Easter Eggs

On Thursday night we went over to the Heaton's for dinner and some serious Easter egg coloring. Thanks to inspiration from Stacey's Martha Stewart magazine, our creative juices were really flowing. Actually, we pretty much just tried to copy what was on the cover. They turned out really cool!

Spencer, Sydney, Justin, Stacey

These busy little hands wanted to grab everything on the table.

Jack's not a huge fan of picture-taking, but he let me snap this shot of him holding one of the cool eggs he colored. Such a cutie.

This morning we went to a Girl's Camp fundraiser. They had a pancake breakfast, family pictures, outdoor games, and an Easter egg hunt.

Sydney held her Easter basket in her lap for the entire car ride to the church. Here she is gearing up for the action!

The eggs were "hidden" around the entire church, and everyone pretty much started at the back. Spencer grabbed Sydney and ran to the front of the church before all the kids got there so she would actually have a chance to get a few eggs.

She did pretty good picking them up,

but then she wanted to immediately open them. We had to throw them in the basket, then direct her to the other one's on the ground.

Sydney collected about 8 eggs before the masses showed up. Not too shabby for her first time! She was REALLY excited to find jelly beans inside them, which she's never had before. If she couldn't open an egg, she would sign and say, "More" (which really sounds like mo-ie). Like a good Daddy-dentist, Spencer brushed her teeth when we got home :)

A Baptism & A Blessing

Last Sunday, we drove down to Marietta to attend Riley's baptism and confirmation. It's so weird that she's 8 years old! I remember when she was born. I was a freshman in college, and I was in the kitchen of my apartment in Heritage Halls when I got the call announcing her arrival.

Now she's all grown up!

After the ordinance was performed, Allie, who was sitting on the floor close to the font, gave Riley a thumbs up and said, "Way to go Riley." Slightly irreverent, but totally funny. Afterward, Riley, Dallin, Allison, and Austin all sang a Primary song, and it was so sweet. The three kids each sang a solo, and I was totally bawling. Reminded me of a time when we were little and my Aunt Kristie's family came to visit. We had just learned "I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus" in Primary, and we totally loved singing it. We sang it for Aunt Kristie, and she was totally crying. Looks like I got that gene from my Mom's side of the family.

Riley with Grandma and Grandpa H.

After the confirmation, baby Max was blessed. He arrived on March 6th and is sooooo tiny! It is crazy to hold little babies and remember that's how small my baby was at one point. We had a good time celebrating with my family, even if it was for just a few hours.

Silly Goose

Last week Sydney was eating her usual "cereal" (a mixture of plain yogurt, apple sauce, and baby cereal) for breakfast in the dining room. I was in the kitchen getting my own breakfast, and when I came back in, she was in the process of unloading a spoonful of her cereal into her hair. Nice.

Please disregard the bib substitute. It was a laundry day, and they were all in the washer. Thank goodness for dish towels and baggie clips!

My Brain Hurts

Went to bed last night at about 1am.
Woke up at 6:40am.
Showered, went to work.
Did my lesson plan.
Was evaluated by my principal.
Did of few of my regular sessions, plus speech and language testing on 4 kids.
Had a meeting from 4-6pm, which I probably didn't need to be at.
Got home at 6:30pm.
Ate a crappy dinner: a bowl of Grape Nuts and a hot dog (sick, I know).
Played with my family for about 20 minutes.
Gave Sydney a tub and put her to bed.
Immediately went to play volleyball at 8pm.
Played with my team, then was asked to play with another team.
Had an awesome time playing (got TONS of good sets!) until 10pm.

Came home and started blogging in attempt to put off doing the following:
Lesson plan for tomorrow (gotta look good for the follow-up principal evaluation).
Shower.
Pack my lunch and Sydney's diaper bag.
Mentally prepare for an 8am faculty meeting.

Only 1 more week until spring break. I can't wait!! I need to re-coop in a major way.

St. Patrick's Day

We have had such beautiful weather this week! St. Patrick's Day was no exception. Sydney and I spent all morning outside, then Spencer got to come home early because it was "Professional's Day" at school.

We had an old, crumbly loaf of bread in our freezer, so we headed to Shaker Lakes to feed the geese. Sydney has gotten really good at saying "birdie" and "tweet tweet," so I thought she'd enjoy it. At first there were only 4 or 5 geese that came over to us, but within 10 minutes another 20 swam over to get in on the grub.

Apparently Sydney didn't think the bread was as gross as we did...

When our bread was gone, we went over to the swings on the nearby playground. Sydney was NOT a fan, even when I was holding her on my lap and swinging. Bummer.

Sydney making her escape.

That evening we got to grill outside. It was soooo yummy, we are looking forward to summer full of grilling!

Not a very festive St. Patty's Day meal, but we snuck in some green.

We finished off the evening with some chocolate peanut butter cup ice cream cones from Mitchell's. I shared mine with Sydney, and every lick was quickly followed by "uh, uh, uh" to tell me she was ready for more.

Mmmmmm.

It was a good day.

Happy Birthday to Me!

I turned 27 on Friday, which is totally weird to me. Sometimes I still don't feel like an adult even though I have a husband, a baby, and a bona fide job. Will that ever happen?

Although Ohio usually has crappy weather on March 12, I have a few memories of riding my bike outside in the sunny weather on my birthday when I was a kid (and wearing my new birthday outfit complete with fluorescent orange spandex shorts). This birthday added to those memories- 66 degrees with sunny skies! I also only had to work a 1/2 day, which was a nice treat.
I made myself my usual carrot cake the night before, then decorated it when I got home from work on Friday. Pretty sure this looks exactly the same as last year's cake but with different colors, but hey, polka dots are fast and easy :)

As always, Spencer was a ham when he sang a solo of "Happy Birthday." He actually recorded the video of it, but I've sworn to not leak the footage.

Sydney helped me blow out the candles.

That night the Barnum's kindly put Sydney to bed at their house while Spencer and I went out to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. We wanted to go see a movie too, but there wasn't really anything out that was worth paying the big bucks to see. So we picked up Sydney, came home, watched Modern Family online, then fell asleep on the couch (note: I woke up alone on the couch the next morning in my regular clothes, contacts in, etc. That was like the 3rd time I fell asleep on the couch last week).

On a totally unrelated note, for the past month or so, Sydney has started crossing her legs like this when she's on her changing table. It kind of cracks me up, so I had Spencer take a picture of her doing it. Such a cutie pie.

Should've Taken a Picture

Every other Tuesday morning, I have a faculty meeting at 8 am, so I try to leave my house around 7:15 am to make sure I have plenty of time to get to work. Sometimes I have to wake Sydney up to get her ready when I leave that early, and I really hate doing that. Since Spencer's ride doesn't come until around 7:30, I asked him if he would get Sydney up and take her down to the babysitter (it's my neighbor Becky; she lives just down the street). He said yes. He started getting her ready just as I was headed out the door.

Fast forward to this afternoon when I get home and head over to Becky's to pick up Sydney. I had to laugh when I saw her:

• Her hair was wild and crazy (nothing unusual, plus she'd just gotten up from her afternoon nap).
  
• She was wearing brown legging pants that have pink flowers on them (they're on the borderline of being floods).
  
• Her pink shirt was WAY too small (it's supposed to be long-sleeved, but looked more like 3/4 sleeve; didn't even cover her belly, so her onesie was totally exposed).
  
• She was wearing white, pink, and blue Minnie Mouse socks.

To top it all off, she didn't have a jacket. Not a big deal when I was taking her home since it was almost 50 degrees out, but it was like 36 degrees when Spencer dropped her off this morning! I said to Becky, "This is what happens when your husband's in charge of getting the baby ready." She looked like a poor child. I regret not taking a picture, but I changed her diaper and most of her outfit shortly after we got home. Guess I need to clean out her drawers and take out the stuff that doesn't fit anymore!