How Lovely Was the Morning

Seeing how today is Easter Sunday, we thought it would be a good day to snap some pictures of the kids while they were dressed in all their finery. Little Miss will be three years old in just a few weeks. This picture captures her personality perfectly: a little sweetheart mixed with a smidgen (some days more than a smidgen) of sass. She came up with this little pose all on her own. Oh how we love this little firecracker!

Here is my little man looking just like a southern gentleman. Hudson is seriously the most charming, good-natured, and lovable little boy on the face of the planet. I can't believe we have had this little man in our lives for nearly a year. Time is flying by much too quickly.

Once again, this is Brynlee unscripted. She is constantly giving her brother loves and kisses and looks for opportunities to love on her "Hudson boy," as she affectionately calls him. She is such a fantastic big sister and Hudson absolutely adores her.

However, every man can take only so much lovin' before it becomes too much. And after 15 minutes of pictures and Bryn doting on him, Hudson clearly has reached his limit.

Easter Morning

While the little ones slept, a big floppy-eared creature came during the middle of the night and left baskets filled to the brim with goodies. In addition to jelly beans and chocolates, each kid received a new pair of jammmies and a musical instrument. I use the term "instrument" loosely. "Noise-maker" would be a more appropriate turn. 

Like any good sister, Bryn insisted on trying out Hudson's new trumpet to show him how it works. After several unsuccessful attempts to illicit some type of sound, she then had to resort to a more unconventional method of music making: shoving the entire mouthpiece into her mouth and hoping for the best. It is a good thing we don't mind sharing germs around here because that trumpet was dripping in saliva by the time she was finished with it. Hudson didn't even care that Bryn took his trumpet. He was much more interested in his new soccer ball and spent most of the morning crawling after it.

Trust me when I say that Bryn is most definitely not a musical prodigy. I lasted about ten minutes before the shrill tweeting of her flute became unbearable, and I convinced her to check out the rest of her Easter basket. I have a feeling that blue flute is going to "magically" disappear before the week is over.

In addition to the new instruments, Brynlee became the proud new owner of a bucket of side-walk chalk and princess doll. After she thoroughly examined everything in her basket (and Hudson's), we were able to pry her away from her goodies so she could help cut out sugar cookies.

Seeing as how it is now spring, we thought we had better try out our new springtime cookie cutters. Bryn and Nate had a great time cutting out bunnies, eggs, and flowers. Within a short time, the entire kitchen was blanketed with a fine layer of flour. Luckily, there was just enough time to dump the kids into the bathtub before we headed off to church and then on to Grandma and Papa's house for Easter Part II.

A Friendly Easter Egg Hunt

On Saturday afternoon, we invited the Grandstaffs over for a little Easter egg hunt. Although Gunner and Hudson had no idea what was going on or what was expected of them, they were more than happy just being outside in the beautiful sunshine. Bryn, on the other hand, knew exactly what was inside of those neon colored eggs. . . treats!

Before the hunt began, she prayed fervently to find the most eggs with the best candy inside. Perhaps I should have told her the odds were definitely in her favor considering that one of her competitors can't even walk and the other one was perfectly content with single lollipop.

After explaining the procedure (see an egg, pick it up) the kids were off. Bryn scampered around the yard like a little bunny. At first she would only collect the pink and purple eggs. After awhile, we were finally able to convince her that the Easter Bunny does not discriminate and puts treats in all eggs despite their color. Gunner walked around aimlessly occasionally pausing to check out a particularly interesting rock or leaf. Hudson just sat there and squawked about his displeasure of being left in the grass. He has some weird complex about crawling around in grass. 

I could see that if the parents didn't get involved, this would turn into the longest Easter Egg hunt known to man. Nate put away his video camera and helped Hudson find all those ridiculously hard to find and impossible to reach eggs. He obviously doesn't believe in making things easy for the kids. . . even Easter egg hunts.

In the end, all the kids found enough eggs to fill their baskets and received enough sugar to cause a few cavities. Hudson was less than impressed with the treats, but was excited to discover that eggs filled with jelly beans make excellent maracas. 

However, once he saw that Gunner was working on his second sucker, the maracas became a lot less cool. You can see how his little mind is trying to figure out how a sucker that big came from inside one of those eggs.

Brynlee emerged as the victor of the Easter egg hunt easily claiming the most spoils. It is amazing how it takes her five minutes to do the buckles on her sandals, yet she can unwrap half a dozen candies in under thirty seconds. In all fairness, I don't blame her increase in motivation. After all, Easter candy is the best holiday candy.

In the end, the kids had a great time and were pleased with their loot. Gunner must have eaten three or four suckers. Hudson scarfed down jelly beans along with bits of grass that got stuck on his sticky hands, and Brynlee ate more than her fair share of chocolate eggs. And, like all good parents, we didn't want the kids to eat all the candy themselves, so we were more than happy to help lighten up their buckets.

Farmington Pond

Upon completing our Saturday chores, we decided to take the family on a little hike up to the Farmington pond. We absolutely love the location of our home. The library, pool/splash pad, Lagoon trail, and the Farmington pond are all within walking distance. Most days we will just walk along the trail but on particularly nice days (and when we want to wear the kids out) we will hike a little further to reach the pond.

Bryn loves the pond. For a girl who is obsessed with dresses, she sure loves to get wet and dirty. And she loves throwing rocks . . . into the pond, into mud, and even, on occasion, at people. It is another trait she gets from me as I have been known to pelt Nate with rocks from time to time. All well deserved of course.

I have no idea what possessed Nate to let Hudson wade into the pond. Seeing how all the water in this pond is runoff water from the melting snow, I thought Hudson would start freaking out the moment his bare skin touched the water. He was more concerned about stepping on little rocks than about getting hypothermia. If only everyone enjoyed life as much as this little guy does.

We stayed for nearly a hour playing and just enjoying the warm sunshine. I finally convinced Bryn it was time to go home and get ready for our Easter egg hunt. Sometimes only the promise of spending the afternoon with friends and hunting for treats is the only way to pry a girl away from her rocks. And even then, it was a tough sell.

Boys' Retreat

Nate took a day off of work and headed down south to check on our condo in Cedar City and do a little maintenance work on the place. He convinced his friend Ben to go with him and then formed a little impromptu boys' retreat. The promise of dinner and going on a scenic hike was too much for Ben to say no to despite the long car ride. What can I say? Nate can be very persuasive.

As you can clearly see, Nate was quite proud of his find. If his career in college athletics never pans out, maybe he could find work with the National Parks as a guide.

Disney on Ice

A couple of weeks ago, I heard on the radio that Disney on Ice was coming to Salt Lake City. Given my daughter's obsession with all things princess-related, I thought she would love an opportunity to see the princesses in person. Nate's dad was gracious enough to procure some tickets, and insisted we make it a "girl's day." Secretly, Mark and Nate were just trying to get out of going to the ice capades because Hudson is obviously a boy, and yet was still sent with us. So me and the grandmas were sent down to Salt Lake with the kiddos. After navigating our way through all the ridiculously expensive Disney paraphernalia, we found our seats, and with each child sitting on a lap, we settled in to watch some ice-skating.

The first story that was presented was Cinderella which was great because it happens to be one of Bryn's favorites. She watched with mild interest and on occasion would bury her head in my mom's shoulder whenever the mice would skate around. I don't blame her. Giant rodents on ice-skates are kinda creepy. 

However, as soon as Cinderella changed out of her drab maid outfit and into her beautiful blue dress, Brynlee couldn't take her eyes off of her. When the prince came out onto the rink, he dazzled the crowd with all sorts of spins and double-axle turns. After his solo routine, Prince Charming skated right up to the edge of the rink with a look of pure determination on his face. Once he reached the crowd, he broke into one of those ear-to-ear grins. With his gleaming white teeth, I swear if it had been in a cartoon, a sparkling star would have accompanied his smile. Me and the stranger sitting right next to me burst into laughter. If Prince Charming would have thrown up some jazz fingers to accompany his over the top smile, I would have fallen off my chair from laughing.

Following Cinderella, the Princess and the Frog was the next story. My kids were not interested in this one at all and thankfully once it was over, it was time for intermission. Charlene came back with a snow cone in a Disney character cup for the kids to share which mostly ended up in Hudson's hair. 

The final production this year was about Rapunzel adapted from the story "Tangled." Bryn was especially impressed when the skaters pulled a page out of the Cirque Du Soleil play books and had Rapunzel spin around in the air holding onto gold fabric that was supposed to represent her hair. 

To be honest, I had no idea what to expect when we came to Disney on Ice. I guess I should have done my research and would have been able to learn that only a few of the Disney Princess stories are represented. About every ten minutes, Bryn would lean over and ask, "Umm, Mom? Is Ariel coming soon?" The show was ending, and I tried to tell Bryn that I didn't think Ariel was coming. She gave me a look that plainly said, "Well, lady, why did you waste my time bringing me here then?"

Just then the fireworks started, and out skated every Disney Princess with their male counterpart. First Belle came out, then Tiana, followed by Jasmine, and then, punctuated by a sharp intake of breath, I knew my little girl had seen Ariel with her flaming red hair flowing behind her. 

Thankfully, the afternoon was a success, but I can safely say it will be a few years before I can steel myself to sit through another ice-skating production. Watching two hours of Disney On Ice makes me want to go home and down a beverage on ice :) Maybe next time it can be a Daddy-Daughter date. . . 

Spring Break 2013

My mom had a few days off from school, so she headed up to Farmington to spend her Spring Break with us. With the snow starting to melt and sunshine on our faces, we packed a picnic and tried to find a new park we had never been to before. Surprisingly, it took us long than anticipated, hence the somewhat grumpy faces. My kids are most unpleasant when hungry.

Once they got some food in their bellies, they turned back into their playful fun-loving selves. Everyone seemed to be in the giving spirit. Bryn was willing to share her chips (practically unheard of), Hudson shared his food with all the woodland creatures (most of his sandwich ended up on the ground), and my mom was willing to share her water bottle. Hudson truly appreciated this kind gesture and in true gentleman fashion, didn't want to take too much water, so he graciously spit some back into the bottle. Needless to say, my mom's water bottle soon became Hudson't water bottle.

While Grandma was here, she gave Hudson his first haircut. I figured that it was time seeing how his hair was long enough style into a giant curl on top of his head. As an interesting side note, when we mentioned the word "hair cut," Bryn screamed and hid in her bedroom for fifteen minutes. No amount of coaxing could convince her that Hudson would be the one receiving the haircut and not her.

Since Bryn was barricaded inside her closet, she missed out on the suckers used as a bribe. For the most part, Hudson was a willing participant and sat there gnawing on his gigantic sucker, although he did get mildly annoyed when a few drops of water found his bare skin. After his hair cut was complete, he couldn't help but model his new do. Now if only we could convince his sister that getting your haircut doesn't have to be a traumatic experience. . .

We spent the week shopping, blowing bubbles, playing and even went to Disney on Ice. Basically, the whole weekend was one big party. Then again, it is always a party when Grandma Steph comes to town.

While there were many great pictures taken this week, I would have to say this is my favorite: a beautiful shot of my favorite two girls.