California - Days 9 & 10 - Easter!

It is rare that we get to spend a holiday with my side of the family, so we take advantage!

First up - dying Easter eggs. I let Nate do this while Mia was napping...

Bad vegan mom!

Then an Easter Egg Hunt led by my mom and Jerry's church.

This makes a good hat!

Mia's first hunt!  

When they let the "big kids" go Nate ran all the way to the end of the  lawn.
He had it to himself for awhile, but was too interested in what was
in the eggs to get too many of them

YAY eggs!

Checking out their loot

After this trip, I have decided that it is probably a good thing that, unless Peter switches industries, we will never be able to travel for Christmas. Luckily we don't go crazy with Easter baskets so everything we took fit in our suitcase, but what would we do at Christmas? Order stuff online and send it before us? Then how do we get it back? Order two and send one to our house and one to our destination? Try to ship it all back home? I don't know. For now I don't need to think about it!

Deconstructed Easter basket!
I couldn't' find my camera when I was filling the Easter baskets.
Books, sunglasses, socks, sippy cups, utensils, snack bowls...
Nate got a lot of Lion King stuff, Mia's was kind of random.

Easter breakfast!

Good morning!

 We left my mom and Jerry and went to a Catholic church for the Easter service. We went to a church named after St. Francis of Assisi. It was packed! Easter Catholics and the fact that the new pope chose to name himself after this Saint (who, PS, is one of my favorites!) so we ended up sitting in the fellowship hall or something with a kind of secondary service. Weird.

After church we went home and started cooking up a storm for the arrival of the rest of the family for our Easter feast!

Mia sharing with Nonna

The Shipman crew

Cousins! Kat, Mia, Sydney and Nate

Kat checks out what is inside her eggs

Fisher-Starr family - Katie, Kat and Walker

Easter fun! Nate and his "new friend" Sydney

Geez is it hard to get them both looking good at the same time!

Silly boys!

Happy Easter from the Morris family!

Christmas 2012 in Pictures

Me and Peter at the symphony 

Nate had to stop looking for Christmas trees to watch the train go by 

I think I'll look over... there!

Hanging an ornament with Dad

He got bored of decorating the tree, so he started playing with the nativity

Our annual "Christmastown USA" picture - would have been perfect except for that light!

Awww

Yep, she was totally that kid!

Christmas Eve Children's Mass - My angel and king

Could she be any cuter? I'm not sure, but she definitely elicited the most "Awwws" at mass!

Totally did not want to pose for pictures this year! But he still got a lot of "Awwws" as well! :)

The kid loves trains

He got his "loopy thing"!!!

Staring contest with Uncle Jay

21st century holiday!

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever!

Yesterday Nate was in his first Christmas pageant! When I first heard about it I was so excited. What could be cuter than a bunch of preschoolers singing Christmas songs? Then I saw the sheets they sent home with lyrics for the songs his class was supposed to learn: Feliz Navidad - that's not too bad, I mean, besides the fact that half of it is in Spanish it is pretty much just 4 lines repeated over and over again, and Fum, Fum, Fum. Ever heard of it? Yeah, me neither! Apparently it's a traditional Catalan Christmas Carol from the 16th or 17th century. SUUUUUUURE! So I downloaded both of them on iTunes so we could play them over and over and over again to make sure he wasn't the one who stunk it up.

And then strep throat hit me in full force on Tuesday, two days before the pageant. I was really worried I wouldn't be able to go, and I'm still not sure I should have, but I'm glad I did!

Waiting for the show to start - poor Miss Mia was not a happy camper.
She was ready to go home and go to bed before it even got started. But
I ended up having to pick her up from school today because she had
a fever, so something must have been going on.

They brought the kids in from oldest to youngest. Each class sang a couple songs, and as they sang the second the next group came in and both classes sang the next song. And so it went from the school age kids who go there for before/after school care down to the toddlers who go for Mother's Morning Out.

The place was packed so they ended up having to set up chairs in the back, which worked out in our favor because we were able to sit right where they walked in.

That boy right behind him is Logan his BFF. During school pictures they were mistaken for brothers (when asked if they were brothers they both said yes because they are BROTHERS - they each have a little sister.)

Singing with his class, He looks pretty angelic right? Most of the time he was fiddling with his antlers.

With everyone

After the show

The BEST Christmas pageant EVER - or at least until next year. :)

She's going to come out giving The Fisher Look!

Cranberry is a stubborn little girl. She does not want to get out of her comfy little womb. We had our 40 week (read, due date) appointment yesterday. Luckily everything is still looking good, so we don't need to worry about trying to get her out of there faster for any reason. My blood pressure was a little higher than it has been, but I think that's to be expected at this point in the pregnancy, and the Dr didn't say anything about it. Her heartrate was in the 150s. I had progressed a little from last week and am 2-3 cm dilated. He said my cervix is "favorable" and her head is in position. I guess he stripped my membranes to try to speed things along, which they did with Nate too and I went into labor that very night. Unfortunately she is not being as easy going as her big brother and has decided not to come yet.

They don't like to let us go over 42 weeks, so, right now we are scheduled for an induction on Tuesday if she doesn't come on her own sooner. At this point, unless she comes today, I'd almost she rather hang out until then. That way we aren't in the hospital for Christmas and she doesn't come on a day she will have to share. (Dec 22-Grandpa Jack, Dec 23-Cousin Kat, Dec 24-Christmas Eve, Dec 25-Christmas, Dec 26-Daddy)

So, right now we are playing the waiting game and I'm making plans by adding "if we're not in the hospital" when I say we're going somewhere. But my mom comes on the 24th, so at least I have that to look forward to - the first time I've been able to spend a holiday with anyone from my side of the family in six years! Peter thinks my body is subconsciously waiting for that to happen.

So, hopefully this is not a sign of things to come. Some ladies at work were asking if anyone in my family was really stubborn. I can definitely think of a few...