Easter!

Easter. What a beautiful Holiday! A day to celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord, the love He has for us, the sacrifice He made for us. It was a very spiritual day for me this year, which is something I have been yearning for.

We started out the morning (after the kids found their baskets, searched for the eggs the Easter Bunny hid around the house, and ate a TON of candy) with a little Easter lesson. The kids were concerned that we were having Family Home Evening, but it was still morning, so we called it Family Home Morning. That seemed to keep the whining down. :) Kids!

Syd and Andy taught the story of Jesus's death and resurrection. It was great! The kids understand that Easter is about Jesus, not the Easter Bunny! They also got to sing some Easter songs at church in Sacrament meeting, and Jess gave a talk about Easter in Primary. I was able to go see some friends of mine sing a couple of beautiful songs about Christ's resurrection in YW at church, and the Spirit was so strong in there. I was bawling! I am so grateful for the pain and suffering Christ went through to save us. It's unfathomable.

The night before Easter, we colored eggs. Here are the kids having a great time with each other!

After church, we headed to Nana and Papa's house for Easter dinner. We had a delicious ham dinner with lots of family, and it was a special day for our family. After dinner, the men went out and hid all the easter eggs so the kids could have another easter egg hunt! They each ended up with SO much candy!

The race is on!

Syd, Jess and Kayman with their cousins from down under...Micaela, Izzy, and Ava. We have been anxious for them to move here from New Zealand, and are so glad they finally made it to Utah! Now we just have to convince them to move to Herriman so we can see them often!
Happy Easter!!!

April Flowers

I have SO many beautiful flowers in my front yard, but it's so cold outside that I rarely get to enjoy them. I am afraid they are all going to die before it's warm enough to just lie on my grass and stare at them. So, I cut some and made my own bouquet!

Now I can enjoy them inside! They are so colorful and smell divine. I have spring fever SO bad! I just want to be out there in the garden, beautifying, smelling, enjoying some of God's beautiful creations! Hopefully I won't have to wait much longer.

*Don't mind the "Saturday doo", it was a lazy day and I never did get to the make-up...or the hair. This is leftovers from yesterday. :)

Just slow down!

Kayman has had his cast for 2 weeks now. He had a very hard time when he first got it. He was unable to walk, mostly due to the fact that it was still painful to put weight on his leg, but also because it was very awkward. He spent a week crawling around with his casted leg sticking way out. (Helping him go to the bathroom was quite interesting)

Kayman was frustrated.

Kayman is heavy.

Kayman required me to carry him everywhere.

My arms turned to jello.

My back started giving out.

Then, after a week, he started walking. Ahhh, what a relief that was. Kayman is a much happier now that he can get himself around. He can almost keep up with the girls! They were out on the trampoline tonight and he wanted to jump too. I told him he could sit and bounce, and this is what he started doing.

He had a great time! We go back in tomorrow to get his leg checked out. They will x-ray and see how the bone is healing, and possibly re-cast it, depending on the wear. Now that he is walking, the bottom of the cast is slowly shaving away. Also, now that he is walking, he is pretty much back to normal. Energetic as ever.

Once he gets the cast off, I am sure it's going to be another learning curve for him. He's going to have to learn how to walk again on his weak leg that took 5 weeks off. Hopefully he gains the strength back quickly. I sure love my little man, he has been a really good sport through this challenge.

Herriman

I got a message from my neighbor letting me know that Dallas (the dog) was roaming around outside her house.

Dallas is notorious for making a run for it if he gets a chance.

Herriman is notorious for terrible winds that blow our fence to pieces.

Well, when the wind blew the fence to pieces, Dallas had a way out of the yard. Andy drove around the neighborhood for 1/2 hour to find the dumb dog. The family that found him was having so much fun with him that Andy asked if they wanted him, and they said yes! Haha! We found a taker. Andy brought him home to check with us first, and the kids cried out that they want to keep him. They are now in charge of feeding and cleaning up after him. If they don't do it, we just may take up that family's offer to take him! Love the dog, really, but he's a lot of work. It's a good thing Dallas has the best cousin ever (Caitlin) who takes him hiking all the time! We love you Caitlin!

So this post was not intended to be about Dallas, but about the fence. So much more interesting. I know. This is just part of living in Herriman. Luckily, this storm did not blow any trampolines throughout the neighborhood. It's been worse. Here is Andy fixing the fence.

Doesn't he look thrilled?! Haha! It was freezing.

So crafty!

I am so crafty! Ok, not really. Not usually. I have a group of friends that gets together once a month for a Girls Night Out. We go to a different girls house each month, and that girl is in charge of what the activity is. We have done a few different things: get to know you games (hilarious and very telling), card making (so cute!), and now this beautiful craft (Sparkly!):

I have never done any craft involving wood, paint, paper, glue, and (best of all) GLITTER that I would do anything with other than hide in a box! It was super fun, and actually turned out cute enough that I dare display it in my house. I officially have an Easter decoration. Look at me go!

Will it Float?

I came into the kitchen and found this in the sink:

Jess told me she and Kayman were doing a science experiment. She just wanted to see if they would float or not.

I am loving all that the kids are learning in school. Jess has intense interest in so many different subjects because of school. She loves to play school at home and sets up different "Centers" for Kayman to work on. They are all learning so much. The girls bring home what they learn and teach Kayman! It's great!

Looky here!

I just love when my garden randomly sprouts up last year's old seeds! I went out into the garden today to clean out the dead stuff from last year and found myself a bunch of spinach that is ready to eat...

and a cute little row of lettuce!

Mmmmm! I can't wait to try it out, and I will be planting more soon- fo sho!

This is a benefit of my laziness. I rarely clear out the garden before winter hits, and every year I get a few surprise volunteer veggies! I usually get tomatillos from this, and last year I got cilantro and lettuce also. Pretty cool, that mother nature.

I am SO excited for my home grown vegetables and fruits this summer. It's the best time of the year! And I get to be outside working in the dirt most of my days. BONUS!

So I have all these strange little black rocks in my garden every year, and I have no idea where they are coming from. They look like little lava rocks.

They appear every spring, just sitting there on top of the soil. Last year I gave the girls the job of picking them all out. I know, it sounds mean, but they loved it. They are obsessive like that. Anyway, they are multiplying in my garden soil and I don't know if it has something to do with the ph levels or what. Any input on this would be helpful. I haven't googled it yet...google answers all my other questions with such accuracy, I should just go there. :)