Easter 2011

Of all the holidays to celebrate with children, Easter might be my very favorite. Yes, even over Christmas, but Christmas comes in 2nd. A cleansing of the earth through the beginning of spring and summer, celebrating the knowledge of the ressurection, little kids in Easter clothes, and cadbury orange creme eggs? Um. Yes, please. I may have stocked up on them to eat year round since you can only get them at Easter. But I also made Brent hide them from me. No it doesn't make a lot of sense, but it does to me! I think the coolest thing was when Easter and my birthday were on the same day 3 years ago. Best year ever.

We started off Saturday morning with baskets and hunting eggs. I had no idea what to put in a baby boy's easter basket but I will say that it is fun to start picking out things that aren't pink and that don't have to do with princesses and glitter. It is actually refreshing and I am learning that one kid of each kind is really a lot of fun.

Brayden trying on new swim clothes and plush ball toys from his basket.

Brooke also got a new swimsuit, jammies and a $1 bubble wand. I really love the tradition of baskets but tried to not go overboard with putting things in the baskets that they don't need. Jammies, swimsuits and a few dollar toys seem to suffice. Plus, I never remember every holiday being so materialized when I was little. The seasonal section at target can get dangerous!

Sweet Easter boy


Kiddos with baskets





Later that day we packed lunch and spent our first Saturday of the year at the pool.

Poor baby. We'll have to try it again with him in a few months.

Much happier trying on sunglasses and looks cute to boot doing it!

Happy to be out of hibernation. This girl was meant for the outdoors.

After long naps, we colored eggs and then made egg salad sandwiches for dinner. Brooke loved them, which surprised me considering they kind of gross me out and proving once again that she loves to EAT!

Next year, I plan to make these to teach about Jesus' ressurection. My sister told me about them and Brooke's primary teacher made them for her class and they were a hit.

On Sunday morning we got all cleaned up for church.
Is that okay to say that I think my children look beautiful? And Brooke's scar is looking pretty good. In the next picture you can see the red line a little more.

Please notice Brayden's baby cowboy boots here

We enjoyed an amazing Easter feast with our wonderful friends that I did not get a picture of. SAD.

And the kids hunted for more eggs because they definitely needed more candy and your supposed to have your kids do like 2 or 3 egg hunts over Easter, right? I'm going to try and get more creative and maybe put stickers in next year's eggs.

Brooke, Lincoln, Henry, Olivia

Ready

Set

Go.....!

We did try for a family picture after church and this was the best we got with the self-timer. Everyone's turquoise matches and I am the sore thumb!

My two boys - one of my favorite pictures of the weekend.

A very Happy Easter was had by the 4 BGs.

December 2010...

The month of December was MUCH more slow paced than I would typically prefer but being 8 months pregnant, completely exhausted ALL of the time plus health issues on top of that did not lend itself to anything other than "taking it easy." I had all of my Christmas shopping including stockings done (most of which was done at my computer off of Amazon - thank you Amazon Mom!) by the first week of December and it's a good thing because little did we know that our little man would come a whole week before Christmas! Anyways, we did manage to have some fun...

This is the third year Alyssa and I have thrown a Christmas party together. Ahem... except this year... she really did the whole thing...

A favorite things party with girls in our ward - this was TWO DAYS before he came. In fact, I even complained that night how my family doesn't go into labor and then my water broke two days later. ha!

Alyssa's house is the perfect place to hold a party

These favors were so cute. We put Chocolate peppermint cookies inside each box for the guests to take home.

And next...

Brooke and Livi at the ward Christmas party. It took us by surprise when they went off by themselves and snuck desserts at the dessert table. When did they get old enough to do this?

Love this.. no explanation needed.

Brookie had a mini-recital at her dance studio.. luckily we snapped this before it started because she ran off of the stage 5 seconds into the dance. Ironically, she really does love dance!

Brent and Brooke before the dance recital

We decorated the tree while listening to the First Presidency Christmas devotional and the night before that we saw a fabulous performance of the Messiah (no picture). This is a tradition that I grew up with and it was nice to be reminded of how much I love Handel's music. It definitely put me in the Christmas spirit and reminded me of my sweet Grammie who passed away last October. She would always go with us to the sing-in at Abravanel Hall in Salt Lake. I will never forget listening to her sing those words and admiring her beautiful voice. She instilled in me a love of classical music.

Guerisoli home - Christmas 2010

Thanks for coming early, Bray. Mommy and Daddy thank you for the tax break!

Our First Christmas at Home

We knew we would be spending Christmas at home with just the three of us, but we of course did not think we'd be so lucky to have Brayden with us in time. It turned out to be so much fun spending Christmas as a new family of four in our own home. I had about 20 minutes on Christmas Eve where I was really sad to not be at my Grandparents' for the big celebration but quickly got over it. My Mom left to go back to Utah the morning of Christmas Eve but she stocked our fridge, made Christmas morning strata and left us in a clean house. Thank you, dear Mother!!!

The kids both got new pajamas on Christmas Eve. It almost killed me to buy those dora pajamas because I'm not too big on character things but she loves them and I knew she would.

Christmas morning with excited and sleepy faces...

Brent with his (empty) baseball case... here's what happened: Brent's baseball team is the giants and since they won the world series, I wanted to get him an autographed baseball. I just about had a panic attack when I opened the package only to see an empty case!!! Turns out the ball I ordered was a pre-order ball because the player will sign all of them on February 28th and then send them out in March. A happy ending but definitely anti-climactic because I wanted it on Christmas morning!

Brookie got a dollhouse that is bigger than her!

The aftermath of a lovely morning...

(puffy-faced) Me and my little boy.

It has been a joyous past two weeks of being at home with our baby, Brent being able to spend so much time with us, eating whatever we have wanted, sleeping lots, watching football games galore, and a few outings. I am sad to have Brent go back to work tomorrow and if it weren't for my Mom coming back on Tuesday, I think I really would have a panic attack! :)

Texas Thanksgiving

Probably what you would call a dream come true for me... MY family coming to MY house for a holiday! We lucked out and they all came to us this year. We hosted my entire family in Texas except for Krista and Steve and their boys (and they were missed!) for Turkey Day 2010. Soooo ya know when an event or holiday goes by and you wonder why you didn't take pictures of so many things? Yeah... hate that. And that's totally how this was, and I'm still regretting and fretting about it. I didn't even get a picture of all the food! Glorious! Food! This pregnant girl barely lifted a finger as sitting is what I spend most of my days doing, so it was almost as if they hosted us in our home. The food was particularly good and we were left with leftovers for over a week. I want to remember who made what... Brent did the turkey in our new roaster, Mom and Meag made the gravy, yams, PW woman's green bean casserole, glazed carrots, pomegranate salad, razzleberry pie, banana cream pie, and Bobby Flay's Pumpkin Bread pudding with vanilla cream anglaise sauce, Amy made rolls and stuffing, Dad did the mashed Potatoes, and Brent and I did a Pomegranate cranberry spritzer to drink. Oh and my Dad did dishes for two days straight! A memorable thanksgiving, for sure, and I will note in another post what I have been most grateful for this season.

Brooke in sheer heaven with 6 cousins that she hardly ever sees. Lydia, Rachel, Brooke, Ellie, Colin, Jacob, and Seth.

We looked over while getting the desserts out to find these three munchkins eating whipped cream out of the bowl!

The kids table covered in butcher paper to color on. I will do this every year that I can on the kids table. My niece, Rachel, made the namecards and decorations for the kids table and did such a cute job!
Meg had her food first and rightfully so... she kicked some booty in the kitchen for two days straight. Let me also just say that this sister of mine is going on a MISSION! She gets her call very soon!!!

The kitchen workers

Thanksgiving table... this may have been the only thing I did for the whole day.

Thanks for making the trek to Texas, dear family.

It was so appreciated and we miss all of you.

Halloween 2010

Having a tooth pulled (me) may have slowed us down a bit, but we still enjoyed a week of fun fall festivities.

Uhhhh... I'll be honest... I do NOT love Halloween.

EEK!

Seems that to be a good, crafty, involved Mom I need to do better, though.

Or maybe it is just my perception.

We did have an FHE where we painted pumpkins while having hot caramel apple cider with pumpkin cookies, enjoyed a trip to the pumpkin patch, and had a blast at a preschool Halloween party this month.

Brooke knew she wanted to be Sleeping Beauty (which she pronounces Sleeping 'Judy') months ago so there was no stopping her.

Okay!

Curling some hair and adding touches of pink eyeshadow and lipgloss to my girl... I can totally get excited about that!

I think we came out with quite a beauty.........

Our ward fall festival was great this year at our brand new Stake Center. The primary put on a great carnival, we had a chili dinner and trunk or treat in the parking lot followed.

Lincoln and Brooke at the carnival

Brooke and Dad (can't get over how much they look alike) waiting in line

Fish pond!

Best picture I could get of these two... Livvy tickling Brooke

And Brent getting a pic of Brookie truly being sleeping beauty was perfect!

Kids with easter baskets are so cute, right?

So, I know that posting about Easter by now is way "out of style" in the blogging world, so my apologies if this bores anyone.

Oh, hold on... thank you thank you thank you for your comments about preschool. So so valuable and we still haven't decided what we're doing... I'll let you know.

Back to Easter--

One year Easter was on the same day as my birthday and I thought that was pretty awesome but holy moly easter and general conference all in the same day?

Awesomeness!

Brooke was fun this year. She knew just what to do.

Snow White and a new "Sunny Roomy" If you are not used to hearing Brooke talk then you wouldn't know that sometimes it takes us a few days to figure out a new phrase that she's saying if it's not crystal clear speach. A sunny roomy just happens to be a swimming suit. Funny, huh.

Easter table that I didn't have to set, and I only had to make the rolls. I like having friends who like to cook.

Kids table

Us on Easter Sunday

Olivia and Brooke with their eggs

A beautiful day, for sure.