little bit of everything

Oh my goodness we had such a fun Easter Sunday. I can tell you that holidays aren't always the easiest, especially when you have young children and you're trying to visit everyone in one day, while attempting to maintain the cleanliness and togetherness of your family unit. "Wait! I forgot the monitor." "No, I need MILK chocolate...because it's lighter in color!" "Do you have both binkies??" "Where's the semi-sweet?!" "MOVE IT!"...were all sentences I spoke this weekend (who am I kidding, yesterday. I said them all YESTERDAY). Dispite being slightly stressed at times, we truly had a wonderful day visiting everyone. And when there's lots of people to see, there's lots of love to be had, and for that alone we are so blessed. Here are a few moments I captured (along with a few randoms from last week)...

Ellen and Paul, who happen to host Easter just about every year, have a pretty famous backyard/house. My kids love it there (Caleb especically loves the backyard when he's escaping the roar of people's voices from inside the house). Here's LC playing in the sand, yes in her beautiful Easter dress.

This year Easter Sunday happened to fall on my parents' 40th wedding anniversary. They generously wanted to celebrate by taking 3 of us 5 kids (the other 2 live in Texas) to brunch at Mr. Stox in Anaheim. It was very special and I was so thankful that Tj watched the kids so I was able to go (also very thankful that LC took a 3 hour nap).

After much debate as to what dessert I would bring to Easter dinner, I decided to bring this cake a la Martha. Remember that quote up top about the semi-sweet chocolate?? Well it mysteriously ended up in the refridgerator, so I wasn't able to finish the cake as I intended, but it turned out okay nonetheless.

Of course I didn't get a good picture of CC! But in all honesty, this is what he was doing all day long, having Tj open Easter eggs for him, running around, and eating candy.

This is what LC did today. Yes, that's mud.

Our church had an Easter Sunday service on Saturday night, and Tj and I were able to go while Grandma watched the kids. Caleb doesn't do well in a Sunday school room (one of us always has to stay with him) so it was nice to be able to both worship together. We ALSO were able to enjoy Innout together (did I mention it's been 3 months since I've had a BUN on my burger?! GLORY BE!).

My *ahem* birthday is this Thursday, and my in-laws got me this beautiful vintage sewing machine! The only sewing I've ever done has been on my mom's Singer from 1972 (which is currentely out of commission). I'm so excited to get started on this one!

Lastly, here's an Instagram of LC. Love her.