EaSteR

A few Easter festivities...

My rabid bunny. :)

Collin made these {bunny ears} at the Family Room a couple weeks ago and was quite obsessed with them for a while.

 We went and saw HOP as a family last Saturday evening. Collin did pretty good- with a steady stream of snacks and candy.

 Weston's first movie!

I'm pretty sure I enjoyed it the most of anyone. It was delightful! But I'm sure you knew that given my fondness for personification. Plus it had a rockin' soundtrack. My favorite part was the end when the chick's body would dance involuntarily to the beat of the drum. Those that have seen it know what I'm talking about, right??!! Hysterical!

 The Reester Bunny came! Collin's first basket of goodies. It was much enhanced by the Easter package that Grandma Paula sent. He was thrilled with all the balls, snakes, and dinosaurs. Thanks, Paula! (And yes, another shot of one of his {faces}.

 When we got home from church we heard some scuffling at the back door and opened it to find two Easter baskets left by the "Easter Bunny" aka our next door neighbors. It was so sweet. Collin's basket was shaped like a basketball (which he LOVED and still won't let me put it away) and they both were filled with outfits, candy and little toys like a bubble maker. We lucked out with our neighbors for sure!

 We kind of started a tradition our first year of having a big Easter dinner at our house. I don't know why I sign myself up for these things because it always turns into a lot of work, but of course I'm grateful afterward for the good time. We hauled our beastly kitchen table downstairs and put the 3 extra inserts into it. This year we squeezed 15 adults around it! I'm also getting a soft spot in my heart for the missionaries now that my brother is one, so I invited both sets of Elders from our ward over. We had had them over for dinner earlier in the week and when I asked what their Easter plans were, they said they didn't have any and commented that holidays on the mission were actually kind of depressing. Sad!! So I had to fix that! I'm really glad I invited them. They thanked me a million times and were so excited to be there.

If you look in the middle of the table you can see the sad, little place cards I made. They kept falling over and were buggers to put together!

Here's a close up of one. They are made out of Q-tips so it's a cheap craft but I wouldn't recommend it!

 After dinner we dyed and decorated our eggs for the Egg Bash later.

 Here is the aftermath of dinner. I made the pinwheel banner as an Easter decoration and that's a craft I'd recommend! Cheap, easy, and cute! You can find the tutorial HERE.

Can't forget the lamb butter!! Someone asked if I made this. Haha, no I have not taken up butter carving YET. :) You can buy them at Wegmans during Easter. I love that the flag on it's back says Alleluia. The only problem is that when I pulled it out I thought it looked weird, then realized it didn't have EARS! What the?!

 I made this Yummy Berry Trifle for dessert and it's a seriously sinful indulgence. I got the recipe from Crescent and it's super easy so I thought I'd share:

1 c whipping cream (whipped)

3 (8oz) pkgs cream cheese (softened)

1 c sour cream

2 c powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp almond extract

*Mix together above ingredients

1 large angel food cake (broken into pieces)

*Stir into above mixture

2 bags frozen berries (I combined raspberries and blueberries)

*In a trifle or glass bowl, layer 1/2 of the white mixture, then one bag of berries, then the remaining 1/2 of white mixture, then the last bag of berries.

I would recommend putting it together about 2-3 hours before serving so the berries have time to thaw a bit. It makes a lot but doesn't last well past a day so make sure you have enough people to eat it all!

(This is super rich and I love it... but I think next time I'm going to try substituting 1 pkg cream cheese for a container of cool whip and see how that goes. Maybe then I won't feel like I'm directly adding cottage cheese to my thighs)

 Ok, back to Easter... next we went outside for an egg hunt! Collin's first egg hunt and he did great. We have had untold amounts of rain the past couple weeks [our basement carpet is getting wet!! :( ] but the yard wasn't too bad. I didn't get a shot of all the kids with their baskets, but Megan did, so when I get that from her I'll add it in. In this picture you can see the Carter's little girl, Kadence, aka, Collin's first love. He adores Kadence. On Monday I was trying to coerce him into getting his shoes on so we could head to a birthday party and he wouldn't cooperate until I said Kadence would be there. I had previously listed a bunch of other friend's names, hoping to get him to cooperate, but it wasn't until I mentioned Kadence that he was excited to go. This is how it's been for a couple of weeks. He will randomly say her name and expect to get to play with her. She is the the calmest, most docile little girl, so I guess it's true... opposites do attract! :)

 Here are the missionaries chillin' during the egg hunt. They did help hide the eggs though!

 On to the Egg Bash. Super embarrassing.... I was running around like a chicken with it's head cut off Sunday afternoon, and I guess I didn't boil the eggs long enough. Some of them hit too hard and cracked open, oozing nasty, half-cooked {eggness} all over! Sick. I won't make that mistake again. Glad we had the sheet underneath or my carpet would have got it!

 Ryan was the winner! Funny, cuz all he had written on his egg was {Winning Egg} when he decorated it.

Elder Bryson was a close second place. The missionaries LOVED this game. I had told them about it earlier in the week at dinner and I guess they boiled like 2 dozen eggs and had a competition with their district later in the week. They all went on and on about how cool it was and how they were going to make it a tradition in their families too. It was cute.

Other events on Easter Sunday included my younger brother David, giving his farewell talk in church. (He actually left this morning! Shed a tear!) I was so sad I didn't get to be there to hear it, so my AMAZING cousin, Leah, took time out of her crazy Easter Sunday and went to the church in the Young Women's room and held her cell phone up to the speaker so I could listen!! She is the best! Her poor arm was probably dead afterward. It made my day to be able to hear his talk. I was in tears afterward. I can't believe my little, chubby cheeked brother is all grown up and going on a mission! We only got to Skpe for about 3 minutes last night before he was set apart and according to Travis's observations... he was "trippin'" :) I can't imagine how it must feel to know you are hours away from spending 2 years in a 3rd world country. Be good to him, Honduras!

 The day after Easter brought sugar guilt accompanies by the realization that we had not partaken of the Reester Bunny! Collin loved it. And no, we did not let him eat the whole thing.

 Here's Weston in his Easter duds! He had his 2 month appt. a couple weeks ago and weighed in at 10 lbs. 13 oz.

 I cannot resist these scrumptious cheeks! He's looking pretty chunky in this pic. He's such a love. I really can't get enough of him!



Abuse

Please don't call CPS on me. I promise I don't beat my child.

Last Thursday night I left the house for all of 10 min. and came home to a nice, clean slice on Collin's head. Apparently the entertainment center fought back.

Last Saturday night he was running around with some friends and crashed into the stair rail. He was so hysterical, his body was writhing in contortions. It was sad to watch. Then 5 min. later (with some frozen cranberries as an ice pack) he was back to running around.

So here are injury #1 and #2.

 Then yesterday at my WIC appt. he was running and tripped, slamming his face on a wooden, kiddie table. Again, in so much pain, he couldn't even keep still. ALL the workers came pouring into the waiting room (I'm sure expecting abuse) and calmed his crying with a cute, little butterfly ice pack. His left cheek was rosy red with a bruise in the middle, but it's harder to see in the picture. 

 I had to include this one because this is a {face} he throws our way often. But usually with a squintier eye. It's pretty cute.

 At least no stitches or broken bones. Although I have a feeling all I have to do is wait. Apparently Travis had a perpetual black eye as a toddler, from falling so much. So I blame his father.

What am I going to do with this guy?

Tonga Part Dos

Other people on the trip posted their pictures on Photobucket, so now I have some more of Trav's trip to share. And here I thought I had put Tonga behind me! :)

One of the Saturdays they took a boat out to one of the smaller islands (Doug walked around the whole thing in 20 min.) to go snorkling. Here's the crew on the three hour tour. ♫ A three hour tour. ♫

 This is Trav with Dr. Gambacorta, the professor who went with them. They took this picture to display the {darkest} person against the {whitest}. Go Trav. :)

 A non-blurry one of him working! :)

 Don't mind creeper Chris inbetween :)

 Most of the group plus some clinic workers.

 Playing "Ninja".

 These are the {blowholes}. Chris is in the background being crazy/dangerous. Where the water sprays up is where it is hitting the ledge of rock.

 Had to display the 'staches. So sexy. Why did he ever shave it off ? :)

Creed looks like a Mexican, for reals. Tengo hambre, hombre?!

 These men ate the whole thang!

 Remember the story about Trav getting called up on stage to dance at the show? Well here is the lady that {leid} him. Ooo la la!

 Supposedly the only three branch palm tree in the world.

Side note: I've shared that Travis went to Tonga with a few non-LDS people and I get the strangest looks. Then they ask where Tonga is because they've never heard of it. ????? This strikes me as odd. So is it just well known to us because of missionaries? I'm guessing so.

Reasons Why April 9th Was Da Bomb (diggity)

#1- We finally got our zoo membership!

And an even bigger bonus was skipping past the 1/2 hour + line that everyone else was waiting in just to get in, and go straight to the front since we were actually purchasing a membership.

 The baby gorilla was out and she was pretty dang cute.

 (And this baby monkey came too, but he slept the whole time!)

 #2- The sun was shining!!!

Oh my, I NEEDED the sun. I couldn't soak up enough. And since the boys were both napping in the afternoon (Collin took a 3 hour nap btw- hallelujah), I decided to go for a jog at the track. It felt GOOD. I don't typically enjoy running, but this felt amazing. Add some lunges and my legs are SORE! But it's a good kinda sore. The boys were still asleep when I got home and I started to crash in the living room, then thought...why not take this outside?! So I laid in the glorious sun another 45 min. and got myself a slight sunburn. Love. It.

#3- Easter goodness is now hanging from the trees!

Sis. Groscost's tradition continues! Eggs on branches makes me smile. And these two boys make me smile everyday!

 Collin looooves pictures.

#4- I got to spend the whole day with this guy!

(He digs getting his picture taken.)

I love being married to my best friend. Just spending time with him makes me happy.

It was just too nice to be indoors, so after hanging up the eggs, we tossed the football around then went for a walk.... to Dairy Queen. (Nothin' wrong with a buy one, get one free blizzard!... unless it's buy one, get 6 free-haha Dad... [he got punked on April Fools with that one])

#5- I found the {Reester Bunny} at Wegmans!! bahahahaha

I saved the best for last! I love Reeces anyway, but would have bought this just for the name. It kills me! Seriously, this kind of stuff cracks me up. I love a good play on words. Especially a cheesy one!

(And what a pleasant surprise to grocery shop on a Saturday morning, expecting a nasty crowd, but getting an empty store! Glorious!!! Me and Weglemans might be having our weekly date every Sat. at 9am from now on.)

April Fools

Here is my attempt to {April Fool} Travis....

(If you look closely, you can see the bowl of powdered sugar above the door)

Ya, didn't work out like I had planned. :(

But the salt on his toothbrush worked like a charm! I didn't know how strong it would taste, but only a second after he started brushing, I got the desired facial expression of utter disgust. I tried to keep a straight face, but cracked immedietly and had to bury my face in the bathroom towel I was drying my hands on, while I busted up. Too fun.

So this past week was a week of birthdays in my family! My mom's is March 30, my brother's is April 1, and my dad's is April 2.

The following is an excerpt from my twin's blog:

"The mother had a birthday! I got a sitter and was able to spend the day with my mom and Marcie. It was a blast. My dad decorated her car and filled it with 49 balloons. Apparently she now needs a new horn because she busted it from honking too much while driving the kids to school.


I am used to having a mom who honks the horn often while driving... or screeching over speed bumps... or screaming out the car window phrases such as "don't burp your bottom" to you, your friends and pretty much the entire Mesa High student body on her week of car pool. I guess during her birthday honking episode she was tooting to the tune of "happy birthday" then had an encore of ♫and many mooooore on channel fouuuur and scooby doooooo on channel twooooo♫. I guess one little reserved girl in the car quietly said, this is kinda freakin me out. Haha, oh girl you have no idea!"

This is all too true and just a part of why I love my mom! My mom and sisters had a fun day of eating out at Pita Jungle (organic heaven), shopping for some new furniture, getting treats at Poppy's, and eating out again at Matta's. Needless to say I was memoaning the miles between us. I SO missed out. Happy 49th B-day to the grooviest mom around!

My dad turned the big Five- O this year so I sent a little package to commemorate his "Over the Hill" birthday. I sent a package of Tootsie Roll Pop's, tied with a tag that said "50 Sucks". Haha

Then I also sent him a copy of The Mentalist, season 1. This was to help with his failing mental abilities and such. :)

This is actually my new favorite show. I'm pretty much obsessed with it. It has mystery, comedy, and action.

[And I hear that the main character, Simon Baker, isn't too bad on the eyes. I will neither confirm, nor deny this. :)]

My sister got him a "50" pinata and it looks like the fam had a good time swingin' their hearts out. Again, so sad I missed out on all the fun. And sunshine. Just look at that luscious, green grass. I'm pining!

 Ok, so as much as I would have loved to participate in all that, we didn't have too shabby a weekend out here either. The guys had Friday off of school since the clinic was closed for the seniors to take the WREB test. Trav still went in for a make-up seminar from being in Tonga, but that afternoon, he took Collin to the YMCA with Doug and Gavin (thanks for the invite, guys!) to go swimming. He said Collin did great and loved the water. (Phew, he would have been toast otherwise, given Trav's swim teaching past). Then after that we met up with some friends to go to Chuckie Cheese. (Does anyone else feel the need to douse themselves in Purell after being there?) Collin loves it though and now can say it perfectly. We ended the night at the Shaw's with pizza. The kids play so well together... ok, most of the time. I thought this was too cute of Collin and Lily.

 The caged animals. :)

 On Saturday we watched Conference and attempted a much too chilly walk to the park. Trav also went and got our taxes done in the morning, then tried his own post-April Fools joke on me that we owed both the Federal and State money. Haha, not funny. What a nightmare that would have been.
Then, I baked the night away while Trav went to Priesthood session and then Duff's with the guys. And that is where he saw......

 Yup, Ryan from The Office! Or, B.J. Novak. I guess he was leaving when they recognized him and the ever tactful Creed (in his excitement, I'm sure) pointed his finger at him ("him" being not three feet away) and yelled, "Hey, it's the guy from The Office!!!". B.J, was pretending to scratch his face/hide as he made his way out, but when he got to the door, Garth yelled, "Hey B.J!!" and he turned and waved at them. Wow. See... Blessings come from attending your priesthood meetings. :)

On Sunday morning we went over the Shaheen's for a yummy nummy breakfast, then jetted to our ward building for another breakfast (we aren't THAT hungry... but I had signed up to bring cinnamon rolls and invited some less actives that I didn't want to be MIA for). I'm glad we did because both were a lot of fun.

We came home to watch the first session so Collin could go down for his nap. I may have entertained myself with a little photo shoot of Weston (haha, I just realized you can even see Conference on the lap top behind him)

Collin's not the only one with funny faces!

 I crocheted to stay awake.... Trav succumbed. For how tired he was this weekend, I was pretty impressed that he only snoozed through about 3 speakers.

Since Conference Sunday always means yummy food and gathering with family, we invited friends over after the last session to enjoy some Buster Bars with us. I got the recipe from my sister and it was a hit.

Here is the recipe for anyone who might want to try it...

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups evaporated milk
• 2/3 cup chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 pound chocolate sandwich cookies, crushed
• 1/2 cup melted butter
• 1/2 gallon vanilla ice cream, softened
• 1 1/2 cups roasted Spanish peanuts
• 1 (12 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed

Directions

1. In a saucepan over medium heat, combine evaporated milk, 1/2 cup butter, chocolate chips, and confectioners' sugar. Bring to a boil, and cook 8 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat, and stir in vanilla extract. Allow to cool thoroughly.
2. In a large bowl, mix together crushed chocolate sandwich cookies and 1/2 cup melted butter. Press onto the bottom of a 9x13 inch pan; freeze until firm. Spread softened ice cream over crust, then freeze until firm. Spread top with cooled fudge sauce, and sprinkle with peanuts; freeze until firm. Spread with whipped topping, and freeze until firm, or overnight.

 And just because I'm absolutely eating this kid up....

here's a few more of my bebe. :)
Just after a bath.

Getting dressed to go outside.

I think originally, he was in the sun, but by the time I took a picture, not so much.

I still feel like most of my time is spent nursing or changing diapers (or cleaning, doing laundry, making meals, or exercising). And even though several times a week I get drenched in enough spit up that I have to change my shirt.... or realize I need to take a shower not just because it's time, but because I smell... I love my life. It's a special time in your life when you have 3 places in your house designated for dirty diapers and 5 different places you keep diaper wipes. It's all good. :) Spring is coming. I can feel it. What's not to love right now?!