EASTER

We have had a wonderful Easter weekend.  Abigail had an Easter egg hunt on Thursday at her preschool class.

 They started the party by hunting eggs.  I showed up five minutes late and they were done.  Abigail was happy to show me the twelve eggs she had found.

 They had a relay race with eggs.  Abigail was being very cautious with hers, but it still fell.

They then got all together and had a lesson about why we celebrate Easter.  I am so glad that we live in a Christian community.  Abigail went to gymnastics and came home with an Easter book mark that said He Lives.  I love Lubbock for this reason.

Ryan had his school Easter egg hunt on Friday.  It was also pajama day for all of the kids who had reached their AR goal.

Ryan had no problem finding his eggs either.  They made cute bunny Easter baskets in class

They could only put non food items in their eggs, Ryan came home with all kinds of interesting treasures.

We had a big two-ward Easter egg hunt on Saturday.  I took Abigail and Justin and Jeff took Ryan and Tyson to their soccer games.  The Easter egg hunt was a lot of fun with cookie decorating, bounce houses, and lots and lots of Easter eggs to be found.  

Although the Easter egg hunts are exciting and fun, nothing can compete with the oppertunity of going to church and worshiping on Easter Sunday.  

It was a beautiful Spring day.  Our yard is full of blossoms and green grass.  After a season of nature being dead, I love to have everything green again.  It makes my spirits feel so renewed.  

 We don't always had beautiful spring weather here, a lot of times it is windy and dusty,

 but today was absolutely beautiful.  The birds are out singing

 There is a smell of blossoms in the air

 and none of my kids complained about getting their pictures taken.

 Emily spoke in Sacrament meeting today and did a wonderful job.

I taught a lesson in Primary on the Resurrection, although the lesson didn't go as planned, my testimony was strengthened as I prepared it.  What a miraculous event that took place almost 2000 years ago.  I am so thankful for my Savior, and I am thankful for Family.

An Eventful Week

This week was quite busy at our home.  It snowed all day Sunday, we got a phone call Sunday night saying school was delayed (yes!) we let the kids stay up late playing a family game since they could sleep in for a few extra hours, then at 6:30 they called to let us know school was cancelled (oh man!).  We love it when school is delayed, but when it is cancelled we have to make it up, and it didn't help that they called at 6:30.  I ended up getting a stomach bug and couldn't hardly stand up all morning, but the kids had fun in the snow.

The baby bird the kids were feeding on our back porch

The mom that came to eat too

Building a snow fort

snow fort complete

The snowman they built

As you can see from this last picture, the snow did not last.  This was about 11:00 a.m. roads were clear by around 9:00 which is why we didn't want school cancelled, but we are glad the kids had fun while it lasted.

Valentines day was on Tuesday.  I had parties all day.  Justin's was in the morning they had breakfast.  I had a crepe bar for the kids.  It ended up being really fun and I think the kids all loved them.  A lot of the kids had never eaten a crepe before.  I have no pictures because I was too busy running the party. Abigail's party started at 11:15.  They sang some songs about love for the parents, it was really cute.  I made Abigail's outfit with my new sewing machine.

Abigail and Molly showing me their rings in their mouth

Singing their love songs

Abigail in her love bug hat

Abigail

Ryan's party was last.  They had ice cream sundaes, decorated a picture frame, and played some games.  I just did the games in his class.  I used the same games we used in Justin's class. 

Ryan showing us how to tango with one of his Valentine gifts

We had two basketball games Tuesday night so we didn't even have our nice Valentines dinner, we all ate in shifts.

Ryan in the dentist chair

Wednesday Justin, Ryan, and Abigail all went to the dentist.  It was Abigail and Ryan's first time.  They both did really well.  They let me hold Abigail which helped her. 

Thursday Emily had a tennis tournament.  She made it to the consolation championship game, but it started to rain so they cancelled the rest of the tournament.  Friday we had two basketball games and our neighbors birthday party.  Saturday we had two more basketball games, an indoor soccer game, and Abigail had a birthday party to go to.

Today we are ending the week with a Bishops Fireside at our house.  It hasn't been easy getting the house cleaned up and ready since I haven't been home much, but we made it. 

BYU Cheerleader

Abigail wants to be a cheerleader when she grows up.  I don't know if she will always have this dream, but it is interesting to watch her because she loves to cheer people on.  The other day she had on a cheerleading costume and was practicing her cheers while standing on someone like the cheerleaders do.

Abigail as a proud cheerleader

Abigail decided she needed two people for a pyramid

Now she looks like a "real" cheerleader.

If you look in the back ground you will notice BYU is playing basketball on the TV.

Ryan's Birthday Party

At the end of January Ryan finally was able to have a "kid" party.  I have decided for our family and our busy schedule during the holiday season we need to try to have Ryan's birthday before Thanksgiving, otherwise it ends up being the end of January when we get around to it.  Ryan decided he wanted to have a party at the rollerskating rink.  We have an old one that is kind of ran down, the advantage of this one is they don't care what you use on it so people are welcomed to use scooters, bikes, etc.  Ryan loves to roller blade, but a lot of kids his age don't do this yet, so we were glad you could do other things.  The other nice thing about this rollerskating rink is it is the same price for up to fifty people so we were able to invite his friends and their families.  We all had a wonderful time.  Here are some pictures from the celebration.

Ryan and Archer getting ready to race

Ryan, Archer, and Laney (Laney loves Ryan, we laugh because you can tell even when they are sitting down there is a big size difference).

opening gifts

opening gifts

Abigail's Independence

Most of my children have been very independent and done things on their own at a very young age, Abigail has not had as much of a desire to be independent.  Since she is the youngest I don't think I have encouraged it as much, but I realized I needed to start.  I think children are happier when they can accomplish things on their own, so I have been working with Abigail more.  I have been successful with some of my efforts and not so much with others.  One thing she has learned to love to do is make her own lunch.  She can get her tray and put a fruit, a main course and a dessert on it.  Her favorite thing to make is a pizza with a hamburger bun.  Here are a few pictures of her making and eating it.  Her face shows just how proud she is. 

Spreading the sauce

putting on the cheese

watching to see when it is done

enjoying her lunch

a proud chef

Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas.  We actually had snow all day Christmas Eve and Christmas day.  It made it seem so magical, and it was the perfect snow because it never stuck and it got warm right after so the kids could go outside and play with their gifts. 

We do an advent calendar that has something to do everyday with the family.  The kids each have one day that is their choice.  On Emily's choice she decided she wanted to have a Christmas party at our house.  Because she thought of it so late we ended up just having it with the Hardy's.  She did a great job putting it together, and the kids all had fun.

Ryan, Addison, Justin, and Abigail all put on a puppet show to start the party

trying to get the Rudolph nose stuck on their noses

The yummy food Emily prepared

trying to get an Oreo in their mouth

Justin stacking the cups into a Christmas Tree

balancing the candy canes

playing the flour game

 This year for Christmas Eve I gave each child a basket with a book theme that had pajamas in it and fun stuff to do for the day.  A lot of times Christmas Eve seems long, but this made it a lot of fun for everyone.  I came up with the idea because I had bought a Fancy Nancy basket for Abigail at an Auction at school.  I think we will continue to do this every year.

Emily with her cooking mystery basket

Tyson with his random basket (I couldn't come up with a theme for his with books he likes)

Justin with his Harry Potter basket

Ryan with a Froggy basket

Abigail with her Fancy Nancy basket

Gifts all out for Christmas Day

Emily with some of her gifts

Tyson and Justin with their BYU hats and coats

All the kids opening a family gift

I am never very good at taking pictures on Christmas day because I am too busy trying to keep order in the opening of presents, and then I am always busy helping kids put things together, but everyone enjoyed what they got.  The older I get the more I just enjoy being together as a family on Christmas Day.  With Jeff as Bishop and doing tithing settlement in the month of December, we had to do a lot of our traditional stuff without him, so it was fun to have him with us on Christmas day.  I also enjoyed so much going to church and Worshiping our Savior on Christmas day.  We don't have church until 1:30 and for one Sunday it was kind of nice going that late.