Easter

Southern Belle Rule #167 - Easter is always celebrated with a new dress.

 

My mom has been buying me Easter dresses since I was born. 

This year didn't change that.

She still got me a new dress to wear to church on Easter.

I was all excited about buying Baby a new dress, too.

I found such a cute one and was so excited to continue this tradition with my baby.

But then I forgot to grab it, before we left for my parents house.

I was so upset, but when we got to my parents' house,

my mom reminded me that she has years of my Easter dresses down in the basement.

I picked out Mollie's first Easter dress for her to wear.

I think it looks pretty, and Madeleine apparently thinks its the best thing ever to stick in her mouth.

She's been chewing on that lace all day.

 

We found this tradition on Pinterest, and we are excited for it.

"Easter tradition...your kids plant jelly beans, and when they wake up in the morning, lollipops have "grown" where the jelly beans were planted. Such a cute idea!"

 What traditions are you excited to share/shared with your kid?

Do you have any Easter traditions?

(Matt and I had a very long discussion about Easter traditions the other night.

We didn't really come up with any other than a new dress and egg hunting when they are older.)

Mugs and mercies

So once upon a time, I got married and moved into a scary new ward. It was a weird ward, where everyone was a couple. It was called the married student ward. I was not use to anything like this, and I was still getting used to my other half (we had only been married for 2 weeks at this point). Making friends was pretty difficult, because everyone already had a best friend...their one true love. Now if you learned anything from the Princess Bride, you know, that separating true love is a very difficult task.  They traveled in packs of two. Always together and happy, which is really great, just not so easy to make friends.

Married Ward in a nutshell

I was intimidated and worried I never find a friend. But then one day at church, I saw this girl. She was wearing mismatched socks even though she was wearing a very pretty dress. Hey I could be friends with her! It should have been easy from there...But I didn't say hi for awhile. I was scared to. Then one day, Matt got sick of me talking about how I could probably be friends with her, and how I wasn't expecting a bosom friend or anything, and made me commit to finding out her name. Ugh. I was terrified, but then I sat next to her at church. She was nice! She liked princesses! And Matt even thought her hubby was cool!!! Ding ding ding!! I went home found her on facebook, and even more importantly her blog. I found this blog post. It was everything I was thinking and feeling! After that I knew we would be good friends.

And we did. We bonded over cooking, chocolate, princesses, tea parties, fish heads, etc.

Then she moved away.

That was sad.

But never fear, we kept in touch. Mostly through our blogs. 

Yesterday though fate took action. I had a busy day full of being slightly sick with a sick offspring (so not very fun). I had a whole bunch of errands to run so I wasn't near my computer all day. Matt and I had a dinner date at 7, but I was so distracted buying stuff for baby's Easter basket that I was running late. I got home at 6 and noticed that Natashya wrote a new blog post. I looked at the time (it was now 6:50) and debated for a second, before deciding to read her post before leaving. (That isn't super normal for me, I hate being late.) It was about how she has been sick for a while. It made me sad reading it, because even though I had suspected something was up, I didn't like reading about my friend being sick. I kind of felt like moping a bit but I was late. So I grabbed baby and ran to the car and pulled out (it was like 7 sharp). When I pulled out of the parking garage. 

I stopped (you are supposed to but that wasn't the only reason that I stopped). 

There literally across the street was an Andy, and not just any Andy, but Natashya's husband Andy! He stared and me and I stared at him (I was still sick and tired. I knew there was a chance I was hallucinating)  before smiling. :) I parked my car diagonal across the street and said hi! We started talking quickly, before I remembered that I had something for her (oh and parking diagonal across a street isn't the smartest thing)! 

It had been sitting on my table for like 3 weeks. I read this post of hers about a sad day for flower mugs a long time ago, and since then I had been looking for a mug for her. And I found one not too long ago. Matt wasn't convinced I had the right address so he didn't want me to send it. (I didn't want to ask her for it again, because that ruins the surprise) But we needed it to go somewhere since we are moving in exactly 1 month. Andy seemed heaven sent. Not only could he take the mug that I so desperately wanted to give to her, but also seeing him made me feel better about her being sick and being so far away. It was a sweet tender mercy that God sent me in the middle of 3 really really crazy weeks. 

Little moments like that let me know that God loves me and that I matter to him. It was a great little message and reminder to have right before Easter. 

Southern Belles - Rule #91

Sissy wasn't really beautiful, but men never noticed. With her deep, green eyes, her shoulder-length auburn hair that swung when she moved, and the way she moved as if she enjoyed just being inside her body, men had always paid her lots of attention....[Sissy's] mother and grandmother had wanted her to grow up a gracious southern lady. Her grandmother just didn't want those men to grind her down. Sissy had added to it over the years, until the Southern Belle's Handbook became her personal credo. She it in her head, assigning numbers at random, but then Sissy always did had a random relationship with numbers.

That's the intro to one of many of my favorite Southern Belle books (after all, Southern belles are just modern day princesses). I started brushing up on the rules to get ready for our move (not to the South), but then I realized that Baby doesn't know them yet. So we are going to take a rule a day to focus on to teach her. (When I get the book of Fran Fine quotes, those will be mingled in here too.)

Southern Belle Secret #91 - Act helpless and confused when it's to your advantage; never let them know just how clever and capable you are.

I know this one sounds so condescending but it hands down fits today. And I know this one well. I was raised on it. My mother calls this the "dumb blonde act." One of my mom's best friends is really pretty and blonde, and people sometimes talk condescendingly to her. She, like a southern belle, does not let this mess up her day. She simply starts looking confused and helpless, while carefully putting together questions that make the person realize they are an being idiot. She sweetly helps guide themselves to realizing they are wrong, and in the process, gets her way.

It might sound degrading, but sometimes you really just run into those people who will not listen. They are so mean and prideful. They don't care if you have read up all week on the topic, or even if you have it in writing right in front of them. They are right and you are wrong in their eyes and nothing will change it. You gnash your teeth and glare, but you know that one way or another that you have to figure out how to have them see your way. That's when you pull out this card, and if you do it right, you'll get your way. It really is quite an art.

I spent 2 hours on the phone with insurance people today. They weren't listening, but in the end, by asking tons of questions and "acting" confused (I was actually confused...they were making no sense what-so-ever), I got my way. :)

 Baby is better at this one than me. She has it down pretty good. She knows how to look confused and helpless

so that her minions people around her will do whatever she wants them to do.

For any of my blogger friends, you should join us. It will be fun. :) 

3 months!

Madeleine is...

23.2 inches long

11lb and 14 oz

She's 3 whole months, which is a 1/4 of a year.

After all, 3 months is half of a half birthday,

which of course calls for celebration.

We celebrated with an Easter cupcake.

I ate it. 

After all, everything I eats turns into food for her, right? ;)

She still likes to sleep a lot.

She got her first ear infection this month.

Everything goes in her mouth now.

Fingers, Daddy's fingers, blankets, Jose her doll, paper.

It all gets chewed on. 

Her favorite is her fist.

She can sit up pretty well now with a little bit of help.

She also rolled from her tummy to her back 4 times last weekend,

but she hasn't done it since.

She got her first pair of shoes yesterday.

They have dinosaurs on them.

We really love them, but tying her shoes is really hard.

She only sits still when she's asleep.

The best part is, they are hand-me-downs from a sweet little boy.

He grew out of them...and he's 2 months younger than her!

She just has very dainty feet.

She still cuddles with us a lot.

And is in general a really happy little human.

We love her more and more every day.

All smiles here!

 This is the 1940s hat we got baby at the vintage flee markey. 

We think she looks like a baby version of the Greek God, Hermes.

Since Baby can sit up pretty well, Matt decided to put her up on his sholders.

They were having a swell time until Baby got so excited that she goo-ed all over him.

Baby in the process of gooing

All smiles here!

When we were getting discharged from the hospital, one of the other moms asked how we would know if our babies were okay. The nurse told us that babies make plenty of noises in their sleep. 

Madeleine is an especially squeaky one. Here is just 30 sec of her sleeping.
I'm not sure just how normal that is for a 11 week baby, but Matt and I really like this feature of hers.

Family Day Out

Matt was gone to Northwestern the last few days, but he changed his flight and came home at noon today. I had not been planning on him coming home that early, so we had an impromptu family day.

We fueled up at In 'n' Out, before heading over to our destination, Vintage White Flee Market up in Salt Lake. 

We were a little bummed that we had to pay for parking, but Madeleine got us out of paying for Matt. Matt asked the lady if he was just there as the official babysitter if he had to pay. She thought Madeleine was cute, and let him come in free. Yay for cute offspring!

Utah is kind of funny about deals. Some things are awesome prices, while other...are basically full price.

We found some awesome things though. We got a stool so I can actually reach stuff in the kitchen, a 1940s baby hat for Madeleine, and some children's books. I wanted to get her a frilly headband, but no one there sold any. There were some real jems though.

We visited a few friends in Salt Lake and on the way to Nina's bridal shower in Lehi, we stopped by the Oquirrh Mountain Temple. Matt and I hadn't been there since the day we got married. It was just as windy and beautiful as the day we got married. It was pretty neat thinking that a year and half ago we started off as newlyweds. I don't think we quite knew just how wonderful the next year and half would be.

 We spent the whole day together as a family, which honestly I don't think we have had enough of lately. Later this week we get to go to Boston. I might be just more than a little excited.

Baby Blessing

On March 3, Madeleine got blessed.

She was really good through the whole thing.

Matt and I went to the temple the night before to prepare for it.

Matt gave her a beautiful blessing.

It basically boiled down to a great capacity to love and to be confident.

Matt's dad was out for the blessing. Anna and my family came too, along with Matt's old roommates and our neighbor.

Matt's mom made the dress. 

Everyone loved it.

Madeleine did too. 

She spent most of church poking her toes through it.

Family Candids

Matt and I both hang our jackets on chairs.

I guess we started hanging baby's there too.

Bath Time

Food time with Daddy and Baby Dino

Staring at toys so I can get dishes done

Sunflowers Matt got me.