Babies' first Easter

The babies were more interested in the Easter grass than anything residing in it. They did, however, like the marshmallow bunnies in the eggs, until someone choked on one. Then they disappeared into the garbage.

Look, Mom! A new swimsuit from Target and a pair of cute brown capris!

Poor Keaton only got candy...that he can't even eat. Better luck next year Bud!

Easter Eve morning

This year we made a special request of the Easter Bunny to come a day early, on Saturday morning, and he was able to fit us into his busy schedule. We wanted Easter Sunday to be all about Christ and the Resurrection and not get lost in the hustle and bustle of finding the Easter baskets. We enjoyed the day much more since we didn't have to run off to church, or tell Savannah not to eat her candy, as it was fast Sunday for us, too, because of General Conference the week before. Sunday morning we were able to focus on Christ. We watched part of a movie about Christ's life. The intention was to have testimony-bearing afterwards, but we ran out of time. We'll make sure to implement it next year though. Here's a few highlights from our Easter Eve celebration. Our tradition is the kids can choose to hide their baskets from the Bunny, and then he fills them and hides them too. They were funny. They begged to start looking when they got up at 7:30. We made them wait until 8:00, and I thought it was going to absolutely kill Irelynd. When they got the green light, they ran all over the downstairs looking. Finally they admitted defeat, and came upstairs. It never occured to them to look upstairs. Irelynd went right to hers, and found it in the twins' bathroom shower. Next was Waverly's on the treadmill, then the girls found Brighton's in the linen closet. Savannah had a hard time locating hers, but with a small hint, found it behind our chair in our sitting room. Last was Keaton's, which was in the window seat drawer.

Always ready for the pose. You'd think she's been doing this for years...

And the favorite item award found in his basket goes to...the shovel!

Easter 09

We hosted Easter dinner for Scott's family this year (minus Stuart and Sallie and fam--they thought Denver would be more fun than us. As if!) I was really excited to decorate a table for a holiday. I had grand ideas, but only had time for a smaller scale version. I was happy with how it turned out however. Even Scott commented, and that is a rare occasion!

The kids' table. My Mother-in-law did the chocolate eggs. The kids wanted to know if they could keep "the hair holders."

Flowers from my own garden. The hyacinth smelled so wonderful! I had ideas for a bigger bouquet, but spring is late to bloom in Spanish Fork this year!
I made these for each place setting. Several of the baskets had to have their handles replaced several times. Seems we have a licorice thief in our house!

Quotables from the Henry Household

Ok, so I'm blog-lifting this from Janessa, because I thought it was a cute idea and way to record the cute things our kids say and do around our home. These are some of the funny things we've heard around our house over the last month. Most are from Brighton, because 2-year-0lds are so funny as they explore and discover their world.

"What's harmadanger?" Irelynd--after a family prayer one night. When we understood what she was asking, we explained it was harm and danger, and explained what that meant.

"I'm a rock star" Brighton, after donning his sister's sunglasses and hat.

"You're the best dad in the university" Irelynd, reading a love note to Scott during a FHE.

"happy birthday to all!" Brighton, anytime he sees lit candles.

"the moon ran 'way. Have to go get it." Brighton, after observing a full moon one night, then noticing it "missing" behind a building.

"the moon burnt out" Brighton, who has an obsession with the moon lately, noticed a new moon.

"the moon is still in China" Brighton again. When he goes to bed at night, he has to look out his window and find the moon, and then he'll go to sleep. In the morning, he wants to know where the moon is. Any explanation we gave him wouldn't satisfy, so Scott told him it went to China, which, strangely, did the trick. Now any time he won't accept a true answer, we tell him it went to China, and he accepts it. And many mornings he gets up and informs everyone that the moon is still in China.

"this vacuum is amazing!" Brighton--Grandma Henry gave him a little Hoover vacuum for Christmas since he has such a fascination for them (along with shovels--the kid's going to be a janitor when he grows up!), and he likes to push it as fast as he can from one end of the house to the other, making all kinds of racket. One day he came zooming into the kitchen and stops and says this.

"I have good dreams" Brighton, trying to get out of a nap. Every day when he gets up I ask him if he had good dreams. He, apparently, saw this statement as an exit stategy. He, unfortuneately, has a smart mom:)

"I'm fusstrated" Brighton. We had been working on identifying and naming his emotions that week, and he used it when he got high-centered over the baby gate on his door.

"I can't find my muscles. Maybe they're in the closet." Brighton, when Scott asked him where his muscles were.

"That's Jesus! He's my friend" Brighton, during an Easter movie about Christ today. You have to wonder if these little ones remember Him from before.

"We played a game today with Ethan and Lindsey (2 neighbor friends). Ethan was Edward and Lindsey was Bella from Twilight. I was their dog, Bolt." Savannah. (I swear Twilight is not our bedtime story! But Savannah has watched Bolt one too many times. Sure got our money out of that rental!)

And, my personal favorite, from Savannah:
"Wait, how can you have a baby when you're not married? I thought that was impossible. Dad?"
Dad: "ask your mom"
S: "Why, do you not know?"
Silence....
Mom: "I'll get back to you later on that."
More to come on that one. Hopefully the question will not be remembered and we can pretend a little longer that we all just sprout automatically from a woman's belly. Yikes!

New General Conference Traditions

Thanks to the article in the Ensign about making General Conference more meaningful to children, and a mini-enrichment lesson on Friday, we decided to start some new traditions in our family around General Conference. We wanted to have our children associate Conference with fun family memories so they would be more likely to watch it as they grow up, and to get to know these wonderful men that lead the Church. I'm becoming aware that I am best with food traditions, and have to put more effort into thinking of non-food-related traditions. Hopefully, we struck a balance with both. We started out with a special breakfast on Saturday morning: Conference Cinnamon rolls (aka Dang Good Cinnamon Rolls. Thank you Melanie Shockley! They are the BEST cinnamon rolls this bread-incompetent mother has ever made), omelets, and fresh fruit. The girls always play Conference Bingo during at least one talk, but they played during all four sessions of conference. We gave them a packet of questions, games, and coloring pages as well, and promised them ice cream for completing it, at least to the best of their ability. During the lunch period between the two Saturday sessions, we built a tent in our family room, which we left up until Sunday night. In Primary, they told the children about King Benjamin and how the people sat in their tents to listen to him, and challenged the kids to make tents in their homes to listen to conference. The girls loved that, and furnished it with their sleeping bags, blankets, and pillows. Even Brighton made us find him a sleeping bag. (It was an old pink one of Savannah's.)

On Sunday we had another special breakfast: Egg and Sausage casserole and orange julius. Yummy! By this session the girls, mainly Irelynd, were getting bored with conference, so I pulled out the box of hair stuff and they gave me a hairdo. Wow! That was some awesom hairdo girls! I lost a chunk of hair or two in the dis-barretting afterwards, but it kept them entertained and mostly quiet for a good 45 minutes. Even Brighton got in on the action. During the last session we played Conference candy key words. I filled a bowl with random treats--mini marshmallows, craisins, chocolate chips, popcorn, and cheerioes--and they got a treat every time the speaker said the corresponding key word for that treat. They loved the talks on temples, as the chocolate chips were assigned to that key word. "Say temple 5 times..."

Ooh la la! We are taking appointments now...

I also had everybody write down 3-5 questions about conference which we will compile into a quiz game to be played at our next FHE. I was amazed at how much they picked up, and seemed to absorb from listening so intently, even just for the sake of calling out Bingo! Irelynd, who is our lost-in-a-perpetual-daydream kind of kid was putting down markers on words Savannah didn't pick up. Hopefully, they learned something, and hopefully we made some good memories this weekend, and the girls will look forward to next Conference, even for just the great cinnamon rolls!

April Fool's Day 09

We have never celebrated April Fool's Day before. Somehow this holiday just slipped by me. But last year I decided we were going to start a new tradition this year. So we started out the day with pranks on our kids. I drew on thier faces while they were sleeping the night before. It was a little tricky; I discovered Savannah is a deeper sleeper than Irelynd, who kept swatting at the marker, and once woke up and looked at me. Then Scott and I got up 15 minutes earlier than normal and tiptoed down to the garage to hide from our kids. We made our bed and left no traces of having been there. We sat in the van with the baby monitor, while listening to the sounds of our twins jabber back and forth to one another in their cribs. Neither of us thought to bring a watch, or the keys to the van, so we waited for what seemed aeons for the kids to find us. They finally threw open the garage door and Irelynd giggled and said, "there they are!" Surprisingly, no one was paniced. I wasn't sure wether that was a good sign, because our kids have grown up independent and able to care for themselves, or a bad one, because they weren't surprised by our absence. I choose to think we've done our job well and made them strong and independent:) They were nonplussed about the face tatooing, though they seemed to think their mom was weird for thinking drawing on her kids' faces was a funny thing to do. We put food coloring in their cereal bowls and added in dry cereal on top, so when they poured the milk in it changed color "magically." They were not impressed. Geez! Kids are so desensitized these days! Then we sent them off to school, with faces red from scrubbing and slight patches where you could still see the mornings' antics on their cheeks.

When they got home that night from Savannah's softball tryouts, I had dinner waiting. I set the table with an assortment of kitchen tools and gadgets such as canning jars for glasses, colanders for plates, and pasta stirrers for utinsels. I made a menu of nonsense names for each dish, such as Savannah banana rama lama ding dong dillydish, and we rolled a dice each to see who got to choose first. There were 7 dishes, one for each member of the family. Except for the main course, they happened to order the items in traditional order. I liked the spaghetti and meatballs cake, but even before it was on the table the girls had it figured out. What a lot of work and no one was fooled! But the meatloaf cupcakes got the desired reaction. When Savannah bit into her pink "frosted" cupcake she was very surprised to bite into mashed potatoes and meatloaf. I tried to capture her reaction, but missed it. She exclaimed "yuck!" until she figured out what they were.

After dinner Scott asked Brighton is he was poopy, and then proceeded to check his pants. I turned around in time to see Scott's fingers covered in brown runny goo. He was yelling and flipping it all over, then licked his fingers. I was stupidly pulled in. When we went upstairs to brush our teeth we all squeezed out a big, gelatinous booger out of our toothpaste. Again, I was unprepared for the prank. It was a craisin, if you're wondering. Lastly, we all had creepy crawlies in our bed. The girls had snakes, which they thought was really cool and took to school the next day, and I had spiders and bugs. I HATE bugs, especially spiders. Even plastic ones. Isn't that dumb? Scott got a big kick out of it. Scott got off "scott free" this year, but not next. I'll be better prepared next year. So, if you're reading this Scott, your payback is coming buddy!

All in all, we had a great time together, and made some fun memories, so it was all worth it! I think we'll continue this tradition next year! I'm going to start planning my revenge tomorrow.

technicolor cereal

not my best artwork, but it was funny...to me at least. The girls were good sports.

The girls eagerly await the unveil.

ordering their meal

On tonight's menu: Meatloaf cupcakes and spaghetti and meatballs cake. Can you tell which is the dessert?

Irelynd's method of shoveling...



Scott got the spatula because of his big mouth...heehee!

Sometimes drastic situations call for drastic measures.

Here he is sucking the jello out of his dish.

Brighton gave up and used his fingers.

Savannah's utinsel. Given for her long tongue.

Irelynd's reaction to the "cupcakes."

When it comes to jello, you don't mess around with silly dinnerware.

Keaton even got in on the action with the cake. Scott couldn't get it in fast enough!

Easter Bunny S'mores

I found this cute idea for Easter Bunny S'mores on Tip Junkie and had to try them out. I roped my sister-in-law Sallie into making some too. We had to play with them a few times but got them down, finally. I gave them out at my visiting

tday and they were a big

hit. Hopefully they taste as good as they look. The final product with instructions.

Ho Ho Ho!

Brighton has found a new pastime. He learned it from his big sister, Irelynd. It involves a full sink and an empty soap dispenser. And lots and lots and lots of bubbles.

This most recent time he put bubbles on his chin and said "I'm Santa Claus!"

The bare necessities...

Everybody has their comfort items. For some, it's their morning coffee or Dr. Pepper, for others it's a specific pillow or blanket. Mine is a good book and warm bed. Brighton has them too. Brighton is not comfortable without knowing where 4 items are at ALL TIMES. He has to be assured that the comfort item is either within sight, or in his possession. If that's impossible, as is often the case with one in particular, he will be temporarily pacified until said item returns home. These are his bare necessities of comfort, in order:

1. his dark blue blanket

2. his dad

3. His "measure"

4. his "piderman poon"

He asks me periodically through the day "where'd dad go?" and I have to assure him that he went to work and he'll be back. Sometimes the work explanation is not enough, and I have to make something up until he's satisfied. Usually the explanation, "Dad went to the moon to find it" strangely appeases him and he'll stop asking. He's going to grow up thinking his dad is an astronaut.

Another episode of gender confusion...

This was Brighton's first (and hopefully last!) attempt at mascara. At least it wasn't on the carpet. Scott's going to get worried if this persists...

More cute pics...

I had to take some pictures recently for my mom's sister in Canada, and I had to share them. Who said last children get no pictures taken of them? Not true in our house.