Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Earl Jam/Easter Weekend

Every year Boopah hosts what he calls "Earl Jam".  People bring their instruments (mostly guitars) and each couple (or individual) who comes is responsible for performing 2 songs.  Its lots of fun.  This year I wasn't planning on doing anything, but boopah asked me to sing one number with him & 2 weeks before Earl Jam I decided to learn a song to surprise Matt with, which ended up being more difficult than I thought it would be since our whole family got sick and I couldn't sing and Matt didn't go to work for a whole week leading up to Earl Jam, so I couldn't practice (or else I would ruin the surprise).  Plus the night of Earl Jam I was still pretty sick, Matt felt crappy enough that he didn't perform anything, but I felt like I couldn't bail out on my # with boopah, so I at least had to do that one, so I might as well do both.  Anyway, feeling like crap aside, it was a fun night. 



By the way, in case you are wondering the song I sang for Matt was Paramore's "The only exception".  Its kinda my life story.




The next day was the Saturday before Easter, so even though we were all sick and completely worn out from acting "well" the night before and pushing our bodies too hard, we dyed eggs for the Easter Bunny.  This was one of my favorite activities growing up (Easter was my favorite holiday), and I knew the girls had been looking forward to it.  They LOVED it, so it was, of course, worth it!






 Daddy entertained Kate while the big girls dyed eggs.


The next day the Bunny had hid the eggs around the house & the girls loved finding them.  Here are some examples.






He also left baskets with chalk, a big candy egg, and drawing pads.  All big hits.  Mom and Dad (Matt and I) also give Easter presents, every year they get a book - this year they got books that go with their Tag readers, and we also gave them some fun socks (which were technically from my mom).


 This is Isabel's sad face, she was showing me that Tinkerbell is sad in this picture

Matt's whole family gathered for Easter dinner and our traditional cousin's egg hunt.  We had a delicious traditional meal (ham, funeral potatoes, homemade rolls, jello, veggies, deviled eggs, etc).  I felt like utter garbage, I had woken up with the crazy ear infection mentioned in my previous post, but Janeal made the delicious giant Easter egg sugar cookie with fruit topping so that made having a celebration here while feeling yucky totally worth it.  It was one of the greatest things that has ever happened to me.

The adults went outside after dinner to be the bunny's helpers and help hide eggs.  Aunt Mandy took the kids into the 'extra room' in the garage that has no windows so that they couldn't peek.




Matt and Barry have a fun relationship.  They crack me up.  If you have ever seen the Ryan Reynold's movie "Just Friends", they pretty much ARE the brothers in that movie. (PS that is not a recommendation to see this if you have standards... its not a family friendly movie)

Then the kids lined up to start the hunt!






 The bubbles inside of the eggs were a big hit.  There was an assortment of candy, stickers, and toys. 
Lily has recently become a little monkey climbing the trees
 Brig got himself completely wedged in and stuck in the tree, Barry had to come to his rescue
 Then in Earl holiday tradition the kids got to frost and decorate sugar cookies...

 ...which for Izzie means she got to eat lots of frosting and sprinkles :)
Anyway, the kids had a blast.  It was a good Easter, minus the sickness.

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Not gonna apologize

So normally this is when I would feel super guilty for being LAME and not blogging anything in over a month, especially when I was behind a month ago as well, but not today.  I will give you excuses [school, being busy, stress out the wazoo, responsibility, and for the past 2 weeks my ENTIRE family has been trying to survive a deadly (or at least it feels like death) cold], but I won't apologize.  :)  This is my blog and its mostly for my memories and so I am not gonna feel bad for the month break.  It was much needed.  You wouldn't have wanted to hear me whining and venting about how hard my life is anyway right?  Though I, and the rest of my family, except Kate, are all still sick and pretty miserable.  Kate is thankfully better, she got it first.  I would probably be better except I got ear and sinus infections after I started to feel the tiniest bit better.  Yes I realize that I am not 6 months old and I have no idea why I got an ear infection, its like the 2nd one I have ever had.  Kinda crazy, and painful.  But did I mention that I am not gonna whine?  Because I am not.  This isn't whining right?...

Anyway, because I still don't feel great I am just going to post pictures with little bits of caption to tell you what we are up to.  I am not going to cover the past week, because it was busy and I have a couple hundred pics to go through just from the last week and I am not up for that yet, but I will catch you up through mid-April!  Can't ask for more than that right?

Lots of exhaustion
A trip to the Zoo to celebrate the fact that both girls are staying 'dry' through the night regularly!  Woohoo!  Haven't had a wet bed in over a month! 








 LOTS of fits thrown.  Isabel is the reigning Queen, add on top of that all of us feeling sick and there has been lots of crying at our house...just what a sick mommy needs right?


Due to the great weather, we have tried to spend as much time outside as possible (when we haven't been too sick!) to enjoy it before it gets crazy hot


 We have had lots of time with cousins over to play




 

 STILL
 THE
 SWEETEST
 SMILIEST
 BABY EVER!
 Her friend Cecelia had a fairy birthday party --She had SOO much fun!


 My mom came to town for a day and brought my GG's quilting frames so we could tie the quilt I made for Kate
 Due to all the congestion Kate spent alot of time sleeping in the swing, bouncer, and car seat

 Kate loves playing with her toys and has gotten very good at grabbing them
 Katie on her finished quilt

 Kate turned 4 months and got to start eating baby food!



 The girls decorated a birthday cake for me
 I had a GREAT and quiet birthday.  Matt got me a Kindle and it is the best b-day present EVER.  I have been reading SO much and I love it.  I also got to joyride in my bro-in-law Tommy's new car (a BMW 3 series convertable), and that was SOOO fun!  He's lucky that I ever brought it back!  And I am lucky that I didn't pass any cops...
 I know that I am leaving out a lot, but c'est la vie!