My mom made a trip down or up I'm not sure from Lake Havisu, Arizona where she lives. She is a nurse and works in Parker, Arizona. We love having her here with us because, if you know my mom you know how peaceful and kind she is in nearly any situation. So despite our slightly chaotic life right now (with our house still in the just moved in without necessary components phase) she was pleasant and cheerful and so wonderful to have around. Joshua especially loved all of the grandma attention.
Tyler borrowed a few lawn-care type tools and got to work on our yard. We had two dead flowering plum trees, a half dead peach tree and a tree out front that was in desperate need of a trim (is that what it's called?). It was a big relief to see those dead limbs come down and the lopsided tree get a little shape.
Josh was enthralled with the process and struggled with staying focused on the photo shoot that was happening with his grandma in front of the pretty flower bush thing hanging over our wall from the neighbors yard.
I love that cute little face!!!
He was way more interested in the ruckus behind him than me making crazy animal sounds.
While Tyler worked on the yard my mom and I went inside to look at old family pictures. My grandma had this hutch that she kept in her laundry room next to her freezer with all the yummy rolls in it. Anyway, I would spend hours looking through all the old family pictures in the hutch.
Now I have that hutch. We have moved it into the guest room and I have all the pictures (well most of them anyway) that were inside. I plan to store our pictures there as well. Eventually, I would like to refinish it (I guess my Grandma got it for free or really inexpensively anyway from someone and refinished it too when she got it.)
In addition to having her hutch I also have the dresser that was in her room. It's a really pretty old dresser.
After we looked at the pictures we decided to go to the store to get a few things we needed still for our Easter dinner on Sunday. We live just around the corner from Smith's and like to walk when we have a minute. So far in the last 3 months we've only walked a handful of times. It was really nice to get outside and show my mom the neighborhood and a little bit of the pretty greenbelt that runs between our development and the shopping center. "A few things" turned into five bags...just about the time Tyler started to feel pretty awful. So there we were with 5 bags of groceries, a baby in his stroller and a limping dad with Grandma out in the dark. Just to cement our cool image in the minds of those around us we decided to stop in at firehouse subs to get Grandma some dinner. I snacked on a few things from our bags and Josh enjoyed a little banana. Finally, we made our way back to the house. Unfortunately for Tyler we didn't go right to bed. We moved some furniture around and hung a few pictures. He had energy for it because it was a project he's been asking me about for a long time. I have plenty of ideas I just haven't had the time to pull it all together in the way I had planned. We decided though that between 10 and midnight before Easter with a sick Tyler and exhausted mom was the right time. :) Our house does feel much homier now and it certainly feels more like ours with personal things up on the walls.
Here is our living room facing our front door. The man on the top with the Indian head dress is my great-great-great grandpa
Steven Standingbear. Just below him and to the left is my Great-great Grandpa Peter Pourier (My mom's grandpa from her dad's side). Next to him is four generations my from paternal Grandmothers side. I was lucky enough to do the temple work for one of the men in that picture.
Joseph Henry Achenbach My Grandma Hanson's Father. Tyler did a few of his ordinances and participated in the sealing between him and his wife Stella Jane Rish whose ordinance work I did. We then sealed my grandmother to them. It was a long day of temple work. A wonderful day. I hope to do a lot more.
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Below you will see my family!!!! We need to update this and add a little more of Josh to it. So far he is just in the one picture of our family. Grant and Spencer love to look at these pictures. Spencer around the time I was going to have Josh thanked me for putting his baby pictures up on the wall. I think he was feeling a little replaced--with the new baby coming and all. I assured him he will always be my baby.
We put a new TV stand up in our room that we got on craigslist with Tyler's old TV up on it and moved a nice dresser we also got on craigslist into our Hallway. I don't have pictures of that yet.
The next day we went to church together at 9:00 am and then had an Easter dinner around 2:00 pm. Everyone helped out to get it done and it tasted really yummy. We had ham in the crock pot...not sure I loved that, asparagus, mashed potatoes, rolls with a honey butter glaze and Watergate salad.
I pulled out my Easter bunny salt and pepper shakers. Grandma discovered that the salt comes pouring out from the salt shaker faster than she would have liked.
Josh had a few plain boiled potatoes and loved them...that is until he ate too much and threw them up.
We managed to have a nice dinner even though we missed the boys quite a bit. Next year we will be able to celebrate Easter together with every member of our immediate family here.
Josh really seemed to enjoy doing what the rest of us were doing EATING!!! His favorite thing to do. We must be related.
After dinner we let Josh open a few Easter books I bought for him that he has already seen. He loved opening the presents and having all eyes on him. Afterwards he was all smiles and giggles he even played his first game with us. He laid his head down on the floor and looked up when we said "Where is Josh?". Once he looked up I said, something in a crazy voice and he laughed. We did that over and over again until his head became too heavy to hold up. The game tapered off with longer breaks with his head resting on the floor until it eventually turned into tears.
In addition to the books, he got a cute little hat from my mom that he really enjoys wearing.
We skyped with Grandma and Grandpa Young while they had Rob and Michelle on Speaker phone after the presents and the game and after my mom headed back to Lake Havisu. Josh loved every minute of it. He was having a hard time though trying to figure out where the voices were coming from. It was pretty funny to watch his head swivel all around when anyone spoke. This is such a funny age.
The boys were able to come over that evening for an hour. I was too busy having fun to get the camera. I wish now that I would have. We showed Spencer his new play area under the stairs. We have a futon mattress folded into the back corner. It makes a perfect little seat area tucked around the corner next to the toys. He was really happy about it. Grandma gave him a hat with a led light on the bill. He and Tyler spent nearly the whole hour playing in his new spot with that hat to light it up. Grant got a head lamp from her but we couldn't get it put together. So we just sat on the couch and talked while Josh played on the floor. Tyler and I had Easter baskets hid for the boys with a few Easter books and candy for Spencer and a CD about the gospel and the youth, a pocket thesaurus, and candy for Grant. We hid Grant's basket in their bedroom under their new desk. We have found some pretty great deals on craigslist lately. Once the room is clean and the beds are made I will post a picture. After the basket hunting Tyler gave both boys a blessing. Grant requested one and then Spencer decided he wanted one as well. It was a perfect hour. I loved that we ended Easter Sunday on a very spiritual note--focused on the atonement and our need for a Savior to help us with all that we are experiencing here on Earth. I'm so grateful for my family and the gospel we have to share and learn from together.
