The Everyday

I love Easter and it's even more exciting with a child. I was so excited about Emi's Easter dress and getting her Easter basket and Easter egg hunt ready! Easter egg dying yesterday. Emi was not so thrilled about taking pictures together. Lately, within the church, there's been an emphasis on making Easter special. Because we had spent all week thinking about Christ with our holy week cards it seemed to make the holiday more meaningful. I also enjoyed remembering those sacred sites that I got to visit while in Israel.  I'm grateful for my faith, and for a Savior who knows and loves me despite my struggles and gives me the hope and strength to keep moving forward.    

We have been busy! Lots of running and working out, playdates, YWs, and My Gym. My Gym Pretty run views. Emi and Dad watching "Toy Story." I got these cute Holy Week cards off of Etsy for the YW for Easter. It was time consuming printing, assembling, etc. But I love how they turned out!  The girl's Easter gifts all ready to go. Kathleen D. is a bow tying professional! Emi reading. I put away all of Emi's bow headbands this past week. She was hating them, so we're going to try alligator clip bows from now on. Children's Museum. Emi got a new car. It's missing one headlight (for now), but she loves it! Trip to the Aquarium. Fish. Emi wanted to play in her crib.haha. Look how cute her bow is! Jedi Emi.

We got home a few days ago and were welcomed back with a big storm yesterday and today. We have around 20 inches of snow! It's crazy.

We made it back to the States! And we're so excited to be back with Miss Emi.

While we were in France, Emi was living her best life with Grandma and Grandpa (and her aunt Jackie and aunt Bubs). This is what my Dad wrote about Emi in our family newsletter: This week we have had a little house guest who is very much in control of things around the here. She has been a happy little elf that seduces everyone that comes by with her big smile, friendly laugh, and cheery disposition. Not only that, but she sleeps about 12-13 hours every night and takes a one-hour nap in the early afternoon. She loves to go places such as to church, to the mall, to the swimming pool, the library for story time, and on walks with grandma and Winston. Winston and Emi seem to get along great together. She even either likes or pretends to like grandpa playing Old McDonald on the piano. Grandma and I have been reminded that our house isn’t a kid house right now in that we don’t have locks on any of the cupboards and little Miss Emi greatly enjoys getting in every cupboard. She does like to g

We scheduled a tour for St. Chapelle, Conciergerie, and the outside of the Notre Dame for this morning. I mostly just wanted to see St. Chapelle, but because we've been so busy seeing other things, when I went to get tickets on their website they were sold out. Luckily I found a tour through "Get Your Guide" that we could do that would take us through the chapel this morning. Marty and I arrived for our tour this morning and started making our way to St. Chapelle as a tour group when we found out that the employees of St. Chapelle were on strike so nobody would be seeing St. Chapelle for the day. It was a bummer, but strikes are very common in Paris. Really we just lucked out getting to experience an important part of their culture ;) With our tour canceled, we made our way to Sacre Coeur and Montmartre. The basilica reminded me a lot of the pretty churches in Jerusalem. The one thing Marty and I found odd was that there were signs all over inside the chapel asking guests