Easter in San Antonio

Any excuse to see family is a good one. Especially if there is a wedding involved. Even more especially when the wedding is your sister's.

All four of us headed to San Antonio after church the Sunday before Easter - and made the 9 hr drive in record time! It was so great to be home for a few days before the wedding hubbub began to let the kids adjust and spend time with Grammy and Papa. :)

Lucy really enjoyed spending time with her little aunts!

 I love this picture, it is so thoughtful and makes her look so mature. :'{

 Michael enjoyed meeting his Auntie Anna for the first time...

 ...and Uncle Sam. (He is so good with kids! Made my heart happy to see him holding my son. :) )

 Getting to know Aunt Laura. 

 Reading books with Uncle Sam

 Spending time with momma during the little girl's (all three of them) quiet time/nap.

 He already has such a great sense of humor. :) 

 I love those bright brown eyes. So clear!

 My boys. 

 Lucy LOVED Grammy and Papa's back yard - there was a slide! 

 Lucy. Loves. Slides.

 My happy girl, "Again! Again!"

 Can I just bottle this age up? 

 Love the twisted tongue of concentration. :) 

 My littlest sister - isn't she a cutie?!

 My mom and me

 Dad and his youngest child and grandchild. :)

 My beautiful sister, Jana.

 

 The girlies at breakfast - mom/grammy made waffles!

 Enjoying Grammy's waffles!

 I remember doing this with my mom when I was a little girl - what a treat to witness her "helping" my daughter wash her hands. :) 

Michael and Aunt Becca - the bride!

Brad flew home to the panhandle on Friday, he needed to be back in Pampa for Easter Sunday - we missed him greatly at the wedding but were encouraged by God's clear presence in both Pampa and Kyle Texas on Easter.

 Mom and "us three" older girls. :) Wasn't Becca a most beautiful bride?

 The Addington/Kidder/McLean ladies :) 

 My sweet kiddos, Easter Sunday.

I didn't get many pictures of the wedding (NONE of the groom? Augh! Sorry Ian!) - but it was a beautiful ceremony, fun reception and all together God-glorifying day. (To see more wedding pictures, check out the photographer's blog here. Courtney did a great job!)

Thanks to the Linn family for watching my kiddos - you blessed me so greatly! I was able to participate wholeheartedly and not worry about where they were - Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

The kids and I stayed through Monday and got to relax with the family a bit more before heading back to Pampa.

 Michael and his Aunt Laura

 They had so much fun together... 

 ...they wore each other out! :) 

 Lucy was sad to see Aunt Jana go. 

 But she had to fly back home to Minnesota. :( (Haha - Lucy just didn't want her picture taken... but I'll happily put a more "positive" spin on things.)

 Lucy and Grammy

 My sweet boy. 

I could kiss those toes all day! :) 

The kids and I drove home on Tuesday. I'm not going to lie, the thought of driving, alone, with the kids, for 9 hours was a little intimating. But I planned as best I could and told myself - "They are good travelers. And even if they do cry (a lot) they will fall asleep eventually... right?!?"

The drive couldn't have gone any better - I didn't even need to pull out Lucy's iPhone (Brad's old one that we have loaded up with her music, games and shows. It lives in airplane mode, no - my daughter doesn't have a data plan) to entertain her. We chatted, talked, laughed and had a great time. The 9 hours truly flew past - and if you've seen the drive through west Texas from San Antonio to Pampa, you'd wonder how that is possible. :) I was shocked at how beautiful the drive was - it was an extremely (compared to past years) rainy spring and everything was lush and green. The sky was bright blue, plus I had gotten the the new Cristy Nockels CD (HIGHLY recommended!) - it was the perfect sound track to the drive. :) Road tripping with a toddler and a nursing infant IS possible! I can attest to it's "doability!"

Did you have a good Easter? Any road trip stories you'd like to share? I'd love to hear all about them! :)

Ellie's Ear

*First, let me apologize to my grown daughter Lucy. Sweetheart, I know the "outfit" you are wearing in the following pictures isn't worthy of being called an outfit. I shouldn't have tied your t-shirt with a hair tie. I'm sorry. I had no idea you were going to be so cute this day, and thought the shirt would be okay for you to wear for a day at home. Again, I'm sorry. XOXO - your Mom

Ok, now that that's out of the way we can move on....

There is a little girl named Lucy who has a stuffed elephant named Ellie. Lucy loves Ellie very much. She enjoys dressing Ellie, taking her for "walks" in the stroller, feeding Ellie and most of all, holding Ellie's ear close to her face. (For a sweet picture of this, check out this post)

One day, Lucy's daddy helped her make a special house for Ellie out of blocks!

 "Yeah! Ellie has a house!"

 "Uh oh, I can't find Ellie's ear!"

 "Maybe if I just dig around a little bit, I can find it?"

 "Wait, this is her hand! I'm looking for Ellie's ear!"

"There, that's better"

That's right, the little girl named Lucy found her elephant's ear and held it to her face despite the fact that Ellie was inside a "house."

"Big Girl Bed"

I was hesitant to move Lucy to a big girl bed for a few reasons, 1) She slept really well in the crib. 2) I was pretty sure she woke up at 7:30 AM but she didn't make noise or cry until 8:30 (Sometimes later) most days (and I'm not one to easily give up a  few extra minutes of quiet!). 3) I didn't really want to fight the whole "Stay in bed" thing. I knew it was in our future, but just didn't feel like I wanted to tackle it yet. But Michael needed the crib, I was ready to put his bedding up and have him sleep in a non-transitional space. After a few weeks of trying to decide toddler bed or queen bed, we decided to let Lu sleep in our Queen guest bed one night, just to see how she did - she slept through the night and didn't get up once. (SHOCKING!!!) So we decided, why fix something that works and moved the queen bed into her room and the crib into the old guest room/new Michael's room. 

 Lucy calls her new bed a "Special Bed" or a "Big Girl Bed" :) She loves it.

Our guest "Bed" was just a mattress on the floor - a little obnoxious for our guests (sorry guys!) - but it has worked out SO well for our big girl. She has fallen out once (we think - she was crying on the floor of her room at 6:00 one morning and I couldn't tell if she got up and was crying because she was still tired or if she rolled out of the bed) and only fought me 2 or 3 times to stay in bed! (How did we get so lucky?!?!)

The plan is to make an upholstered headboard for our Master Bedroom and paint the head/food boards to go in Lucy's room - so she will have a bed frame soon.

She still goes to sleep, on a regular night, at 7 PM and sleeps until 7:45 AM most days. I usually let her play in her room til 8 and then go in and get her. She greets me with a "Good Morning Mommy" and a sweet hug almost every day. :) 

I know what you're thinking... "So what happened to the plan to have the kids share a room" I know, I know - that was the original plan, but there isn't space in Lu's room to have both the queen bed and the crib. If we had chosen to get her a toddler bed, they would have shared, no doubt.

Guests - THERE IS STILL ROOM FOR YOU! Lucy will have slumber parties in Michael's room when you come stay, something I think she will enjoy a lot. :)

Michael loves his big crib - and his bedding is SO cute! :) 

All ready for bed the first night in their new beds, it was St. Patties Day so they both HAD to wear their green jammies! :)

Hey - a few more fun facts: I get to decorate a room for a little boy now! Yippee!!! I HAVE to make a quilt for Lucy's bed. Now that's just too bad, isn't it? ;)

Have you made any switcharoos at your house lately?