Hoppy Easter!

Easter was pretty low key at our house this year with church starting at 9 am and our house being a disaster in preparation to move. On top of that, my friend Shannon, with whom I've had Easter basket parties for the past two years is now married and living in New York - so Jordan got mostly store bought candy this year instead of home made goodies. I did get around to making him his favorite cookies (white chocolate macadamia nut) after church, but they did not make an appearance in his basket. Easter baskets didn't even come out until around 4 pm and Lily helped me put them together (ate some of the jelly beans while I put them together). Lily received a pile of new books (new to us at least) with the favorite being an electronic nursery rhyme book that I found at a consignment sale.

However, it was a wonderful day at church and a quiet afternoon at home with a simple dinner and an hour long family walk around the neighborhood.

I didn't take any pictures on Sunday due to our scrubby nature (remember we did Easter baskets post nap time). I did get these pictures on Saturday when we did our Easter Egg "gathering". Jordan placed the eggs on the floor and sofa with a jelly bean or two in each egg.

Lily only gathered a few before she realized the treasures within and stopped to consume those before moving on.

The pictures are not high quality since my nice camera has been at the Nikkon repair shop for the past 6 weeks (they temporarily lost it- the good news is that they are now fixing it for free).

Today was also our last Sunday in our Bountiful Val Verda 3rd ward. Never have we been so sad to leave a ward. I can't say I know too many of the Relief Society sisters since I've been in the primary since my second week attending this ward - but those that I do know, I love. It has been wonderful learning from my darling primary children and the more experienced families in the neighborhood. However, we are looking forward to a new adventure in Provo and we keep telling ourselves that you don't go looking for Zion, instead you build Zion where you are.

Excuse me, did you drop your hemroid cream?

One of Lily's favorite places to play in our apartment is the bathroom. She loves every single aspect of this room - the bath tub for bathing (I only have to say the word "bath" and her face lights up), sitting on the potty (with the lid down of course), sitting in the sink as I have previously posted and getting into the cabinet under the sink and causing all sorts of mischief. Normally I don't let her play in there unattended and I try to keep the bathroom door shut.

Unfortunately one morning we were in a rush to get out the door early to head down to Sandy for a HUGE consignment sale at a local church. With these sales you have to be there when the doors open to get the good stuff and so I was trying to get Lily out the door in time for the 30 minute drive down + an extra 10 minutes for me to get lost. And of course, this morning she was extra extra clingy and did NOT want to be put down making it near impossible to get myself out of pajamas and the diaper bag assembled - until she decided to play in the bathroom. I was so desperate that I let her play unattended while I rushed around getting dressed, finding directions and getting the diaper bag ready.

It was at this last step of getting the diaper bag ready that Lily came out of the bathroom and helped me unpack several of the things in the diaper bag. I hurriedly threw them back in and finally rushed out the door.

We made it in 20 minutes after the sale started and so things were pretty much picked over. Lily picked out some toys for herself - including a high chair for baby dolls that she carried around with her everywhere. I also found some soft blocks and pajamas for Lucy so I decided it was worth it to stand in the mile long line - especially since we had already taken 30 minutes to drive down there.

Lily had been a doll during the entire shopping experience until it came time to stand in line. Then she decided to run around everywhere. Gratefully there were some nice women behind me that moved my stuff up for me when the line moved while I was chasing my toddler. By the time we made it to the front I was pretty frazzled and ready to be done. In the room set aside for checking out Lily was a horror and was grabbing everybody's stuff and would not be held or eat a snack. She successfully spilled a cup of safety pins, stole 2 pens and was shooed away from 3 different women due to her trying to steal the toys they were trying to purchase. 

On top of that, I had brought our old checks, which only has Jordan's name on it - so the woman checking out our stuff took 10 minutes finding a supervisor who could approve her accepting my check. With my menace of a toddler and my holding up a mile long line, I was ready to disappear. When the woman came back telling me that they could take the check I hurried and pulled the checkbook out of my bag, and unknowingly let several other stuff fall on the ground. It wasn't until I was done writing the check and showed my ID that a woman came up to hand me my fallen items which included a pen, a coupon and a tube of Equate Hemroid cream! 

How in the world did that get in my bag? How long had it been on the floor with a mile of woman behind me looking at it? I stared at it mortification. My darling little munchkin must have found it under the bathroom sink and decided that we should pack in case of an emergency. In my defense, it is at least a year old and I am not the one who purchased it. Mommy's little helper.

Grandparent Extraveganza

At the Beginning of March Jordan and I decided that it had been too long since we had been down to Cedar so although Jordan still couldn't take any time off we drove down for a short weekend visit. During this short visit Lily was able to spend time time her Great Grandma Leany, and Great Grandma & Grandpa Carter along with my dad, Kathy and of course Jordan's parents (we stayed at their house). 

Unfortunately I didn't get my camera out until Sunday morning, meaning I didn't get a picture of Lily with any of her Great grandparents. Although we had such a short trip I'm glad we made it just to be able to see family. I'm also glad we picked that weekend because it was the same weekend as the Mountain West basketball conference finals, in which BYU lost the championship game to San Diego State. I'm glad Jordan was with his dad for that game. He knows how to best support Jordan in BYU's time of need.

Speaking of March Madness, I have to admit that although I started out cocky and was ahead by far in the bracket competition in the end I lost to Jordan.  I now owe Jordan 1 baked Alaska.

Lily and her gorgeous Grandma Jill before church. If you notice the Kitty in her hand - it was a present from my Dad and Kathy from the previous night that Lily would not let go for several days.

 After church we headed over to my dad's studio to visit him on our way out of town and of course he had to take some pictures of Lily with her new kitty. This shows how Lily did when we forced her to pose.

 Then we let her run free around the studio - you see the difference.

Ahh... She's giving the Cookie Monster a hug

At least you think it was a hug until you saw how she ruthlessly tackled him to the ground. The result of too many wrestling lessons from Jordan.

"Hand over the kitty and there will be no tantrums"

A little too much fun playing with the back drops

After about an hour of letting her run create chaos in my dad's studio we decided it was time to head home and had to drag her out kicking and screaming.