Easter 2013

Easter is by far the most important holiday to me. Not my favorite to decorate for, but that's not really what Easter is about anyway. Although I believe it is important to celebrate our Savior every day, I really appreciate having that one day to truly celebrate what He has done for us. Jesus died for me. That is huge. I do not ever want to forget what He has done for me.

This year I had to forego the usual Easter festivities and traditions so that Israel and I could continue to rest and recover at home. Josh was able to take Eden to our church's annual Easter egg hunt...which she thoroughly enjoyed. On Sunday I was able to head up the stairs (something I have only done twice since being home) and enjoy a meal with the family, egg painting with Eden, and an egg hunt on the front lawn. I missed church greatly, but was thankful for our "home church" where we played a couple videos from the Jesus Storybook Bible for Eden and then watched last year's sermon from David Platt. Speaking of him, if you want to be challenged in a major way, listen to his series on James. Each sermon was amazing. 

Now on to some photos of my sweet babies...

I seriously love these two. They confirm that I want a big family each and every day. 

Her hair kills me. 

Nothing better than my two babies out in the sunshine. 

I haven't been able to take all the photos I want of the littlest Crain due to being confined to the couch 24/7...although I have been blowing up Instagram...but I did manage to sneak a few photos after a diaper change earlier today. He changes so much each day. Oh my goodness I love this kid so much. 

Can I be honest with you all? My mama heart is struggling this week. I bonded with Israel immediately. This is all thanks to a fabulous birth experience...which has been written, I just need to finish it up and add some photos. Obviously I am thankful for this, but there is one thing that has been bothering me. I have noticed a little bit of fear creeping in. The biggest one came during his three very heavy spit up episodes where he choked and had trouble breathing. It was extremely scary each time and in fact Josh and I took turns checking on him throughout the night last night. I try to be strong and remember that Israel, while entrusted into my care, is truly God's child. And yet...I broke. I saw him struggling to breathe, and I completely lost all sense. I bawled. I have known him for 9 months in my tummy and 11 days out in the world, and yet I feel like he has been a part of me forever. I am usually pretty calm about these things, but something in me snapped. I know this is "normal," but it pains me all the same.

I am so thankful for our two babies. They both add something into our family that is unique and fun and perfect. I know there are many tough days ahead, but I do not want to lose sight of the blessings we have.

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Christmas...Just About A Month Late

In true Mallory fashion, I am posting Christmas just a little bit late. Or a lot. And in all honesty it'll probably take me a couple different times to finally publish this post, but hey, I am getting there. My goal is before February alright?

Not much to say...we did Christmas in our usual fashion. A trip up north to visit the Crain side for a few days and to celebrate at their annual Christmas party. Then back home at 1 a.m. on Christmas day to have a little family time and then celebrate with my side. It was crazy as always, but fun. Adding a second child will definitely make next Christmas a bit more interesting....

Row 1: our christmas tree // pretty packaging// relaxing in washington // train set // christmas lights

Row 2: lights // advent reading // work party // stockings // gifts

Row 3: cousins // grammie love // decor // stevee // picking out xmas tree

Row 4: singing at church // xmas at the capitol // cheeeeese // manger scene // repeat train set

This was our first official year without Santa. Last year we decided that doing the whole Santa thing just didn't work for our family. This year solidified that decision. Ironically, Eden was OBSESSED with the bearded man. Made for a few laughs. We just treat Santa like Mickey Mouse...he's imaginary, but we haven't seen the harm in letting her have fun watching Christmas movies and such. We are definitely not at a point where we are going to hole up in our house and not let her out for fear of the jolly man. No way. We didn't go sit on his lap (might be creepy if we all sat on his lap anyway), but we think the discussion of Saint Nicholas is a good one so we are all for the fun of it all as long as the focus stays on our Savior.

I think we had a great balance this year. We had a list of things we would like to do. Not HAVE to, just if the time was right and it worked out we would do a few of the traditions. I was a little disheartened by some of the things I heard this holiday season. Many moms throwing mini fits about how this or that went wrong and they didn't get to do everything on their list. PEOPLE. This is not what Christmas is about. It's taken me 28 years to get to that point, but I am so glad that my focus has changed. This was the best Christmas. Not because we got a lot of new things or anything, but because we focused on Christ and doing traditions that helped us grow as a family. We didn't worry about gifts. Last year we did the whole something you want/need/read/wear thing, but this year we decided to focus on keeping the gifts to a maximum of three, just like the wise men brought baby Jesus. So, so good for our family and our wallets. It turned into a great way to remember that our Savior received three gifts, so why should we receive more? Besides, do any of us really NEED anything? I mean, seriously think about it. We all have an overabundance of stuff compared to the rest of the world. I know that no one in our family needed to add to the pile of stuff we already have. This helps keep gift giving intentional. 

Basically this Christmas rocked in the best ways. It was the first year I happily put away the decor knowing that just because the holiday season was over, the whole point of Christmas was not. While it's fun to celebrate Jesus' birth on a special day each year, we really should be celebrating EVERY DAY. So, putting away the ornaments didn't mean Christmas was over at all. How refreshing. 

Thank you Jesus for coming to earth as a man. Sacrificing your life for ours. 

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Going Back In Time

Yep, I am still alive. Sort of. I miss blogging...I even think about it a lot...it's just the actual blogging part that gets me. I love to write, but I think the editing photos part is what drives me bonkers. It is just so time consuming and I don't have the patience for it. Lame of me I know. So, today you get a post of all sorts of stuff. Like Halloween which I still haven't posted...and Thanksgiving...and a few rants I am sure.

*I have seriously worked on this post 4 times and guess how many times I have had to redo it? Ummm...FOUR. I add photos, save my work, plan to come back to publish and then everything, but the words are gone?! I'm about to say that Halloween and Thanksgiving never happened, except I want the documentation for our family. Super frustrating.

Halloween this year ended up being more fun than I thought it would be. The 31st of October happens to be one of my least favorite days of the year (daylight savings days always trump it). I dislike dressing up, I don't eat candy, and I think the skulls and spooky stuff is just plain annoying. So...I usually avoid it. However, this year after much deliberation we decided we would still do Halloween, but in a way that fit our family. So, here's our little Tinkerbell.

Her costume was soooo inexpensive. I made her tutu (I have a tutu making obsession...they are SO easy). I used ribbon and ivory tulle I already had and then grabbed some green glitter tulle at WalMart for cheap. We used a shirt she had from a hand me down. The wings and the wand were both from the Dollar Tree. I think I spent $5 at most.

Despite that I am a bit of a Halloween Scrooge, watching Eden's face light up every time she ran up to a door to yell Trick-or-Treat made me melt. That's when Josh and I looked at each other and said it definitely was the right decision to take her out this year. So fun. For those of you wondering how we handled the overload of candy, here's what worked for us. After we were done visiting houses we headed over to a local health food store (Lifesource) and let her "choose" some candy. Now I use the term choose loosely since technically I found the ones that were the least processed, no added junk, etc. and then put those in front of her and let her choose from there. I like to give her independence while still making sure her choices are good for her. It worked great! Now, I don't think this will always work and we will change our plans accordingly as she grows, but for now this is what we are doing. Oh and I should mention one more thing so I can remember this...Eden was all about carving the pumpkins this year. She stuck her hands right in the guts and pulled them out. This was huge since before she was super sensitive about textures, but she's coming around and is totally my child! So proud that she loves pulling out the guts as much as I do...

So, after Halloween comes Thanksgiving! I'm just rushing through these holidays. Don't worry, I'll save Christmas for another post (hopefully not two months later). Thanksgiving was celebrated in Washington with Josh's side of the family this year. We typically rotate for Thanksgiving and Easter, but since we will just be getting out of the hospital with a newborn for Easter, we decided to do Thanksgiving up there again this year. We had lots of fun celebrating in the in-laws new house. It's soooo big and so comfortable, we love visiting! My mother-in-law and sister-in-law totally rocked at decorating this year and the food was definitely delicious.

2.5 hour drive turned 5 hours equals necessary stop at Burgerville // cousin craft time // pretty tablesetting // cousin love

These last two months have been fun, but such a whirlwind. I honestly cannot believe that our little man is going to be here in less than three months. We are SO excited to meet him, but I can't help but feel anxious that it seems to be coming so fast. I need to stop time so I can catch up! We haven't even been able to start on the kids room. Currently I am trying to figure out how much I really want to do. I promised myself that no matter where we lived I would do my best to make it feel like home, but I'm sort of dragging my feet...I mean, moving again is inevitable, so I just keep talking myself out of doing much. Thankfully that funk only lasts a day and then I am back to making our space feel a little more like home. Now on to reminiscing about Christmas!

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Fun Filled Fourth

Once again we had a fun and relaxing day celebrating America's independence. While Josh worked, Eden and I met up with Kirsten and Beckett for a little Wednesday Market action (a smaller version of our Saturday farmers market). I took some photos of those goodies that I will post once I edit them. After a nap we did a quick photo shoot and then it was off to celebrate with friends. We set off a few smaller fireworks and then enjoyed all the illegal shows around us. Yeah, we are rebels like that. Oh and I realized that my dream for wherever we settle down and have our future farmhouse is that it must have cute little small town parades. I never realized how important this was to me until this year. It is going to happen. 

On this next one Eden said, "SEE?! PITS!" She is so Josh's child.

 

  

The girls (minus Cayden who I think was sleeping while the girls made a giant mess of water)

Ignore the quality...but seriously this girl LOVED the fireworks. I think a real show is in order next year.

I hope all of you who lives in the States enjoyed your 4th!

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Easter...The 2012 Version

This Easter was purely wonderful. Honestly, we enjoyed every last bit of Easter weekend. For those of you in the Northwest can I get an "AMEN!" to that beautiful weather we had?! Nothing like some gorgeous sunshine to really highlight the resurrection. This post is going to feel like picture overload, but I can't help it..I actually had my camera with me and used it everywhere I went and I am so proud of myself that I want to share. 

On Friday night we dyed eggs. We chose to go the natural dye route...I mean honestly, is there any other way?! Paas you just aren't my friend with your icky chemicals and smelly scents. While our first experiment with dying eggs didn't go perfectly as planned, we will most definitely continue dying eggs this way each year. It was fun to experiment and see how different foods reacted with the eggs. Our favorites? Tumeric and beets. I think the greatest part is knowing that back in the day when Jesus was walking around here they actually used food to dye linens. AMAZING. Oh and the fail part of our experiment? Following instructions saying to put in 1/4 cup of vinegar. Next year its 1 Tablespoon...that's it. You'll see why.

Yep, the vinegar ate the egg. I think it made for some fun looking eggs though. Lesson learned. Oh and we also experimented with blueberries, spinach, and red cabbage. 

Saturday morning was Eden's first time at our church's Easter egg hunt. We knew she would rock it, but WHOA we had no idea that we were going to have to tell her to "stop cleaning up the eggs so other kids could get some." Moral of the story, the girl loves eggs.

After the egg hunt we took a side trip to take our newest favorite baby her little Easter present. This was also Josh's FIRST TIME meeting "HeHe" (Eden's name for her cousin). Obviously he fell in love just as predicted. Sadly, I haven't been able to get my arms around her since her second day of life. My arms ache, but the idea of giving her my sickness is just too horrid to bear. So I just keep waiting. 

After a little rendevous at home for Eden's nap time, we decided to do a quick stop at the Capitol to take some photos of the ever famous cherry blossoms. We did this for Josh's birthday last year, so we figured we should probably do it again this year. As always, it was absolutely beautiful. 

Thank you random lady for totally rocking the camera...it was her first time using a dSLR and it was on MANUAL

Looking at that building makes me kinda sorta miss working there every day. And when I say kinda sorta I mean they are nice memories and boy was I ever lucky, BUT I am so very much happier and content at home. I am most certainly where I was meant to be.

Sunday morning we got up and let Eden open up her gifts. We are actually trying to shift the focus off of presents when it comes to Easter and Christmas so the gifts were small and useful. Eden was quite content with her new Easter book, sippy cup, and sidewalk chalk. She is easy to please. I can't wait to start up more traditions next year to ensure that Easter has a bigger focus in our house. 

Despite being terribly sick, I made sure we could all be at church together. When I say terribly sick, I mean that I was the one who was sick...so for those of you who are worried that Eden exposed your kids, I promise..she was all better! Felt like I needed that disclaimer. Anyways...we had a wonderful church service, got to see many lovely and friendly faces, and then had an impromptu photo sesh with my twin, her husband, and Eden's boyfriend. I love that Kirsten and I are pretty much the same person. It really is quite scary. Good news is she isn't really blood related (well we haven't been able to prove it yet) so it's totally okay that we are forcing our children to marry one another. When they are 40, obviously.

Thank you Ashley for letting us use your photography skills for free for our totally random photo session in front of the very crowded church.

I'm choosing to be humble and post a photo where everyone looks good, but me. Um, cheesy smile much? 

The rest of Easter Sunday was spent at my parents house. Eden is always guaranteed a good time with her uncle and aunt's...they treat that girl like the superstar that she is.

Obviously egg hunts are super exciting, as is the money that comes out of the eggs. Favorite moment? The fact that Eden ran around the yard shouting, "EGGIES!" the entire time she was hunting. My girl has some serious personality. Wonder where she gets that from...

We hope you all had a wonderful day of celebration! 

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Shout out to the LADIES!

If you live in or near the Salem area, I wanted to let you know of a fun event that is happening tomorrow! Limeberry and Stella & Dot are partnering up for a Ladies Night Out event. Some of each purchase is going towards a fabulous ministry called the Women at the Well Grace House. We really want this to be a success and we think it is going to be F-U-N so we want you all there!

Where: Limeberry Frozen Yogurt

            525 Taggart Drive

            Salem, OR 97304

When: 6:30-8:30 p.m. (come anytime!)

Why: Because you will have fun and there is yogurt and jewelry involved. Most importantly? You are supporting a great organization!

Please don't be shy...just come. And if we haven't met yet, introduce yourself. I would love to meet readers in person. See you all there!

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Happy Easter!

Just stopping in really quick to say "Happy Easter!" to all of you fine blog readers out there! We hope you are enjoying spending time with family or doing whatever it is you do on this very special day. 

I had to leave you with a photo of Eden and her boyfriend after Easter service...ummm, hi...cute much? 

He is RISEN! 

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