Dyeing Easter Eggs

Me at 33 Weeks

Easter eggs. A simple statement....and ever so fun. The wind forced us inside this year. Phew, it was so windy the screen door hinge was ripped out of the frame, our BBQ grill blown over, and the slide blown over into the rocks. My greenhouse still stands!! I was not too excited to color eggs inside with Phillip but turned out I made the biggest mess! Amelia was enthralled to color princess eggs. Yes, please excuse the princess smock on Phillip; figured that kid is boy enough to wear pink and princesses at the same time. Phillip enjoyed sucking the vinegar off the eggs and dyeing his fingers. I tipped over the blue dye onto Justin and the floor trying to help Amelia mix colors. Within seconds the grout was a purty blue color.

On other fronts: Phillip learned how to open door knobs, not consistently but enough to surprise me. He found my stash of Q-tips and is often found with q-tips in his ears and nostrils. Scares me to death. He also learned how to open the dishwasher and empty our more fragile dishware onto the floor. He is a true monkey. Last night he really did look like a monkey covered in hair while I buzzed his head. I think his eye teeth are coming in. Once again he is not sleeping very well due to pain. Poor kid!

Amelia learned some hard lessons this week. We are having her do chores lately. If she doesn't do her chores within a required time frame and I do them there is a consequence. Last night she didn't put her clean PJs in her drawer. I scored her pretty Easter Basket for my treasure chest. She was so frantic I almost lost my nerve to laughter. She could not think of a way to pay me back and earn her basket so I gave her three choices: clean room, clean bathroom, or sweep the sidewalks. She chose the bathroom. This morning she was up bright and early asking to clean the bathroom before the ward Easter Egg Hunt. Awesome! Amelia is having a hard time sleeping again. Trying to be inventive I told her if she wakes me up at night I'd put her in the basement to sleep all by herself. Course she woke up so I plopped her down in the basement and went to bed. Little stinker loved sleeping the basement. That did NOT go how I planned. Two weeks ago I installed limo tint over the kid's windows to reduce the early morning light. Last night I removed the tint from her window and she slept all night. Maybe it was too dark in her room. My next tactic is for her to pay for a babysitter so Justin and I can go to a hotel for a good night of sleep. Hopefully, that will not be necessary. Gotta love that "LOVE and LOGIC" program.

Yesterday Amelia helped me with a photo shoot for a little 6 mth old. I am in love with my new photo paper! Check my Apple Green Photography site soon for updates. She is becoming quite the assistant! I got her a little toy camera so she'd leave mine alone. She is constantly trying to pose us: put your arms around each other, cheeks touching, chin down, smile like a princess, etc. Phillip can be heard saying "cheese" mimicking her toy camera. My kids are so funny.

All week we've worked on going through resurrection eggs, or 12 plastic eggs filled with items representing the story of Easter. We started off watching the Lamb of God on Monday and are doing 2 eggs per evening. Amelia is learning so much about Jesus and Easter through our little talks. My mind was riveted by the talk in April's Ensign by Elder D. Todd Christofferson on, "Always Remember Him." I constantly find myself pondering his words during this Easter season. The next talk happened to be the classic talk by McConkie on the Savior a couple months before he passed away. So much to be grateful for!