Post-Easter Update

Mari before her haircut...


Mari, after her haircut! So pretty.


Mari, our little book worm, all tuckered out.


Our cute boy Dylan.


Mari's reaction to "No you can't stick your finger in there."


Mari's funny face.


Mommy kisses!!


Mari's very cool glasses from her happy meal.

Hello from Sunny and VERY hot North Carolina. Ok, I guess I shouldn't complain and I personally have been so ready for the warm weather, but it seems to have come upon us rather quickly. This weekend it was 80 degrees just about every day and today the kids and I ran a few errands and when I got home, said to myself, "It's too hot to be outside today." We're now in the middle of a major downpour with lots of lightning, thunder and wind.

We enjoyed a wonderful Easter weekend and hope you all did too! Phil was out of town Tuesday and Wednesday but had Thurs - Sun off. We did some projects in the yard and around the house, but mostly just enjoyed being together. We were busy. I had choir practice dress rehearsal on Wed nite. Our babysitter never showed up so I had to take the kids to the church. The president of the Young Women's organization that I work with was good enough to come and get my babes and take them to her house. They have a new puppy and that kept the kids entertained until I was able to go and pick them up.

This week was my first full week of physical therapy appointments. I'm trying to find some relief from my headaches and decided to give physical therapy a try first - since it's covered by insurance. So far, it hasn't been doing much to relieve my symptoms...though it does feel nice to have my tight neck and shoulder muscles worked on.

Dylan had his follow up appointment on Thursday morning with the ENT. All is looking very good and he's doing very well. I went ahead and had some custom ear plugs made for him. If any of you have tried to use the round ball ear plugs that you supposedly mold to the outer ear, you might understand my frustration with them. They simply wouldn't stay put and it was painful for Dylan to have me put them in. The custom plugs are so easy! Dylan is crawling and getting into everything. He wants to walk so badly but isn't quite there just yet. He's losing a lot of his baby 'roundness' in his belly and arms - and he's getting leaner but not meaner. He's still a sweet baby and happy all the time.

Marissa and I had a fun adventure on Friday morning when we went and had our hair cut together. She was a good sport, and I think she enjoyed the pampering a little bit. It was hard to hold still for so long, but she did great. Her hair isn't much different, but we took off a couple inches from the bottom that needed to be trimmed.

Saturday was busy too. We had friends from church invite us over for an Easter Egg Hunt in the morning. Each family brought their own candy filled eggs and picnic lunch. The dad's hid the eggs and the kids had collected them all in about 20 minutes. There were a ton of eggs! (Of course I forgot my camera and have no pictures *ugh*.) It was fun to get some variety and to spend a day with friends in the sunshine. We all brought blankets and ate our picnic lunch under some trees in their yard. I had to attend a stake youth activity later that night so I left Phil home with the babies, but I was home in time to kiss them both and put them to bed.

Many of you know that I was asked to accompany the church choir on the piano. Sunday was our performance day. I'd worked very hard to practice and all in all, I think it went well. Our regular chorister announced about a week ago that she wouldn't be here and had a fill-in to conduct the choir. That threw me for a loop but we just made do. I'm so thankful that it is over and there is no choir responsibilities until October when rehearsals for Christmas begin. I may be the go-to girl then as well, as there are a limited number of us that can play piano in the ward. But I would love to just be able to sing.

We invited the missionaries over for dinner on Sunday afternoon and enjoyed a feast! We had a delicious ham, green beans with lemon thyme sauce, carrots with pineapple glaze, garlic mashed potatoes, warm rolls and fresh pineapple. I had pre-ordered the whole meal from Target and so we just had to pick it up on Saturday and heat it up Sunday. It was awesome! I highly recommend it :) There was lots of food and the missionaries went home with a large plate of ham and several containers of other left overs. We enjoyed a delicious apple pie for dessert.

Well, it's back to work for Phil this week. He leaves on Wednesday to fly to Phoenix for a Saturday night race. We'll miss him. We enjoy being together as a family so much - the time always seems to go too fast. I have more physical therapy appointments this week, and Dylan will be having his picture taken on Wednesday morning. That's always an adventure!