We're going on an egg hunt... Easter Part One

I just knew you all were going to be sick of all the Easter recaps. That's why I waited two weeks to recap our Easter weekend. Right. It had nothing at all to do with the 9pm bedtimes and stack of books I just got from the library. Not a thing.

 

Right. So here we go...

 

Our Easter weekend started on Good Friday morning with Clay's Easter egg hunt at daycare. The night before I seriously held an Easter egg hunt practice in the dining room. Coach Aunt Amy, Coach Uncle Troy, and I ran drills with Clay until he was delirious (it had nothing to do with the fact that it was way past his bedtime). By the time his head hit the pillow, Clay knew that eggs could be in shoes and had perfected shooting the egg like a basketball into his basket.

 

We were ready.

 

 

The teachers had the baskets hanging from the ceiling for two weeks leading up to Easter. Clay just wanted his to be hanging again.

 

Unfortunately, no matter how much you practice, trucks trump Easter eggs anyday. Who thought it would be a good idea to have the egg hunt on the playground with all of the toys???

 

Luckily, we convinced Clay that he could hold the truck and still score some candy.

 

 

But he insisted on opening each egg as he found it.

 

 

Then he just gave up all together and took to climbing up the slide...because going down the slide is so 2013 apparently.

 

 

And of course we had to get some swinging time in. Am I the only person who never realized two kids can swing at once on that type of swing??

 

 

After that we just had to make a stop at Target and we were on the road to Tennessee.

 

Clay might have gotten mad at me on the way because I wouldn't let him pick my nose. It must be hard to be a toddler.

 

 

Clay clearly lives the life at Mammaw's house and gets to walk around eating peanut butter by the spoonful.

 

 

 

And gets his picture taken approximately 50 more times a day than he does at home.

 

 

Also, at Mammaw's, we stay up way too late... but then we sleep til 10 the next morning so I'm okay with that.

 

 

 

Whew. I'm tired just from recapping all of that. Part 2 coming... Well, let's tentatively say Monday, but if you don't see it then, definitely by July 4th :)

 

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The not-so-perfect perfect picture

You may remember this picture from last year:

 

 

Complete chaos. Although very representative of their personalities. Tucker screaming because that's what Tucker does. Cade with his head in his hands because he can't believe this is his family. Clay with his "WTF? Can I go back to Charlotte now?" look. And Brayden, as the oldest, knows he just needs to keep smiling know matter what.

 

A few weeks ago my Mammaw requested a picture of the four great grandsons together. I thought, "easy peasy. Clay is always down for smiling and Tucker has calmed down quite a bit."

 

Bahahahahahaha. I am so funny.

 

This was the first try:

 

 

Second try:

 

 

Finally I told the older boys to just follow Clay around and surely I would get a good candid of the four of them. I got some of this:

 

 

 

Finally Clay went up to the boys and started saying "boom boom boom." What in the world, Clay? Then I realized he was trying to get them to fist bump with him then blow it up.

 

And then I got the not-so-perfect perfect picture.

 

 

It probably wasn't the picture my mammaw was looking for, but it's definitely my new favorite of my boys together.

 

(Apparently we only have blonde haired, blue eyed boys in our family.)

 

This moment was by far my favorite little moment of the past week! What was yours?

 

Linking up with Ashley and Jess for It's the Little Things Linkup!

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Boy Meets Chicken

Last weekend Clay had the opportunity to visit a petting zoo (a.k.a. my dad's backyard). I snapped a few pictures on my real camera before the battery died (boooooo) and this one was perfect for Kelli's linkup today!

 

 

Silly boy...doeesn't he know he shouldn't move his hand while I'm taking his picture?

 

 

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Q&A

Whew. It has been a crazy few weeks. Thankfully Desiree came to the rescue again and nominated me for a Liebster award.

 

 

Can every post be in question and answer format? Just kidding. Sorta.

Anyway, on to Desiree's questions (by the way, such great questions):

 

What is the one book you believe everyone must read? Hmm...this is a hard one! I think everyone should read all of the books!!! Haha. But I really think that you should at least try one of every genre. Be well read. Even if you don't enjoy reading (I don't get you if you don't enjoy reading), it will give you something to talk about at dinner parties (I say that like I frequent dinner parties. I don't.).

 

If there were 25 hours in a day, what would you do with the extra 60 minutes? Spend 60 glorious minutes just playing with Clay. No meal times, no bathtimes, no breathing treatments. Just us. Just having fun.

To date, what blog post of yours is your favorite, and why? The Story of Us. It was the first part in my story of Clay Lucas and our non-traditional life.

What is the one thing you would love to tell your 16 year old self? Stop analyzing stuff so much. Wait, I need to tell my 28 year old self that...

As moms it is sometimes difficult to carve out 'me' time. What is one thing you love to do just for you? I take bubble baths with either a book or Netflix on the ipad. I try for every Tuesday and Thursday night (Wednesday and Friday are my late morning days). At first I felt so guilty for carving out this time, but as a mom there is always going to be something and as much as I want to, I can't do everything. So twice a week I take a time out and enjoy myself.

Where is your dream vacation destination? Ireland. Hands down.

What is the best mommy moment you've experienced thus far? Every evening when I pick Clay up, his face just lights up. Everything just stops for a minute and I'm reunited with my favorite person ever.

A guilty pleasure: On the weekends Clay usually gets up ridiculously early so when he does, I give him milk, put him in my bed, and turn on Jake and the Neverland Pirates on the ipad. Mama likes her sleep.

Favorite app: Instagram. Hands down. I rarely check facebook anymore, but when I have a spare minute, I go to IG first. Less talk. More pictures.

What is something your readers may not know about you? I usually have a book with me. I mean, you never know when you'll get stuck in the kind of traffic where you just turn your car off and chill (true story, it's happened to me before).

Share a favorite picture of your little one with YOU in the picture too.

 

 

This was taken right after I finished my first (and hopefully not last) half marathon. Part of the reason I run is for Clay. I want to stay healthy so I can be around to run around with his grandkids. I also want him to grow up knowing that exercise is important!

 

I'm breaking the rules and instead of nominating 11 bloggers I have two questions for you all that you can just answer in the comments :)

 

What is your favorite go-to quick meal?

Have you done your monthly breast exam? Really, have you?

 

 

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19 months...what???

How long is it okay to keep doing monthly updates? Til Kindergarten? High school graduation? Haha...but really, I like doing them and since I'm way behind on any sort of scrapbooking, I like that I have all of these memories down somewhere.

 

 

The format of these updates is changing slowly. When he was younger I liked having the update on clothing sizes, new foods, new words; but now that Clay is getting older I'm changing this to more of a list of things I want to remember from each month.

 

Dear pumpkin butt,

This month has been crazy. Allergy season hit, then your dad ruptured his bursa (just google it) in his knee and has been on the injured list. "Normal" life has basically been non-existent this month but you've taken it like a champ.

 

 

You've put up with me dressing you in crazy things (like the gown you wore right after you were born) and you've smiled through the whole thing. Okay, okay, maybe there were tears when I tried to get it over your head but they quickly subsided.

 

 

 

You're well on your way to becoming the best dressed kid at daycare. Speaking of daycare, you are rocking it. Everyday when I drop you off, your teachers talk about what a sweet little boy you are. You just started transitioning up to the next classroom and I've heard nothing but compliments on how well you're doing.

 

 

 

Someone (ahem, grandma), taught you how to fist bump and sometimes you feel the need to blow on your fist first. She didn't teach you that part so I haven't a clue where you learned that.

 

 

 

Friday nights have turned into pizza + dinner before dessert + a movie nights. I kinda like it.

 

 

 

It has gotten increasingly hard to take your picture lately because once you see me pull out my phone or camera, you have to see what is going on so a lot of pictures are taken in selfie mode. Gosh, we're a bunch of weirdos. LOVE IT.

 

 

 

And then there's this. Back in the day I would do my grocery shopping while you were at your dad's. These days you enjoy going so I actually wait until I can go with you. Everything is always fine and dandy... til we get to the checkout at Trader Joe's and you see the chocolate. If you got nothing else from me, you definitely got my love of chocolate. You rarely have meltdowns in public, but if you are having one, you can bet that we're in TJ's and I'm refusing to get chocolate. I should probably note that I gave in after the above picture was taken because that Cowboy bark intrigued me. For the record, it was delicious.

 

 

 

And then there's your bedtime habits. One of us rocks you for a few minutes then puts you in your crib. It usually takes you anywhere from 15-60 minutes to get settled down and go to sleep. Sometimes you spend this time just rolling around, sometimes you spend it singing (my favorite). Recently you went through a phase where you would pick a friend up, give it kisses, then throw it overboard. As soon as the last one went over you would lay down and pass out. I mean, who needs tv when you have a video monitor?

 

And just in case you thought you were off the hook, I've got a Dear Future Girlfriend post coming up.

 

I love you so much pumpkin butt!

 

Mama

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