Easter 2012

Happy Easter!!  We have had quite the busy weekend, complete with grandparents visiting, Easter egg hunts, birthday parties, and of course, celebrating our risen Lord!  So prepare for picture over load in this post!  :-)  My parents came up for the weekend because mom had to teach a class in Springdale on Saturday, but it worked out perfectly because Sara Kate's school was closed Friday, Chris and I both had to work, and they got here Thursday night!  Yay!  So they had a fun day together then a fun night together because Chris and I had plans to go to a wine party/ping-pong tournament at a friends house.  Late night, but lots of fun.  Saturday we woke up to storms, which moved our church Easter egg hunt indoors, but kids don't care!  As long as they find eggs with candy (ughh!!), they're happy where ever they are.  The little kids were down stairs in the nursery/pre-school area and of course Sara Kate had a blast.  She actually had an Easter egg hunt at school on Thursday so she knew the drill and was so excited to do it again!

As soon as we left church, we headed to Berryville to celebrate our nephew's 2nd birthday.  His birthday is actually today, which is funny because last year Sara Kate's 2nd birthday was on Easter and this year Hayden's 2nd birthday is on Easter.  Happy birthday giant man baby!  You aren't a baby any more but you're still a giant, you're the most serious child on the planet, you love seeing 'Kate' (precious!) and 'Kiss' (Uncle Chris), and we love you to pieces!

Here's the birthday boy with all his cousins...the little girl on the right is Jason's sister's daughter.  They all had such a fun time together!  They were cracking us up!

We came back to town, met my parents for dinner, and made a quick stop to get Easter egg dyeing supplies.  So after Sara Kate's bath, we dyed eggs.  It was late but it's what you're supposed to do, right??  She was so excited.

Dyeing Easter eggs in Valentine's pajamas...haha!!  Who cares! :-)

 

 

 

 

Today we woke up and were excited to say 'He is Risen!'  Sara Kate looked adorable in her Easter dress, which was made by a sweet girl here in town who has a little business.  She was so excited about 'the birds!'

We had a wonderful church service, and Sara Kate did SO good during church!!  She can still go to the nursery, but I am starting to try and keep her in service...she has to learn to be quiet and still and to listen, even though it's very frustrating and hard on me sometimes, especially when she wants daddy but daddy is 'working' (Chris directs our praise band and plays piano in contemporary service for those who don't know).  But she was great today and sat contently in my lap coloring.

After church we had to check out what the Easter bunny brought!  Because our Sunday mornings are hectic to get out the door before church, the Easter bunny comes to visit our house while we are at church, and he leaves Sara Kate's basket filled by the front door.  I don't want that rabbit coming into our house, haha!!!

Also, the Easter bunny took our decorated eggs from Saturday night and hid them!  More egg hunting, what fun!

 

 

We had a nice lunch, which Chris' mom joined us for (his dad had to go back to Little Rock to his job site), before we had to say good bye to my parents.  Of course a little photo session was in order before everyone left.

We've had a wonderful but very busy weekend!  I'm thankful for our families being here and our ability to serve a risen Lord and celebrate Him on this day!  We'll have lots more family time next weekend because a certain someone turns 3 in 8 days!!!  I can't hardly believe it!  Hope everyone had a very Happy Easter!!

Sick Day

How pathetic looking is this little face??

It's the face of a poor little sick girl.  Last Thursday afternoon I got a call from her daycare that she woke up from her nap running a fever.  Fever means going home.  Since it was Chris' spring break last week, she stayed home with him on Friday, and unfortunately, she had more fever.  Saturday morning she had a mild fever and Saturday afternoon she woke up from her nap saying her ears hurt.  Sunday she had no fever so she came with us to church, but last night her fever spiked back up to 102.  To top Sara Kate's sick issues off, yesterday Chris woke up feeling terrible.  So today meant a sick day for all of us!  He headed to the doctor this morning and found out he has strep.  And I have majorly kept my distance!  The doctor did tell him if I started feeling anything he would go ahead and call me in a z-pack without having to go in.  This morning I told Sara Kate that she had to go to the doctor too, and she got so upset.  So we talked about her Elmo book where Elmo goes to the doctor, and I told her afterwards if she was a big girl we would get her a treat.  Plus I told her I would be with her the whole time.  That always helps.

The Elmo book helped, too.  She even told me "I open my mouth and say 'ahh' like Elmo and the doctor look in my ears like Elmo and the doctor look at my back like Elmo."  For anybody who's interested, the book is called Elmo's favorite stories, and is a 2 story set with 'Elmo visits the dentist' and 'It's check up time, Elmo!'

Sara Kate did great when the doctor came in.  She cooperated beautifully and was so pleasant, which is usually not our experience at the doctor!!  After the doctor left, she said "I'm a big girl, I go to the doctor!" She was so proud.  You can look at her little eyes and tell she doesn't feel good, though.  On a positive note, she got weighed and her height measured...30 lbs and a little over 36 inches tall!!  It's nice to see these stat, as she's always been small on the growth curve as far as height goes (she's always been average as far as weight).

As I suspected, the culprit is ear infections.  Her right ear is infected and her left ear has alot of fluid in it.  She has had very few ear infections in her life, and I am very thankful for that because I had terrible ear infections as a kid and had 80% hearing loss before I got tubes.  She was excited about getting her treat after we picked up her medicine but she crashed as soon as we left the doctor.

I couldn't get her to eat anything when we got home but she did enjoy her medicine (gotta love the good ole' bubble gum medicine, haha!) and a little bit of her treat, which was a strawberry slush from Sonic.

She pretty was pretty much by my side non stop all morning, and when I told her it was time for a nap she didn't fight at all.  She went right to her room and layed down. 

Some sleep plus a dose of Amoxicilliin really did good things because we had such a fun afternoon/evening playing.  She seemed almost back to normal...we played puzzles, read books, played animals (Little People), played Etch-A-Sketch, played Elmo game (a matching card game)...I just love fun play time when my sweet girl is in a good mood even though she was still super clingy!

 Hopefully another dose of medicine tonight will really help her feel lots better!  She can go back to school tomorrow since it's just her ears, which is good because I have things to do at work, plus a hair cut tomorrow afternoon (very important, haha!)!  But I've enjoyed our sick day at home...lots of cuddling, lots of random tv watching, and lots of play time.  And hopefully Chris kicks his illness without passing it on!! :-)

Flying Solo

This has been a Sara Kate and mommy kind of week.  Chris has been in Dallas since Tuesday and he's finally on his way home, yay!  In general, she is a BIG mommy's girl...this is what I hear all the time...'mommy mommy mommy mommy mommy mommy, etc.'  Don't get me wrong, I love it, but at the same time, it can be exhausting.  But frequently she says, 'Sara Kate loves her mommy' and it melts my heart when she says that!  So having all of mommy's attention has been right up her alley. Getting up and out the door on time is a HUGE challenge when we're alone, and I think I was running late almost every morning.  Somebody is NOT a morning person (just like her mommy!!) and didn't want to get up at all!  Oh well, thankfully my job is flexible.  She's been great this week, and we've had lots of fun.  Our weather has finally started to turn in the spring like direction, so Tuesday night we played outside and she wanted to swing like a big girl in the big girl swing!

Wednesday we met Meme for a very quick dinner before heading to church.  We had sweet snuggles when we got home.

Thursday we had some unexpected surprise cousin time!  Jenny and family came to town for the afternoon/evening so Sara Kate was so excited to have dinner with Hannah.

Friday it was BEAUTIFUL outside!  I jetted out of work as soon as the clock hit 4:30, I picked Sara Kate up, and we headed to the playground.  My sweet friend Brandy and her baby girl met us there to play.  Landry and Sara Kate are 3 days shy of being exactly a year apart but they're about the same size.  And Brandy says seeing Sara Kate gives her a glimpse into her world in another year.  I told her good luck, ha!  The girls are very similar, though.  Landry was so into Sara Kate and wanted to do what she did...precious.  I love seeing interactions between little friends!

Alot of times we go play at a local elementary school playground, which isn't too far from where we live.  It's a new school and they have an awesome playground.  They have this little pre-k playground off to the side of the big playground, and they have these tricycles there.  Sara Kate loves them and she's starting to get the hang of it.  Good thing since that's what we are getting her for her birthday!! :-)  

I took this picture and looked at it and thought, when on earth did my baby girl get so big?!  I can't believe she's almost 3!!!

After all that play time, somebody was exhausted last night!  She got a good nights sleep, which was good because we headed out on the town today!  St. Patrick's festivities are going on in town, and Brandy and I decided we should meet up and take the girls to watch the parade.  We had lunch on Dickson Street and then walked down the street to watch the parade.

Sara Kate was starting to get sleepy but she watched the parade and waved to everyone as they came by.

Yes, Sara Kate wore the same shirt 2 days in a row...it's the only green thing she has and it's not even green, it's like a mint green!  Don't worry though, I washed it last night...ha!!  I, on the other hand, broke out my new green jeans that I bought on clearance after Christmas.  I'll be a big dork and show ya'll...don't laugh too much, haha!

So that's what Sara Kate and mommy have been up to this week.  Like I said, she's such a mommy's girl but I know she'll be happy to see daddy.  Tonight I'm picking up Chris as soon as he gets back into town and we're heading to Dickson Street to watch our Irish friend Richy play music.  It's some kind of charity fundraiser with food, drinks, and music for a great price, so we're looking forward to that.  Me and my green jeans are sure to have a fun time, haha!!  Happy Saturday!

Busy Day!

Saturday was a busy day for us!!  I am having some allergy troubles (I think) and although I was REALLY looking forward to sleeping in, I ended up not sleeping a wink because of being extremely stopped up.  Lovely.  An early shower helped clear out my head so we got going earlier than I was hoping!

I needed to run a couple of errands so we decided to head out for brunch at a little local cafe down the road before errands.  It's called The Rolling Pin Cafe, and in our 6+ years of living out here, we have driven by it hundreds of times but never been.  It was delicious!  They made Sara Kate a Mickey Mouse pancake, which she loved.

We were being silly while we waited for our food, practicing our duck faces...actually they look more like fish faces than duck faces.  Haha.

After errands we quickly came home to get Sara Kate down for a nap because she had a birthday party to go to for her friend Huck!!  She's been talking about going to Huck's birthday party all week so she was excited it was finally time!  It was at Boingo Bounce, one of her favorite places.

One of her best friends from school was there too, and she and Ramona had such a fun time together.

And of course the best part of any party is the cupcakes!!

After the party we quickly came home because we were having Sara Kate's friend Ella come over for the evening so her parents could have a date night.  Those girls had such a fun time and hardly slowed down at all.  

In addition to Ella, we had Hannah and Hayden come over for a while too.  Let me tell you, a 5 year old, 2-almost-3 year olds, and an almost 2-year old can destroy a house in no time!!  Ha!!  There were toys everywhere, but they all had so much fun.

Even though we fortunately worked a nap into the day, Sara Kate was exhausted by the time Ella left.  And Chris and I were exhausted too...every member of the Michaels family crashed last night.  Our day was busy was it was fun, filled with lots of friends, and Sara Kate had a blast.  Today we are definitely resting. :-)

Elmo

Sara Kate is into lots of things right now...Micky Mouse/Minnie Mouse, Dora, and Elmo.  Elmo has been a part of our family for a while now, haha!  She has Elmo episodes saved on the iPad that she will watch over and over again, and my mom bought her this precious smocked Elmo dress a while back.  I kind of forgot it was in her closet, partially because she's into all things pink right now and partially because it looks huge.  But we pulled it out today to wear to church.  She was so proud!  So picture time ensued when we got home, just because.  Do we need an excuse to take pictures of the cute little 2 year old that lives in our house??  Well of course not, but a cute dress and an even cuter girl are great reasons!  :-)  And she can be such a little model when she wants to be!

 

 

Two other things I want to note from today include the following.  Chris had to go into church early this morning so he left right after I got out of the shower.  Sara Kate was watching Micky Mouse Clubhouse on the couch, but as soon as he left she came into the bathroom.  And when she comes in the bathroom while I'm getting ready, she's into everything and wants to do everything I do!  I was putting on my eye make up, and I look over at her to check on her and she's managed to grab Chris' hair stuff off the counter, get the lid off, get her hand in it, and rubbed a big glob into her hair.  So into the bath she went!!  She was quite proud of herself for 'fixing' her hair though.  Ughh!

And right before we left for church, as I'm running around like crazy trying to get things together, plus we're running late because of the hair gel incident, combined with the fact that she would rather run around the house naked then get dressed, she looked at me so sweetly and said 'I want to wear a necklace like mommy.'  So we found the one play necklace I could find and she was so proud to be wearing a necklace like mommy.  So sweet.

Happy Sunday!

A Day in the Life

I've never done a link up before but I thought I'd link up with Kelly over at Kelly's Korner for her 'Day in the Life' series.  I gotta say, a day in our life certainly isn't too exciting, but here's a glimpse. 

My day starts sometime between 5:45 and 6:00.  My alarm starts going off at 5:15, but I am the worst at hitting snooze.  I need to get up at 5:45 and I try but lots of times its closer to 6, which tends to make me late.  Ideally I can get in to start getting Sara Kate dressed before 7.  Sometimes Chris gets her started but most of the time it's me.  I'd say she is NOT a morning person (like her mama)...this morning when I woke her up she said, 'I sleepy mommy.  I stay in my bed.  Go away.'  Sorry baby girl, up we go!

On a good day, she will wear what we picked out the night before (she helps of course), but on a not so good day she wants to fuss about her shirt or pants or shoes.  Or about whether or not I will fix her hair or not.  

This is from a day earlier this week where she wanted different shoes and didn't want her hair fixed.  I didn't have time to argue about the shoes. :-)

After she's dressed we quickly grab her breakfast and out the door we go (she eats in the car).  I drop Sara Kate off at school around 7:30, and I get on the dreadful I-540 to head north.  From 8:00 until 4:30, I'm at work.  What I'm doing or where I am could be different every day.  I work for the Benton County Conservation District and we have an office in Bentonville, but I also drive all over Benton County going to farms.  Some days I'm soil sampling or meeting with farmers and some days I'm at my desk making maps or writing Nutrient Management Plans.  It's nice to have flexibility!!

After work, I pick up Sara Kate, and that usually happens sometime between 5:00-5:30.  I love her face when she sees me walk into her class room.  She yells 'mommy!' and runs to me for big hugs.  It's funny how the kids in her class know each others parents.  If she doesn't see me right away, one of her classmates will always tell her 'Sara Kate, your mommy is here!'  So cute.

Our evenings consist of having dinner, play time, and watching a movie on the iPad.

Tonight she seemed really tired and she just wanted to cuddle in my lap, which I was fine with!  Tired mama with a pounding headache loved the cuddle time!

 We start bath time around 8:00...

And after bath we have 'lay down on mommy' time.  That's her final wind down time.  I also set the timer on my cell phone and she knows that when the timer goes off it's time to go to bed.  That's something we started when we switched her crib to her big girl bed and she has responded wonderfully to it!!  She's normally in bed between 8:45-9:00.

After she goes to bed, I do whatever...make lunches for the next day, pick up, mess around on the computer, blog, read, watch a show on tv....and I'm usually in bed by 10.  

So that's a day in our life!  Like I said, not to exciting, but I don't guess being a working mom is all that 'exciting,' although I love it.  Routine is important to us and it makes our family work!!