Our Easter Bunny morning and the Bunny Hop

We try to do the whole Easter bunny stuff the day before Easter.  I email the Easter Bunny in February-ish to request it.  He is actually very happy to comply because it means one less house for him to visit on Sunday.  So on Saturday morning, the kids woke up bright and early to find their hidden baskets, and then go on an egg hunt (courtesy of Daddy.... he actually went out there the night before... in the dark.... in the cold!!!  and hid like 60(ish) eggs, all over the yard!  Such a cool Dad.  And that's not even mentioning the fact that he ALSO made our favorite Creamed Eggs On Toast for breakfast also.  Such a good husband.).  I have no idea what setting my camera was on to get such crummy pictures.  I'm thinking I need to be a little more careful.  Might be the lens.... it's not the best for action photos.  I really don't take these pictures for the quality I guess anyway, it's just to remember their cute faces and see what they did.  So anyway.  I got lots of video as they were searching for their baskets, and then decided still pictures would be fun for the egg hunt....





Noah carried the "Easter Bunny" around with him all morning.... so cute.  And nice of Kelly to let him :)



Lukey's poor basket just doesn't carry much of the meaning of the season.  None of them do really, but especially his..... Nate's Mom gave us his old basket that she had made MANY years ago, and Nate was so sentimentally attached to it, that it made me want to make some for my kids.  They're fabric, so very durable, washable, reusable, easy to store.... couldn't really pass up the opportunity.  They looked (and Nate's mom made them sound) so much easier to make and maybe it was just the fact that my machine kept pooping out on me, but it took a little longer to make them than I thought.  That being said, I did say a little prayer before starting on the second one (after struggling WAY too much with the first the night before) and I think it took me about the same time to make the next three that it did to make that first one.  I give the credit to Heavenly Father.  He's so good to me.  So anyway, I had let the three younger ones pick out the fabric for theirs (since they were with me at the store.... poor older kids had to just take what they got) and while Lukey struggled with the decision between his first pick a Rainbow clored fabric, and this flame one, he had settled on "the one that doesn't have pink" and thus we have the FLAMING basket.  Not sure which one is worse for my son..... well, not till he's older anyway :)  Jk.  He loves it.  They all actually seemed really happy with them... and that makes me happy!






Nate: "I can see one up high!"

I don't know why I love this one so much :)




such a serious business... the egg hunt





I took about 30 pictures of them lined up like this with their baskets, and none of them really turned out what I would call "perfect" there's always someone with their eyes closed or face covered.... anyway, so then I end up posting a whole bunch.  Sorry.  I have to have a good one of each of them to be satisfied :)  In this first one, it was just Lukey's basket in his face.... otherwise....everyone else looks really good!




Kelly's eyes are closed and Erika is not smiling, but i loved NOah's and Brad's faces in this one.





I must have told them to make faces :)  Luke's are hilarious :)  And watching Erika's and Noah's expressions while they watch the big kids.... just funny stuff.




Charity seems so old when she's with the other kids.... but she's just not :)  Still my little girl.  I love it.Kelly's tongue is pretty long.




Luke's face in this one cracks me  up.


Okay, so after our egg hunt and yummy breakfast, we scurried on over to the Bunny Hop.  We've been to this a couple of times, the Bountiful City Youth Council puts it on (love those kids!), and it's just been one of our most favorite traditions.  It's fairly cheap (though this year we let the kids use their own money for the games and stuff, so I think we spent a lot more than we would have :) ), and not too crowded.  The lines were a little slow this year, but we improvised.  Nate and I took turns standing in lines while the other took the kids through other ones.  Probably cheating, but whatever. 

They have the Bounce House, which turned out to be a HUGE favorite of Erika's.  She screamed like a Banchee (HA! jk.) everytime we took her out of it.  I think we spent a good $2 just on Erika's Bounce House fun.  She loved it.  I personally don't think she's really old enough to be in the thing, but who am I to wreck all the fun.  Everyone else had a good time too and thankfully we have a few kids who enjoy making things fun for their younger siblings almost as much as they enjoy the fun themselves.  That is a blessing.  Hopefully they don't hate us for it later :)..... I'm sure they will :)






They had the Egg Relay which the big kids took part in....



Bean Bag Toss was a big hit as well.  This is when Brad saw his friend Jackson and had a lot of fun playing with him for a while. 







Then Kelly ran into her friend Izzy who for some reason we run into at the strangest times.... it's a little creepy how often we see them :).... Kelly spent a lot of the rest of the time there, with Izzy.  She sure had fun chasing her around.



They had a fish pond as well, which I didn't get pictures of and frankly they had some funny selections for the different age groups.... maybe they weren't trying to cater to the age and gender....

And then of course the Face Painting.  I wonder how many hours of my life have been wasted spent in lines for Face Painting.  Someday I will have to figure that out.  It's a lot whatever it is.  Because it's always the longest line at these things.

These kids were so great to put this thing on and even doing the face painting themselves.... I'm glad my kids are too young to care about how professional something like this is..... they LOVE having their faces painted, no matter what!!! 



Charity was happy to have the Brinkerhoff girl from our old ward doing her face.  I love the Brinkerhoffs.





Kelly got a kitty (of course)



We even got Noah to join in on the fun.... surprisingly.



Luke was a kitty too (orange of course)




Noah wanted to be Hulk and I think that since it was getting close to closing time, and the lack of knowledge of all the details, this is what he got :)   He loved it!!




Charity chose a puppy (of course) and what a nice job, I must say!!



Somehow Erika ended up getting her face painted too :)  Not sure how that came about, but her sweet Daddy helped her hold still :)



Seh was a kitty too, and Kelly informed me that she and Luke were Erika's kitty parents :)  She looks so cute :)


Bra

Brad had wanted Spiderman (as usual) and this is what he got :)  I think he was slightly disappointed, but he didn't say anything and was really happy about it :)   So fun.

I loved this year's Bunny Hop.  It's fun to have something that all of our kids enjoy so much.  While standing in line for the fish pond, we in front of a family who had their 5 day old baby (SO CUTE!!!!!) there along with their 5 other kids under the age of 7.  You can bet we had a lot to talk about!  Funny because they really did look "too young to have 6 kids!"  I'll be less annoyed the next time someone says that to me :)  Hope everyone had a Happy Easter!

Finding a Happy Place

So today at the Gym, I watched a talk from one of the Exercise Science Professors, and she talked a lot about enduring trials.  It was a really nice talk, she has an English accent so that made it even more enjoyable :).  But one thing she said that really hit me as something I don't do, and it's quite a simple little piece of advice, was to "not focus on the trial, but focus on the good, and the blessings".  So I've decided to go back to doing my posts about things that make me happy.  Things are so much easier for me to do if I can blog about them.... not sure why.  But glad I have my blog to help me do the things I feel I should do :). 

First one- this morning went just as I had planned!  Got the kids all ready to go BEFORE school so that I could go straight from dropping off the girls, to the store.  I like it when I can do this because if I have to come back home, get kids out of the car, finish getting ready, then get them in the car again, it's 10:00 before I can get to the store.  And I REALLY like doing my shopping earlier.  There are less people, car carts, small carts for Brad to push.... less people.... (It would be perfect if they could just not have boxes in the aisles at that time)  So anyway, it worked out PERFECTLY!!  Everyone was dressed nicely, teeth brushed, hair done..... yeah, just amazing!  And the kids get most of the credit, they did great.  (just as a side note, if I'd decided to wait, or had to wait- either way- I could have done my shopping with only two kids because right when we got home from the store, Brad and Luke got called to play at some friends' house..... but it's all good because it went well :) )

Another- Erika gives me lots of kisses.  Sweet, BIG, open-mouth kisses!  I love 'em. 

Lukey's affection is pretty sweet too :)  He gets a little carried away and always wants to kiss "on da lips!"  He's a sweetheart.

Future Memories

- Fast Sunday means Brad bears his testimony.  It's great really. He loves it, looks forward to it, he even gets disappointed when it's not fast Sunday.  It's something I've actually grown to look forward to. In fact in the last ward we were in (when it all started) the first time or two that he did it, he got several comments from following bear-ees, and it really made us all feel comfortable with the idea of him taking the time to go up there.  I was nervous at first, you never know how it will be accepted (isn't that sad), but it's really been fun to see the little twinkle in his eye as he counts down the minutes until he can go up there.  So anyway, this ward we are in now has been just as accepting of it and I've noticed a flux of little ones who now go up and bear their testimonies.  Now if it had been my encouragement, or my idea even for him to go up there in the first place this might sound like I was tooting my own horn, but it has always been ALL BRAD.  So I'm okay with saying that I think his flux is due to his bravery and his example.  It makes me really proud of him. Even his own big sisters have gotten the testimony bug and this last Sunday sat and wrote down their testimonies and went up and read what they wrote.  It was SO neat!!  I am just so proud of my kids and the examples that they are to me.  I wish I hadn't had all the excuse in the world and I had given in when Brad asked me why Nate and I don't go up there, but maybe next month.  We did just give talks a few weeks ago and I said my testimony then.  It really is an eye-opener though when your kid points out one of your flaws.  I love the chance to change a weakness.  The girls have really welcomed the fasting idea, so these last few months they've fasted with Nate and I and can I say what a huge strength they are to me and my testimony!  We were fasting for a family member and I wasn't sure if I wanted to tell them who or just let them fast on their own for their own thing, but I decided to tell them and they were so sweet about it.  It really meant a lot to them that this was one way that they could help out.  They did such a great job.  I have loved being able to fast again.  It always takes me a while to get back into it after nursing a baby, but they are very good motivators.  It was a nice Sunday.  And to top it off, Nate surprised us with taking it off and being able to come to the family meeting with us and stuff.... it was great!  4-10-11

- Nate is so my hero!  I got a call on Thursday from Tolman Elementary (the school whose boundaries we reside in) telling me that I needed to register Luke to go there and that because there were problems with teacher staffing the principals cannot approve any variances until August.  So I explained that my kids already go to Holbrook and that I figured my new Kindergartener could too.  She said no and that I would have to register all of them for Tolman.  Ugh.  I was annoyed, but I kind of ignored it because I have been in denial about the whole issue ever since we moved.  See, we've been at Holbrook for almost 2 1/2 school years.  The longest my kids have been at any of the 3 schools they've already attended (which is crazy to think since the oldest is only in 3rd grade).  We know we probably aren't going to buy a house in Holbrook boundaries, but we don't know how long we will be in this house, so it's hard to want to change schools only to have to change again when we move.  I assumed we could leave our address on the forms as my Dad's and be good to go.  Well, somehow the school got word (I'm guessing someone in the ward is trying to help me be honest since I've probably told too many people my scheme) that our address had changed.  Well, I did change the address, they said we were fine to stay out the rest of the school year that they wouldn't kick the kids out and that was that.  WEll, now that it's looking like we might be here past the summer, I'm getting all antsy and not wanting to even THINK about registering them somewhere else.  So anyway, back to my story, THEN later on in the day, Holbrook calls telling me that I can't bring Luke to the Orientation there because he is not in the boundaries and would need a variance that will not be approved until August.... same thing Tolman said.... and that I have to register my other kids for Tolman as well.  Ugh.  I was starting to get really depressed about it because I just hate the thought of making them change schools AGAIN, but I thought of a plan that might save things.  I decided I would ask my superhero to go over to the school and talk to the Principal.  Maybe he would be able to sweet talk the balding man and pull some strings for me.  It's always easier to tell someone no on the phone, but in person.... well, it's different!  Nate's a good person to have talk to someone in person and I"ve used his superpower many times, so I hoped it would work, but was prepared to just change our address back to my Dad's and just be dishonest again to make it so I could have what I want.  (and not just what I want, but what is best for my kids... makes sense right??  The things I would do for my kids.... )  So Nate got over to the school around 3:10, and at about 3:12 I got a text from him saying, "everything's fine at the school.  They said you can take Luke to the Oreintation here and just change our address back to your Dad's because the Principal said it was okay and would count as a variance approval".  Ahhhhh.  So nice.  I love that man!!! (my husband, not the Principal.... though I am very grateful for his help)  Is Nate not the coolest person EVER!!!!!  Totally saved the day.  4-14-11

- Thursday was a very nice day.  I got to go to a Relief Society Fireside type thing with a woman who is a psychologist (a very well known one that I couldn't give justice if I tried to explain all that she has done and still does), Wendy Ulrich.  She was an AMAZING speaker!!  She spoke on the differences between sin and weakness.  I wish I could explain it all on here, but I won't, I"ll just say that it left me feeling very uplifted and very at ease.  Knowing that what I once felt guilty for, some of my many weaknesses, I no longer need to because they are gifts from God and not sin.  So anyway.  It was very refreshing.  I really enjoy RS activities.  After that I popped some popcorn and rushed over to American Idol night.  Fun stuff.  Poor Nate was left with everyone ALL evening.  He's such a sweet husband and fun Daddy. 

- Friday was Luke's Kindergarten Orientation.  He was really excited (surprisingly).  I think he's finally liking the idea of going to school this fall.  I'm glad and I"m sad at the same time.  I liked when he worried about missing me, but I"m glad that he feels more confident and more independent.  I think my favorite thing was when I was writing his name on his name tag, I wrote L-u-k-e.... and he says, "Mom!  You fohgot the Y!"  I laughed and said, "No, your name is Luke, not Lukey!  Do you want to be called Lukey?"  Then he burst out with this huge, "YES!!!"  So Lukey it is :).  He had me put that on his registration form too :)  Hopefully he doesn't change his mind in the next few months.... not that they don't have you fill out a million forms then that ask the same things..... He was a sweetie about the whole thing, asked lots of questions about everything he saw (even though he's seen it all a million times everytime we've gone to the school).  He was really cute when they asked all the future kindergarteners to come with the teachers for some fun activities, I said, "K, Lukey, go ahead! Go get in line!" He started to walk off and then ran back real fast and said, "I want you to come with me!" And I started to get a little nervous, thinking I was going to have to do some convincing, then I said, "No, you get to go by yourself with all the kids!  You're going to do some fun stuff!" And much to my surprise he says, "Oh! K, BYE!"  What a stud!  I made him come back real quick for a hug :) and he did, but I was really proud of him.  He's made a lot of progress in the last few months!

- Wow, this is a late post :).  I've decided I'm going to keep up on my blog better.... starting riiiiiiiight..... NOW!

It's beginning to look a lot like Easter.....

We did our egg coloring for Family Night on Tuesday.  This is a tradition that I have ALWAYS loved and the main reason being that it goes SO WELL!  It's one of the few messy, fun, holiday traditions that goes smoothly for us :).  I found a few different kinds of kits this year.  One that you squeeze some paint into a bag and roll the egg around in the bag (I kinda thought this one would be messier, but it ended up being just perfect for Erika.  She carried around bags of eggs the whole time, slamming them down on things of course, but getting very little paint on herself or anything around her), one that had little rollers to roll paint onto the eggs.  If I had been more careful this one could have been a little more fun, but I didn't emphasize that the rollers needed to stay in their own colors.  The colors got mixed up and kinda ugly near the end, but it was still fun.  Then we had the usual dip the eggs in the liquid coloring.  For some reason I measured wrong and the colors were very light and some didn't stick at all.... I was slightly bummed, but that's what happens when you measure stuff while you're talking on the phone.  Everyone seemed to enjoy something.  I love seeing what my kids choose to do with their eggs.  We even used some of the little plastic slip cover things this year, they had kitties and doggies and butterflies on them so they were impossible to resist.  Erika especially.  That was really cute to show her the cute little kitties on the egg.  She's obsessed with dogs and cats. 


Lukey takes this very seriously, gets very dirty, and can get easily aggitated if you try to rush him on anything.  He sure loved it though.  He really liked the rollers.








This was one of the first times Noah's been able to really enjoy it I think.  He had fun, but lost his patience with the dipping and moved on to painting.  He half painted a whole bunch of eggs with purple stripes :).



Charity's a pro.  She likes this.  It's all about creativity and she made some of the prettiest eggs by combining different methods of coloring them.  She loved the doggies too.







Brad was busy the whole time.  He got pretty creative as well, and was patient enough to get some bright colors.  He is getting so old these days!







Kelly of course, latched on to the kitty slip covers.  She did a LOT of those, and was able to make them pretty cute with the colors too.  She loves kitties and helps Erika enjoy them with her.  She made some really pretty ones, and got pretty creative as well.



Nate sat down and got into it for a little bit too.... I think it's been a while since he did that, it was fun to see him get into it.















Nate made Erika smile really big :)  Couldn't resist posting the pictures even though they have very little to do with coloring eggs :)









Erika kept pounding the eggs on the table and cracking them.  It was mostly funny :) 

We had SO MANY eggs this year!!!  I think we bought 6 1/2 eggs and colored them ALL!!  Fun stuff.  You can see the REALLY bright blue one I made, my traditional "I 'heart' NM" egg.  Just can't NOT make it.












Look at those hands!!!!