a fun activity for the family to get involved in together. I don't think my parents were sad to see it end! It is very fun, but for sure, not a quiet activity!

Playing Catch Up!

When we were in Arizona, Tiffani gave Lyric a Tinkerbell tubby wand that you put coloring tablets in to change the water colors. Lyric absolutely loves it! As you can see, she chose for her and Paxton to bathe in purple on this particular night. Tubby time is probably the favorite thing these two do together.

This is Paxton's latest. He loves to get up and rock on all fours! Whenever I walk into the room to get him out of bed, he is up on all fours rocking! It is so funny to watch. I keep waiting for him to rock so hard that he lands in the sitting position. He has yet to move in the forward direction. He has mastered the art of the backwards scoot, cause that's just way easier! Lyric thinks it is the funniest thing in the world to get on the floor and imitate him!

Look at those cankles!
Lookin' pretty studly in my new kicks...
Let's see what happens when I pull this string....
There ya' go mom!

Friday, Jamie gave me my early birthday present. She had Lyric and Paxton ALL day while Mike and I spent the day together. There are very few people that I would leave them with that long, but I feel lucky when I get the chance to do this! They had fun with cousins and grandma even stopped by for a visit! What can be a better feeling then knowing they are with so many people that love them! We went to lunch at Famous Dave's and then went to quite a few stores. I love being able to run in and out of a million different stores without having to load and unload kids! I love to shop, but quickly learned that my stamina is not what it used to be! I was so incredibly tired by the end! Mike and I used to do this every Saturday when we were first married. We then came home and were able to watch a movie before Lyric and Paxton came back. Of course I missed them, but it is scary how easy my mind was able to bounce back to it being the pre-kid days! Thanks for the day off!

On Thursday, we ventured out to the zoo. This was Paxton's first time, and Lyric's second. The last time we went was two years ago! I was excited to go, because I have been wanting to take Lyric back for a long time now. It was quite the group with 6 moms and 17 kids! It went surprisingly smooth with that many kids 7 and under. Lyric loved every part of it, and Paxton just sat there in the stroller and enjoyed being outside! It was such a beautiful day followed by a fun picnic lunch.

On Wednesday, Jamie and I had the great opportunity to go to lunch with my mom, just the three of us! With 5 kids between the 2 of us, this can be a hard thing to accomplish. It was so fun and relaxing. I really enjoyed spending this quality, adult time with them :)

Tuesday night, this little stinker FINALLY did something he has not done in four months, he slept through the night! From about 2-4 months, I was getting rather spoiled with 10-12 hour stretches. That quickly changed to 3-4 wakings per night. I was very pleased when I woke up the next morning! It has not continued to be a regular pattern, but I'll take it when I can get it!

Tuesday night, we went to Jamie's and for pizza. She kept up the tradition, and had made Mike a cake. He got an Ipod for his birthday, and so it was only appropriate that she make an Ipod cake! This may look like any ordinary cake, but what you don't know is that it is actually the world's biggest and best tasting sugar cookie! I can't even begin to describe how heavenly every single bitee tasted. Trust me, I ate it until I felt physically sick!

Whoa!

One of Mike's passions in life is lifting weights. It's a hobby, stress reliever, confidence builder, and a way to stay healthy. His area of strength has always been squatting. During his junior year of high school, he beat the school record by squatting 515 pounds. After his mission, he was set back, due to not being able to squat for two years. His goal has been to get back his old record, and some.

In one of Mike's classes, he had to set a goal with a deadline. He then had to create a reward and a punishment to go with that goal, depending on whether he succeeded or not. So, his goal was to be able to squat 700 pounds by April. I knew he would be able to do it, because it's not like he was starting from 0 and trying to work his way to 700! Still, it was a big feat. He practiced, when timing allowed, and decided tonight was the night to go for it! We went to my dad's gym and cheered him on! I will let the pictures tell the rest of the story.

Doing 615 as a "practice" round. Mike says, "Come on, this is TOO easy!"

Okay, 700 pounds, round 1!

Is the bar really supposed to bend like this?!?!

Because of how severely the bar bent while Mike was squatting, Ryan and my dad, the spotters, had to help him with the bar. The bend in the bar made the wait distribute so unevenly, therefore making it impossible to do. Thank goodness, my dad had JUST gone a few hours prior, and bought a new bar. It holds about three times more weight then this old one. Mike was willing to give it one more shot using the new bar.

Sending himself positive vibes and getting in the mode! Round 2!

Ready, Set.......

Mission accomplished! He was able to reach his goal! My dad and Ryan had their hands ready to grab the bar at ANY second! Thankfully, he was able to do it this time around. I think this more durable bar was necessary for his success!

Happy Birthday!

Today is Mike's 27th Birthday! He informed me last night at 11:00, that he was using a vacation day for his birthday. He always likes to surprise me at the last minute! He has really been wanting to take Lyric to Horton Hears a Who, and it came out today, so they left this morning to go see that. He will be seeing a movie later tonight with Tucker. Can you tell he LOVES movies?!?! Next week my family is going to Cattlemens to celebrate Mike's birthday and mine, since they are only nine days apart!

Happy Birthday, Mike! We LOVE you :)

AZ

On the plane ride to AZ
Tessa and Paxton's eating arrangements

One of our escapes was to get pedicures. It was my first ever! Pathetic, I know! Tiffani could not believe it. I think I am hooked now!
This teeter-totter looked so fun at Tiffani's mom's house, I just had to try!
Seth and Lyric giving it a try
The assembly line bathing process!
They both had their elephant towels they loved

Just being silly kids
These two are the quiet ones out of their siblings! Tessa is about five months older then Paxton.
One evening, they helped bake and decorate Easter cupcakes, of which I had no problem eating WAY too many of!

Tiffani gave Paxton his first "snip" I call it a snip, because it was not even enough hair to consider a real haricut. He had these two little horns on the side that were getting a little too wacky. It was the smallest amount of hair, but made him look so different! She didn't even touch the rest of his hair. I felt so sad, but it turned out really good!


His first hairdresser!
On our way to the car, back in Cali. My mom would have had great anxiety seeing me push this stroller and hold all seven thousand bags! It almost felt impossible, but I did it! Tiffani was SO NICE to park her car and help me into the airport in Arizona. I had the opportunity to miss my flight because the security there is so ridiculously insane! We were literally sprinting across the airport, but no such luck. I don't think I have ran like that since junior high! They were inspecting my pump and breast milk as though it was explosive liquid! I was rather irritated. Then, the lady at the ticket counter had the audacity to ask for Paxton's birth certificate because he looked two! Come on now, I know he is a big boy, but does he really look two!?!? He is eight months old, for Pete's sake! I told her, "Do you want me to take him out of the stroller so he can show you that he can't walk, let alone crawl? He doesn't even talk, besides a little babbling or mama and dada!" I was furious. She warned me that I needed to bring it next time or they would charge me for a ticket.

Lyric, Paxton, and I took a fun 6 day trip to Arizona last week. We went to visit my best friend, Tiffani, and her family. I was a little daring and flew out of an airport that was 2 1/2 hours away from my house. I paid $100 per ticket, rather than close to $300 just for one. So, even factoring in gas and parking, I saved money. This was Paxton's first plane ride and Lyric's tenth! They did very well.

We were greeted with the warm Arizona weather. It was in the eighties, which I know is not hot, just a little warm for February-March weather! The week was so much fun. The kids had so much fun together. Tiffani and I just kept laughing at the fact that we went from hanging out as punk teenagers, to hanging out with four children under four!

We ate lots of fun food, thanks to my list of places "I had to eat at because they are not in Cali!" Fuddruckers, Cafe Rio, Golden Spoon, and Schlotzsky's are just a few to name! Tiffani eats quite a bit healthier than me, so her body was in shock with all of the crap she was filling it with. Mine, on the other hand, was completely used to it!

Thanks to Tiffani's mom, sister-in-law, mother-in-law, and cousins, we were even lucky enough to sneak away from our kiddos a few times and do some shopping and pampering! The week went by way to fast and I was sad to leave, Lyric was too. She wanted Seth to come back to California with us.

Unfortunately, we did not get as many pictures as we would have liked. The camera I brought only held six pictures, I could not find the memory card. Tiff temporarily lost her camera for the first few days we were there. Oh well, we got some cute ones!