Easter festivities

We had some fun Easter festivities this last weekend. Tommy and the boys went to our ward Easter egg hunt, and we all dyed eggs and made some Jello eggs (a Leininger tradition Tommy loved), and had a little Easter egg hunt at our house on Sunday morning. We also tried hard to make it spiritual as well. For FHE last week we did a little Easter egg activity with different symbols of the resurrection inside of Easter eggs, we watched a bunch of Christ videos from lds.org, and we read different scriptures about Christ each night leading up to Easter. Dane at least gathered the main point of Easter being about the resurrection, although of course the candy was very exciting too.

Cute boys at the Easter egg hunt waiting to run out and gather eggs. I love Graham's chubby cheeks.

Dying eggs. Only one cup of dye got knocked over, so it was a success.

Graham was very cute and serious about it.

Dane was actually able to do it all by himself this year!

Easter morning, the boys found their Easter baskets, which were really sparse this year. I had planned to buy them each a book to go in their baskets (along with their chocolate bunny and a Cadbury egg) but I forgot, and didn't get anything else. I am in a getting-rid-of-things mode and didn't want to get some junky toys that would clog up our toy room even more. They didn't seem to care at all.

Graham was being really funny with his faces with the camera.

As Tommy and the boys were leaving for church, they realized that our yard had a bunch of Easter eggs all over it. Our neighbors had "egged" our yard and left a nice Easter basket for us, which was so nice! We went over to say thank you that night and gave them a pass-along card, and they were only a little bit uncomfortable with it :)

This is the best Easter picture we've got around here this year.

Lucy sporting her festive Easter chick outfit. Graham wore this his first Easter--which was his first day in the hospital. So cute.

Grandpa and Callie visit

We got lucky enough to be one of Callie's first stops to visit after she got home from her mission a few days after Lucy was born. She and Greg came for a week to meet baby Lucy and to play with the boys. We kept it pretty low-key with them--they were great visitors and very understanding about us being boring with our newborn baby. And they were great baby holders--just what Lucy wanted! It was really fun getting to talk with Callie and hear about her mission--she showed us a bunch of pictures and told us lots of stories. We also watched a few of my favorite movies: the Mormon Pride and Prejudice AND Bride and Prejudice (at Callie's request). This week just got us excited for the Leininger family reunion in July!

Tommy and the boys made a welcome sign for Callie when she got here.

Grandpa and Dane making Congo bars, which are a Leininger favorite.

Lucy LOVED snuggling with Grandpa. She seemed so comfy on his chest.

Callie introduced Dane to the wonders of Snapchat (since Tommy and I are sooo boring and lame and don't have it) and he loved it.

Watching a movie with Grandpa. Graham took a while to warm up to Greg, so he was really pleased to have him sit on his lap.

We took a big trip to Costco and filled one and a half shopping carts with stuff. Then we got to the car and realized that Dane's bike, Graham's trike, and two strollers were in the back of the car! We filled every inch of space in that car (we had to put the bike and stroller in the aisle) but managed to get everything home.

The dutiful RM reading The Continuous Conversion with Dane.

The one major outing that Lucy and I managed to go on with them was to the Dallas Arboretum. It was beautiful! We got some great pictures with the flowers. We all had a great time.

I don't love these pictures of me necessarily... but I do love that it's me and Lucy with some beautiful flowers.

The last day they were here, everyone else (including Kurt) went to go golfing at Top Golf, but it had a super long wait, so they ended up going to an arcade for a while and playing games instead. The boys loved it and had a great time.

Dane apparently won the car racing game.

And then we took them to Hard 8 BBQ for dinner. You can't come to Texas without getting some good old Texas BBQ!

Paternity leave

Can I just say that it has been SO NICE having Tommy home on paternity leave? He has been home for four weeks (he went back to work for the week while my mom was here) and his paternity leave is ending in a few days. It will be really sad to have him go back to work, because we have all loved having him home. I am so grateful that Capital One increased their paternity leave this year (from 2 weeks to 8 weeks--Tommy will be taking the other four weeks later in the year at some point). I obviously could have done it without him, if I had to--but it has been really nice not having to. We have all been happier and better adjusted having him home. I have had a much easier time of it, the boys have been taken care of, Lucy has had plenty of time to nurse and be held. Our family has benefited so much from having him here at this crazy time! Of course, next week will be a rude awakening having him go back to work--but we have managed to figure out a few things at least and made it over the first hump of having a newborn. It has been so wonderful having him here to help out.

While he's been home, Tommy's done a lot of yardwork and projects around the house, and he's made a point of doing fun things with the boys and bonding with them. He took Dane to play tennis (with his new kid's tennis racket), built little cars with them from a Lowe's building kit, we've gone on walks, and taken them to the park numerous times. He's also been able to hold Lucy a lot and even relax a little bit. I feel like Tommy never, ever gets to take time to relax in our normal life, so this has truly been a vacation for him too (I hope!). The kids have especially loved having him here. I think I will have a hard time for the next few months, especially with being patient at meal times (always my downfall) and with nursing--but we will survive. It's time to get back to real life and to have to figure out how to do this on my own.

Someone is very suspicious...

Look at that curly hair!

Her hair naturally does a mohawk. It stands straight up.

She is an 80s punkrocker with a mullet. 

Both boys were enthralled with Lucy's playmat we got out.

After a long night...

We were driving around and found a field of Texas bluebonnets and stopped to take some pictures. This is a VERY Texas thing--everyone gets pictures with the bluebonnets! These are not the best pictures ever or the best field of bluebonnets, but we didn't want to stress out or try very hard, so this was what we got. They were cute anyways.

LOVE her post-bath curly hair.

Family Pizza Movie Night snuggles.

Graham is a SUPER cute big brother... too much love sometimes.

Aunt Camille sent these cute crocheted bunnies for the boys and a jellyfish for Lucy. So cute! They love them.