HOPPY EASTER!

Sunday, 3/23:
Happy Easter from the beautiful state of Maryland! We left bright and early last Wednesday morning and headed for the airport where we braved our first flight with the babies. What an adventure it was! They did fantastic during the long travel day and on the flight itself. The only thing that was not so fun was changing diapers in the airplane bathroom! It was quite humorous. Let me try to paint you a visual picture here......
Okay, so we gave them bottles upon takeoff to help with ear pressure and relax them for the flight. Shortly after finishing her bottle, Tori decided she needed a diaper change, so I took her to the bathroom (which was conveniently located just two rows behind us - we planned it this way knowing we would want easy access to the restroom). Luckily I had TWO diapers with me... can you see where this is headed? So, I get in and realize there's no changing table - no problem, I'm a go-with-the-flow-type gal, right? So, I unfold my changing pad and put it on the teensy-tiny, uneven toilet seat and proceed to undress Tori while trying to keep her balanced on the seat as she kicks and wiggles and the plane bumps and vibrates along. Then I discover, it's a dirty diaper. No problem. I open it further.... WHOA!!! It's a REEEEALLY DIRTY DIAPER! So, I proceed to try to clean her up (one-handed, of course, since the other hand is trying to hold her wiggly legs up) as best I can. She's having a great time and wiggling so much at this point that the dirty diaper falls off the toilet seat and lands on my knee! I watch this all in slow motion and look down to check the damage to my jeans and by the grace of God, to my complete amazement, my jeans were spared the unthinkable! *WHEW* But the bathroom floor and walls weren't so lucky. I decide to leave that for a moment and finish cleaning up my wild child before matters get any worse. Okay, Tori is all cleaned up and dressed again and wiggling and kicking back in my arms as I try to clean up the messy bathroom. Everything gets cleaned up without a hitch and I wash myself up and head back to my seat.... 15 minutes later! And I don't know if it was just my imagination or what, but the smell lingered with me the rest of the flight... guess I'll never know for sure if I was wearing it. Ah, the joys of motherhood! Next, Tanner decided he needed a diaper change but by this time I had wised up a bit so I asked a flight attendant if there were any changing tables and she pointed me to the bathroom up front in the middle of the plane.... if only I'd known before! So, I took Tanner to that bathroom and lo and behold, there was a changing table that folded down out of the wall above the toilet and it made for a MUCH more pleasant experience! Live and learn, right? Ha ha!

The remainder of the flight was fine and we made it safely to Brad's aunt and uncle's house where we were greeted by Brad's aunt Holly and 3 squealing girls who have been having a great time entertaining the babies since last Wednesday. We are here for three more days... we leave this Wednesday, the 26th.

This morning, we got up and got all the kids dressed up in their pretty Easter clothes and went to a church that meets in a nearby high school that Holly had been wanting to try out. The girls had a GREAT time in kids' church and didn't want to leave and Brad and I listened to the message in the auditorium with Holly and had the babies with us in their car seats. It was a good Easter message. I always love this time of year and what it means to us as Christians and how blessed we are to be able to celebrate the freedom we have because of Jesus and the debt He paid for us on the cross... it's all so amazing! It has NOTHING to do with a bunny or candy or anything else and it irritates me so much to see what commercialism has done to this sacred holiday!!! And Christmas for that matter, but that's a whole other post! Here are some pictures we had made at the mall. We tried to have all the kids' picture taken with the Easter bunny, but it was way too crowded the day we were there, so we had these taken at the Picture People.... enjoy!
From top to bottom: Ally & Kassy (7-yr-old twins), Zoe (9) and Tanner & Tori
My Little Easter eggs

We weren't able to get any individual shots of Tanner that day because he was just not having it! Every time we would sit him down for a shot, he would just start screaming. It was very hot in the room and his little face was red so we think he was overheated. But we were able to get these beautiful shots of princess Tori:



Anyhow, it was a nice day and I hope each of you had a good Easter too, celebrating with your own families!

Thursday, 3/27:
Well, we got back last night safe and sound. The babies did great on the return flight as well. This flight was much more pleasant. It wasn't a very full flight, so we had almost the entire back of the plane to ourselves. We ended up with a row to ourselves so we were able to be more comfortable. Brad sat by the window with Tanner, who slept and just relaxed on a pillow almost the entire flight! He's usually the wiggle worm that can't sit still and doesn't sleep as well in the afternoons. I don't know what came over him - maybe he was just worn out from the week - but he was like angel child on the return flight! Tori did pretty well. She actually fell asleep in my arms while taking her bottle on the way up, but this catnap only lasted about 30 minutes and she was restless the rest of the 3 hour flight. She went from laughing and smiling at the flight attendants and playing with me and jumping on my lap, to fussing and rubbing her tired eyes while arching her back trying to get out of my arms. She put up a good fight and successfully avoided another nap for the remainder of the trip. Once we were back at DFW and had our luggage, she even started to doze off on the bus on the way back to the Parking Spot to get our car, but fought it every moment until she was snuggly fastened back in her car seat in the backseat of her own car, then she was out for another catnap, but only for about 30 minutes. I'm tellin' ya, the girl is stubborn! She cracks me up!!!

Here's a slideshow with more pictures from the trip.....

Soooooo anyway, sorry for such a LONG post but there was lots to update on and I wanted everyone to know about our trip and that we are now back home doing laundry and getting back into our own routine!