Easter 2010!

Easter usually begins with sunrise mass at St. Pius. This year, however, as I have mentioned, Shyla is teething. We had an especially rough night; up and comforting a baby in pain: definitely the toughest part of motherhood so far.

I felt/feel really bad about not making it to mass, but I couldn't pull myself out of bed at 5 and I wasn't about to get Shyla up when she was finally resting peacefully. Next year, we will be there for sure! We will be living about 30 minutes closer to St. Pius and Shyla will, fingers crossed, be sleeping through the night.

However, even after a hard night, when Stevie and I are walking around like zombies, Shyla wakes up cheerful and happy and ready for a fun-filled day.

She was ready to celebrate her first Easter!

We started with an egg hunt in our backyard. The Easter bunny (or in our case, probably Easter mouse) hid three large eggs in plain sight!

She found each one and tasted each in turn! They were each filled with a different Sesame Street character and she figured out pretty quickly that if she threw the egg, it would break, and the toy would pop out. She is awfully smart, although I'm not certain that learning the benefits of egg-throwing at such a young age is a good thing.

Later, she opened her present from Grandma and Grandpa Forgacs, who are visiting Aunt Kirsten and Uncle Jim this weekend. She will look so cute in the pink romper and bib but she especially loved the duck shaped bubbles tied to the outside of the package.

Then she had some play-time with the basket that the East Bunny left for her. It was filled with eggs, books, an outfit, 2 new rattles, and bunny ears.

Later Shyla got dressed in her Easter outfit and very first bow! This bow was made by our good friend Jessikah a long time ago, but Shyla just recently got enough hair to justify using it!

We had lots of play-time and lots of smiles!

Over at Grandma and Grandpa Palmer's house Shyla opened her Easter basket from the Easter Bunny who visits their house. It was filled with books, teething biscuits, eggs, and a lamb.

Then it was time for the East Egg Hunt with cousins Zac and Lilly. Of course, Lilly found the most eggs and Zac broke the most, but Shyla did find one and later decided that it was easiest to just take them out of someone else's unattended to basket. See, I told you she was smart!

The picture above shows our efforts at getting a picture of the 3 cousins together. And when I say "our efforts" I truly mean it was a team effort: me, mom, Chelsea, Aaron, Jeanette, and Stevie were all working together to get this shot. This was the best we could do.

It sure is fun to play in grass! Even artificial grass!

And the Forgacs Three!

It was a wild and hectic Easter filled with everything Easter should be filled with: laughter, family, and hugs.

A few things that I wish I had captured pictures of but didn't:

• Stevie drinking straight from the wine bottle
• Lilly shoveling rocks onto one of the lounge chairs
• Chelsea hiding inside while Aaron chased both kids around
• The whole family:)