Saturday, April 30, 2011

April Favorite Things

Sequins on sequins

Girls night out

 My new name at work

 Quiet time

 Meeting baby Charleigh

 Love notes from the babysitter

Sass ...

 and drama from my favorite girl

Enjoying tea and cake while watching the Royal Wedding at work

Good mail days.

Long Way Home

We took the long way home from Clay's mom's house on Sunday.


And we pulled into a harbor to watch the sun set on the water where Clay played when he was a little boy.


We need to take the long way home more often.

Friday, April 29, 2011

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Adventures at Easter

Every year we drive the two-ish hours north to Clay's mom's for Easter dinner. I'm not much of a roadtrip girl. At all. 30 minutes is my max in a vehicle. And Easter dinner is always an all-day event (it has to be when it's two hours there and two hours back) which means nothing else can get done that day.


So long story short- I annually dread the whole trip.


Except for this year.  After the babies dug into their baskets and after Clay made our scrambled eggs and sausage and toast and jelly and after we were all showered and ready, we happily loaded the family up in the Edge and drove up to grandma's house.


Do you think it's because I'm married now? That I actually looked forward to going to my inlaw's?  I kinda think it's because I'm married now. But surely that can't realllly be it. Right?


I mean Clay and I have been together for NINE years. The addition of a marriage license and my last name are the only things that changed; the love and the base and the family that we've been building and working on and maintaining for a long while now are still the same.


But I felt different this Easter than I have on Easters in the past. I felt more connected to Clay, to his family. I truly felt like we were going to my family for the holiday. So something had to have changed. Something impossible to predict and impossible to see, but there nonetheless.


Whatever it is, I love it. I love being married. I love being Clay's wife.  I know what you're thinking- suuure, that's what you say now; you'll feel differently in 25 years. To which I reply, no way.  I have no doubt that Clay and I will still be happily married 25 years from now.

Still celebrating Easters with our children.


The only difference will be that it will be our grandchildren running around, hunting for eggs and blowing bubbles and breaking open pinatas. 


I'm looking forward to the memories of right now.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Easy Like Easter Morning

Have you noticed a holiday trend with me? Every holiday that we've had, and I know there haven't been a ton since I started this blog (just Valentine's Day and St Patrick's Day) but I've claimed them to be my favorite. And I was going to start this post with the acclamation that Easter is my favorite and I thought wait, they can't all be favorites.

But they are. Really.

Holidays make a normal everyday day more festive and delicious. And my love for them only increased after I had my babies; I enjoy teaching them the traditions that I grew up with up and creating new ones especially for our family.


Take these Easter baskets for example- they're the same baskets that held Narls' and Emerson's treats last year. My kids were ridiciously attached to these baskets and they've been playing with them since we got the Easter decorations out at the beginning of April.  So before bedtime, we set out the empty baskets and told our kids that the Easter Bunny would refill them with goodies after they fell asleep.

When I was a child, the bunny brought my brothers and I a new basket every year (which if you think isn't really that fabulous for the environment - way to reuse current-day Easter Bunny!).  But in all seriousness, my family is a different family than the one I grew up with and we're creating our own special traditions and that means the world to me.


This Easter was a particularly good one because it's the first one with my girl being a very active part; no more squishy baby observing from my arms.





Narls and Em - and even Snowmeow - loved their baskets. Almost as much as Clay and I loved filling them. We originally planned on taking a lunch date to Target during a weekday afternoon, but we weren't able to. And since we had the kids every other minute besides those spent working - and we both wanted to buy their Easter prizes - we made two separate trips.  I went to Target by myself Saturday afternoon to get trinkety things- a superheros DVD for Narls and a Carebears DVD for Em, some crayons & coloring books, flashcards and Little People, treats and a mouse for Snowmeow, and Clay went to Meijer after the kids were asleep to pick up their "big" present (fishing poles!) and some Legos for Narls and hairbows for Em (can I take a minute here to mention how much I LOVE the fact that my husband bought our daughter hairbows?  On his own accord.  What a man, what a man, what a mighty good man.).

After Clay got back, we drank some wine and sat on the floor and filled our children's baskets and stuffed little plastic eggs with stickers and bracelets and tiny dinosaurs and candy. We laughed over Easter stories of our youth and remarked about how much fun our kiddos are going to have in the Easters of their youth.

And it was wonderful.
So yes, add Easter to my list of favorite holidays.

Monday, April 25, 2011

Robins' Nest No Bakes



I don't know anyone who doesn't love No Bakes. Well, except for Clay, but I'm not counting him because he doesn't eat condiments so his food opinions are null and void to me.  He does like the little malted Robins' Eggs though so I guess that says something. And Robins' Eggs + No Bakes = One Delicious Easter Cookie.







Saturday, April 23, 2011