Baby's First Easter

As with nearly every trip we take with our baby in tow, this one started off as a disaster. I left work early on Friday in hopes of getting a hair cut and a new iPhone sans baby. The weather was perfect and we would be heading to my parents' house for the holiday weekend that evening - what could possibly go wrong?

My first mistake was walking into a hair salon in the mall expecting them not to butcher my hair. I asked for a trim and walked out with literally half of the hair that I had when I went in. Whatever. It's hair; it'll grow back. My second mistake was thinking I could trade my current iPhone for a new iPhone in less than an hour. It continues to amaze me how incredibly s-l-o-w the sales person that assisted me was. But 90 minutes and about half of my photos later (which I later recovered from iCloud - thank the Lord!), I was on my way home with my new phone in tow.

Despite the previous mishaps, I was downright giddy as I scream-sang with the windows rolled down on my drive home. Past experience has taught me to pack for overnight outings at least 2-3 days in advance (otherwise I will forget basically everything), so our bags were packed and we were ready to roll. Or so I thought. It wasn't until we arrived at my parents' house (late, of course, due to slowest employee ever at Radio Shack) that we realized we had forgotten to pack formula and diapers. A not-so-quick-trip to the nearest Wal-Mart (which is 20 miles away) remedied the problem, but not without causing a lot of unnecessary stress and running around like chickens with our heads cut off. Situations like that make me thankful I no longer live in a small town (I mean, would it kill a store to stay open past 8:00 p.m.)?

But regardless of Friday night's incidents, it's safe to say that Taylor had a great first Easter. Not only was the weather phenomenal but for the first time in forever our entire family was in good health, so we made the most of it. Saturday we enjoyed Easter dinner (which is actually lunch but for some reason my family calls lunch "dinner" and dinner "supper"). We spent the afternoon relaxing on the patio, eating our weight in pie, and watching the kids play. Later, we took a stroll to the park for the town's annual Easter egg hunt. Although she was too young to participate, Tay had a blast watching the other kids run around - just look at that grin!

We spent the remainder of the evening enjoy each other's company and then headed to bed early in anticipation of the Easter bunny's arrival. I have always been a huge fan of this holiday and adding a child to the mix only increased my joy this year (as apparent by her Easter basket goodies, which I may or may not have started collecting just after Christmas). Her loot included a personalized, hooded beach towel (the thought of her chubby little bikini-clad body wrapped in it makes me so excited for summer!!), a few books, some teething keys, some new summer outfits, and Penny the Pig. Girl cleaned house.

After we opened our Easter goodies, we put on our Sunday best and headed to church. Taylor is typically pretty good during church (usually opting to sleep through most of it). However, her feeding schedule was a little off that morning causing us to have to feed her during the service, which would've been fine until her bottle ran dry and she proceeded to scream bloody murder until we popped an additional few ounces back in her mouth. Sheesh, the kid loves her food (as if you couldn't tell). Luckily, this fiasco happened during the children's message and most of the congregation was focused on 30 kids attempting to "sit quietly" and listen to the preacher. Ha. Yeah right.

When everyone was back in good spirits, we decided to snap a few family pics after church to commemorate the occasion. It's not every day we're all accounted for and dressed up.

As you can probably imagine, getting all 5 of these children to cooperate for a photo is no easy task. Let's just say, many bribes were made in the process. 

All in all, we had a great weekend. And we learned that plastic Easter eggs are a teething baby's dream.

I couldn't help but snap a pic of Tay while the church sat so beautifully in the background. It's days like this that remind me just how truly blessed I am.