Skipping to Easter

Appetizer bunnies :)

Reese's new tunnel from easter bunny - she loves to go inside and lie down

Reese in her pretty new Tutu from Grammy and Pop

Noah's easter backpack (instead of basket)

It's fun to buy girlie easter dresses!

Relaxing after a fun day.

I'm going to do a bit of backward blogging. I have not been able to catch up on all the time I have not been making blog entries and new events keep happening, so I have decided to start with the present activities and get to the past ones as I find time - which may be never.

Which means that currently we have just celebrated Easter. We have had a lot of trouble with church lately. There are two time slots, the early one which offers no junior church for Noah and the late service which falls right during Reese's naptime. To try and accomodate both my children, for the last two weeks, we have all left home for the early service, where Reese and I "attend" church and Noah plays his DS in the car. I put "attend" in quotations because I hear very little of what goes on between trying to keep the snacks coming fast enough for Reese and trying to keep her from wandering down the aisles. After the first service is done, Reese and I come home for her nap and Noah stays for junior church during the second service and someone brings him home, ie. Grammy and Pop, neighbor friends or Dave.

Anyway, this is what happened for Easter Sunday, so my family was not together for church. However, we all came together for an easter hunt and a wonderful meal on our patio that afternoon.

Over the hills and thru the woods...

Our annual tradition of going to the cabin the week after Christmas was a hit once again. I so much look forward to being "trapped" with the whole family for a week, playing games, watching movies, sledding, doing our puzzles, doing our projects, eating and being together. We are all so blessed to be able to do this every year. I will never be able to convey enough gratitude to Grammy and Pop for having the idea and making it happen. It's the best week of the entire year - every year!

This year, some friends from the neighborhood were in Pinetop the same time we were, so we got to go sledding with them and Noah got to spend the night with his friends. It made the trip even more special this time.

Reese loved eating the snow and the sledding. We got her a little sled and she felt like such a big girl sitting in it all by herself and zooming down the hill. It was also great for pulling her around in the snow.

The big day

We had a very busy Christmas season as usual and finally the big day came. Grammy and Pop spent the night Christmas Eve and it was so awesome to have them there when we all woke up to open presents. Reese was not quite sure what to do with her presents and I'm sure she was very overwhelmed. In fact, we were still opening Christmas presents up until her birthday! It worked out great because it meant we got something new to play with every few days. Noah finally got a nice piano to play and it's wonderful. I love hearing music in the house (although I can't really say that about the recorder practice).

We ended the day at church for dinner. It was another perfect Christmas day.

Old-Fashioned Arizona Christmas

Every year since we have been here, we have to discuss how weird it feels to be shopping for a Christmas tree in short sleeves and how traditions are to go to the park and have a picnic Christmas day and how getting a new bike for Christmas is not a disappointment because you can actually go out and ride it.

The discussion always seems to start with our first sighting of the decorated cactus each season. Here it is. It definitely says "Merry Christmas, from Arizona!" Hope you all have an absolutely wonderful holiday no matter what you are wearing or how you spend the day!

The One-Man Band

Since our trip to Utah last summer where Noah got a taste of the piano, he has been taking piano lessons from a wonderful teacher that is a part of our church. Noah has really gotten excited about playing it and really feels a sense of pride when he learns a new song which is so awesome because he is rarely proud of himself for anything and more often feels like he can't do anything. I have to hand it to him also - he has to practice on a very small and old casio keyboard and I know it is sometime very frustrating for him. We did not want to get him anything serious until we knew he was going to be serious about learning to play. Maybe for Christmas:)

His teacher is also a wonderful hammered dulcimer player and has taught Noah to play some. He spends the majority of his time on the piano, but has quickly learned a couple of songs on the dulcimer - which is very impressive since he only gets to play it during his lessons for a few minutes every other week.

He has an incredible gift of memory and and once he has learned a song he plays everything without music in front of him. The poor child got his mother's musical ear, which means he cannot hear or sing in key so he does not know if he is always playing the right note just by listening and cannot tell when something is out of tune. Thank goodness he has his father here to help him with his practicing at home.

Noah has also just begun learning to play the recorder in music at scholl. He is less thrilled about this instrument (but who isn't).

Here is Noah at his first ever recital and he did an outstanding job!

Oh no! She's moving!

I know I should be grateful - it has taken Reese this long to figure out how to move, but she is into everything and all she's doing is scooting like a wounded soldier. I'm so nervous for when she is actually crawling, climbing and walking!
She is so different from Noah. He was content as long as you were entertaining him - never explored, put things in his mouth or went where he shouldn't. Reese is so curious. She touches everything and everything goes in her mouth! I feel like I spin my wheels all day keeping her out of things or getting her in a place that is safe for her to explore. I am busy beyond belief and get absolutely nothing accomplished by the end of the day. I have never understood how people do it that have more than one little one at a time. I am tempted to empty the house and pad the floors and walls so there is nothing for her to get into. But then how would she learn? I have to keep reminding myself that it is all allowing me to continue having my giant bowl of Mint Cookie Crunch ice cream every night and not be as big as our house!

Bare

Here is one of the pictures from the obligatory "nude" photo session of Reese. Their little naked bodies are so cute - it's no wonder we all are drawn to take pictures of them. And they work so great as blackmail later in life.

The other picture is one of the few we have of Reese asleep. I am so afraid to disturb her at all when she is asleep - because it is so rare and because she wakes up very easily. I took this one however because I wanted it on record that she sleeps with a blanket over her face. As soo as you lay her down, she pulls the blanket up over her and shuts out the world. I have found her with it completely wrapped around her head before. It makes me very nervous. Thankfully we have these muslin blankets that are almost like cheesecloth so I know she can breathe.