Better Late than Never -- Easter 2012

We celebrated Easter this year much the same as last.  We had an egg hunt and games at the church with some friends and neighbors.  Tony put together a treasure hunt so the girls could find their Easter baskets (which were hidden in the back of our mini van this year).  Grandma Debbie sent Easter dresses.  This year, the girls were so excited to wear their dresses, they got dressed by themselves.  (Well, Afton managed to mostly get hers on and was trying to dress Ainsley when I intervened for fear of damage to either Ainsley or the dress).  I tried desperately to get a well-posed picture of the girls in said dresses right before church.  (Our nursery leaders bring cheetos for snacktime -- awesome for Ainsley, not awesome for keeping dresses free of orange streaks.)  But alas, my minimal photography skills combined with their excitement and desire to twirl didn't quite produce the greatest result.  But it was a fun weekend.  Happy (belated) Easter!

We went to Zion

For a few days at the end of March, we went to Zion National Park with my parents. Originally, it was on my list of "things to do before I leave Utah." Now it is simply on my list of "places I ought to see because I live here and will probably not leave for decades." Regardless of the reason for the visit, it was beautiful.

We hiked. We played in the river. We drove through the scenic byways and through the Mt. Carmel tunnel. We saw the Emerald Pools and the place where we could start hiking the narrows if we were without children and the weather was 20 degrees warmer. We gazed over the canyon from a high overlook... for five minutes before I got too antsy that my children would plunge to their death. We got covered in red dirt. And then we enjoyed ourselves in a condo in nearby St. George that had a swimming pool.

I will remember fondly my first foray to Southern Utah. By the time we got as far as Fillmore, I was homesick for wide open spaces. I learned to pronounce a few more these previously unseen places correctly. And I was surprised at how gorgeous the green trees (there are some green trees there) are against the red rock.

Spiking the punch

Last Saturday, we got the girls dressed up and headed to a wedding reception. Since they were serving a light dinner, I popped an empty sippy cup into my purse so that little Ainsley could imbibe whatever beverage was served without chancing her still-developing regular cup skills. The food was amazing. (The bride's grandmother was filipino and made these amazing Filipino dishes - when we went home, I told tony I felt like we had eaten out a restaurant.).

And sure enough, there was also a table with punch. We filled up Ains's cup. She guzzled it down. In between eating bites of noodles and rice and meatballs, she demanded drinks alternatively from my cup and Tony's cup. Later, she somehow convinced Tony to fill her sippy cup with punch once again.

We left around 7 pm and put the girls to bed at their usual 8 p.m. bedtime. Then the fun began. Ainsley refused to go to sleep. We kept going into her room to soothe her, but she was resistant. Finally around 9:30 that night, all was quiet.

Unable to sleep myself, I was still awake at midnight when I heard Ainsley crying. I went to her room, change her diaper, and set her back in her crib. At 2:45 am, Tony heard Ainsley crying again. He went to her room and tried to soothe her back to sleep, but she was restless and WIDE AWAKE. Tony lay down on the bed in Ainsley's room, hoping she would do what she normally does: either snuggle against him and go back to sleep immediately or wiggle around quietly next to him while he falls asleep. Neither worked. She ran around the bed. Every time Tony tried to sleep, Ainsley would shout "Dad!" and pry his eyelids open with her fingers. She didn't go back to sleep until after 5 am. Sunday morning, Tony looked like death warmed over.

The next Tuesday at work, the groom came into Tony's office and said he needed to apologize. Tony asked why. "We didn't even think to tell people that the punch was Xango mixed with Mountain Dew," he said.

I haven't decided which was funnier: the fact that the most caffeine-intolerant demographic in the nation (the guests were mostly LDS) were unknowingly guzzling Mountain Dew (in the evening no less), or the fact that the person in our family who consumed the most Mountain Dew-laced punch was our little 24-pound 20-month-old. Water for everyone next time around!

We did it!

Two days after Christmas, we did family pictures. I had been dragging my feet on this photo shoot for two reasons: (1) I was waiting for Afton to become more "easily entreated" (e.g. bribe-able), and (2) I was waiting for me to lose all my baby weight. Neither happened by fall (despite all the hours I've spent at the gym since last January... But the fact that I hate aging is an entirely different blog post....). Alas, we got the girls dressed up and hauled them down to the Fotofly studio in Draper only to reenact the same scene from family pictures 2009: Afton spent the first 20 minutes of the session pitching a fit.

But all's well that ends well. Afton pulled it together and we managed to catch these imaged to preserved for time immemorial.

Drink it in, because we probably won't put ourselves through the ordeal of family pictures again for a couple years :).

Merry Christmas (the 2011 version)

Merry Christmas! (a little late).

Afton was absolutely enthusiastic about decorating the Christmas tree this year. She was so excited, that she redecorated it nearly every day after it was up. The tell-tale sign of Afton's handiwork was ten ornaments hanging on a single branch. Ainsley, however, was more captivated by the boxes the ornaments came in than any part of the decorating process.

Christmas eve was truly fun. The girls got in their matching Christmas pajamas (courtesy Grandma Debbie) and Tony made a fire. They roasted marshmallows and had Danish strawberry pudding. Afton was very pleased to leave Santa a cookie and strawberry milk.

Christmas morning was, for the first time this year, a moment of excitement too. The girls liked their gifts, but I had to laugh when they seemed most exuberant over the fruit snacks Santa had left in their stocking. Then, after a short time playing with the new goods, we got dressed up for church.

All in all, Christmas 2011 was a success. We can safely say that this Christmas was a less hectic, less chaotic, less stressful time of year than Christmas 2010. Bishop Tony crammed his 125 tithing settlement appointments into a marathon day in November and a couple additional evenings. He managed to visit most of the 100 widows in our congregation during December with a cake pop treat and Christmas message. (Several of them got after him for not wearing a coat. He told them they sounded just like his wife. They told him his wife was right.) The girls were easier to plan presents for this year, relieving much of my stress. We did not travel 600 miles in questionable winter weather. Half way through the month, I started crossing things off my Christmas to-do list not because they were done, but just because I wasn't going to do them anymore. (My apologizes for no Christmas card or Christmas treats to any who usually get them.) And, oh yeah, Afton is no longer two and Ainsley no longer wakes up two to three times a night these days. And on top of that, we got to spend time with extended family and enjoyed feeling their kindness and generosity during the season. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!