famous payzants

i like to read the credits in movies. not sure why, but it's something i've always done. my lifelong infatuation with the entertainment industry has led me to be endlessly curious about all the different jobs that go into making a movie, and i have quite a useless knowledge of directors, screenwriters, producers, musicians, etc. floating around in my head. b has always teased me about this random talent, but once in a while it pays off.

jack is realllllly into dumbo (which is a pretty weird kids' movie, if you think about it -- so much serious subject matter for a cute baby elephant!) and we watch it once in a while. one day i was just reading the credits, per usual, and i noticed a payzant! amazing. my maiden name is definitely NOT a common one, so any time i see it pop up i'm instantly intrigued. 

i forgot about it until my mom came to visit, and i mentioned it to her. while we were in hawaii, she did some sleuthing -- and it turns out this charles payzant was an art director for walt disney studios in the 1940s. he even has an IMDB page! he worked on movies like dumbo and fantasia and lived in southern california until he died in 1980. we're not quite sure how we're related to him just yet, but my dad remembers visiting his home in orange county as a kid. as someone who LOVES everything disney, this was an awesome little discovery to make. i have new respect for that dumbo movie, that's for sure. :)

snow day

the first day of spring was march 20. on march 21, we woke up to this:

an amazing winter wonderland! i was up early working when it started, and by the time jack woke up we had a nice blanket of white. he walked out of his room and said, "oh, snow! is it christmas?"

after breakfast we put warm clothes over our pj's and went outside to check it out! b was out of town (in the past month he's been to austin TX, copenhagen denmark & boston MA for work...not counting out hawaii trip! the man hardly ever sleeps in his own bed) so we took lots of pictures for him.

jack hates (HATES!) to wear a coat, no matter how cold it is -- it's a weird seattle thing, lots of kids around here run hot and hate to wear warm clothing...i see kids at the bus stop in shorts all winter long -- so if he won't wear one and i think he needs one, he has to carry it around. ;)

jack even got to help build his first snowman:

good thing we made it outside when we did, because all the snow melted away by lunchtime. then we had a beautiful, warm weekend! crazy stuff. seattle usually gets one good snowfall a year, but this was the first sign of snow this whole season. glad we got one little glimpse once spring hit...but i'm okay waiting until next year to see anything else.

easter 2013

our easter was pretty low key this year. i taught jack about the resurrection and the easter bunny in the week leading up to easter sunday -- he received both pieces of information with equal enthusiasm and talked about "white jesus" (watch the video, you'll understand where he got that from) and the easter bunny every day.

saturday we went to an easter egg hunt at a friend's house...jack was less than thrilled. what can i say, he was in a mood. we've done easter egg hunts in our living room every day since, but a hunt in muddy grass with a zillion big kids running around just wasn't his scene i guess.

(please note the short sleeves! this weekend was a dream, with pure sunshine and temps in the 60s. days like that make it totally worth it to live in seattle!)

easter sunday, both of my boys slept in and we barely made it to church on time -- causing me MUCH stress and anxiety. luckily we made it in time to sing christ the lord is risen today (my favorite!) and enjoyed some really beautiful messages about christ and the atonement. i love easter sunday! such a cheerful, hopeful day. 

but oh yeah, jack was still being an awesome two year old, and haaaated his cute easter outfit. he tore off his new turquoise tie before we even got to church, and the second we got home he was running inside to change into his utah jersey. i never got a family picture of all of us dressed up and that sucks. but, we had lunch, and i spent the rest of the afternoon prepping for easter dinner while the boys dyed easter eggs. 

we had friends over for dinner and i cooked my very first ham! it was delicious (and much easier than expected), which is good because we have enough leftovers to last us for weeks. i also made homemade rolls from scratch, and a butter almond cake for dessert. then i fell asleep at 9:30 p.m. because i was so worn out. ;)

oh yeah, we kind of skipped the "easter bucket" (jack's words) too, since he had JUST gotten some new toys as a potty training reward a few days before and because i'm not too keen on feeding him tons of candy. we just pulled out his easter basket from the hunt the day before without even adding anything to it. and i'm totally okay with that.

all in all, a wonderful (and SUNNY!) easter weekend. hooray for spring!