Easter Picture

 

We had a really great Easter! It was nice this year that Lillie was old enough to kind of understand the real reason for celebrating and was also excited for the superfluous things like Easter bunnies and egg hunts. She begged me almost daily to read to her "Happy Easter, Little Critter" and she had all the lines memorized. But it was also a lot of fun trying to explain the resurrection and plan of salvation to her. The faith of a child is a neat thing to see. Anyway, after church, Eric's aunt invited us over for dinner where we enjoyed good company and awesome food (I've got a new recipe I can't wait to try out). We ended the day by visiting the Farr's where Lillie and Hallie played so nicely together. It was a great day to celebrate the resurrection of the Savior.

P.S. This is the best photo we got. Sorry Lil, guess next time you might want to cooperate. :)

Up Next...

Now that Easter is over, there are no major holidays separating us from graduation. 18 days left. Eric is still plugging along at school, he had a couple good weeks followed by kind of a lousy one last week. So that means that he's still having to work hard in these final weeks to finish all of his graduation requirements. He keeps saying just one more crazy week...but he's said that the last 3 weeks. His final big licensing exam is this weekend, major butterflies in my gut about that one.
I've felt like a volcano the last couple months with stress and tension building and building...I just hope that it'll erupt with confetti and graduation caps and Hawaiian leis, instead of the angry hot lava that would accompany the disappointment of not being done with requirements before May 13th or not being able to move out on time. I'm afraid that I won't be able to keep my cool of that happens.
We calculated the expected miles that we'd be putting on one of our cars this summer and it looks to be about 4,700 miles. About half of that being with our two kids. This could be total torture. But we're going to be visiting amazing places and amazing people and I seriously cannot wait. I get so giddy thinking about it. If the kids (Henry) can adjust to life on the road, then it'll be a blast.
Up until today, Operation Eat Everything in your Fridge and Freezer has been pretty fun and yummy. I kinda like the challenge of trying to figure out what to make using things you already have. But today, we had hot dogs on hamburger buns for lunch. These were not Angus hot dogs (which are seriously yummy) but just regular old Ball Park's and I was immediately transported in time back to Lutacaga's cafeteria, with their yucky green hot dogs. Barf! I had to chase every bite down with lots of water. And we've got some interesting tv dinners and pizza rolls that Eric picked up still waiting in the freezer. Starting to wonder if it's just better to throw those kinds of things away instead of torturing yourself.
Please cross your fingers for us.

Princess Lilpunzel

 

 

 

Guess what is the favorite Disney movie around here??

 

This is butterfly Lillie (named by Lillie). Our local children's museum was selling little caterpillars one day and so we took one home with us. It started out as just a cute tiny guy but then every day for about ten days it would be bigger and bigger when we'd wake up in the morning. Seriously, it was really creepy when it had grown large, all squished in this tiny little cup they gave us. Eew, I couldn't look at it after a couple days. Anyway, the caterpillar Lillie spun a little web and then eventually a crysallis. We put her into a bigger container and then a week later she popped out as a cute little butterfly! Lillie (our kid) was in love! She was so intrigued by the progress every day and had a really hard time accepting that Lillie (the butterfly) needed to be set free. But we finally convinced her to let her go on a flower out on the front steps of our apartment building. It was a really cold and windy day, hope everything went well for her. Lillie still talks about her butterfly everytime we see one.

First Big Boy Mess

 

One of Lillie's crayons fell onto the ground while coloring and I missed it when cleaning up. Henry found it, though, and made his first big boy mess. He chewed on the crayon and slobbered so much that it made his hands all black and then smeared it all over the floor. Thank goodness for nontoxic, washable crayons.

Toofies

Henry has finally cut his second central incisor and we are so grateful. That kid is not a good teether. We've been enjoying sleeping through the night again the past week, and he's even been sleeping in- YAY! Last night we were tickling him and Eric said that he saw that his gums were bulging, next to his upper teeth. Oh no! Here we go again. I wish that kids didn't get teeth until they were 18 so that they could do it out of my house. Okay, I'm being a bit dramatic, but so is Henry when he's teething. Should get bad right about the time that we leave him for a week with grandma while going on vacation. Uh oh.

Final Countdown

Yesterday we turned our notice to move out in 5 weeks. I spent this morning taking down pictures and curtains. Gulp. This is actually going to happen. So weird to have lived here almost 4 years and then in a couple weeks, in one day's time, some men will pack up everything in our apartment and we'll be outta here. This move has sneaked up on me because 1. Eric is still super busy. In fact, he's been stressed out to the max. And 2. because we're not packing anything ourselves. In past apartments, I would have already had most of the place packed. But then, I didn't have kids back then. Man, I am glad that someone else is doing all the hard work. I can't believe that this is actually happening.

10 Months

Another month has flown by and we're one month closer to having a one year old. Henry turned 10 months yesterday and we spent the day doing nothing much out of the ordinary. We watched a neighbor in the morning and went to the pirate park for the afternoon. Then ended the day with a long walk in the evening.

Henry's personality has come out a lot more this past month.
-He lets us know his preferences in food by spitting it out or throwing it on the floor if he doesn't like it.
-He still loves to play with balls and loves to spin things. Like wheels in Lillie's bicycle or the toilet paper roll in the bathroom. He's also got a great throwing arm.
-He also discovered the fun of splashing in the toilet, so now we have to use the baby gate. Only problem is, with Lillie needing to use the bathroom, it's hard to make sure that the door stays closed or that the gate stays up.
-Henry cruises around the furniture and even stood by himself for a few seconds, but doesn't want to be walked around by holding our fingers and doesn't like to use his walker. So I think we'll be a little later walking.
-He hates having his diaper or clothing changed.
-He has also started to hate being put down for naps. Sigh. Can't wait for the "rejoicing when put in the crib" stage. Hopefully that will happen.
-Hank's also added the "N" sound to his repertoire. He goes around babbling "nun" and "nah" all day long.
-He has started to clap and is close to getting the waving "bye bye" down.
-Tooth number 4 has ALMOST broken through. I know I said that last month. Man, it is taking forever for these central incisors to come through. It has been a painful couple of months for you and me, but you're feeling better now. I just hope it's a long while before any more come in.
-Henry is kind of a big softie. Lillie will get into trouble for various things and she'll start crying as we take her to time out and Henry cries every time that she cries. Annoying but cute too.
-He still loves to be held by me, wants to always have me in his line of sight, but has also started to want to be put down to go crawl and explose, some of the time.

I can't believe I have a ten month old, he still seems like such a baby. But then it seems like Henry's been in our family forever.

 

Not a good one, but the most recent photo of Hank

Beach Days

The weather has finally gotten warm, well, hot even, as yesterday got up into the 90's. A big change from the cold and rainy 2 weeks before. So we've been able to take a couple trips to the beach lately, just the kids and me. A good sized group of moms and kids from the ward go on Wednesdays and it is so nice! Lillie has tons of playmates and I get to have adult conversations, which doesn't happen enough. Eric has been BUSY this semester and so we need to find things to do everyday to make them go by faster. A trip to the beach is a good time filler and really, really fun. A BIG thing that we will miss.

Henry spent the entire time of our last trip sitting on my lap. I thought he would have been in high heaven crawling all over and eating sand, but instead, he wouldn't even let me put him on the towel next to me, he had to be on my lap.

I am really bummed that you can't hardly tell from this picture, but Lillie's face was covered in sand. And it really collected in the sunscreen that I put in her eyebrows. Seriously, it looked like she had two brown caterpillars growing off of her face.