Here Comes the Easter Bunny

The Easter Bunny comes on Saturdays at our house. I know it’s weird. He just loves us more that he loves all of you so he thinks that we need our candy early. I’m kidding, I’m kidding. Kidding aside, the Easter Bunny really did visit us on Saturday rather than Sunday. Why, you ask? Because Sunday mornings are so hectic around here, I decided to make things easier on me. This is our Sunday morning routine: Nathan gets up at 6:30 to shower and get ready so that he can be at church by 7:15. I get up at 7:00, take a shower. Usually by the time I’m out of the shower, Dallin and Mandy are up. I give them their chocolate milk and get them something to eat for breakfast. Then Layton wakes up and I get him fed too. Then I try to get something to distract him with so that I can blow dry my hair and get ready. Then I have to repeatedly tell Dallin to get dressed. I help Mandy get dressed. Then I get Layton dressed. We all brush our teeth and then I fill my church bag with snacks and coloring books and crayons. After all that, I have to start scrambling to get them in the car so that we can get to church on time. Now you tell me, do you see any window of opportunity in there to let kids eat candy and see what the Easter bunny brought them? I don’t think so. Besides, this way, Nathan gets to be there when they find their baskets too. So Friday night I filled their baskets and hid them. Saturday morning they had their morning chocolate milk and then I reminded them that I thought that the Easter bunny was supposed to visit last night. Did they see their basket’s anywhere? Dallin found Layton’s under the table for him. Mandy’s was under the end table and Dallin found his stashed in the kitchen. Mandy was so excited that the Easter Bunny brought her a Fancy Nancy book. She just loved it. Dallin got a Discover Kid’s book that covers all kinds of topics and now he considers himself a “scientist” when he reads his book. And what did Layton get? He got the book “The Hungry Caterpillar”, because that’s exactly what he is. A hungry little squirmy worm. But he’s a cute little worm.

After they enjoyed their candy and we had read their books to them over and over, we went to their little cousin Kate’s birthday party. It is April and they went swimming in the pool. Even Layton tried out the water. Kids are crazy.

It was nice to walk out and see the beach. The water was freezing, so we only got our feet wet, but it was beautiful. The beach always is. Not matter what the weather is, bight sunshine, foggy mist, wild winds, the beach always looks beautiful.

After we got home, we watched a movie, I did a some stuff for primary, we went for a bike ride, and just relaxed at home. You know how some days are just better than others? Well this was one of those days that while not perfect (the 20 minutes of crying Dallin did beside the pool because he didn’t have a noodle marred it just a little), was a welcome day of unwinding, not being rushed and of simplistic enjoyment of life. I need days like that more often.

Coloring Eggs at Nana’s

What is Easter without coloring Easter eggs? They are so messy though. I was so glad when Nathan’s mom invited the kids over to color eggs at her house. Yay, no mess at mine!! She had a really cool little egg spinner, where you drop in a little bit of food coloring, push on the top and let the color spin all over the egg.

The kids loved it. Mandy really got into it and had that egg spinning like crazy.

While the eggs dried, Nana gave them some plastic eggs to take outside and play with.

Dallin volunteered to be the Easter Bunny and hide the eggs. Haley wanted to help him so he told her that she could be his “Easter Bunny wife”. He-He.

Even Layton found an egg. I think he was a little disappointed that there wasn’t anything inside of it :(

And guess what else they found?

A furry little caterpillar. They all thought he was the coolest.

And don’t forget the roller coaster ride. They are all strapped in and ready to go!

A Day at the Zoo

Last Wednesday, since it was Spring Break, we headed to the zoo. We met Nathan’s brother and family there as well as a few of our friends. The day started out a little chilly, but warmed up to be perfect. Layton was super happy to have others there that were just his size.

Dallin’s favorite places in the whole zoo are the snake houses. Isn’t this snake’s camouflage pretty impressive. You could easily walk right up on this snake in the wild and not see it. That terrifies me. I HATE SNAKES.

Mandy loves all of her little friends. I think I’ve mentioned it before that she calls them “her kids”. The next day after our zoo trip, she saw some of the moms that had gone with us and asked them, “Where are all my brothers and sisters?” I thought that was cute.

Nathan actually took a half day off of work to come with us too. It was really nice having him there. As you can see, Layton loved having him there too.

Kids are so goofy. After walking through the jaguar exhibit, which is decorated to look like the ruins of an ancient civilization, the kids wanted to pose as statues. Mandy was really into eating her gold fish at that moment so she couldn’t be bothered with actually posing.

We were very excited to see the new Asian exhibit. There are beautiful ponds and gardens.

The ponds are full of these huge brightly colored Koi.

The Asia area is also home to a Komodo Dragon. Dallin was so excited about getting to see a real DRAGON. He thought it was pretty awesome.

We also visited the lorikeets. You can actually walk into their aviary and feed them. Dallin and Mandy were too scared to actually feed them but they were mesmerized by everyone else doing it.

It was a wonderful day and we were SO glad that we got there early. As we were leaving just after 12:00, the lines outside the zoo to get in were CRAZY. I guess the saying that the early bird gets the worm really was true in this case!

Note to self: Don’t put chocolate in Easter Baskets

At least not when you have a curious 1 year old roaming the house. Chocolate and Easter go hand in hand, right? Seems logical to put chocolate in Easter baskets and give it to your children for Easter. And so I did. But I very carefully made sure that Layton’s basket contained things that would be less messy for him to eat. However, I didn’t count on Mandy and Dallin leaving their candy in inconspicuous places where Layton would find them at random times over the next few days. I think that we have cleaned up chocolate off of Layton and off of his surroundings about six times in the last three days. I don’t have any idea why I thought that Mandy and Dallin would actually keep their candy out of Layton’s reach. Wishful thinking I guess.

Conference Weekend

We thoroughly enjoyed being able to watch General Conference on TV the weekend before last. It is always a nice break from our normally hectic Sundays to stay at home and enjoy listening to the leaders of the church speak. I absolutely loved all of the talks that I was able to listen to. With three kids running around, some parts generally get missed, but between naps, playing conference bingo with them, and playing our little snack game I was able to hear quite a bit of it. Conference is always a two edged sword for me. On the one hand, I love the sweet spirit that is felt while listening to the talks. On the other hand, I hate even thinking about how much I need to do to improve myself based on what I learned in the talks. There are so many things in my life that I know I need to change. One talk in particular really hit home to me because in it was discussed what our homes should really be like. Elder Gary Stevenson said that we should take a virtual tour of our homes and ask ourselves:

“What do you see, and how do you feel? Is it a place of love, peace, and refuge from the world? Is it clean and orderly? As you walk through the rooms of your home, do you see uplifting images which include appropriate pictures of the temple and the Savior? Is your bedroom or sleeping area a place for personal prayer? Is your gathering area or kitchen a place where food is prepared and enjoyed together, allowing uplifting conversation and family time? Are scriptures found in a room where the family can study, pray, and learn together? Can you find your personal gospel study space? Does the music you hear or the entertainment you see, online or otherwise, offend the Spirit? Is the conversation uplifting and without contention?”

As I asked myself those things, I felt almost overwhelmed at the enormity of the task at hand to create a loving, spiritual, perfect place where my children can learn and grown and reach their full potential. How to do it? Where to even begin? What changes need to made first? Will my home ever be the perfect environment? The answer is no. It never will be. But does it have to be? Perfect, I mean? I think that if I try to tackle each of the areas that need improvement with a sincere heart, then I have to hope that the desired outcome, that my children will grow up to be happy, well adjusted, intelligent, responsible adults, will happen. If I make mistakes in my home, I have to hope that the Lord will step in and help me rectify those mistakes. Because that is the way the atonement works, right? We make mistakes, and through the mercy of the Lord, we can be forgiven, learn from and improve upon those mistaken experiences. So while my home might never be the perfect haven of love, peace, and refuge from the world, I certainly intend to work to make it so and hope that the Lord will take up the slack when at times I stumble and fall.

The Good Easter Photos

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Easter everyone.  I hope you all have a wonderful day filled with love and happiness.  “Men are that they might have joy” and today is the perfect day to experience and appreciate the joy that we have in our lives.  I am so grateful for my Savior Jesus Christ.  A primary song keeps ringing through my head that expresses my thoughts on this Easter Sunday perfectly:

He died that we might live again

Lord Jesus, our Redeemer true

He died on Calvary’s lonely hill.

His life he gave for me and you.

He rose from the grave on Easter morn,

Our Savior and our King.

He showed his love for all mankind.

For his great love, give thanks and sing.

Rejoice!  Rejoice! and sing, sing sing!

Easter Photos

I decided to try to do my own little photo shoot of the kids in their Easter clothes.  It didn’t turn out quite like I imagined.  Just take a look:

 

 

Only one turned out remotely good and even then Layton and Mandy are not looking at the camera.

 

What am I going to do with these kids?  At least I’ve learned my lesson.  I NEVER want to become a professional kids photographer.  Could you imagine trying to do this with other people’s kids?  YIKES!!!  I did get a few shots of them by themselves that turned out pretty good.  I’ll post those tomorrow.

Excited!

Layton is super psyched about Easter! Me too. Oh the chocolate. How I love chocolate at Easter time. Who am I kidding? I love chocolate all the time.

Easter is my favorite holiday. I love it even more than Christmas. Maybe because it is a celebration not only of Christ’s birth, but more specifically what He did for us and what his sacrifice and resurrection means for me personally and for the future of my family. Because of him we really can be a FOREVER FAMILY.

Sweet and Funny

Dallin asked me, “Mom, you know how we take cookies to the people that live by us at Christmas? Can we take them carrots for Easter?”

Gotta love him. He so very thoughtfully wants to make sure our neighbors eat healthy for Easter. Candy, peeps, cupcakes, Cadbury eggs, bunny cookies, just aren’t good enough. Nope, our neighbors need carrots. I wonder if he is afraid their eye sight might be going bad?