Easter 2012

Easter seemed so rushed this year. We came home from our trip and then quickly painted eggs on Friday and bought a few things for dinner for Easter. Like I mentioned my parents invited us over for dinner. I love every opportunity to go there and partake of the yummy Romanian treats my mom tirelessly makes.

Before church we had the kids find their Easter baskets. Lavinia of course was so excited to wear her cute Easter dress. I got this idea from a wonderful blog I read about  a fun way to get to the Easter baskets. Tying string form their rooms and leading them to the baskets. I made it kind of hard for D but it was fun and I think I'll keep this tradition. Lavi had help. We then made delicious resurrection rolls and had the kids watch a wonderful movie clip on lds.com and of course talked about why we really celebrate Easter.

I am trying to incorporate fun and more traditions and actually doing some things that I find cool and not just store them on my pinterest board. For sure though I am becoming happier with myself and OK with the fact that I am not super mom, crafter extraordinaire or whatever thing I wish I were more of. I am who I am and my kids love ME for who I am. For now at least. :)

Pavlova-out of Holly's pinterest board :) It was so delicious and easy to make.

Dessert I made for D

We quickly had an Easter egg hunt inside the house

The golden egg was extra special! 

Mom's dinner table

The blotchy, ugly eggs we produced. haha Kids had fun that's what counts! 

Traditional egg knocking

My beautiful LAV

Grandma got her a second dress. So pretty!

She got kid make-up and was beyond delighted

And here's the empty tomb-aka Resurrection Roll

Spring break

Soooooooo behind with writing. I want to write about our spring break, Easter and then the fun 10 K we did as a family in Vancouver, BC. I will break this up in several posts though.

Spring break happened finally to coincide with Conference. That meant we had time to drive to UT so we could see my brother. Bonus, he flew his family with him. Since he lives in KY which is way to far to visit really, we were excited to have the time to drive down and see him. We got tickets to Conference too so we had so much to look forward to.
I took Friday off from work so we would actually have more time with my brother since he was leaving Tuesday morning. My sister in law, Ashley was super nice to let us stay with her. We didn't actually spend that much time together since we were mostly running around in SLC but we get to see her again in July when we go visit to meet her new baby.
The drive was pretty long but it was nice to break it down a bit. Thursday after work we drove to Walla Walla, WA and stayed with my other SIL Noel and Michael, BIL. It was fun to spend a little bit of time with them in the morning. The drive was about 10 hours from there so actually not that bad. I even got to stop in Boise for lunch with none other than my old principal. It was so good to see him again. We all miss him so much at Bell.

Anyway, we spent the weekend listening to conference on the grass in front of SLC temple, talked lots with my sister in law, Heidi and loved seeing my kids play with my brother's kids for what felt like the first time ever. They kids clicked and had lots of fun together. We spent time with my brother mostly in the afternoon as he was busy translating the whole weekend.
I even got to see my friend Jessica Ashurst who was super nice to drive and fight the conference craziness just to see me. I loved seeing her precious newborn and even though it was nice for his mom that he was asleep I would've loved to hold him a bit.

On April 1st Dacian turned six and we had to do something special for him. We had a big yummy breakfast with Ashley and Chris at their house and then opened presents. He was delighted with what he got. He waited so long for this day. He woke up with these words: "Woo Hoo, woo hoo, I'm six!" Gotta love kids.

We also went out to dinner that evening and he got spoiled some more.

In the afternoon Heidi was so very sweet and patient and babysat the kids so we (my parents and I; Shane didn't come as he had to work) could go to conference. As much as the traffic was super annoying we very much enjoyed listening to conference uninterrupted and we were able to feel the special and strong spirit that was there.

The next day we all drove to Ogden and stayed the night with Heidi's sister. She has three kids and with our two and my brother's two we had a full house of fun and happy kids. I was so impressed by everyone who got along great and they were all so nice and accommodating.

On Tuesday morning we drove all the way to Spokane. I not being used to driving very long distances (yes, Romanians/Europeans use the train mostly and even then a 5 hour ride is considered terribly long) broke the trip some more and were welcomed with open arms by Noel's family. They love my parents and so it was extra fun being there. They also enjoy my mom's cooking so we made them a yummy chicken soup with dumplings, mousakka, and the yummy orange cake. Noel, had her spring break too so she went to visit her family there.

The best part of a long trip? Talking lots with mom and dad, learning more about their ancestors and all in all quality time. The kids did OK, slept lots, played phone games and read.

The highlight of the Spokane part for me was the fact that I got to ride a horse for a few minutes. I have always wanted to do that and finally I got to do it. Noel knew of this important wish and made it possible for me. Her parents live away from the city and have lots of land. Noel even had horses growing up and used to ride often. Now she has nice neighbors with horses so everyone in our family got to ride Sunny for a little bit.  She was very nice and gentle. Even though I've always wanted to ride a horse I have to say that horses kind of scare me, they are huge after all and can throw you off them pretty easily. Of course, we had the owner there holding the horse so this was a very fun experience.  We also went to a stable where they board new moms and babies so we got to see week old foals. So much fun. It got cold and snowed that day. I guess that made for pretty pictures but I can say we were all over snow by then.

So this sums up our spring break. Great, wonderful time with family is just precious to me. I felt like we had our own small family reunion and let me tell you that doesn't happen often.

When I came home I was overwhelmed at the fact that Easter was just right around the corner. It was nice though that we came home on a Thursday so that still gave me time to prepare some. Thankfully my parents had us over for dinner.

All the grandkids on my parents' side

Happy grandpa

The kids mostly played in the fountains by the temple

I thought for sure the littler one would fall right in 

Girl cousins and boy cousins. Dacian took such good care of his little cousin. Super sweet!

This lady bug entertained them for a long time

Playing Angry Birds

Birthday boy

8 days old , cropped would look better but then again if I really would spend the time editing probably there would be no pics

The baby has no teeth but it was funny it kept thinking D' gloves were carrots

We fed these goats. They were so funny running to the fence as soon as they saw us

 

Cousin L

Meet Sunny

Look at the menacing clouds

 

My dad

Proud rider

Lavinia with Lamont, I love this picture

Spokane Temple

Brrr, it was cold

Mid winter break

What a wonderful few days we've had only to end my mini vacation (mid-winter break) sick as a dog. I am just miserable and I have body aches almost like the flu but without the high fever. I've had the flu shot so hope this isn't a new virus. It started with a little sore throat and now the worst part is the muscle sores. I felt the first sign after Zumba. I wonder if I got sick from kind of overworking myself.

So I've been watching Downton Abbey to keep me company in bed. I am catching up so I just saw 1st episode of Season 2 tonight.

I was just contemplating life today (sickness makes one slow down enough to do that, you know) and I was filled with so much love for my kids and husband that I felt I could've burst. I just love them so very much.
Sadly with all the love I lost it today with my son and then felt totally sad that I acted the way I did. I apologized and he was so sweet to me. Nothing like a kid who doesn't hold a grudge. All I could think for scolding him is that what I scolded him for was mostly for something that if I were a better mom wouldn't happen at all. I took the darn Love and Logic class so full of good ideas but keep failing at remembering the good stuff when it's needed. I get their weekly emails with great tips and thankfully even the program teacher says he has days when he messes up and doesn't apply his techniques. I LOVED hearing that. It also reminds us that we have to keep rereading, maybe even writing notes with pre solutions to problems that we know will come up again. I guess this parenting style is not second nature so we need practice and we all know we get plenty practice with kids.
Tomorrow will be a new day though and I hope to feel better and give it a try again.

Possibly I lost it because I am sick but don't worry I lose it even when not sick. Such is life...

Fun things we've done these past few days:

I took the kids to Pump it up and jumped and went down the slides like crazy. It was a work out.

The next day we went to the Aquarium. It was awesome. Lavinia's never been. It's always fun to go downtown Seattle. We had some yummy gyros right after and walked around Pike market trying out great samples of foods. It was a very wet day but that didn't stop us from having fun. I am glad our friend Taylor could come too. He's just the one of the best friend we could ask for.

Also Friday I pulled out pop up house (the think that folds down into a circle) I decorated it with Christmas lights and the kids had a blast moving in there. Toys, pillows, blankets. I let D sleep there at night.

Dacian is such a good brother. He's such a good, kind boy. Not one mean bone in him. It's fun to see him growing and seeing that some of his early traits are sticking. Today he told me that he wants 80 more babies in the house. I asked him why and he said it's because babies are so cute. I have high hopes that he'll bring me lots of grand babies some day.
Also today while I was convalescing in bed he begged for me to come down and see something funny on his Pingu show. I tried to get out of it. He told me that he'll give me 10 kisses. How could I refuse such a sweetie?

Lavinia is a firecracker. She is the boss of the house. So much more drama with a girl. She's cute though and her eyes always sparkle. So boss or not we all adore her. She has so much spunk and can definitely hold her own.

Today the kids both took naps with me. A miracle of sorts. Hooray for a quiet afternoon when mommy isn't feeling so good. Except that they are still up now. Thank goodness we also have tomorrow off.

So that's it for my rambles. I am a sick but happy girl.

Fun Saturday

To celebrate a wonderful first report card for Dacian we went out to Seattle yesterday. It was a splendid day. I forgot my camera and at times I was missing it but mostly I liked not having to miss out on living the moments only to be sure they get captured on camera.

We ate at a Bolivian restaurant. The kids and we like to try new foods all the time. The food was delicious and we had a beautiful view of the Puget Sound, mountains, and the bright sky from where we ate. It was right at Pike Market downtown Seattle. Then we went down to the Pier and walked around, let the kids run, went on the carousel and then finished the day by going to Gameworks and playing all the games and eating once again. We took the bus into the city so we got home pretty late.

Also in the morning (Sat) I had my first exercise class, Zumba. Wow, that was a full hour of interrupted movement/dancing. I loved it and can't wait to go back. I got this pass for 3 months at a community center and they offer every day am and pm classes. I think I definitely overdid it with not having had a good work out in a long time and now I can barely move and I'm sore in my back muscles but the fact that it's like a dance class surely helps. The fact that I will go with a few friends from work and get out of the house as opposed to going to the gym by myself or paying the big fees they ask for surely helps.

I am going to try all their classes and see which ones I like best. No spinning class and I really could care less about that one. I did a similar thing a while back when I went to a spinning class all out of shape and felt so out of place being so slow and just plain awful that I swore I would never return. The people there were big into it and you could tell they probably go on biking tours/contest all the time. Well, not so much with this class. People of all ages and abilities were there. And even though this was hard for a person out of shape like me I was able to keep up the whole time. I hope I can stick with this. I keep trying to find ways to incorporate exercise in my life only to fail again and again. I need something to mask the exercise and dance or swimming are my favorite things, oh and playing a sports in general.

I hope that with time by going to these classes I will gain strength and excitement for something that to be honest is not my favorite thing to do. But health is important and losing some weight along with being healthier would be great.

All in all it was a fantastic weekend. Lots of sun, warmth and a change of routine. It was as though spring was pushing winter out of the way. There were so many people out. I loved seeing people happy, out and about with their families doing about the same thing we did, enjoying life. A part of photography that I love is that I seem to be more attentive to details in general, I tend to see more than I used to and now even on days when I forget the camera I can take in the beautify of life, drink up and store happiness in my mind instead on just paper.

And now I must head to bed. Last week was so full and pretty stressful and I hope this coming one will be somewhat easier. I can't wait for mid-winter break.