Easter Weekend 2017

I love Easter weekend. 

I love what it represents. I love the church service. I love the time with family. I love dyeing eggs. I love Easter baskets. 

I seriously just love Easter weekend. 

So today, just like years before, I'm recapping the aftermath of Easter 2017!

Easter 2015 // Easter 2016 

For three years now, we've started the tradition of going down to my sister's house the Saturday of Easter weekend for several egg-cellent activities. See what I did there? I think you did.

Each Saturday kicks off with Easter baskets - which is basically my very favorite part. I don't know why, but I absolutely love making these kiddos some Easter baskets. And this year was Easton's first one! I love walking into the house with them and seeing the excitement on their little faces. Partly because I know it won't be too much longer that the $5 and under section at Target/Michaels will keep them this excited :)

This year they both got bunny sippy cups, new shoes, Rangers ball caps (heck yeah!), and bubbles. Brooklyn also got a new little sundress, some egg chalk, Easter-themed play-doh, peeps, and then eggs filled with skittles and Reeses' cups. Then little Easton got a football, animal crackers, and since he can't have candy yet, his eggs were filled with mini Nilla wafers :) 

Seriously - I just had too much fun with these. I adore those kiddos. 

 

After basket time, we start the egg dyeing process. Now, if you've read in years past, you know that the egg dyeing process for us was a bit of a learning curve... :) But now we've basically mastered the art of the eggs. 

Egg station - ready to go!!

She was SO excited for the festivities!

When you're standing on a stool but still too little to see over the counter :)

Jeff and I also love the festivities. Well, actually we love any chance to do kid-like activities. Overgrown children FTW!

But sometimes you're too young to dye eggs, so you just ask people to hold you while you eat your crackers.

All done! She was so proud!

And that pride lasted for about 23 seconds before she was ready to move onto hunting eggs. I hid the eggs for Brooklyn, and Amy hid eggs for Easton. And how do you hide eggs for a 16-month old, you ask?

You just drop them in plain sight all over the ground. :)

And then he hunted. 

He searched high....

He searched low....

And then he searched inside the eggs. Just in case there were any more Nilla wafers. 

Love that little boy. And this little girl. Except she's not so little anymore. How is she four months shy of being FIVE?! I just can't handle it. 

Oh and then this guy figured out if you fill up the basket with eggs and then dump them all out it's basically the greatest time ever.

Crazy kid :)

Speaking of crazies.. I love this other (not so) little crazy of mine..

And then after several rounds of hunting and finding, we were pretty much over anything egg-related. 

The struggle was real.

The hunt was just too.much.pressure. 

We continued to play around for the afternoon, and these two boys never left each other's side. Easton is infatuated with his Uncle Jeff. More often than not, E would see Jeff and stick out those little hands for Jeff to pick him up. And my little aunt heart melted. At first it was a tad jealous, but they were just too cute to hold resentment for too long :)

We ate dinner and ice cream, laughed more (mostly at the expense of yours truly), and I smiled the whole way home. Traditions are the best!

Sunday morning we headed to my second favorite service of the year. The Candlelight service at Christmas is my absolute favorite, but the Easter service is a close second. I actually started attending what was Jeff's church (now mine too), three Easter's ago. I church hopped for years in Dallas, and then after he invited me to Easter at Gateway, I stopped looking! 

We actually had Sandi Patty and Larnell Harris sing at this year's service. And let me tell you - that church was ROCKIN. Jeff had no idea who she was, but I grew up listening to Sandi, so it was pretty special to be able to see her one last time on her "farewell tour."

Our church crew! Not pictured: those who went to the 9a but didn't wait afterwards to be in the annual group picture :)

After church we ran back to Jeff's and got to open Easter baskets of our own!! If you're new around here, Jeff's mom makes us "holiday baskets" (Valentines, Easter, Halloween, Thanksgiving) and they basically rock my world. I love making the niece/nephew Easter baskets, but it's pretty exciting to open one of my own, too :)

This year, my basket had all kinds of goodies, but my favorite was - get this - the deviled egg platter that I registered for :) How perfect is that for Easter!? Sometimes I love adulting. 

We then met his parents and the rest of the Smith crew for a family fish fry. We ate, hunted eggs, cracked confetti eggs, mingled, and I got some serious baby fever. 

This was me for about two hours. And I have the sunburnt arms to prove it. Jeff's cousins just recently had this sweet little bundle (the bundle is named Brayden), and Brayden just really needed a place to sleep (where he could simultaneously hold onto hair). So I offered my services and fell quite smitten to this little guy :)

After we left the fish fry, we noticed everyone was posting pictures on social media with their kids, so we stopped by Petsmart, picked up 27 different treats, and bribed our pup into taking this family picture. 

Happy Easter from the three of us :)

And, to close, I will leave you with my very favorite Easter picture:

"And then on the third at break of dawn,
The Son of heaven rose again.
O trampled death where is your sting?
The angels roar for Christ the King
O praise the name of the Lord our God
O praise His name forever more
For endless days we will sing Your praise
Oh Lord, oh Lord our God"

-Hillsong: O Praise the Name

Until next time,
Katy

 

Peek at the Week

I haven't done one of these posts in forever! Quite possibly because no one really wants a significant amount of pictures of me and my dog curled up in bed watching Gilmore Girls on a nightly basis. Which is what the past month of post busy season weekdays would have looked like... 

And honestly, these "peek" posts are probably your least favorite (like hello - why should you care what I do on a daily/weekly basis?), but I always love going back and reading old ones. It's like a social media deposit box for all of the instagram photos I would really love to post...but won't because I've already posted 3 in the past 24-hours. #overgrammer

Let's get peekin.... 

On Friday night, Jeff and I went on a double date with Ben and Caitlin to Brio Tuscan Grille - a restaurant in Southlake's town square. You know if they spell "grille" with an e at the end - it's going to be good. 

We were there for 3 hours and treated ourselves to a 4-course meal - all of which were incredibly delicious. This is one of my new favorite restaurants. I would highly recommend this to anyone looking for a treat! 

..................

Saturday afternoon Jeff and I "parented." For six whole hours. 

....I haven't laughed that hard in a long time.

Babysitting Brooklyn is one thing. Babysitting Brooklyn AND Easton? That was a whole 'nother helping of an enchilada. Easton is technically still breakable at 4 months old. That's a lot of responsibility for an aunt. Thankfully he came with instructions. 

Took this right after mom, dad, grandmama and grandaddy left. My sentiments exactly, little man. 

Listen here - diapers need "front" and "back" labels. Pants have tags in the back - why don't diapers? We could not, for the life of us, figure out which was the front and back of the diaper. We put it on one way, decided that didn't look right, took it off and flipped it around, but that didn't look right either - rinse and repeat approximately seven times. Jeff, Brooklyn and I were cracking up, and Easton just rolled his eyes. #amateurs

Feeding time. Note the hand on the fingers. Melt my heart. These two became pretty good buds. 

Easton preferred entertainment to nap time, so we showed him what Aunt Katy and Uncle Jeff do best - ice cream sundaes! 

My sweet parents went by the store and grabbed us 4 pints of ice cream and all the fixins. So we had ourselves a little ice cream social!

This is why we get along. #fatandhappy

He and Brookie had a little bit of everything. Me? I had vanilla and chocolate syrup. Duh.

Easton started getting sleepy, so I started walking around singing Itsy Bitsy Spider (his favorite song, apparently), and trying not to laugh as he completely conked out with his hand in his mouth. I couldn't look down or I'd laugh. So I essentially had to sing Itsy Bitsy Spider to the ceiling. 

While Easton slept, Brooklyn fed me gummy bears. We basically let her eat an entire bag of gummy bears and container of Oreo minis by herself. Being an aunt rocks. 

And yes, Amy, I'm sitting on your counter. Cause she asked me to.

The rest of the babysitting gig was pretty quiet. Easton woke up just as Mickey Mouse Clubhouse came on, and both kids were entranced. So we got in some good snuggle time. 

I think Jeff is pretty smitten with Easton :)
#boysunite

Then I went home and crawled in bed at 7p. No wonder parents keep saying they're exhausted. That ain't no joke.

..................

Sunday morning I was supposed to head back down to Mansfield for Easton's baby dedication at church, but there was a giant storm hovering over the metroplex, and we decided it wasn't safe. SO, I put back on my jammies, brewed some more coffee, and curled back up in bed with this one. 

Rainy Sunday snuggles are my favorite. 

I lasted SEVEN years without letting Charlie on my bed. And now it's like my favorite thing ever. 

.....................

Monday night after work, Char and I headed over to Jeff's for dinner and Dancing with the Stars. And since my dog has FOMO and cries if we sit on the couch because he can't get close enough....we sit on the floor with him. :) 

...................

Last night was my first Rangers game of the season!! 

I love baseball season. Oh so much. In fact, I love it so much I wrote an entire post last year on the reasons why I love it. Baseball is my favorite. 

We went on a double date with Toby and Chanel and had a grand ole time. It was such a great night for a game - clear skies and 70 degrees. 

 

Group Selfie for the win. 

Not to mention it was dollar hot dog night, Blue Bell was back (last summer was rough without it), AND my husband boyfriend favorite pitcher Cole Hamels was on the mound. He's just so beautiful. 

The more I drooled over Hamels, the more Jeff proceeded to share with me the similarities between him and Hamels. For the entire game :)

  
 I think it's safe to say I'd take this cutie of a pitcher over Hamels any day. But don't tell him that - I like to keep him on his toes :)

And that's a peek at the week! 

Almost Friday! Hang in there everyone!

Until next time,
Katy 

KUWK Christmas: Days 7-13

So I really had no intention of waiting this long to do this post - but once you get to days 11, 12, and 13, you'll understand why I'm just now getting around to it. 

We're officially 13 days into December (yes, I realize it's the 14th, but it's 6 a.m. and the only thing Christmassy I've done so far is drink Christmas coffee), and I must say - this little challenge is hard. It's mainly hard on weeknights when I work late. But - like I said in the beginning, I don't have to do something big every day...just something. 

And so far, so good :)

So here we go! KUWK's 25 Days of Christmas - Days 7 - 13!

Monday night consisted of Winter Oreo Bark and I'll Be Home for Christmas (the JTT kind). 

I will always have a crush on teenage Jonathan Taylor Thomas. I was obsessed with Home Improvement growing up (like I recorded any episode that revolved around him on VCR), and proceeded to watch any and every movie he made. This one was no exception. In fact, I remember that me and my sister went and saw this in the theatre. And when we parked we couldn't get out of the car yet because she had to finish singing Tim McGraw's "Something Like That" which was on the radio at the time. Crazy what you remember.

But yes - day seven was baking and a movie. If you haven't watched this in a while I highly suggest it (JTT and Jessica Biel circa 1998), and if you missed my winter oreo bark recipe last week you can find it here! Two ingredients; twenty minutes. It's that easy!

Okay, Tuesday was rough. I worked really late and by the time I came home, I just wanted to collapse into a giant heap of worthlessness. But alas - I did so in a Christmassy way! Day 8 consisted of a bubble bath, Christmas novel (I was reading Winter Stroll at the time), and a Frosted Gingerbread candle. And for purposes of keeping this blog PG - you only get a picture of the candle :)

I'm actually on my third holiday book this month - so I'll be posting a December book review either later this week or next!

Wednesday is for Wrapping!  

And no I'm not dorky enough to have planned it like that (although that's something I totally would do), it honestly just crossed my mind.

Wednesday I needed to wrap some gifts primarily to get them out of my room. My space is limited in my room and I've stubbed my toe on my mom's Christmas gift approximately 32 times now walking into my bathroom. It was time to get that mess under the tree where it belongs!

 When I showed you my Christmas decor, you saw I have a blue/silver tree, and a red/green/gold tree. Well both trees have to have presents. No scrooge here. So, I did the noble and just thing and bought wrapping paper that matched both trees! And while I would show you the finished product of my wrapping, I forgot to buy bows. So you shall see said finished product once I find some.

On Thursday night, Jeff and I went to the opening Christmas show at our church!

In years past, I wasn't able to go because I was dancing in the Prestonwood show, so I was excited to see what it was all about this year! And let me tell you - it was quite entertaining! The entire show is a parody of Disney music (which I ate right up) and the talent was just amazing. The show is over for the year, but if they do it again next year - be sure to put it on your list! 

Friday was a pretty special (and ridiculously long) day for my family. We had our first Christmas baby!! Sweet little Easton joined us at 9:09 p.m. on Friday night. Yes. 9:09. I got to the hospital a little before 8a that morning. We all thought it would happen around lunchtime. Joke's on us. Nevertheless, he arrived, and he's precious, and he's the first December baby in our family. So we're all currently in a state of smitten right now. 

My sister. Mother of two. She's a champ. Plus she didn't have food for like 16 hours - so she's like the champ of all champs. 

So what did we do in the waiting room all the day long? A little of this, and a little of that. And then dad and I found the Hallmark channel. YES. 

He told me if I post this anywhere I don't get Christmas, but it makes me laugh and I just had to. So hopefully he just doesn't read this post. We love our Hallmark :)

So after a long Day 11, I packed up and headed to Oklahoma City for a Christmas wedding! My friend (and former roommate for two years), Lauren, got married to her man in a winter wonderland. Seriously - it was so pretty. Christmas EVERYWHERE! Including this gorgeous, massive, real tree that was flown in from Colorado. Yes - trees make air travel if you didn't know.

Me, Megan and Kristie - waiting to get this party started!

The beautiful bride!

Also - these are my work people. They are a complete hot mess and I love them. Seriously - the most entertaining crew on the dance floor!

My main squeeze :)

And THEN, after the reception, the bride had to tinkle. Hey - it's life. It happens. And what do you do when you're in a giant poufy dress and need to visit the ladies room? Take a couple of your girlfriends with you for assistance! That's friendship right there.

On Sunday we all drove back to Dallas and then I headed on down to Midlothian to cuddle with my sweet nephew! Who is just the sweetest thing ever by the way.

And he already praises the Lord. Glory hallelujah can I get an amen?!

This is the point of the blog where I really could just put up about 30 pictures I took while holding him. But I'll just leave you with a couple more...

Easton and his granddaddy! Look at both those smiles :)

And also - Jeff's first time to burp a baby. This picture kind of melts my heart a little bit. He's so little!!

And then I came home and did the only thing I could possibly entertain doing after that crazy long weekend. I watched the new Hallmark movie. 

And it was a great one by the way! I highly recommend it :)
_____

(big deep massive breath) 

And THERE are Days 7-13. 

Last week of work this week and then it's full speed ahead to the 25th! Are y'all ready?! Hope so!

11 DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS!!!

Until next time,
Katy