Easter

Last week was a fun one. I love holidays. I love an excuse to try out old traditions and discover new traditions for our little family. I love that Shae is finally getting to the point where he can participate in the holidays with us, and get equally excited about the activities we do. 

Neither Darin nor I grew up with visits from the Easter Bunny. Both our families really tried to keep us focused on Christ, rather than the baskets full of candy, eggs, and bunnies. That is something that we both really appreciate from our childhoods. We're striving to follow our parents examples and do the same. With that said, I have to confess that I believe Easter candy to be the best candy that is sold all year. Um, hello Cadbury Eggs, Starburst Jelly Beans, and Reeses Eggs.  So much goodness. I don't believe enjoying a little Easter candy ever hurt anyone (a lot of Easter candy on the other hand...). My family also included dyeing Easter eggs into our FHE the week before Easter. As kids we loved hiding the eggs throughout the house and looking for them. (Our parents probably loved it because it kept us busy for long periods of time). I know that eggs really don't have anything to do with the resurrection, but I am a firm believer in family traditions and in spending quality time together. I believe this fully falls into that category. 

This year we dyed eggs with Shae. He was so excited about all the cups of colored water and even more excited when he got to plop eggs into them.

 We ended the evening with very few eggs that didn't have cracks in them. He really dropped them hard into the water.

We also followed an idea that I found here and here to read scriptures about what what Christ did each day during the week leading up to his resurrection. I really loved this activity (even though we got behind by a few days...) and hope that we can continue it each year. Shae was good and sat at the table with crayons and stickers while we read the scriptures. He then helped us put the papers up on the wall after we were done reading.

We also had the sister missionaries over for dinner one night. They showed us this year's Because He Lives video. It was quite entertaining watching it with Shae shouting "Je-us!" and "Mare!" (Mary) throughout the whole thing. 

On Saturday we got together with a bunch of friends from the Williamsburg ward and participated in an egg hunt. We did the same thing last year. Needless to say, Shae was a bit more excited about what was IN the egg this year. (Brilliant idea whoever put pennies and quarters in the eggs. Shae immediately said, "Quarlers! Gama! Bank!" because his Grandma Sharon always puts quarters in his pockets).

Mouth full of candy. He wasn't too happy when I took the basket away from him... His candy is now safely tucked away up in the cupboard and he has no idea. How much longer do you think we can get away with that?

On Sunday, between conference sessions, we met up with a couple of our favorite families and had a wonderful Easter dinner. We did the dinner at the Trichler's home. They don't have any kids of their own yet, but were so sweet and excited about putting out eggs for everyone else's kids to find. It was really sweet of them to do. The kids loved it.

Jessica and Spencer, who also do not have children yet, loved following Shae around pointing out where the eggs were. He couldn't have done it without them, quite literally.

Easter was really special this year because we were able to listen to our prophet and apostles speak. I love hearing them testify, as special witnesses of Christ, that he lives. It strengthens my own testimony and gives me strength and a desire to continue my own personal conversion to come closer to Christ and becoming more like him.  I'm thankful to know that he does live. I'm thankful for the gospel that brings peace and happiness to our home as we live it together, as a family, and individually. 

One Month

Little Miss is one month old!

The first month of Shae's life felt like an eternity to me. This past month, however, has gone by so fast! Here's why:

1. We had family with us for over half the month.

2. I didn't break my tail bone during labor. Overall, my recovery has been much better.

3. Nursing started out much smoother. She eats a lot faster than Shae did (probably because no nipple shield is involved).

4. We are already accustomed to waking up at the break of dawn and occasionally the middle of the night.

5. Belén is honestly just a better baby than Shae was (or maybe we just semi-know a little better what we're doing this time around? Who knows. Poor Shae. Always taking the blame).

At one month it's hard to say much about this little girl. She just does what babies do best: Sleep and eat. She is starting to be awake a bit more after her feedings lately. She likes to be swaddled up to go to sleep. Darin's "get her to sleep" method is usually light bouncing while I prefer to just hold her and pat her bum lightly. Sometimes all we have to do is hold her swaddled up and she'll fall asleep (if she isn't overly tired that is). 

The girl is long. Long toes. Long fingers. Long. She has already outgrown a few of her 0-3 month sleepers due to her length. 

She has already met quite a bit of family. Darin's mom and sister and all of my family other than Scott.

She's a pretty regular 3-4 hour waker at night. 

She puts up nicely with her brother patting her, trying to hold her, sitting on her in the swing, and driving his cars up and down her body.

The: "Okay I'm done with my arm around you."

As a newborn, Shae peed just about every time we changed his diaper, but he never spit up. Belén spits up quite a bit but never really pees while getting her diaper changed.

She isn't too fond of the car seat. She crys a lot when in it and doesn't ever stay asleep in it when we bring her inside from the car. She does however really like the baby wrap. 

We are pretty smitten with her, and soooo happy that she has joined our family!

The Past Month

Updating the blog has gone way down on the priority list this past month. Plus, there hasn't been too much to blog about since all I've really been doing is wearing sweat pants everyday, letting other people clean my house, feed my family, and entertain my two year old...and a lot of nursing and diaper changes are thrown in there somewhere....along with holding and cuddling the baby...

All of our visitors are pretty much gone now (my family will come down in two weeks for a couple of days), which means that it's time to find our new normal. (We are both sssssooooo grateful to Darin's mom, Darin's sister, and my mom for staying with us this first month. I can't even believe that a month has already passed because everything has just gone so smoothly thanks to their help. We are forever indebted to them). 

This is my first full week alone with the kiddos. On Tuesday, we tried to take our first trip to the park. It only lasted for about 20 minutes since baby girl wasn't very content to just sit in her car seat and sleep like I had planned. Holding her while trying to help Shae in and out of swings and climb ladders just didn't jive. But hey, it's a start. We can't pass up the 70 degree weather today so I think we'll try again. Here's to hoping wearing her in a front pack works a little better. This is definitely going to take some figuring out, but I'm determined to figure it out. 

And now a massive photo drop so that these pics can be recorded and because I'm not creative enough to think of separate posts for any of them...

Working with Dad.

On the way to the doctors. She was 10 lbs. 7 oz. and 23 inches long at her 2 week appointment.

The oh so original baby sleeping on daddy's chest picture. But seriously, you sleep when you can. 

While Amelia was here we went out to the Cheese Shop for lunch. We stopped at Darin's office to get him and all the ladies came out to "oooooo" and "aaaaaahhh" at the baby. Shae hadn't really shown interest in the babe until everyone else was so interested in her. He went right over to the car seat and started giggling and pointing and rocking it...he sure does know how to get attention.

Yes. This is our son with his underwear on the outside, wearing a headband, while holding his sister's hand. #reallifewithatwoyearold.

Some pictures I stole from Amelia's phone because they were just too cute.

Our attempt at taking pictures with Grandma Tammie:

I think there are some better ones on her camera that I somehow didn't grab, but I did get these from their day out and about. 

Trying to get a selfie while they eat frozen yogurt. I love Shae's quizzical look.

While Darin's mom was here we took a super fast trip up North. Darin, Sharon, and Shae went up to Ithaca to check out Cornell. They dropped me in PA to visit my family (my sister is finally home from her mission!) We rented a van with the travel money from Cornell which was pretty fun. It had a DVD player which Shae loved.

 

Some pictures I took from Sharon's camera...these grandmas are really good at getting Shae to look and smile at the camera. Not really sure how they do it. (At story time).

Everybody rocking their BYU blue at Duck Donuts.

And then some red and white to show our excitement for the new school. (Feeling pretty disloyal to the cougs right now....the bright red is going to take some getting used to).

We put the girl in her W&M Tribe booties to make sure that all our schools were represented.

We're so proud of this guy for working so hard to get into a good PhD program. He's a stud. Excited to move to NY! (But not too excited for the oober long winters...)

And that's a wrap.

Wish me luck at the park.