Easter Saturday

I know Easter is really on Sunday, but we celebrate the "fun" part of Easter on Saturday so we can enjoy the Spiritual aspect on Sunday and give it the attention it deserves.

Saturday morning we got together with friends for an Easter egg hunt. Joseph hid about 70 eggs and after the kids got tired of hunting it took the adults another 10 minutes of staring at the ground to find the last few eggs. The kids had fun though and were so excited every time they found an egg.

Hunting Pictures:






After our egg hunt we enjoyed playing ping pong in the morning. During nap time Joseph went on a 3 hour bike ride and the kids slept. After everyone was refreshed we gave the kids some Easter presents. Kimball has expressed interest in baseball so he got a t-ball set. Rebecah likes anything outside so we gave her a little golf set. She will soon be ready to take on Uncles Spencer and Jonathan...

Joseph and Kimball golfing. Rebecah was too busy playing t-ball to golf.




Trying out the new baseball equipment.





Rebecah with two of her favorite playmates:

Recognize Anyone?

A few weeks ago at story time a photographer from the newspaper showed up. We don't get the paper, but I hoped if Rebecah or Kimball were in the paper someone would tell us. Rebecah's picture was on the front page of our local paper. They couldn't have picked a cuter girl to be in the picture.

Happy Anniversary

Yesterday Joseph and I celebrated our 7th anniversary. Joseph was able to take the afternoon off from work so he could be home with the kids and me. We had our traditional meal of homemade eggrolls and raspberry white chocolate cheesecake for dessert.

Kimball had the great idea to paint the wrapping paper that my present came in so he could be involved in the festivities.

As you look at the picture, Rebecah painted the left side and Kimball did the right.



It was a good day. Joseph and I plan on going out Friday evening for dinner.

St. Patrick's Day

We are getting into St. Patrick's more each year. This year I decided to decorate and for less than $5 I was able to make a paper garland, the rainbow paper chain and the hanging shamrocks. Kimball especially loved the decorations and it has been fun to see his excitement.

Shamrock Garland



Hanging Shamrocks in our kitchen.



An up-close shamrock that I made for my sister, Heather.



At story time this week the kids did a St. Patrick's Day craft. I thought it was super cute and the kids were excited about them. They made little leprechaun hats and beards.

Leprechaun Kimball



Leprechaun Rebecah



They were so proud of their little beards and hats that we made at the library.


The leprechauns came while we were sleeping and left a rainbow with some Rolo gold and shamrocks by our front door. The kids went on a little leprechaun hunt and were excited about the edible gold. They dressed up in their story time crafts for the hunt.



Our green dinner of pulled pork, Irish soda bread, pistachio salad, broccoli and avocado.



And for dessert...our annual green coconut cake.



I think each year we have a better St. Patrick's day.

Vacation--St. Louis & Denver

We just returned from vacation and it was nice to get away. Joseph attended his annual medical conference and this year he chose Denver, CO for his destination. While Joseph was gone I decided to spend the week with my mom so the kids and I would have more excitement.

While Joseph was in Denver he went snow shoeing at Rocky Mountain National Park. I'll admit I was nervous having him go snow shoeing in the mountains by himself but he did take all of the "Boy Scout" precautions i.e. --water, food, bright orange vest, whistle, compass, lighter, etc. He had a great time at RMNP and he said it was a perfect day for the trip. Joseph also decided that he loves Estes Park, CO and is ready to move there...probably won't happen.




Elk Crossing! Joseph said there were about 20 of them.


There is a black and white bird on this tree. It was Joseph's little friend that followed him looking for a snack. At one point, Joseph took off his glove and the bird landed on Joseph's hand. Cool!


The rest of the week Joseph attended 24 hours of class and the temple twice. He called us multiple times a day so we could stay up on the events of each day.

The kids and I had a great time at my mom's house. Rebecah and Kimball really warmed up to Heather. Most mornings my kids got up early...6:00ish...and the first thing Rebecah would say was "Kiss Heather?" I had to tell her that Heather was still sleeping.

We were lucky to be in town for David's baby blessing and it was fun to see him again. He is cute and Rebecah enjoyed being able to hold him.

Playing with Amy.



Rebecah and me with David.


Holding David.

Heather and I worked on crafts while I was there. I had made her 10 shamrocks to hang on her curtain rod. I also made about 12 Christmas tree ornaments for her and about 40 ball lantern ornaments. The ball lanterns were made with pastel colors so they are perfect for Easter. Heather shared her bounty with me and now I have some decorations all ready for Easter and the supplies to make a few of the ribbon trees.

Making the ribbon ornaments.



Christmas Tree ribbon ornaments


The shamrocks had different green fabrics on them and different buttons. They turned out really cute! If I do say so myself.



Post-craft pictures



Kimball doing a craft of his own. He wanted in on the crafting action so we found stickers, colored pencils and paper for him.


Kimball really missed his Legos while we were gone. Next time we'll probably have to bring them with us. To help ease his separation anxiety my mom broke out the K'nex and Kimball was much happier.

Kimball sleeping in Heather's new recliner. He LOVED that chair. Anytime Heather wasn't in it, he was.


One of the best parts of the week was sitting with my mom and Heather each night at our respective computers and we would all Index together helping each other as needed. It sounds a little boring, but we all enjoyed it.

The vacation ended a little rocky with Kimball and Rebecah getting a little sick. It was Rebecah's first time throwing up...I'm still sorry about the carpet. Kimball didn't have his first vomiting episode until he was 4 so it he could always make it to the designated bowl...not so with Rebecah. She had been complaining about her tummy hurting, but I just thought she wanted Tylenol because I had given some to Kimball. I'll now pay more attention to her in the future. On the way home we were on some windy roads and she complained about her stomach hurting so we got out ASAP so her stomach could rest and we made it home without incident.

Gone.

I just lost over 6 months of my life. Our computer crashed last night and we lost a good portion of the information on our computer. I had recently uploaded all of our pictures to Shutterfly so we still have pictures, but we lost most of the videos we have taken of the children.

The biggest blow for me was losing the past 6 months of journal entries. (Now is not the time for comments about regularly backing up my journal.) I do regular blog posts so I can always copy those into my journal for the major family events, but I'm sick to think I have lost all of the thoughts I had recorded and the spiritual experiences I documented. I also won't have the feelings about Palmyra that I had typed when they were fresh and clear.

I have faithfully written in my journal every Sunday for 20 years and to think that 6 months of it is gone makes me cry. Lesson learned: Back up regularly and have more than one back up plan. But in the mean time, I'll mourn my loss and the loss for posterity.

Valentine's Day

We had a great Valentine's day! The last two years we have made it a family day instead of just a husband and wife day and we love it. It just seems fitting to make it a family day since it's a day of love. Our family wouldn't be the same without our children.

We decorated for Valentine's Day about a month ago after my sister, Kristin, sent me some pictures of some Valentine crafts she had done. I was able to replicate them fairly well and Kimball LOVED having decorations up.

We made and sent out a few Valentines and Kimball really enjoyed that too. I again, copied Kristin's ideas, and made little elephant Valentine's for Joseph and the children, the sisters I visit teach, and the Primary/Nursery teachers. It was so fun to see the joy on the faces of our friends when we gave them our Valentines. Kimball's Primary teacher called me yesterday to thank me a second time for her Valentine and said it was the first time in 10 years that she had received a Valentine. (Her husband died 10 years ago.) I was so grateful I had thought to make Valentines for the church teachers.

For Valentine's Day I made white chocolate cranberry scones for breakfast. Kimball loves them, we all do, and I had to rein him in when he wanted to eat more than 2. Joseph only ate two. For dinner I made chicken enchiladas, homemade refried beans, rice, asparagus and jello salad. For dessert we had a chocolate cranberry cheesecake. The cheesecake was really soft and had just subtle chocolate and cranberry flavors. None of my pictures turned out well, but it tasted good!

Kimball and Rebecah loved having little presents to open. Kimball got a Hotwheel Hummer and Rebecah got a dress.

Who's Pretty?



ME!



I think I did a good job framing Kimball's head between the hanging hearts.



Kimball said today that his favorite holidays are Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day and Christmas. He was sad when we took down the Valentine decorations, but I quickly put up a shamrock garland that I made and we will continue to decorate as I get our green decorations made.

I hope you all felt loved and appreciated yesterday.

Now, on to St. Patrick's Day!