Easter Afternoon

Easter ham with the fam. A nice way to end the day. (Yay, rhyming). Not having to cook, but still having a tasty meal? Score! Actually, I did bake a cheesecake. Mmm, yummy. My family dyed eggs. James and I had planned to do so, but the day got away from us yesterday, so we never got around to it. Shortly after we got there, Seth and Robyn "hid" them in the front yard. Then armed with a grocery bag and a toy bucket, the girls went on their very first egg hunt. For first-timers, they got the concept down really well.

Baby had to help:

Megan really got into it:

Cadence easily found the larger number of eggs (though Grandpa would point out ones whenever she couldn't find any):

Casualties of war. Cadence was so excited to go after one across the yard she didn't see the one right in front of her:

Showing off her booty:

When we attempted to take away the hard-boiled eggs, Cadence threw a fit. Since the plastic eggs had jellybeans inside, she wasn't willing to part with any eggs. Once Nana showed her what was inside the shell of the non-plastic ones, she wasn't so interested and contented herself with gobbling up jellybeans. The Easter eggs were quickly whipped up into hard-boiled eggs and served alongside the ham and potatoes. :-)

Easter Morning

I was not up until 2am putting the finishing touches on the last Easter dress. I was only up until 11, so :-P. And actually, I was only up that late because I didn't start on the finishing touches until after 9 (and had minor issues halfway through, so had to start over on one part). At last, they were finished and we were able to lay them out next to their Easter baskets for a nice photo finish.
I was in the kitchen turning the oven on when James let the girls out of their bedroom this morning. Cadence zeroed in on the new stuff on the couch and was happily investigating as I turned the corner. No coaxing needed. As soon as they realized there was chocolate in the foil-wrapped eggs, they lost all interest in everything else. Though Cadence has since become very possessive of her new roaring dinosaur flashlight and Megan added car sound effects to the lesson in elder's quorum thanks to her new car keys.

We enjoyed cinnamon rolls and the girls got into a bath (since we got home late and I didn't get around to it last night). Then they got all dolled up in their new dresses and new shoes and new hair clips. I grabbed my camera and attempted to get pictures of the dresses on the nice lawn outside the church building. In my head I envisioned adorable pictures of Cadence's cute grin and Megan's wrinkle-nosed smile. Alas, things did not go as I had hoped, but my kids are cute anyway.

Easter and lunch (not related)

So, I have Megan's Easter dress almost completed (zipper and sash are all that's left). I had planned to get as much done on Cadence's dress last weekend, but I discovered a new video game and immediately began slacking. So then I intended to buckle down and just get it done this weekend, but at the last minute, James's work needed him in all weekend (which is great, straight over time, yay) and I can't sew with both girls moving around. Therefore, I am behind.

But, in all reality, it doesn't take a lot of time. I'll just probably be up until 2am Sunday morning sewing zippers in. And if I don't stop playing this video game, I will be up until 2am Sunday morning sewing zippers in. Must.... focus...

I'm excited for Easter. I get to show off home-made dresses (because shrugging your shoulders and casually saying "Oh, I made it...", as if it were nothing special, when people ask where you got those adorable dresses is totally the main reason to make your kids' clothes). Plus, James and I had a long chat with the Easter bunny on Friday and I'm totally psyched about what he's bringing her for Easter. It is the perfect gift right now. It combines four of her favorite things into one toy. Megan's is a keeper too. :-) The Easter bunny is under strict instructions to keep it simple. One toy and a few treats. We don't want to distract from the real reason for Easter, after all.

But, we did get egg dye. Cadence will probably lose interested after the first two come out a different color, but oh well. Start traditions while they're young, right? And take lots of pictures for those one or two that she is interested in and claim she loved every moment of it.

Anyway, off I go. Got two girls to get dolled up for church and I've gotta check out how long this Spanish rice is going to take to cook. Before he knew he'd be working, James invited the missionaries over for lunch today (They gave him the calendar last week to make sure he signed us up for a dinner night, but he didn't realize that and handed it off without signing us up. I guess the missionaries came up all disappointed, so he extended the invitation then. I just hope they remember!) Seth, who graciously agreed to taking over James's class last minute when we realized James would have to work through church, will also be coming over to be our 18+ male so they can still come over today. Hoping James doesn't have to work too long, though, and that he'll be home waiting for us when we get home from church. It all depends on how long it takes to pull the machine apart and get it ready for it's trip to Houston.

A "Picture" of my Day

There's a new "tab" near the top of this page. After enjoying the 30 Day Picture challenge, some friends of mine suggested a new fun idea: Document your day with your camera and then post all the pictures to get a "picture" of our day.

So here's mine.

Perhaps a tad more eventful than a day that I don't have the van, but it's pretty typical for a day that I do have access to a car. Enjoy!

A random check-up

Since I hadn't heard any real definitive news from Megan's doctor about her iron levels and I was still a tad curious about her weight gain, I took her in for a random check-up. We had just switched her over to the same pediatrician as Cadence, so it was also a chance for him to get to meet her and her to meet him.

Anyway, I'm pleased to announce that Megan has put on a full pound in the past 6 weeks (19lbs 6oz, 31.9"). The doctor said it was good weight gain, but told me he didn't have the same concerns the previous doctor did over her weight. He pointed at her most recent weights on the growth chart and showed me that even though for the first 6 months she was between the 25th-50th percentile lines for weight, from 9 months on, though she was below the 5th percentile line, she was pretty consistent as to how far below it she was. He said that this was probably the growth curve she'll continue to grow along and that as long as she continues to stay on it, he's not concerned.

It was a nice feeling. I was not super concerned about Megan's weight when the other doctor gave me a hard time about it, her concerns were still tucked away in the back of my mind and I wondered if I was right in now worrying. So, it was nice to have a doctor that specializes in kids telling me everything really was okay.

As for her iron levels, he pulled them up and showed me how they'd improved (I'd already seen the numbers, but all I could interpret from that was that she was still technically anemic). Then he told me her anemia was mild at best and that the one point she'd gained was what was expected within a month. So we were right on track. He said to continue giving her the drops until her appointment in June, he'd retest then and call me with the results and instructions as to whether to continue the drops or not. So, I was happy to know the drops were doing what they needed to and I didn't need to stress over completely overhauling her diet to get more iron in her.

All in all, it was a good appointment. I'm glad I took her in, even though the doctor said coming in for the iron levels wasn't necessary, but he was glad that we got her weighed so he could strike "poor weight gain" off of her records for me. Now, according to her medical records, other than some mild (but improving!) anemia, she's all healthy.

What could it be?

Tune in later this month (around Easter Sunday or so) to find out! Time to see if I inherited that sewing gene, or if my children are doomed to store-bought clothes for their entire childhood.