Easter Egg Hunt in the TN Wildlands!

...aka, our backyard!

Welcome to Spring in Tennessee. This means the grass isn't completely grown in yet because we haven't yet had enough rain, so please excuse the patchy grass. The yard hasn't been mowed yet either, because up until very recently it's been too darn cold and the grass hasn't actually grown! And now you have an understanding of our lack of landscaping, so let's get to the good stuff.

We had an Easter Egg Hunt!

We took leftover candy...let me interrupt myself to say we're not big on eating Candy in our house, so don't be surprised if some of it is leftover from Halloween. Yes, it's been in Ziplocs in the pantry and despite an occasional stale piece, it tastes just fine. I know, I was the taste-tester...and filled the Easter Eggs with a peice of candy per egg. Miguel hid them all over the over-grown yard and the kids had a wonderful time.

Easter Party at Church

Since I'm in the Primary Presidency at church I had the priviledge to plan our quarterly activity with an Easter theme this year. I was a little worried before-hand we may have bit off more than we could chew, but I think it turned out quite nicely.

First we prepared a set of one dozen Spiritual Easter Eggs for each child (Info can be found here). We then prepared the refreshments of Resurrection Rolls (Recipe here) and milk. Then the cartons of eggs were hidden througout the church building and outside as a scavenger hunt by age group.

It was a good time for all of the kids (we even included the nursery), and here are pics of of my kids at the event:As you can see - Katie crashed afterwards. We spent the afternoon at a friend's house and she didn't make it very long.

New Year's Eve

Just like last year, we had our own little party. I busted out the hats and noisemakers and we seriously considered using the fireworks we purchased last July (and never used due to RAIN). We decided against it, but had cute kids in cute pictures anyway.

Then the noisemakers were used as weapons.

We've already used the fireplace a number of times this year. We had a nice fire and the kids stayed up until 11 pm. Low key and nice. I hope this is how the year will be.

Christmas arrived!!!!

It was a good day. My pictures uploaded backwards, so I will tell about the day backwards. While I made a ham (my first time in the 6 years we've been married, 'cause I think they're gross. Miguel likes them though, so this was one of his Christmas presents.) After dinner we decorated another gingerbread house. We really like the gingerbread houses. I think they're going to become an annual thing.

Here is Miguel while we were decorating the gingerbread house. So cute. Typical Miguel picture.

Here's the loot. The kids really made out this year thanks to the budget. Yep, we've put money away every paycheck, just for Christmas. Nope, I didn't wrap a thing. Not one single present. Yep, it's cause I am lazy. Work has been super crazy and no fun at all. I've been stressed out, strike that, I've been stressed-the-heck-out and just couldn't deal with it. I know, selfish mom. I'll get better, I promise.

Here's our Christmas tree. I loved having a live tree this year. The scent wasn't impressive, though, which was a disappointment. I think we'll go live again next year. In the spirit of the unwrapped presents, we didn't put any ornaments on our tree either. We have tons, we just didn't get them out. We only used the ornaments the kids made at church. I like our tree very much.

And lastly - the annual picture of the animals. The pretty one is also quite dumb, but thankfully he is calming down quite a bit. He is lazy and just doesn't learn the same way as the others. It's a really good thing he's so pretty. Sadie (the small one) still follows me around like the wonderful puppy she is. Sarge (the one laying down) is totally Miguel's dog and follows Miguel around the way Sadie follows me around.

Christmas 2009 was a huge success.

And after Halloween...

Thanksgiving!!! I know, these pictures don't seem like Thanksgiving pictures, but they are :)

In the background you can see our never-ending home-improving (new flooring and refinishing the walls - begone wainscotting!).



The kids saw a gingerbread house kit at the grocery store the day before Thanksgiving and we thought it would be a great time. So while I was finishing up dinner (which was fantastic, by the way), Miguel helped the kids with their very first gingerbread house. It was pre-constructed, so they had a great time slathering on the icing and of course, putting on the finishing candy-touches.

Visit from Grandpa..and Halloween

Grandpa was able to take vacation and came to our house for 2 whole weeks! We celebrated 4 birthdays while he was here. He also spent a lot of time getting used to being around a preschooler and a toddler again, cause it's been awhile for him. He spent a lot of time going on walks and was even stopped by the cops twice! I kept telling him at least he's making memories of good times in Tennessee...haha.

He took walks everyday and on one of the walks was stopped by a policeman making sure he was okay. There aren't many sidewalks here and the officer wanted to make sure he wasn't stranded. The second incident was a bit more interesting. He'd hopped a fence to take some pictures of an historical property nearby, and was caught! Though, in my Dad's defense, he had looked for a formal entrance and ticket booth to legitimize his presence prior to hopping said fence. Nevertheless, he was placed in the back of a squad-car and taken to the ticket-booth (which was quite a distance away, across a main highway, on a separate historical property).

This is the thing great memories are made of.

Halloween was fun - I wanted to make costumes, but work has been insane and I'm grateful to have time with my family and I don't want to squander it with crafts taking me away from them...and I'm lazy- teehee. Katie was Batgirl and Josh was a Jedi.

Here are some shots of good times while Grandpa was here along with pics at the Branch Halloween party, the kids in their costumes, and Birthdays. Enjoy!

Also...Blogger is smarter than me and not allowing me to format today, so I'm very sorry for what seem to be the giant run-on paragraph that is this blog post. Have a great day!

An Easter Entry...finally

Easter was enjoyed by all this year. Miguel told the kids the Easter-bunny poops out candy-filled eggs. He was hoping Josh would repeat that one in a public place, but to my relief, Josh kept it to himself.

Anyhow, it was an excellent weekend. I can't believe how different it is living here from where I grew up. People wish each other a Happy Easter at the grocery store, or the drug store or Anywhere! People don't worry about being Politically Correct here; it's truly my kind of place.

On Saturday the kids went to an egg-hunt at Church. We had a light brunch of blueberry muffins (Josh's absolute favorite), then a short ending to our Walk With Christ activity we'd been challenged to participate in at home. Finally, the egg hunt began!

There were only 3 kids under 4 at church for the activity, so Katie and Josh and another little boy got a head-start in looking for eggs. Thankfully they limited the number kids could pick up to ensure everyone received the same number. Josh took off and was able to truly participate well. Katie didn't really get it but enjoyed picking up the eggs and looking inside of them.

On Sunday, Miguel wanted to have our own Egg-hunt, but the weather was dreary. Not rainy, but colder and windy. So in the early evening, eggs were hidden in the living room and the kids had a ball.

That pink dinosaur on the bookshelf behind Katie is her Easter Basket. I was VERY excited to get both of their baskets on clearance last year after Easter. This year we bought Josh a cool Star Wars bucket to use as a basket, and surprisingly, he chose to use Elmo.

It was a good weekend.

New Years Eve Mega-Party!

Ok, so it was only our little family and it ended when the kids went to bed at 8, but it was a great time. I made the best Nachos ever, we ate junk food, wore silly hats and the kids made a lot of noise. Miguel opted to get the kids noisemakers - on purpose. He also watched football and we all listened to some great music. It was a fantastic time.

Miguel and I made it to the New Year...barely. We were both worn out from the Mega-party...ok, we're just getting old.


Katie looks a bit possessed after I removed the red-eye, but aren't they cute? Yes, that is a temporary tatoo on Josh's arm. He is potty-trained but we're still occasionally rewarding him with stickers and tattoos...Star Wars themed, his favorite.

Here are our most recent full-family pictures!

This was the best of the photos...which I agree isn't saying much, but we're all in it! Katie was trying to escape and you can't tell that I'm pinning Josh down too. Good times. I fully respect those who've braved the professional studio; it was easier taking pictures of the 3 dogs together than those kids.

Christmas Twice! and Grandma's Visit

We managed to have 2 Christmases. One from a secret Santa who brought the kids toys and the normal Christmas.

A couple of days before Christmas, a good friend of ours brought over a few bags of gifts for the kids. She was just the elf for our Secret Santa! So, Santa, if you're out there, Christmas was wonderful and the kids LOVE everything they received.

Since Grandma was coming to town, we originally planned on saving Christmas until she arrived on the 26th. On Christmas morning we revised this plan and chose to open the secret Santa gifts and gifts from my parents on Christmas day, and then everything else after Grandma arrived.

The Plan turned out wonderfully. Josh ran around asking who the different presents were for and he carried presents from under the tree to each person. He loved every minute of it, including "helping" Katie open her presents. It was a lot of fun to see Josh so into the whole thing. He was Mr. Impatient at times but overall, considering he isn't even 3 yet, he did very well. If you ask Josh what he got for Christmas, he'll reply, "Presents" and upon further pushing, he'll say, "Toys".

The favorite gifts of the year: Josh loves the fuzzy lined Crocks he received from the Abueos, and the fancy Lightsaber from us. Katie loves the Raggedy Ann Doll from Grandma & Grandpa and the VTech laptop from Secret Santa. My favorite gifts for the kids were their fleece blankets and the fun bath towels from Secret Santa.

Grandma Lupe came to visit for 5 days and Josh was in HEAVEN. He played and followed Grandma around everywhere. His favorite thing was getting Grandma to "fight" him with his lightsabers.

Katie didn't know what to think about having someone else in the house, and would really let everyone know (loudly) how she felt if she couldn't see a parent in the room. At least she was quite happy with Grandma as long as she could see a parent.

All in all, it was a fantastic Christmas, and very memorable. Thank you very much Secret Santa. You made our Christmas very exciting and put smiles on all of our faces.

Memorial Day Goofiness

My daughter is a goofball. She makes some of the funniest faces! Her favorite thing lately has been sucking on her bottom lip and chewing on her tongue - what a weirdo!

Memorial Day was wet outside, and it ruined all of our plans. We had planned on putting the kids in their swimsuits and going to a friend's house and having water fights and outdoor games after grilling some ribs and stuffing ourselves. The rain meant we could only stuff ourselves. I guess that's not too bad.

Josh LOVES their kids. The closest one to his age is 7 and they run around and make lots of noise together. I bought some cupcakes on Saturday and Josh was tortured until Monday. He asked to eat cupcakes and go to the friend's house (and eat cupcakes!) until Monday after his nap when we finally went. It was still fun, even if it was raining.