Easter Weekend 2011

We had such a great Easter weekend together this year!  We packed a lot of fun into Saturday and Sunday because soon enough, little August will be born and we'll have to take it easy for a bit.

SATURDAY:

Teagan and I made "Resurrection Rolls" for breakfast and ate them together with daddy when he came home from a fun morning of surfing.  I was so impressed with Teagan!  I showed her how to make the first roll, then she did the rest! Amazing what happens when I just let her go for it, haha!  This is a really awesome way to tell the story of Easter and they are so yummy! This will definitely be an Easter tradition for us!

Ingredients:
Marshmallows - represent Jesus (pure & free from sin)
Butter - represents the oil in which Jesus' body was anointed with before burial
Cinnamon & Sugar - represent the spices that Jesus' body was also anointed with before burial
Biscuit Dough - The tomb in which Jesus was buried

When they are done baking, the marshmallow evaporates and you are left with an empty tomb to represent the Resurrection of Jesus!

After we finished breakfast, we got cleaned up and headed to Disneyland!  Teagan had a blast, as usual, and it was great to go one last time as a family of three.  I was expecting to have to make the most of it through the crowds, but was very pleasantly surprised to see hardly anyone!!!  We hit up T's favorite rides:  Jungle Cruise, Pirates, and the Merry Go Round.  We enjoyed some lunch in Toontown, saw Pluto, Goofy, and Captain Hook...then headed home!  Unfortunately, I didn't remember to bring my camera...

That night, Renny and I went to the Angels Game and Teagan stayed home to play with Mamma Karen.

EASTER SUNDAY:
Renny and I actually had to wake Teagan up on Easter morning so that we would have enough time to search for eggs and see the basket left by the Easter Bunny before going to church.  She was so excited and had tons of fun!  After the great message at church, we headed over to Renny's cousin Lexi's house for a family party.  Teagan had a great time playing with her adorable cousins Estella and Parker.  This year it was fun to watch them run around together, play, and search for eggs.  Estella just turned 4, Parker just turned 3, and our little T is the baby for a few more weeks at 2 1/2.  Again, I forgot to bring my camera to the family party.

Coloring Easter Eggs!!

     Last year, Renny and I let Teagan color her eggs the night before Easter.  This left little Teagan with green/blue dyed hands on Easter Sunday, which is why I decided that this year we should do it a few days early!  The Itson's usually come over to hang out and eat dinner on Thursday nights, so I thought it would be fun to have a little egg coloring party.  Here are the pictures!

Really concentrating!

Saying "cheese" but refusing to look away from her egg

Cheese!

Always acting silly for the camera 

She loves hanging with Daddy

Right after this, she thought it would be fun to lick the egg..

Daddy's girl

Proud of her creation!

Pretty awesome if you ask me :)

Looking forward to more Easter traditions and celebrations this weekend!

The Paci Fairy

     When Teagan turned 2 years old back in October, I started thinking about a good time to take the paci away.  I knew I wanted to do it before little August was born, but since she only had it for naps and bedtime, it was hard for me to think of taking it from her.  She never made a big deal of having it, but I noticed that when we moved her into a new "big girl" room and she got a "big girl" bed, she seemed to grow a little more attached to the paci.  Since her birthday is at the end of October, it seemed like there was always something going on with all the holidays, birthdays, weddings, baby showers, vacations, etc... that there just wasn't a good time to take it away.  I had almost given up until one Sunday evening, a few weeks ago, when the perfect opportunity came our way!  Renny, Teagan, and I were out for a walk around town and when we got home, discovered that our dog Bisou had gone upstairs into Teagan's room, got her paci and brought it downstairs to snack on.  She ate half of it! Teagan found it on the floor and, oooh man, was she mad at Bisou!  She ran over to me with it and said, "it's ok mommy. It's ok. We just buy new one at a store, right???!!!" 

     I decided this was the perfect time to take it away.  I explained to her that since she was such a big girl, we couldn't buy any more paci's... they are really just for babies.  I went on to tell her about how we could hang the paci on her bedroom door, and when she went to sleep, the Paci Fairy would come and exchange it for a big girl toy.  She didn't seem on board with this until the word "toy" came out of my mouth.  She gladly stuck her paci in a baggie and helped me hang it on her door at bedtime.  She was overjoyed the next morning when she discovered the toy from the Paci Fairy!  She has only asked for her paci twice since  then and is satisfied when I remind her that she traded them to the Paci Fairy for her big girl toy.  If I knew it was going to be so easy, I would have done it months ago! 

Baby Shower for August!

On March 27th, we celebrated August with a small shower at Brenna's house.  My sister Andi, Stephanie, and Trisha all helped put it together.  It turned out beautiful and was really a lot of fun. We ate yummy foods and delicious cake and did lots of talking, without playing any real games...my favorite kind of shower!! Thank you so much Brenna!! Brenna was also photographer for the day and took some really cute pictures:

Pretty Cake!

The Spread

The favors

Me!

My sister and I

Grandma and I

My mom and I 

Andi and I

Steph and I

Moira and I

Moira, Honey and I

Nini and I

Marla and I

Aunt Diane and I

Aunt Kathie and I

Look at the camera Sienna!

Little Sienna Harrelson 

Tracy and I

Cora and I

Soo squeezable!

Love this one!

Stuffing my face with cake :)

Can't wait for a little boy!

Let the gift opening begin!

pretty decorations!

Thank you Brenna!! 

Trisha and I

The whole day was a lot of fun and I can't wait to hold my little August Renholt Nichols soon!!