april 8, 2012

This Easter was totally low-key. Well, until Cannon had an epic meltdown, but I'll get to that later. The boys woke up to the traditional egg trail and Easter baskets.

Then we made a donut run to Krispy Kremes (in our pajamas, of course!)

Next it was time to dye some eggs.  I had seen a few recommendations for the Egg Spinner kit from Dudley so we decided to try that this year.  Overall, it was a hit.  The lid was hard to get on sometimes so the boys did need some help with that.  The eggs would have turned out better if we had taken the time to rinse out the spinner between colors as recommended, but we were too lazy for that!

A certain three-year old was a little heavy-handed with the glitter.

The day ended with a big bummer, aka The Epic Meltdown.  We have really been struggling with Cannon and his control issues lately.    He is insistent on pushing every single boundary that he is given.  He wants to do everything on his own time and in his own way.  I know this stage is part of being three, but he is absolutely taking it to the extreme.  Today, it all started with not wanting to take a nap and then it went downhill from there.  Then it was time to start getting ready to go to Grandpa Rodger and Grandma Anita's house for an egg hunt and Easter dinner and Cannon was being very difficult.  Eric and I were extremely frustrated.  I eventually threw out the "if you don't get dressed NOW, you will not be going to the egg hunt!"  And of course that led to no where and I had to follow through with my threat by Cannon and I staying home.  And of course he was VERY unhappy with that.  The next few hours were tough.  I was questioning my choice and feeling bad that he was missing out on the festivities.  He continued to let me know how upset he was. But in the end I decided it was the best choice to not let Cannon participate.  I wasn't going to let him ruin it for everybody else.  Unfortunately these tests in parenting aren't always going to present themselves at the most opportune times, despite our best efforts.  Sigh.

Luckily, despite all the drama, Charlie went and had a great time.  He egg-hunted, won a game of bocce ball and hung out with the other grandkids.

Although I hope that we don't have to go through another one of these days anytime soon, I do want to remember to keep things simple.  Until the meltdown, we had had a great day just enjoying the holiday and spending time together.  That's what it's all about.

easter 2011

The boys are at the perfect ages for all the Easter festivities. Charlie is not too old and Cannon is just old enough to get that it is a pretty special time filled with family and crazy traditions. He kept looking at us like, egg hunting? Seriously? We have carpet in our dining area, so there was definitely not going to be any egg dying at the table. What else is the huge island for other than to climb up on and get crafty?
So typical of Cannon, trying to boss Charlie around. He definitely thought he was the egg dying master. He took charge of what colors all the eggs were going to be, whether we wanted him to or not.

The word "gentle" is not in Cannon's vocabulary, so most of the eggs looked like this when we were done:

Cannon wanted the Easter bunny all to himself. Have I mentioned that he is 2???

Once we tried to get Charlie in the picture, he was over it.

We headed to the cousins' house in Des Moines for Easter weekend. The kids LOVE visiting their cousins.

Although he thought it was crazy at first, Cannon had no trouble catching on to the egg hunt concept once he found out there was candy involved. Charlie of course was an old pro at the hunt. Four very happy kids. :) Checking out the loot.

I think it is safe to say Easter 2011 was a huge sucess!

a little catch-up.....

I took these 3 photos of the boys on Easter before I got this....

So much for any cute Easter photos this year! I had also wanted to take more photos this trip with all the grandparents and I got nada. Ugh. There is always next year!?

Lots to catch-up on.

-First off, Cannon is officially walking!! He has become very good at it over the past 2 weeks and is pretty much walking 95% of the time. He also has learned how to get up on his own now, so if he falls down he gets right back up and keeps trucking.

-We had a good Easter. It was a nice relaxing day. Grandma P made most of the dinner and we were able to just hang out. Those are the best holidays, the ones where you just relax and enjoy being with each other.

-Driving 5 hours with a crabby, stubborn almost 18 month old baby is pretty much the last thing I want to do again any time soon.

- Eric has an interview for a position at another branch on Monday. This move would give us a much more consistent schedule which we would LOVE. Hoping and praying this happens for him.

- Happy that we don't have stairs at our apartment. Cannon's favorite thing to do was climb up and down the stairs at Gigi's house. He probably would have done it all day if we let him. And don't even try to go upstairs without him.

- When Charlie got home from school today he said "Mom, I have some really bad news." I asked what was wrong and he said there was a girl that was bossing him around on the bus so he told her to please stop. He was very sure that he said the word please. She then said she was going to have her parents "kick his butt". Seriously? I am so not ready for this school thing.

- Speaking of school, we have Charlie's kindergarten orientation tomorrow. We get to meet the teachers and learn about what programs they offer. Lots of prayer happening right now that we will get the right teacher for Charlie and that it will be a great year. I am so excited and yet so nervous!!

- I have not done any scrapbooking lately. I should be getting my May Freehand Scraps kit any day now, hopefully it will bring some inspiration as well.

- Here are my pages from the April kit. My pages were all very simple this month. Must have just been my mood. I loved the color combination of this kit.

I also loved that bird from My Mind's Eye. I had to use it right away and this page came together pretty quickly. These photos were taken on Cannon's birthday. Just added a few strips of patterned paper along the edges and then stitched over it.
The light bulb embellishment is awesome and it is exclusive to this kit. I thought it was the perfect touch for this page. I also broke out the circle punches again for this one. Those punches have been getting a lot of use lately! The Hambly stitches rub-ons apply so easily, they are the best.

The red gingham paper was one of my favorites this month. It is so simple, but I just loved the color it added. You can see I used it on all three of my layouts. That ticket die cut is also so versatile.

And lastly, a very simple card. I couldn't fit the crocheted flowers on any of my boy layouts, but I just had to use one so a card it was.

- Planning on getting back into the blogging routine. I need to do Cannon's 18 month post (can you believe he is 1.5 years old?) and hopefully I will have some May sneeks to share soon.

egg hunt 2010....

It was a pretty chilly day. The forecast had called for snow so we were just thankful that didn't happen! The egg hunt was okay this year. There were way too many people and not enough eggs. Many of the small children didn't get any eggs and it was pretty much over by the time it began. Way too crazy. Thankfully, Charlie was not really into quantity and was happy that he got a striped egg and a few pieces of candy. Cannon really had no idea what to think of it all.

Getting ready for the hunt to start.
The craziness.

Charlie showing off his cool striped egg.

Look at the big tear on his cheek. He was totally ticked that I picked him up off the wet grass so his clothes didn't get wet. He really wanted to dig through his basket and play with those colorful eggs.

Cannon did surprisingly well with the Easter Bunny. He kinda looks upset in this picture but he was actually smiling. Not sure why he kept jamming his hand in the bunny's mouth.

I realized what a bummer it is that Eric wasn't the bunny this year. In years past it was way easier to get a good picture with the bunny since it was him. The boys would get special attention with lots of opportunities to get a great shot. Not this year, we had to take the 10 seconds and hope we got a good shot.

Charlie can't wait to see what the Easter Bunny is going to leave in his basket this year. Charlie was concerned the bunny wouldn't know we were in Idaho and he'd try to deliver his basket to Utah, so we had to write a note to him to let him know where we would be. Hopefully he got the message.