Our Easter Weekend

Dan had Good Friday off of work, so we decided to travel the 3 1/2 hours down to Houston where my parents live so the kids could spend Easter weekend with their Grandma Freeman and Papagator. All of us had so much fun! In fact, the entire ride home on Sunday afternoon they cried and insisted that we turn around and go back.

Some of the highlights of the weekend were:

1) Dying Easter eggs (something I did every Easter as a kid but my children have not).

2) Watching the kids participate in two Easter Egg Hunts (one put on by my parent's HOA and the other in their backyard). They were so cute! Will and Cici definantly have different egg hunting styles; Will runs around searching for all the green (his favorite color) eggs he can find while Cicialy inspects each egg individually as she collects it and cleans off all the dirt and grass. Will was being the best big brother and would help Cici find all the pink eggs! (Side Note: Please remember that I am 7 1/2 months pregnant in all these pictures).

3) Relaxing and enjoying the 80 degree weather. It was absolutely beautiful the entire weekend (sunny with a slight cool breeze), so we spent a lot of time outside.

4) Waking up to buckets filled by the Easter Bunny! Will and Cici loved the buckets their grandparents got them that we stuffed with movies (Enchanted for Cici and The Bee Movie for Will), books, crayons, coloring books, candy, Diego and Little Mermaid underwear (yes, my children love underwear since it is the only character clothing that I allow them to wear), and their special egg with money inside.

5) Getting dressed up in our new Easter outfits and going to church to celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ (the real reason we celebrate Easter and why we did all the other activties on Saturday).

All About Us

Once Upon A Time ... a handsome prince charming met a beautiful princess while attending Brigham Young University. They fell in love, married 8 months later, and are in the process of living happily ever after with their scrumptiously adorable and perfectly well mannered children, prince William, princess Cicialy, and the soon to be arriving prince ?. Seriously though, Dan and I met in a Teachings of the Living Prophets class at BYU, and the first words uttered out of his mouth, "Welcome to the back row", shortly followed by "I am so sorry you're not from Zion" upon discovering I was from Connecticut, were definantly not charming! Since I thought he was kind of cute, I overlooked this initial display of weirdness and continued to sit by him for the rest of the semester. He finally asked me out on our first date with just three weeks left till summer break. We had an absolutely perfect first date of country dancing, except for the fact that he didn't walk me to the front door and it was snowing. Because I was leaving in two and a half months for Study Abroad in London followed by four months in Africa, our dating period was drastically shortened and ended with our engagement on May 22, 2001. Needless to say, I missed Dan terribly while in London and ended up foregoing my semester in Africa. We were married on November 16, 2001 in the Salt Lake Temple. For the next 3 years we lived as poor college students in a tiny little apartment located in American Fork, Utah. We owned one car, a falling apart 1989 Honda Accord, both worked only part time since we were full time students, and had no money, but looking back I wouldn't trade those days for anything. We had so much fun! I graduated in 2003 with a degree in History Teaching and taught at a private school until a few months before giving birth to our first child William Franklin Packer. Dan graduated the following June (2004) with a degree in Manufacturing Engineering and Technology. Upon graduation he was hired by Northrop Grumman in Salt Lake City as an Industrial Engineer, and we bought our first home in Stansbury Park, Utah. We lived in Stansbury Park for three years and loved being a part of a tight knit community of young families. While living there we made life long friends, had our second child Cicialy Belle Packer, and survived a summer apart while Dan trained in Ohio as a production supervisor for KraftMaid Cabinets. This last spring (2007) we made the decision to seek new employment for Dan. In July he was hired by Carrier as an ACE Coordinator / Lean Manufacturing Engineer and they relocated us to Tyler, Texas (my birthplace). We encountered several bumps in the process of our move (we were separated for several months while trying to sale the house, the sale of our home in Utah fell through at the last minute causing us to lose the house we had initally put an offer on here in Texas, Will had to get stitches twice in a three week period, I found out I was pregnant which I had not planned on nor was ready for yet, Dan's crown and post on his front top tooth fell out and we had to start the process of implant surgery, the kids and I had to live with my parents in Houston for a month and a half while Dan lived with my aunt and uncle in Tyler once we used up our temporary living relocation benefit and our home in Utah had still not sold, etc.), but have ended up extremely blessed. We love the house we ultimately ended up buying, are making new friends, and beginning to feel like we belong here. We feel really needed at church and are enjoying getting to know my extended family that lives in town. We still get homesick for Utah sometimes and miss all of our friends and family we left behind. I miss my bookclub, all of my friends, taking my kids to the the park around the cornor from our house where all the neighborhood moms and kids would be, having so many children my kids age in the neighborhood and at church for them to play and interact with, and just hanging out with the neighbors. It is different here in Texas, but usually different is good. It helps us to stretch, grow, and learn to adjust. I know this seems like a long introduction to our family and this blog, but one of the main reasons I have decided to undertake keeping a blog is for taking down a history of my family. In addition, I hope that this will be a good way for our friends and family that live far from us to keep up with what is happening in our lives. So with that, I invite you to come back often and see all the craziness, fun, and sometimes mundane things that make up the life of the Dan and Cathie Packer family.