Easter Weekend

Thoughts and feelings are jumbled in my mind. We had some wonderful adventures this weekend that were a lot of fun. And yet all I can focus on are the frustrations I am feeling from having a baby that screamed, and I mean SCREAMED, for an entire session of General Conference, then woke SIX TIMES last night, and refused to nap more than 30 minutes today. And from having a now-three-year-old who is resisiting potty training with all his might, and all the mess that entails. And my arms and wrists hurt from carrying Drew "Tank" Earnest around so much.

That's all I'm going to say about that. Time to focus on the blessings.

The oldest Earnest brother, Chris, was in town for the weekend, so Marcus got together with his sibs to get some chicken and waffles at LoLo's, then check out the Dbacks final spring training game. I had grand plans for the kids while Marcus was away. We were going to decorate our Easter cookies and color our Easter Eggs, and then while Emma was at a birthday party, I was going to take the boys to the park.

Um, yeah. See my first paragraph.

Drew was so....grumpy.... that I got nothing done. The cookies sat undecorated. The eggs stayed in the fridge. And the park? Oh forget that. We made it through Safeway for some salad ingredients before the screaming began again.

Marcus came home before dinner, so after we ate, Drew went to bed, and we finally got our Easter activities completed before bedtime.

Here are the kids decorating-and eating-the cookies

Decorating the Eggs

Sunday brought eggs hidden by "the Easter bunny", and baskets filled with coloring books, crayons, and of course, jellybeans and chocolate. The kids had fun gorging themselves on sugar.

After doing our best to watch conference with the kids hyped up on sweets, we made our way down to Todd and Amber Earnest's house for a most delicious Easter dinner. Ham. Funeral potatoes ("Amber-style!"). Pasta salad, asparagus, to-die-for rolls, fruit and heavenly dip, and a delicious strawberry trifle dessert.

The Earnest Family Easter became one of "those" events that will go down in the memory books.

• Remember the Easter where we were eating on the lawn at Todd's house and the sprinklers came on and everything got soaked?
• Remember the Easter where Todd, Chris, and Marcus got busted for shooting BBguns because some guy claimed they were ricocheting over the wall, and threatened to call the cops?!?
• Remember the Easter where we all sat and watched as Cameron broke out the bows and arrows and practiced hitting the hay bales?

Good times....good times.

Seriously though, it was a great dinner and really nice just to hang out and enjoy the company of family. We love all of you who were away from us on this special day and hope to see you soon!

A Whole Lotta Fun

Oh my- what a weekend we had! Marcus had Friday off work so we had an extra day to go crazy. Our Friday morning started with this:

We make sure each child's day starts off special like this. It's so great to see their faces as they run down the hall and see this waiting for them! Kyle opened presents from Mom and Dad that morning.

I'm not sure if you can tell, but he really likes Buzz Lightyear.

I took the kids to the park for the morning. After lunch and "quiet time", Emma had dance class. Afterwards, Marcus brought Kyle and Drew to meet us for Kyle's birthday dinner at Peter Piper Pizza, which is like Chuck E Cheese if you're not familiar with it. Here's a tip-- don't got to places like that on Friday nights. It's insanely busy. But the kids had fun, which was the point. We got home at 8:00, past normal bedtime, and still had cake and presents from the grandparents to open.

Finally, everyone was in bed, and rest was had.

Saturday morning began early with an Easter Egg Hunt put on by my oh-so-creative friend Jen. The kids had a blast hunting for eggs filled with coins and treats, and then we enjoyed a nice lunch and time at the playground. Other than the 15 minutes I spent hunting for Kyle's shoes so we could leave, it was wonderful!

We made it home in time to quickly change and head back out the door to catch a spring training baseball game- the Diamondbacks vs. the Indians. Drew cried the first three or four times the crowd cheered, and Emma was pretty whiny by this point, but otherwise the game was fun. The Dbacks lost, though.

We hurried home, gave the kids a bath, and cleaned up the house before our friends Anissa and Lee came over. We met them at Red Robin for dinner, then put the kids to bed and spent the evening playing Oh Heck.

Sunday was the usual madness- meetings, meetings, and more meetings, topped off by tired kids and a screaming baby. I can't really complain, though, since it was our own fault running them all over town for two days.

So, our weekend was fun but exhausting. Really, though, I am thankful we have so many opportunities to spend time as a family, and to experience a lot of fun things. I hope we made some memories this weekend.

3 Years

I cannot believe my Kyle is 3 years old! Where has the time gone?

At three, Kyle

• is so polite. He always says "please" and "thank you", or "no thanks".
• has a great imagination. He loves to pretend he is Buzz Lightyear, a monster truck, or even a turtle.

• wants to do everything Emma does and play with all her toys- even her dress up clothes. Though I think he looks a little "gangsta" here.

• is a ham. He loves to get a reaction and will repeat something ten times if you laugh at him. Here he is showing his "silly face", though it's even sillier in person.

• can be extremely infuriating when he purposely does things he knows he's not supposed to, just to get a reaction.
• loves to see his baby brother Drew.
• is a really sweet and loving boy. I can't imagine our family without him! Happy Birthday, Bud!

Good News

We have a Principal Engineer in the family!

Marcus earned a promotion at his company, rewarding him for all his hard work and leadership. I have watched the many long hours he's put in at work and I know he deserves this. We also know that we are so blessed, especially in this economy, that he has a solid job that he really enjoys doing.

Plus, now he gets his own office instead of a cube!

I love you Marcus! Thanks for working so hard to take care of our family.

Rice Cereal

Introducing.....rice cereal!

He was pretty excited at first. "What is this new chair I'm sitting in? What is Mommy mixing up over there?"

"I'm not sure I like this stuff"

"But I love my Mommy so I'll smile anyway"

5 Months

Another month has come and gone.

At 5 Months, Drew

• can roll from tummy to back, but not the other way
• likes standing in my lap
• loves exploring new toys
• loves new faces and sounds- he always wants to be facing the world to see what's going on
• still wakes up a lot at night, though it's better than it was
• screams and cries through our dinner pretty much every night
• laughs and squeals so loud it's embarrassing sometimes
• hates the vacuum cleaner
• really likes to be held, which can be a pain- but our other two were so squirmy and never wanted me to hold them, so it's kind of nice to have a baby enjoy being with me.

We love you Drew!

I couldn't get him to look at the camera while I was holding him, but I love this picture because it shows off his huge droopy cheeks. You could even see those on my ultrasound just before he was born. Cute, cute.

An unlikely pair

You might not think the chicken and waffles go well together, or that a place called "Lo-lo's Chicken and Waffles" can actually be a cool place to dine. But they do, and it is.

Marcus heard about this place from a friend at work, and we made the trek across the valley to try it out. We had us some darn good fried chicken, and the golden-brown, cinnamon waffles were pretty good too. They also have lots of other southern comfort foods like grits and biscuits as well.

This weekend, we also walked around a mall, went to a "preparedness dinner" at church, fell asleep watching the Olympics (of course, I fall asleep watching anything these days), and of course, participated in the myriad of Sunday meetings for which we are responsible. So, you see why I can say Lo-lo's Chicken and Waffles was the highlight of our weekend.