Easter and Expectations

(We interrupt this trip report to bring you a current entry...)

So Easter didn't go the way I imagined. Or even the way I planned.  It mostly started when I realized that I left the Easter dresses I found for the girls in Arizona at my Mom's house. I couldn't just let it go (it's become kind of a tradition that we get the kids new Sunday clothes for Easter) so we were looking all over the place Friday and Saturday for something cute that wasn't too expensive. It's always fun if they match, but not necessary. It's kind of hard to find matching things, especially since the girls are in 24m-2T and a 6... (they usually go in sets from 0-24 m, 2T-5T, and 6-14). We finally found some dresses at the Children's Place on clearance, with a coupon. They don't match, but they don't clash. Reilly's shirt was too big, and his tie didn't really match, but he still liked it. None of that was a surprise since the kids were with us as we shopped.
I pictured getting up an hour before everyone else and whipping up some cute pumpkin-with-cream-cheese frosting muffins with little Easter eggs candies on the top, and how excited everyone would be. Instead, as I mixed up the dry ingredients the night before, I mistakenly put the brown sugar in the with flours, etc. and it started drying out into a little rock. I got up when I planned (2 hours before church) but Reilly and Jaina were up too, even though they've been sleeping until 8 since we got back from Arizona. The muffins and frosting took longer than I hoped, and the muffins were more like thick, chunky cookie mounds inside my muffin cups instead of fluffy, uniform, pretty things. I threw that recipe in the trash. I probably shouldn't have, since it tasted fine. I was just mad at it for giving my false expectations.
Since the muffins took so long, we ended up rushing around, not having time to take any pictures before church, and being 5 minutes late. A great start to Easter Sunday, huh?
Saturday night I also started a roast, with potatoes and carrots, but didn't think of any kind of rolls. For the first time ever (in this apartment) I managed to set off the smoke alarm at 10 pm last night while browning the roast. Katy got chocolate on her new dress on the way home. Did I mention I had to teach Relief Society today, and I didn't remember it was my turn until yesterday afternoon?
The lovely little Sunday dinner I envisioned, was, in reality full of Katy throwing a fit (because she was tired, and not that interested in what was on her plate) and the other two whining about not wanting to try to the carrots OR the potatoes. The biggest hit? The piece of store-bought bread with some butter on it. Really?
Web-camming with G&G K was full of more fit-throwing by the smallest cutie pie, plus the older two shoving each other back and forth as they tried to take center stage. One was also prostrate on the floor about 1/3 of the time pouting.
Easter-egg dying (which I kind of life to do a day or two ahead of actual Easter) didn't happen until this afternoon, but it mostly worked out. Katy would have enjoyed it, but it would have been much more chaotic.
When Katy woke up we finally gave the kids their little baskets (we don't really say anything about the Easter Bunny, for whatever reasons) and let them hunt for some eggs containing some chocolate and little toys. We tried to keep the candy content fairly low this year. I had imagined it outside, but inside worked fairly well, and they had fun.
I'm not trying to complaining as much as I'm trying to remind myself to have more realistic expectations in the future, and give myself more time to accomplish the plans I've made for myself... :) I remember Christmas being a little this way, too. (Expectations vs. life with small children) I don't think the kids experienced much of my stress (other than the dash-to-get-to-church, but that could happen some other day just as easily) so hopefully they'll have a few fond memories anyways, and hopefully next year we can get a little more of the "real" Easter in, other than some books the night before and a few reminders here and there...

The girls' dresses are a little big, but I guess that
just means they'll fit all summer and maybe even
next Spring, right?

The Wedding

David & Nicole got married on St. Patrick's Day, Saturday the 17th. It was a pretty nice day, if a little warm for the long sleeves I bought in February... The sealing was absolutely beautiful; one of the best I've been to! It was so nice to have all or immediate family gathered at the temple! The plan was to get a family picture after the wedding, but if you can imagine, that didn't work out so well. We may have gotten ONE shot. I'm waiting to see the pictures from David & Nicole's friend to find out how it worked out. It was a crazy afternoon, but a good one, and I'm so glad we got to be there!

A far-away shot of them coming out (by Jeremy)

My cute nephew, Kayden

Jason & Emily's family

David with my parents

Our own little family

My mom and Spencer

The Mesa reception (Nicole's from Mesa) was that night, and we had a good time there. The decorations were really beautiful, and the desserts were great! There was also soup, but I was too busy sampling the desserts to try any. :) It was pretty crazy between all 3 kids wanting things, and having several friends there I wanted to talk to (the Frandsens even came down from Vegas, partially to see us!), and trying to video all the important things. We had a good time, though, and our kids slept pretty decently that night. We stayed with our friend J.R. and Jenny, and it was so fun to get to spend more than 15 minutes a year with them. :) 

Almost-birthday-twins Katy and Kinzi, showing their sweet side

Such cuties!

My camera was having issues that night. Apparently, so was Jaina's attitude...

Two kids are twice the fun, right? Sophie & Phil's little family!

Again, my camera was having issues, but had to put this one of Justin
deconstructing (what was left of) the wedding cake...

Arizona Sunshine!

If I don't start updating now, there's no way I'll ever catch up... And this will be a little journal-ish, because I would like to remember it all. Feel free to just scan through the pictures if small books about other peoples' lives isn't your thing...
We've been looking forward to visiting AZ for some time (pretty much since the day we left, in Reilly & Jaina's case) and it finally came! David and Nicole were getting married on Saturday the 17th, and we flew in on Wednesday the 14th. Even our trip out there was an adventure. I was just so grateful we were flying, because it's a 37 hour drive without all the kid-stops. It would seriously take us 4-5 days each way, and Jeremy didn't have enough vacation for even half the drive. As it was, Jeremy ended up using my Dad's US Airways frequent flyer miles for his ticket, and the kids and I booked our tickets on Southwest. (which was the current best deal, especially with the free checked bags. Good experience with Southwest all around) Since Katy is still under 2 (for a very short time) she is free as a lap child, and Jeremy took her, since I had the other two. I will have all 3 by myself when we fly home in a few weeks, but I was so grateful to have a bit of a reprieve on the way there! Flying with a 4- and 5-year-old is no big deal, even with a 2- and a 4-hr flight.

The kids I matched on purpose, (less likely to lose one - yes I got
asked multiple time if they were twins, but that's not uncommon
anyways...) Jeremy just had the same color-vibe. 

Yay for the iPad! J&K's 5-hr flight from Charlotte, NC would
have been a lot harder without it!

 We had a layover in Nashville, and the kids loved the huge (mostly deserted) play area. We spent most of our two-hour wait there. Jeremy had some delays, but everything worked out pretty well, because we all made it to Sky Harbor within about 15 minutes of each other (even in the same terminal, woo-hoo!) though our original flights would have been more like 45 minutes apart. We had checked everything on Southwest, and they didn't lose anything (though one carseat DID come out on a different carousel) and we didn't have to wait around. Jeremy had to go to a different terminal to rent a car, but even then, I think we were out the door and on our way to the Gila Valley within about 30-40 minutes of landing. No small feat with 2 airlines, 3 children, and 5 (okay, like 11, counting carry-ons) pieces of luggage.

Snuggled up close in the back of our 2012 Altima rental car. So fun to
"have" a new car, even if just for a week!

At that point, Katy had been up for 11 hours straight, so we didn't make any stops, but headed for the Gila Valley, while both girls slept for a bit.  After a too-short nap, some screaming, Taco Bell, and visiting with great-Grans in Globe, we made it. We got to meet David's fiancee, Nicole, for the first time, as well as see David for the first time in nearly 3 years. (He got home from his mission about a month after we moved to VA) Pretty crazy! Katy was a sweetheart, and gave everyone big hugs, even David & Nicole, who she had never met. Emily and Jason and their boys were there too (they are living in Virden, NM right now) so it was a party! I had never met their little 8-month old, Kayden, so that was pretty exciting, too! We were so sad to still be missing Phil & Sophie & co, or we would have all been together!

The next morning (Thursday) Jeremy and I took the chance to attend the Gila Valley Temple. We don't often get a chance to go together, so we jumped at it, since by the time the weekend wound down, the temple here would be closed for maintenance for a few weeks. It is SO nice having a temple so close. We appreciate it even more after the 7-9 hour round-trip travel to the D.C. temple...

 After that I jumped back in the car and rode to Mesa with my parents, while Jeremy kept the kids here to spend a little time with his family. Nicole was going through the temple Thursday night, and it was neat for most of us to be together for that. I forget how big the Mesa temple is, even though it's where we were married (almost 7 years ago now!). It was great to see Phil, Sophie, and Kinzi, and to meet their new baby boy, Baiden. So many new family members! Jeremy and his parents took the kids bowling, and they had a really fun time seeing each other and getting to play with their cousin, Chloe.

We got out of the temple at like 7:30, and met back up at 8 pm at Olive Garden for dinner. I was still mostly on Eastern standard time, and there was a bit of a wait for a party that large, so I basically ate Italian food at about midnight according to my body. Fun times. It was tasty though, and I restrained myself to less than one breadstick and split a meal with my dad. The chocolate cake was a-ma-zing. Yum. We had a fun time, (especially during the waiting) even though everyone was tired.

Look how skinny my dad is getting! He has lost like 40 lbs in the
 last year or two!

There are 4 of us girls now. Pretty crazy!

Friday morning my dad, mom, David, and left Phil's house and went for a little exercise walk/jog. The weather was really nice, and it was fairly quiet at 7-ish in the morning. (especially since they were still on Spring Break down there I think) We went by Hohokam park and found a cemetary, at which point the keeping-our-heartrate portion of our jaunt got derailed while we looked for my great-great-Grandpa Ami John and Grandma Rilla Ann Curtis's headstones for 20 minutes. We did eventually find them, thankfully, but it was no easy feat.  The rest of Friday we did a little shopping (Goodwill, Sam's Club) and I scored the first 10 books of the Trixie Belden series (anyone read those?) for $1 each. We also got pizza from Sam's Club, and it was delicious. Probably because I've been trying not to eat things like that much for the last few months...  Jeremy, Spencer, and the kids arrived, followed shortly by the Gardner clan, and Phil & Sophie's house pretty much turned into a zoo. We were a happy zoo, because we were all together for the first time in nearly 4 years, but it was still a little crazy with 7 kids, 5 of which were 2-and-under.

Thanks for this pic, Soph!

Look how "grown up" we all are!

That evening (after we had wrangled most of the kids into naps at one point or another) the girls (me, my mom, Sophie, & Emily) got some Panda Express while the guys had a "bachelor party" for David, which involved Famous Dave's, goofy golfing, laser tag, and go-karts. Pretty wild stuff. :) Jeremy and Jason were pretty impressed by the entire trash can lid of food they shared.

******************
On to the next day (the wedding!) in the next post. :)

Date of the Decade

(one other new post right below this one...)

When we were engaged (in early 2005), Jeremy was in EAC's A Capella choir and they were doing a song set from the brand new (well, a little over a year old) musical, "Wicked." We hadn't ever heard of it, but Jeremy enjoyed the songs so much that I ordered the CD, and we listened to it over and over (and over.) We've wanted to see it ever since, but it hasn't ever worked out money-wise or children-wise. But then since Jeremy's office hit a certain goal this year, they were looking for rewards of some sort for everyone in the office, and we ended up for tickets to see the traveling Broadway production of Wicked on it's opening night in Norfolk (about 20 minutes away), plus money for a babysitter (no small cost for like 5 hours) and dinner. SO EXCITING.
We parked at the McArthur Mall (about a 7 minute walk) and grabbed some yummy dinner at Chili's, and also took some pictures with the neat Wicked set-up they had at the mall.  We had pretty great seats, and thoroughly enjoyed the show, even though we didn't get out until almost 11, which is WAY past our bedtime. And poor Jeremy was sick/getting sicker. I think he still managed to have a good time though, and it was so exciting to finally see something we've wanted to for so long!!

Advertisement in the elevator at the mall. It seems like every other store
was decked out in Wicked colors or offering specials.

Jeremy posing with one of the actual costumes from the show.

Such a neat dress!

The display

They had all sorts of fun things to dress up with for this background.

On our way into Chrysler Hall

Our great seats

Yay for dates, especially to AWESOME shows!

A few things we missed

I posted most of these on Facebook, but they never made it to the blog...

My cute little Valentines 

Jaina, getting ready for her first dance recital. This was the
day before the dress rehearsal, and they were
taking pictures. I mistakenly thought her hair was
supposed to be half down and curly. At least
it made for some good pictures...

Outside her cute little dance studio

With her wonderful dance teacher

After her recital

She had a blast at both the dress rehearsal and the recital. This girl loves to dance!