Happy Easter...

from our family to yours...

I am so thankful for this time of year to remember the resurrection of our the Savior Jesus Christ. It is because He lives that we celebrate the true miracle of Easter.

This is as good as it gets 5 minutes before church

Easter weekend...

This friday started with Cory going on his first camp-out as young men's pres. to some ice caves; they had a great time... He is totally loving his calling!

Saturday morning, Cory was still gone, so I loaded the kiddos up to go to Rexburg for my cousin Ashley's baby shower and then my sister's baby shower (both due the same day in June); the kids were troopers. They enjoyed the mini cupcakes at Ashley's shower and watching Tangled with popcorn at Crystals. We didn't get home until about two.

Unfortunately, I had grandiose ideas for Easter this year, but didn't do any of them. First being that the Easter Bunny didn't make our home this year... I know I know, but we have this thing... Cory and I... where we traditionally do the commercial part of Easter the Saturday before so we can reserve Sunday for talking about the Savior and his resurrection; we just want our kids to be super clear on the reason we celebrate the season (and I may or may not have been all that prepared). Since he was gone on his camp-out and we didn't see each other until 2 it just wasn't in the cards. Did I mention we didn't dye eggs either (I keep getting lamer and lamer ;-) I know!). I don't think we've ever missed a year of that. Fortunately they didn't seem to notice.

Shortly after getting home Saturday we got a call saying that our good friends were in town and wanted to come by and say hi. We are so glad they did. It is always a good time when they come to town and it always includes lots of laughs, good conversations, and food... a must!

The Eatons

Sterling and Clair; only 2 1/2 weeks apart

Amy and me

They left around 6 and the kids were in bed by 7 and it wasn't until it was too late that I remembered that I wanted to make these special easter cookies with my kids, that you put in the oven the night before and when you open them in the morning they are hollow; representing the tomb of the resurrected Savior... need-less-to-say, that didn't happen. Bummer.

But it was still a great day.

I woke up to my two boys coloring on the countertop listening to music. They crack me up.

And this girl who was all dolled up... gotta love this and all those cute hand prints on my fridge!

I made my families favorite breakfast of German Pancakes with sausage. You never know how or what they are going to look like which is always fun; they were growing over the side this time. My little family devours these like I devour treats! Which is why I'm getting started on the Belly Fat Cure Monday! Wish me luck ;-)

We went to church and enjoyed sacrament meeting and then after church headed off to Grandpa and Grandma Hansen's for a nice ham, potato, beans, and rolls meal! That's my kind of meal; it was so yummy!

This is Brooklyn riding her tricycle before going to Grandma's.

She takes it very serious ;-) and she's just pretty cute!

After dinner Grandpa and Grandma had a little easter hunt for these two below in the backyard grass so they wouldn't be overshadowed by the older kids. It is so fun to see their excitement.

And, yes, it would appear they are kissing cousins. This cracked me up.

The older kids' eggs were hidden out in the field

Grandpa helping Ethan

A few fun pictures of the kids

All the cousins after the easter egg hunt

Our family

Grandma holding Sterling

Going through all their easter eggs

The pictures above were taken without them knowing I had the camera. Rigdon was sharing his smartie's with Brooklyn who was just so happy that she reached up and kissed his forehead; it was really sweet. I love his expression.

After we finished up the hunt and the kids ate a sufficient amount of candy and played dodge ball for a bit we headed out on a leisurely bike ride around the greenbelt. It was finally a nice day (slightly above 50 with NO wind) and it's a good thing we did because it has looked like a snow globe outside all day long today.

It was nice to spend Easter with family! We feel so blessed to be close to them! And of course appreciate all that Carl and Judy did to make it a special day for all of us.

Monday night for Family Home Evening we did a special lesson on the Savior using colored plastic eggs and scriptures that talk about the Savior; the kids really loved that. I guess we got the most important parts about Easter; Family and the Savior.

Wrinkles, snow, meat, and marshmallows...

Lately...

Ethan has a fascination with my wrinkles. Every night when I go to give him hugs and kisses he asks me to wrinkle my forehead and then he likes to feel it. It cracks me up. Cory said that he remembers doing the same thing as a child.

(yes, I am totally getting some grey hairs; which I faithfully pull out... unfortunately it looks like I missed a few)

This morning we woke to about an inch of snow on the ground... grrr... and Ethan says to me: "Mom, why did Heavenly Father send more snow on the ground?" I said, "I don't know" and he said, "He must be craaaaazy!" That boy cracks me up!

And just because Ethan is so funny... What is this you might be asking...

...well, last Sunday we had a couple over from our ward and I had made a roast, potatoes, corn etc. and as we were sitting there Cory looks over at Ethan and saw that he was dipping his meat in his water (my roasts are tender but Ethan has a hard time chewing and swallowing any meat and we always tell him to drink a bit of water to help it go down).

Cory just watched him.

When he tried to fish it out with his fork and that failed, Ethan reached in with his hand, pulled it out, and put it in his mouth. Cory just started cracking up as he watched the whole exchange between boy and meat. What a funny boy!

The other day Briggs came to me and said...
"Sterling likes marshmallows... at first he wrinkled up his face and then he started to suck on it. He liked it!" I had to laugh. Usually it is Cory giving our babies something that he shouldn't but it was Briggs who gave Sterling his first taste of pure sugar.

This little one has been sick more than any of our other babies.

It must be the time of year but he is on his 6 or 7th cold and doing a lot of this... sneezing!

But he is such a good and happy baby and brings a lot of peace to our sometimes-chaotic home!

Evolution of a mess...

When this cute little face looks at you with big brown eyes and krunkie hair and asks, "can I play in the flour?" what other options did I have than to say "yes." Watch out America here comes the next Betty Crocker! This girl loves to help whenever I'm in the kitchen!

Here-in lies the Evolution of the flour mess over a period of 45 minutes. I was a little shocked to come home to the mess below after being gone for a half-hour; she was doing so well before i left. I definitely asked for this one!

click to enlarge

And because I have nothing else to do I let the kids get out another messy activity. I figure it was better than plopping them in front of the television on a windy and stormy day and a day when Brooklyn only got a 15 minute nap. It was worth the hour of peace and quiet play; until Ethan and Brooklyn started fighting that is ;-)

Ethan built a cake and Brooklyn made a cup-cake

After school pic: Ethan playing with Sterling; who, by the way started to giggle this week, so cute!

Briggs coloring on the counter while he listens to High School Musical.

I made bread because lets face it, on a rainy day nothing feels better to me than to stay in my sweats and sweatshirt (which I rarely do) and make yummy food.

In fact I'm eating homemade chicken noodle soup right now. Now off to Ethan's soccer game. It has been a good day.

Creative cat!

So there are times, here and there, that I have a stroke of great creativity... and then the clincher... I actually work it out and implement it. Well, yesterday was just one of those days.

Lately I've had our home on the mind and wanting to nail down the colors I want to paint the walls because lets face it, we all have a little too much beige, brown, tans etc. in our lives (we'll at least we do). I have also been thinking about what I want to put on the walls as far as photographs, art, pictures etc. I want whatever that is, to be something special that our children can look at and be reminded of certain things like the temple and family and so on.

So, a few weeks ago I had purchased a blank canvas with plans to modge-podge some of Ethan's cute drawings that he brings home from school into an art piece, but one day as I was walking through my kitchen I looked up and then it hit me... I knew exactly what should be above our cabinets... 3 separate paintings painted by our children on large canvases. Paintings that we would paint over ever few months so they could create something new. When I told Briggs he was so excited by the idea. My hope is that they will find creativity, joy in creating, perhaps a love of art and painting, and most of all feel proud of what they were able to do and by having it on the wall know that it's important to us.

So Friday morning, the kids and I were up early, and I got the paints out and we started. Ethan drew our family, Briggs drew a beach with the ocean (and wave), the sky, a picture of him and his friend Trey playing volleyball and a sunbather, and Brooklyn and I tag-teamed painting a bird and she did awesome helping me with the grass.

This is what we call bare-chested painting (I was not involved in this; just the kids ;-) so I don't have to do unnecessary laundry

So cute! I love how Ethan writes his name right now.

Our family through Ethan's eyes

Good thing she stripped down; that would have been a mess to clean up and it came off in a jiffy once she took a bath.

Monkey see...

Monkey do...

I realized that Brooklyn just wanted to paint and so I gave her a block to have a go at it and boy did she, I think she used a whole bottle of white paint.

Me and Brooklyn with our masterpiece!

The finished product! I love it! I am excited to see what they will come up with next time. Another bonus is that it makes me feel like our "cozy" kitchen is bigger than it is because we are utilizing all that wasted space above our cabinets and every time I walk into the kitchen my eyes go up; it is amazing how much larger it seems to me!