It's Easter Egg Time

This week has been filled with Easter eggs.  We practiced hunting some more to get Brennan ready for the big egg hunt tomorrow, most of Brennan's school art projects have been egg related, he had a mini egg hunt at school this week, and we also colored eggs here at home.  Oh wait, I'm sorry, according to Brennan we dyed them, we didn't color them.  He has corrected me several times, thanks to his Happy Easter, Curious George book.  Apparently George trumps Mommy any day.  And last but not least, we had to devour some Reese's Eggs, a long standing Easter tradition.

I don't know why I never thought about it before, but I started wondering what the symbolism was with eggs and Easter.  Thanks to the internets, I had my answer in a jiffy.

I copied this from infoplease.com:

"In Medieval Europe, eggs were forbidden during Lent. Eggs laid during that time were often boiled or otherwise preserved. Eggs were thus a mainstay of Easter meals, and a prized Easter gift for children and servants.

In addition, eggs have been viewed as symbols of new life and fertility through the ages. It is believed that for this reason many ancient cultures, including the Ancient Egyptians, Persians, and Romans, used eggs during their spring festivals."

And now we know.  Or maybe you already knew, and it was just me that was oblivious.

Now then, since I've talked about eggs so far this entire post, how about I show you some?  

First of all I would like it be known that this year I was a good mommy and remembered to get vinegar to increase our egg coloring dyeing enjoyment.  I am also proud to say that this time no one ended up with green alien hands. Yay!  If you would like to read about our last vinegar-less and alien hand egg coloring dyeing session you can read about it here. 

He was a little excited to get started. : )

Such concentration.  He told me right away he could, "Do it myself."

Pretty Eggs.

Mixing them up.

He had to hold his mouth just right.

*Sniff sniff.*  He really could do it by himself.  He could even get them out without my help.

All done!  He was so proud of his creations.

He sat there and went through all the work of peeling an egg, and then remembered that he doesn't like eggs.

He peeled two others after this one, and was disappointed they all tasted the same.

I don't know how many times I walked into the kitchen and he was "visiting his eggies." 

Who knew eggs got lonely, ha.

That about wraps it up here.  I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter!

This So Happens to Me...

Love Grows Here

We got all of our flowers planted yesterday.  Yay!  Then it did exactly what the weather people said it would, it got cold, and then it snowed.  It has been snowing on an off all morning, but at least it's only a dusting, and the ground is too warm for it to stick.  Hopefully this will be about the end of it.  Though I did see on the news earlier this week that most of the ski resorts have extended their season until the end of May, so who knows.

Brennan was a big help with the flower planting.  Anything that involves digging, and he's all in.


Though I think his motivation went more in the direction of finding bugs and worms than the beautification of our yard.


We're really going to have to work on bug recognition with this kid.  After he got done playing with the worms, he went around to the front of the house and told me he found a ladybug.  I didn't think too much of it, and he carried his "ladybug," around for a couple minutes before I asked him to show me his bug.  As soon as I saw his bug, I knocked it out of his handed and smooshed it with my shoe while Brennan looked at me like I was the meanest mom ever. 

The ladybug was no lady at all, it was a yellow jacket!  The only reason I can fathom that it didn't sting him, was that it must have just woken up from it's winter nap and was still woozy.  It's stinger-eye coordination just wasn't there yet, thank goodness!

After the bug scare, Brennan moved on to less dangerous sports.

Bike riding,


wheel adjustments,


and tree climbing.


All done!

Now get growing!

Right after we got finished, Jason surprised us and stopped at home for a few minutes to pick up some shirts to be dry-cleaned.

Gotta love big Daddy hugs!  I don't know what the little man is going to do.  Jason is getting ready to go TDY for six weeks.  It will be the longest he's ever been away from his Daddy.

After Jason went back to work, it was getting chilly outside, so we went in and busted out the Easter eggs.


Brennan didn't grasp the concept of "don't look until I get them all hidden," but it was still fun!

A few more practice runs and we should be ready for the big base egg hunt next Saturday. : D

You Can Usually Count On Me...

..not to have a post ready for Monday.  Bummer, but that seems to be just how I roll here lately. 

But today, I thought I would surprise you all and give it a go!  So far it's been a great day.  Number One: The sun is shining, and the snow is melting!  Number Two, Three, Four...Reference #1.  Yay!  I don't know how long the weather will stay nice, but I'll take it while it's here.

So, though it snowed all day Saturday, and then was gloomy yesterday, we had a great weekend.

It started out kind of slow, for Jason anyway.  He had an appointment Saturday morning to get the extra accessories we ordered put on the Jeep, and to get the undercoating applied.  Brennan and I would have gone too, but they told Jason ahead of time that it was going to take 3-4 hours.  Brennan pent up in a auto dealer waiting room for 4 hours would not have been good, so Daddy went by himself and we stayed home.

Brennan was happy, he got to sit and watch cartoons without any interruptions for Fox News.  While he was occupied watching Super Why and Thomas and Friends, I spent my time trying not to have a brain aneurysm talking on the phone with the Sirius radio people.  That has got to be my all time least favorite thing to do. ever.  And it doesn't matter why I have to call them, it still ends up the same.  This time I was calling to switch service from one radio to another.  Apparently, the radio I was switching to wasn't compatible with the one I was switching from.  Long, long, blood boiling story short, they decided to send me a new radio for free, and give me a year programming for $70 bucks.  I guess we'll keep them around for another year.  Unfortunately, when our new radio comes in, I'll have to call them again to get the programming switched over.  Gah!


You must wear the proper apparel while watching  Thomas the Train.

Yesterday we went Target shopping, and found some really good deals on meat.  We stocked up our freezer with sirloin, pork chops, pork loin, chicken breast, and whole chickens for about $100.  We counted it up, and we ended up with about 23 meals worth.  Way to go, us!

After we got home, it was time to make some cookies.

I didn't get any pictures of the cookies, but here is the cookie makin' helper.

So silly.

So I guess that brings us to today.  Brennan was so happy this morning that Spring Break is over so he could go back to school.  I hope he always feels that way about going to school. : )

I have one of the chickens from our shopping trip yesterday roasting in the crockpot.  Mmmm....smells good already.  Anyway, I hope I haven't bored you too much with my Monday post.  I've gotta run, time to go back to school to get the little man.  Maybe I'll live on the wild side, and wear my flip flops when I go.  : ) 

(Isn't it sad that 47 degrees is so exciting?)
Hugs,

Spring Starts in March, Right?

I have had this sign hanging on our front door for weeks.  Weeks! 


I am so ready for Spring!

Just a few things on my "Spring Ready" list:
Brennan asks to wear his sandals everyday.
I have three pairs of new flip flops that haven't seen the outside yet. 
I just gave myself a pedicure.
I have been working on my Jergens Natural Glow tan.
I have lilies to plant, and planters that we keep dragging in and out everyday.


Obviously, Mother Nature just can't take a hint.  That, or she has a mean sense of humor.

This is what was happening yesterday evening.

And this was just the icing on the cake after a gloomy day of rain, sleet, and hail. (There's snow on the forecast through Sunday! boo!!)

But, at least with the snow came a little hope.

Well hello, Mr. Robin!

This little guy and his buddy were hanging out in our yard.
Though, I don't think they looked too happy to be here.

"Hmmph...I think we took a wrong turn in Arizona."


Happy Weekend Everybody!

Day 2: Arches NP and a bit o' Canyonlands again

I think I finally have our Arches pictures narrowed down.  Even though I keep going back and adding to my list.  : )

Arches was my favorite part of our Moab trip.  Don't get me wrong, the whole area is wonderful, but there was just something extra special there.

So away we go!

Brennan...gotta love him...I think he would have been happy just to stay at the visitors center and play with the critter statues all day.  He also go to pick out a new book in the gift shop, so he was a happy camper.



There were no mediocre sections to see at Arches.  Every way you looked there was something awesome.
This was the view entering the park, looking back towards Moab.


Welcome to Arches!


Courthouse Towers


Petrified Sand Dunes


Balanced Rock


Devil's Garden


Tunnel Arch


Pine Tree Arch


Checking out the architecture. : )


More of the walk on the Devil's Garden Trail.


Landscape Arch


One of Brennan's favorite parts: Eating sandwiches in the back of the Jeep.

When we went to California last summer with Nana and Papaw, we brought food along for lunches, too.  Brennan got to sit on the back of Papaw's truck then, so sitting in the back of the Jeep on this vacation was a must.  The kid doesn't forget anything!

The Fiery Furnace


The Delicate Arch

The hike to this arch was like 3 miles.  After Jason carried Brennan on his shoulders for the past couple hours, there was no way we were walking up there.  We took one of the 4x4 trails that run below the arch and I got this shot.  This is the arch that you see on Utah license plates, and on postcards and stuff.

La Sal Mountains


Walking up to the North Window Arch.


Looks more like an eye than a window.



Trying not to get blown away!


The South Window


Both of the Windows


The Turret Arch

Or as Brennan called it: The Big Castle.

Walking to the Double Arch


I think this one was my favorite.



View from the Double Arch trail.


So at this point, we left Arches, and went back to Canyonlands.  The sunsets there are supposed to be really amazing to see.

On the way Brennan decided to take a little snooze.

OK, well I don't think he actually decided to, but rather he was just plain worn out and crashed.

We were all really tired, and it took forever to get there.

I got this picture on the way in.


The we went to the Green River Overlook to take pictures there...

...insert really cool sunset picture here...
Ohhh Ahhh!

Yeah, the taking of the really cool sunset picture went like this:

When we got to the parking lot, the dash thermometer thing said it was 40 degrees.  So we put on our coats, and then we opened the doors, and promptly began freezing our patooties off!  Brrr!!!!  It was more like 40 below!  The wind was coming across the parking lot like a hurricane was coming! 

So did we pack it in?  No of course not,  we woke up a warm and sleeping Brennan, put his coat on, plus wrapped him in a blanket, and took off for the overlook.  Now Brennan, being none to happy that we woke him up, and even more unhappy that we dragged (drug?) him into a blizzard, was wailing by the time we got there.  I did take a couple pictures, (that I'm sure are all out of focus because I was shivering too much to hold the camera still), but the sun had not set yet, so they weren't much different than what I took the day before.  We could have waited for hypothermia to set in, but there were a few other people there who were braving the frigid cold and waiting patiently for a spectacular sunset.  We felt kind of rude, since we were the only ones there with a screaming banshee, so we ended up leaving.

I did end up getting this picture on the way out.

and I didn't have to get frostbite in the process.
Bonus. : )