Easter 2011

This Easter for some reason I kept forgetting my camera.

• Easter egg hunt at the park: forgot my camera (my phone takes horrible pictures, especially when people are running).


• Easter egg hunt/party at Grandma Zauggs: forgot my camera.


• Easter egg hunt/party at Grandma Hauns: REMEMBERED my camera, took two really bad pictures and then ran out of memory.

Nice.

Even Easter morning didn't go so well becaue it was too cold to take the kids outside to get some nice, springtime pictures in their church clothes. (Sidenote: What the @#$%^ is up with the snow this morning?!?!? It is April 26th for hecks sakes. ENOUGH ALREADY!) And even inside the nice warm house, it seemed impossible to take a halfway decent picture of all three kids at the same time. Here are the best I could do:

Cora, look at the camera! Arden, don't blink!

*sigh*

I gave up and did them one at a time, and I must admit it is much easier. Here is my little Corbie:

Okay, how cute is she??? She has been in her toddler bed for about a month now, and for whatever reason she NEVER gets out of it at night. It. Is. Awesome. She even calls for me to come and get her out of bed in the mornings. She knows that she CAN get in and out because she gets in and out during the day to get toys out or whatever, but for some reason she hasn't even tried to get out after bedtime. Jealous much? (I hope it lasts!)

And here is my little man:

Is that one good-lookin' little dude or what? Wow, he is growing up into a handsome little guy so fast. Right now (besides dinosaurs) his favorite thing is the color GREEN. He has to eat out of the green bowl. He has to drink out of the green cup. Every night he asks me to sing him "La La Lu" as a lullaby. One of the lines in that song is "Here comes a pink cloud for you," and he commands that I change it to "Here comes a green cloud for you," each night. I don't know about you, but a green cloud doesn't sound so great to me, but whatever. One of his favorite songs is "Yellow Submarine," but now he sings it as "Green Submarine." And don't try to tell him his eyes aren't green, he won't believe you. It goes on and on.

And here is my beautiful Arden:

She gave her first talk in Primary on Easter Sunday, and she did great! I know she was nervous, but you wouldn't have been able to tell by watching her, she was amazing. She also got moved up to the advanced gymnastics class this week, and is now referred to as a "Little Flipper Girl." I am one proud mom.

It was a great Easter! I am a little sad that it is over, especially since they won't be selling any Cadbury mini-eggs so I won't be able to get my cookie fix after this batch is gone. Hopefully the withdrawal symptoms are not too bad.

Little Purple Ghost (and the cookie recipe link)

Yesterday Cora put her blankie over her head and shrieked "I SPOOKY!" She then proceeded to walk verrrrry slowly around the kitchen giggling hysterically. She kept it up for quite a while, despite bumping into chairs and other solid objects pretty frequently.
I have no idea where she gets this stuff.

In case any of you were wondering, no one has staged a cookie intervention on my behalf yet, despite my cries for help. My serious cookie addiction problem has only grown stronger today. It took all of my strength to have something other than cookies for breakfast, and to reward myself for eating cereal instead of cookies for breakfast, I ate a cookie. The first of many today. But some of you think you can handle the stuff, so here is a link to the recipe (click HERE). Don't say I didn't warn you.

I Need A Cookie Intervention!!

The kids and I decided to make some Easter cookies this afternoon:

Hi, I am Chrystie, and I am a Cadbury Egg Cookie addict. I am a complete cookie fiend. I cannot count how many cookies I have had today. Someone. Help. Me. PLEASE.

Racing Grandpa

I was on the treadmill. I had a goal. I was going to run MORE than 6.2 miles in 60 minutes. I HAD to do it. I HAD to. Why you ask?

To beat a 60-year-old grandpa.

My dad has become quite a runner in the last few years, and has completed several half-marathons. My little sister just ran the Salt Lake half marathon last weekend (GO VAL!). My other sister has also also done a few. This causes some problems for me. It brings out two conflicting sides of my nature:

1- I don’t want to do a half marathon. I am far too much of a wuss.
2- By nature, I am a very competitive girl. If you ever play any sort of board game with me, you will find this out.

I must admit that sometimes my competitive side rises up and tells me that I should PROVE that I can run just as far and fast as my sisters and my dad. The problem is, I probably can’t, at least not without a bunch of training. And the truth is that at this point in my life I just don't have the motivation to try.

I do run. Just not long distances. A couple of times a week after the kids are asleep I pick a show off of my nearly-full DVR and run on my treadmill while watching it. But I always run 3 miles or so.

Why 3 miles?

After 3 miles, I am tired and want to stop. So I do. Also, the half-hour long TV show is over because I skipped through the commercials.

A couple of weeks ago I was at my parents’ house, and my dad mentioned that he had run 6.2 miles in 60 minutes on his treadmill that day. I thought to myself, “If I wanted to, I could do that too! I just don’t want to!” Then the other day I decided to watch part of a Biggest Loser episode while running on the treadmill. This is the first year I have watched that show. I started watching because one of this years’ contestants used to live in my neighborhood.

Anyway…the show is 2 HOURS LONG. Every week. Even if I skip all of the commercials AND the blatant product-placement segments AND the annoying scale that takes forever to actually weigh anyone, it still takes about an hour to watch. (I am a few weeks behind. Product placement in last night's episode? The movie “HOP”…I skipped through around 10 full minutes of the show where ALL they talked about was the cute little Easter Bunny movie. Seriously? What does the Easter Bunny have to do with losing weight? NOTHING. The Easter Bunny = Cadbury Eggs = crazy delish = can’t stop = the OPPOSITE of losing weight. But I digress. Where was I? Oh yes, skipping through the Biggest Loser.) I had finished my 3 miles and was about to stop. I turned down the speed and started walking. But then the competitive side of me stepped in and said, “You should try to run 6.2 miles in less than an hour so you can beat your dad! I thought about it. The Biggest Loser still had a long way to go. Preston was out of town. The kids were sleeping peacefully. I had nothing better to do. I decided I would stay on the treadmill and see if I could beat grandpa.

The second half-hour I was on the treadmill seemed a LOT longer than the first half-hour. By the end, I had to slowed down my pace considerably and decreased the incline ALL the way down to 1.5. But: SUCCESS! I did 6.3 miles in 60 minutes! See, I win! In this very narrow contest (and in no other), I CAN beat a 60-year old grandpa at running! And I learned two important things:

1- If you are on a TV program where the object is to lose weight, you shouldn’t pound a whole bag of tortilla chips in your room at night. Especially when there are cameras in your room to catch you scarfing said chips and broadcast your transgressions to all of America.
2- I really, truly am too big of a wuss to do a half marathon. This is what would happen to me right about mile 7:

Kudos to all of you runners out there! You are amazing.

Cora is Two (I have 2 Two-Year-Olds!)

Today is Cora's birthday! She is two years old. This is what happens in only 730 short days. This:Turns into THIS:

It is so amazing to think how much Corbie has learned in her short little life. This year alone, she has learned to walk, run and jump! She has learned to talk, (and she talks ALL DAY LONG). She has even learned to sing, and loves to sing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star," and "I am a Child of God" over and over. During the last year, she has also learned how to get in trouble. And...she has learned how to blow out candles!

Here is Cora and her birthday cake! (I am not very good at frosting cakes, but hey, I tried!)

Cora is getting ready to blow the second candle out:

"Wook! I did it!"

Despite this picture, Cora HAS learned how to eat using a fork. (But sometimes, it just takes tooooo long!)

Happy Birthday, Corbiecakes! I can't wait to see what you learn this year.

All Tangled Up

"Tangled," the new Disney movie, was released on DVD about a week ago. Being the Disney freak that I am, I picked up a copy. We had seen it in the theaters around Christmastime and the whole family liked it.

Since the movie arrived, the kids can NOT get enough of it. They watch it once a day (which is all I will allow anymore). They especially like the songs, and even Cora will sing along. She was stacking blocks in the playroom the other day singing "At wast I see a wyyyyte!" (at last I see the light) over and over. I guess that is the only line of the song she can remember. Dax has the same problem, only he likes to yell out "MUVERRRRRRRRRR knows BEST!" at the top of his lungs at random times during the day. I am surprised the kids haven't asked if we can have a chameleon for a pet. Or a horse. And Arden is totally into it. The last couple of days she decided that she has to dress up like Rapunzel to make her movie experience complete:

Rapunzel look-alike

She got this dress-up dress as a hand me down from her cousins, and since it is purple, it must be a "Tangled dress." I mentioned that her hair needed a trim the other day, and she freaked out and informed me that she is not going to cut her hair again until it touches the ground. Hmmmmmm...maybe if every time I brushed her hair I got a little younger and more beautiful I would let that one go. So far, no luck. Those grey hairs just keep showing up!

Going....going....

Last week Cora climbed out of her crib. She has been climbing into the crib from her chair for a few weeks, but had never tried to climb out until last week. She, of course, fell, but luckily for us we didn't have any Arden-repeats and no arms were broken (phew!). As soon as Cora stopped crying, Preston informed me he was going upstairs to convert Cora's crib into a toddler bed.

I knew it was time. Corbie turns two (TWO!) next week, so she really should be in a toddler bed. But as I sat holding her in my lap while Preston was dismantling the crib, I got a horrible feeling in my stomach as I suddenly realized:

My time as a mom-of-babies is essentially over. Gone.

Corbie is not a baby anymore. I am not quite sure how this happened. I have (of course) been watching her grow every day and knew that she would not be a baby for much longer. But now all at once I look at her and she is already a big girl. How did I not notice that she had crossed over from baby to full-fledged big girl? She speaks in complete sentences. She runs and jumps and tries to ride a tricycle. She wants to sit on the potty (I wish this would rub off on Dax). She begs me to let her walk when we go shopping. And now...she sleeps in a big girl bed.

Here she is just after waking up from her nap yesterday:

I am doing my best not to feel too bad that these wonderful, exhausting, magical baby days are coming to an end. These last five years have been the best years of my life. I really am excited to watch my three beautiful children continue to grow and learn, and I am looking forward to doing new things and going new places with them as they get older. And, it is oh sooo nice to be able to (at least occasionally) sleep all night uninterrupted.

But I am really going to miss that baby smell and those baby snuggles and slobbery kisses!