...just waiting

Hey everyone, I have lots to post about: my brother leaving the country to work, Rick's birthday, fun Easter stuff, a trip to my parent's, ear piercing, a new sprinkling system, and a new kitchen faucet. Guess what I'm waiting for? My computer. Rick took my old computer minus hard drive and gave it to my sister who is a teacher, and also has 3 kids in school, and they really needed one. So he's got my hard drive and I'm waiting for a new computer. :) He promised to have it done last week and then he started to work on a few projects around the house (mentioned above), which in all reality are more important than me having a computer, but still...

So here I am doing a quick post to say Happy Easter everyone! I hope you all had a great time. We sure did, but it was pretty laid back. We had a family party with Rick's family last week and then spent some time at my parent's house after that. We had our Easter Funday Saturday waking up early to have the kids look at their baskets followed by our neighborhood egg hunt and breakfast, then naps all around, and worked/played in the yard til it started pouring rain later. We enjoyed a nice relaxing Easter Sunday at church followed by a movie marathon and a yummy dinner of ham and funeral potatoes.

Christmas

Maybe it is because I have been so focused on our trip to Disneyland, but I've totally missed getting excited for Christmas. Our pumpkins are frozen to the porch. We have a nightmare before Christmas theme because I still haven't put away the Halloween decorations yet. I know that's because I'm pregnant, but I really haven't had the energy to do more. I'm usually begging Rick to bring in the decorations and this year, I just don't care if they all get put up. Maybe it is because I know Little D is so destructive and the decorations would be lucky to survive him. That's what I keep telling myself anyway. Well, I read this on my friend Alicia's blog and decided it might help me get in the spirit of things. Here we go.



Christmas Tag
1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper. With bows and tags, but I hate doing it.

2. Real or Artificial tree? Artificial. Its easier and doesn't make me sneeze.

3. When do you put up the tree? I start begging the day after Thanksgiving. When Rick gets it out of the garage.

4. When do you take the tree down? Way too late!

5. Do you like eggnog? Not really, but I'll drink it with Sprite mixed in. My hubby LOVES it.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? ? At the time, everything seems so important. I remember getting a stereo system that I got with my sister. It had a tape player and a record player and we got some of each. It was so cool. :) I remember getting a Walkman and taking really good care of it. I guess I was a little older, but I don't really remember any from younger. Oh, except a dollhouse my mom and grandpa made. That was pretty special.

7. Hardest person to buy for? My Dad. I never know what to get him.

8. Easiest person to buy for? My kids. Kids are easy.

9. Do you have a nativity scene? Its my favorite decoration. I think we got it the first year we were married.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Well, I've always mailed before, but I haven't even thought of them yet this year, so maybe I'll just email. I don't know.

11. Worst Christmas gift ever received? Divorce papers. Seriously. Not from Rick :)

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? I love the Muppet's Christmas Carol.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Whenever I get around to it. I got some good deals for the kids from KSL.com, so I started months ago, not sure when.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Only for a White Elephant. I've given plenty to the DI though.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Grandma's sugar cookies. Also, my family usually has a big Christmas Eve party with Prime Rib. Yummy.

16. Lights on the tree? Colored. I don't hate plain white, but I like the colored ones.

17. Favorite Christmas song? Anything Josh Groban or Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Angels We Have Heard on High, Silent Night, mostly hymns.

18. Travel or stay home at Christmas? Both. I think we'll celebrate Christmas morning at home, but we've really enjoyed the years at my parent's house.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? Who can't? You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen, Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen, but do you recall the most famous reindeer of all? Rudolph.

20. Angel or star on the tree-top? Star.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or Morning? We open Christmas pajamas the night before and then everything else Christmas morning.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? Shopping. I don't mind shopping, but I don't like when it is a mad house. I feel like yelling, "Take it easy people, those presents are most likely going to be broken in a week anyway. Do you really need it???"

23. Favorite ornament theme or color? I love the eclectic look, with favorite ornaments that kids have made etc. I don't need a theme, but I do love to see other trees like that.

24. Favorite food for Christmas dinner? Our special is usually Christmas Eve, as I said. We have a special Christmas breakfast with a breakfast casserole and caramel rolls. Dinner isn't so important, but its usually ham.

25. What do you want for Christmas this year? A clean house, kids that don't fight, and a massage. But if I can't have that I want a flat iron and Mamma Mia. :)

Tag, you're it!!!

Informal Tradition

We have an awesome fake tree. We bought it many (?) years ago. I love the way it looks full and beautiful. The drawback is that each bough is separate from the trunk meaning that it is a pain to put up and take apart. After you figure out where each bough goes, you then have to "fluff" it and it scratches your arms to do it. Are you getting a mental picture yet? It is a pain. Well, I've always wanted the Christmas tree up the day after Thanksgiving and Rick never wants to help. He used to be a big of a humbug, but he's much better now though he still hates putting up our tree.

So here's our tradition. It takes us at least 3 days to set up our Christmas tree. The 1st day we put it together and fluff as much as we can stand. The 2nd day we finish fluffing and put the lights on. Unfortunately, putting the lights on almost always causes a fight in itself. What a royal pain! Even though I checked all 4 strands we were using (really needed 5) the last one only half works this year so the bottom isn't lit. The 3rd day we put the ornaments up. While I have gotten used to this tradition and don't mind it so much as long as Rick is helping, the kids are getting older and aren't so patient for it taking 3 days to finish. We tried to put our ornaments on tonight, but Annie and Darren are still sick. Annie didn't even want to help. Darren just wanted me to hold him unless he saw a breakable ornament, which he would try to get and then throw a fit because I wouldn't let him have it :) Carlyn was having a great time and the ornaments that made it on (just a portion) are all in one small section of the tree. I think we may just leave it. I don't care too much this year. I'll have to take a picture, but with me and the little ones being sickies, I'm not exactly energetic.

I Am Glad For Many Things...

Many things, many things. I am glad for many things that are mine today. :)

I'm happy to be at my parent's house today for Thanksgiving. I like to cook and don't mind doing the turkey, except when I'm pregnant. I'm obviously, totally, obsessively thankful for my little family and my sweet husband. I'm thankful for so many things that I'm frankly too tired to list :) Here's a small list: the gospel, good friends, my mom & sisters (& sister-in-law), my van. I hope you all are having a wonderful Thanksgiving. I am.

Trunk or Treat, Halloween, & a Little Extra

Okay, I think I'll do this in chronological order. We dressed up the kids on the 25th and took them downtown to the Gallivan Plaza Block Party. Look at these cute kiddies. I loved how they looked. They were roasting in their long sleeved shirts, poor kids. It was a very warm day and Halloween was pretty warm too.

Carlyn choosing her pumpkin from the Block Party. They were out of decorations though, which worked out fine and we took the pumpkins home to decorate, which never happened. Oh well.All the kids at the Trunk or Treat. Darren really had a good time. He loves candy and his favorite in the world are suckers. Belinda was going around with him and had to keep him away from me or he cried for a sucker. So funny.

The next day was our Anniversary, as mentioned earlier. Carlyn took this picture of us that night. We sure look different than we did 8 years ago. (Look how long my hair has gotten.)

I took a picture of this one because I thought it was funny and creative of Carlyn and Annie to stick these tub toys to the tub wall, 1 in each square. There's D's head in the picture. He walked straight up, bent over and did a flip in the tub. After making sure he was fine, I took a picture while he was crying. Am I mean or what? I thought it was hilarious.

One morning I wasn't feeling well and I slept in because Darren did and I woke up to find this. They had made a bed for themselves, put in a movie, and got snacks. I LOVE it when they can take care of themselves like that. What cute & good girls!

We had FHE at a friend's house on Monday night and Rick put Annie in the car while he came to get Carlyn & Darren. She was complaining of being tired, so he just put her in and shut the door. I was talking in the kitchen for at least 15 minutes before I freaked out asking where Annie was. Then Rick said he put her in the van so we ran out and she was asleep, sweet little thing. She's good that way and will tell me when she's tired.

Here's my silly little Tinkerbell. Her hair was cute at the trunk or treat, but it was hard to do her hair in a ponytail, so I decided to do pigtails for Halloween. It was adorable and stayed much better. This picture makes me understand why my parents used to call me a little imp!

Here is D with cute whiskers on Halloween. He was such a doll that day and enjoyed very much being mobile and collecting was more candy than I'll let him eat. We noticed that our friends, whose kids are similar to ours in ages (theirs are spaced further apart and are also girl, girl, boy) had dressed their kids in similar costumes to our kids. So we had to get pictures. Here is Darren & Jake as a lion and tiger on Joel's lap. I love that grin.

Here is Joclyn and Anneliese as Tinkerbells. They wouldn't look at the camera at the same time and I couldn't get Annie to sit better. Here is Jensyn and Carlyn as Snow White and Cinderella. Two of the most beautiful princesses ever, I'd say. They've been friends since they were born. So cute!

We made to rounds to client's offices, grandma's houses, & friend's houses and had a great time including the kids playing in the leaves for a half hour at one house. Then we came back to our neighborhood where we enjoyed hotdogs & a little extra at a friend's house and then went trick-or-treating. Darren was done by the time we left our friend's house and Rick took him home to bed. I walked around the neighborhood with the girls for a long time and they would have kept going but Grandma Linda came over and went to a few final houses with them and brought them home. I was exhausted, but the kids didn't seem to be. Carlyn was a die hard trick-or-treater and I'm sure she would have kept going forever. Annie was awesome and only complained once when it was lightly raining on us, but she kept up with her big sister like a trooper. I don't have a picture of Carlyn on Halloween by herself, but it was the same costume as before.

Pioneer Week #2

Wednesday we went swimming with Grandma Linda at her apartment complex. Aunt Teri was there too. D playing with Gma.
Carlyn & Annie swimming with Teri-sorry not the best pic of her.
This is the parade on the 24th. We were sad to miss our neighborhood bike parade, but the girls and I agreed that Daddy isn't going to be in the "Big" parade very often, so we'll miss just this once. It was SOOO hot. We were melting. But we were excited to see Daddy.
Annie was asking to go home about a half hour into it. Poor kid, heat seems to really bother her more.
Me & D. Teri, her roommate & kids went with us and we met Joel & Jess there. We sat at 8th south and 4th east. It was a very sunny spot.

We went to a party at my cousin Chali's house that night. It was a luau and we enjoyed having a great dinner, visiting and letting the kids play. Can you tell how tired Rick is? 2 nights of 3 hours of sleep due to the 2 parades he helped with the float. Ugh. We left and Annie got sick in the car. Yuck! We cleaned up and went to Rick's aunt Charlene's for the fireworks. We had a great view of the Liberty Park fireworks. Annie wasn't feeling well and I held her the whole time and D was scared to death for the first few minutes. Rick finally held him and settled him down. All in all it was a fun day, but very exhausting. We slept very late the next morning.

Float Preview-Pioneer Week #1

I do have the hardest time cutting out pictures. I'll try to keep it down though. Our Pioneer Week started out with the Float Preview Monday night. The floats from the parade are there and you get to vote. As we got out of the car we saw my aunt Cindy and her kids Katie, Jilly, & Carson (no Alex.) When we got inside we saw family from the other side, aunt Emily, uncle Chuck, Grandma Potter, Alicia, Chali, John & their kids. It was so much fun! Here are a few awesome pictures: Katie, Carlyn & Annie after face painting-A was mad I moved her face to see the ladybug.
Darren & Dad
A good close up of the float. If you didn't get to see it, you can't appreciate the size of the thing. It was 14 feet tall, 14 feet wide, & 45 feet long. It has the arch from Murray park, with ants having a picnic at the park, the old smokestacks-which go up and down and have smoke coming out and a fan that makes the "fire" blow out the top-, and the Indian chief head at the park entrance is on the back.
Rick had a blast working on the float and loved talking about it to anyone that would listen, so the preview was fun for him especially. BTW, the sound on our float WAS the best, even if we didn't win the people's choice award.
I never got a better picture. This is Katie holding Darren, Jilly, Carlyn, & Carson in front of the Noah float. Annie was running around somewhere.

Jilly & D (I love having helpers. It was wonderful being there with them.)
Tuesday my sister & mom were here to visit grandma so we went again with them, Grandma White, & Grandma Hilton. Our stake had an awesome setup of the trophies we'd won already, a slideshow & display of building the float and a kiddie pool full of sand that the kids could dig plastic ants out of. It was fun to take some ownership in the float. Our whole stake worked hard to make it so awesome.
The kids digging out ants (Annie's new favorite toy).
The crew the 2nd day. We had fun but we were tired and hungry by now.The kids with Gma WhiteCarisa's kids with Gma Hilton

Birthdays, Parades, & Family Fun

There seems to be one month in every family where there are a bunch of birthdays all together. July is that month for us. Combine that with a visit from my sister's and my brother's families visiting from out of state, plus the 4th of July and its been really busy. I have a hard time leaving out pictures, like my sister, so I've put them in slideshows. Sorry, this is long, but since this is mostly for me...

It all started on the 3rd of July when we went to the Riverton parade to support Rick in his float duties. **(tangent) Our stake has a float this year and its been a lot of work for Rick. He's in charge of the sound and he took his job seriously. He also just helped in general and has been a motorcycle escort to the parades because it is a flippin huge float. (Pictures to follow) We won 1st in Murray and Sandy and there was no judging in Riverton.** Rick's mom always sits at a friend's house on the route and then they have a BBQ afterward. So we joined them. (I should say the kids and I. Rick was there for most of the parade, but duty called.) It was SUPER hot and windy too. Aunt Teri kept buying the kids popcicles and we drank a ton of water too. They called Rick because someone had bumped the mixer and the sound didn't work. He jogged in the heat for a half a mile to flip a switch and jogged back to sit with me and the kids. What a man! Anyway, we had a great time and the kids got tons of candy. Then Rick's mom, sister, and friends came to our house and did a few firecrackers. We got here about 10 and Annie said to me, "Mom, I'm tired. I'm going to bed." I asked if she wanted to stay up for firecrackers and she said "No. I just wanna go to bed." She took herself down and got ready. I just gave her a kiss. Carlyn on the other hand wanted to stay up as late as possible and was up til after 11.

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We woke them up about 8 on the 4th. The days of going to the breakfast early morning are gone for now :) Instead, I made pancakes and we ate them while waiting for the parade to start. We always meet our friends Joel & Jessica and their daughters at a certain spot. Carlyn and Jensyn have done this since they were little and I'll be sad if it ever stops. They are 2 weeks apart and good friends. We love the Murray parade and especially enjoyed the overcast day. Rick took off to escort the float to another parade so we chilled at home. I know they have fun stuff at the park, but we've never made it, and while I feel a little bad, we have a really fun family day starting at 2, so I don't feel too bad. We went home for naps instead. We always go to my aunt Emily's house in Kaysville for my Grandma Potter's birthday party. It is the one family party that keeps going every year no matter what. As many family members come as possible. I have a lot of cousins and most of us have kids now. There are a lot of great grandchildren (70 or something.) We always have a big potluck and my Dad cooks BBQ turkey. Mostly we just eat and visit. Next we headed to my house and were getting ready to go to Murray Park for the fireworks. It ended up that we ordered pizza and watched from across the street. It was fun, but I did miss going to the park.

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The 5th is my other grandma's birthday. Grandma Hilton loves to go out to eat so my Dad took the whole family out to eat at Village Inn for breakfast. That's 12 adults and 12 kids! Thanks Dad! Every one else went to my parents house, but we stayed home for Sunday, spent time with Rick, and prepared to go camping. The first picture is Annie teaching Lindsay to cut pancakes. Then Gma Hilton saying her pie is too much. The last is the 4 cousins that were born within 4 months. So cute!

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The 6th is my mother-in-law, Linda's birthday. We enjoyed visiting with her for awhile Sunday evening and I stupidly forgot to take any pictures, but we had fun anyway!

The 7th is my Dad's birthday. We went camping at a tiny lake called Boulger Lake up Fairview Canyon. It was so cool and nice up there. If not for the mosquitos, the tent ripping, and the kids screaming all night it would have been a perfect trip. (I'm NOT exaggerating. They would take turns crying or screaming all night until 3:45 when I gave up because we were freezing and I hadn't slept anyway. I loaded them in the van and drove to my parents house.) We had a combined birthday party for him and Anneliese. Annie really got all the attention though and Dad didn't seem to care because he got his cupcake. :) She was very gracious and loved each present.

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We did survive the night by finishing sleeping at my parents house and made it back in time for lunch. Then we piled in the cars and drove to Electric Lake where we took turns in the rafts. Annie was the last grandchild to not have a turn and ended up with Grandma and Grandpa. Grandpa wanted to fish and took his time so she got a long turn and was very chatty, according to Grandma. We had dinner in Fairview and headed home very dirty and tired.

The next day we visited the grandma's with my sister and then she flew home. I miss her already. But I'm really glad she got to come. A year and a half is too long!

We took a day to recover, then went back to my parent's house where all the kids had a "carnival." They had a hose on the slide with a pool at the bottom, a blow up pool, the ladder ball game, and horse shoes set up. It was a blast. The next day we went swimming at Snow College which is always a favorite of mine. Darren was a little fish. He floated by himself in his lifejacket and kicked and splashed. I couldn't believe it. The girls were fish too, but Darren's not done that before.

I came home again for Sunday and we celebrated Anneliese's birthday starting off with pancakes and eggs. At her request we had lasagna for dinner. In the evening, we had Rick's family over and went to the park for cupcakes and presents. The kids had a blast and Darren showed off how well he walked with the walker toy.

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We like to drag birthdays out as long as possible so we had a little friends party for A the next day. It turned out to be sets of sisters at the party. Each older one was 4 and Annie was the oldest younger sister turning 3. She had requested a Brown party, so I put out a brown tablecloth, got pink & brown streamers and balloons and tried my best to have a Brown theme. We played a couple games then had a story about the color brown and had a bear hunt and decorated chocolate cupcakes and did snaps and had presents. The kids all played in the play room at the end and there were no fights so I consider it a success. :)

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Here are a few other pictures of family fun.

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Father's Day & Camping

I haven't put a post up for a long time because when I tried to do the pictures of this the first time the pictures wouldn't work and I've been busy since then. I want to dedicate this post to the Best Dad in the World. Argue if you must, but you'll be wrong. :) The kids and I just love him to death and love spending time with him. This is one of the times we had fun playing on our bed in the morning. The kids don't care what they are doing with him, as long as he's there. I know its belated, Rick, but we love you so much. Happy Father's Day!!! Father's Day weekend we went camping with my family. It was fun but crazy. We went to a campground near Huntington, UT. It was a lot of work for a 1 night stay, and we stayed until late the 2nd day. Darren & Annie both cried a couple times in the night and it was a long night for me. Rick slept right through it and didn't hear a thing. :)

This is D just before 6 am. He woke up and would not go to sleep. It is off the highway and everytime a vehicle drove past he'd sit up and say "up." Not fun, but he was really cute. Rick got up about then and I put D in his sleeping bag. He fell asleep soon and it was cute.

My clever Mom made up a song for the kids to sing to their "Pops" for Father's Day and then they gave their Dad & Grandpa soda pop, pop tarts, & popcorn. It was so cute. I don't know if you can tell, but the kids were so dirty at this point. Their clothes are caked in dirt. You should have seen them at 8 that night. Just dirt from head to toe. We washed them off and changed them before we left. It was really fun to go camping for the first time this year.

Memorial Day

This year we spent Memorial Day with Rick's family. Grandma White had a party at her house. She misses her husband and enjoyed this chance to honor him. We had a nice dinner and visited for awhile, but since it was so wet we couldn't go to the cemetery as easy with little children. She likes to have us release balloons. The kids LOVE it. We did it from her back yard this time, which worked out better as they didn't get caught in the trees like at the cemetery. Everyone takes their balloon and writes something on it. Their name or the name of someone they've lost, or a little note to them.

Rick especially misses his Dad now that he's married and we have children. He just wishes that we could have known him. I wanted to put pictures of his dad and our grandpas who have passed away but I don't have any on the computer, so I'll have to do that another time. Hope you all had a nice Memorial Day.

This was toward the end Darren pulled himself up to this touch lamp. Notice him smacking his lips. He was hilarious and we missed the funniest part, but you get the idea.

I love Easter!

Our family, Easter 2008

Ok, its taken me awhile to get this post up, but that's because I have so much I want to say and so many pictures. I'm trying my best to pick and choose. I'll put some pictures in, but others are in the slideshow. First of all, our Easter started with cookie making. We used my Grandma Hilton's sugar cookie recipe and they were delicious. That was Thursday. The girls are great helpers and loved making cookies. They loved eating them too.

Their favorite cookie cutters

On Friday we colored eggs. The girls wanted to elaborately color them before they dyed them. The problem was that they kept dropping them in the process. We ended up with a handful of cracked eggs. Oh well, we just ate them anyway. They also had fun putting stickers on them. This picture was at the very end and Carlyn was bored waiting for Anneliese.

Coloring eggs

Saturday was our Easter Fun Day and was it packed with fun!!! First we had our Easter baskets. We just had them on the couch and didn't say they were from the Easter Bunny. I don't really care about keeping up that illusion. Later when people asked them what he brought them my kids were a little confused. Oh well, we'll talk about it better next year. Anyway, I got them some things like a bucket & shovels, and gardening gloves, and sidewalk chalk-the stuff that helps pass the day away from the tv when its warm enough. Oh, don't forget Enchanted! We love the show and have seen in tons since Saturday morning. The new Easter clothes were thanks to Grandma Hilton.

After that we went to our neighborhood egg hunt/breakfast. The girls were excited, but I thought they'd be more so. They didn't go crazy over the eggs and Annie even climbed in the stroller and announced she was done. They did get up extra early that morning, but maybe its because it was so cold! Last year we didn't even need jackets but this year we wore coats and there was frost on the eggs. They make sure that each kid gets at least 12 eggs and we ended up with about 30. It was really fun, but I forgot to take any pictures of them with their loot. I let them choose their favorite candy and we kept the rest for a cousins hunt later that day. We really enjoyed socializing at the breakfast.

Rick went to work for awhile and had a BBQ for his employees while we went through the eggs and got them ready for the cousins hunt. Can you believe I had enough candy and eggs for over 50 eggs? There were 8 kids (not including Darren) and they each got plenty. The cool thing was that my kids didn't even care about giving the candy away. They only ask for it if they see it and while Annie had quite a bit, Carlyn hardly had any. We met at a park in Provo (Katie-the one by your old house) and had a picnic lunch. It was pretty cold when the wind blew, but we all seemed to enjoy being outside anyway. Then we decorated my sugar cookies for dessert and the kids played on the playground. It was fun but Darren wouldn't fall asleep and just screamed for about a half an hour. So it was time to leave.

Rick bought 2 new board games called Spy Alley & Thurn & Taxis and wanted to try them out. We went to our friends, Joel & Jessica's house and played games, including Spy Alley. (As a side note, we love to play games and would love to have anyone over to play. Sometimes we play with Mathew & Lindsay but mostly Joel & Jessica.) They have 2 girls and are expecting a boy. The oldest is 2 weeks older than Carlyn and the youngest is about 9 months younger than Annie so its fun to let the kids play while we play. Then we put them to bed there and play until we're tired. Our kids have always known going to each others houses and go to sleep pretty well there. We had fun and played until about midnight.

Sunday morning we woke up a little later than intended, but had time for a nice breakfast of golden rod eggs. If you have never had it, then you need to! Yum. You cut up the hard boiled eggs and put them in a white sauce and serve over toast. So delicious. Church was great and I have to say it was so nice not having my kids on a sugar rush. Annie had eaten so much candy on Saturday I thought she's be sick, but she's a trooper. :) I loved teaching my primary class that day. I have a team teacher and we switch off, but I got to teach about the resurrection of the Savior and the meaning of Easter. It was fun, but some of the kids obviously had eaten too much candy and keeping focus was hard at times. They are 4-5 though, so that's normal anyway.

Its the only picture I got in his church clothes,

because he had a messy diaper that went up the back

After church we came home and cleaned my messy house and got ready for company. We had Rick's Grandma, Mom, her friend Maureen & her daughter Delenn over for dinner. We had ham, homemade mashed potatoes, green beans, salad & rolls. It was good and we had fun visiting. Rick's sister Belinda came over with her boyfriend Josh and they played with the kids. They love to rile them up right at bed time. Darren fell asleep in Belinda's arms-it was so cute! They stayed and helped us try out one of the new games. It was fun.

Rick and the kids with his Mom (Grandma Linda) and his Grandma White (our best babysitter!)

All in all we had a really great Easter. I really liked having the fun separated from the spiritual. It sure made a difference to me personally, even if it didn't to the kids. I love the symbol of the egg-that the empty shell represents the empty tomb. I loved thinking about the Savior and the incomprehensible sacrifice that he made for all of us. I don't know what I'd do without that knowledge. I am so thankful that we can be forgiven, that we will live again, and that we can be a family forever! I'm so happy to teach that to my children and my Primary class. Rick spoke in Sacrament meeting the week before and gave a good talk on The Last Supper and Gethsemane. It was fun talking about it all week and really understanding what happened leading up to his death and then on Sunday talking about the Resurrection and knowing that only through him was this possible. I am so amazed by the love that our Savior and Heavenly Father have for all of us, even the ones who resist him. That Jesus would die and live again so that we can too! I LOVE EASTER! The cooking making, egg coloring, & egg hunts are fun, but I know what's really important.