Easter

I love Easter! For one reason it means spring/summer is near. But more importantly it has a very spiritual meaning for me. It helps me remember who I am. Where I came from. And hope for my future as well as my families.

We decorate eggs every year on the Saturday before. This year we did 52 eggs and we still could have done more. It is always a lot of fun. Only a couple of the eggs were dropped in the process. It was all in good fun!

Miss Avery and some of her goods!

We usually have a Easter egg hunt with our family on Sunday after church. I really down play the whole Easter bunny thing. In fact we don't really do the Easter bunny. The kids get baskets in the morning when they wake up. It is usually filled with books and things for their church bags. This year I did sneak in some bubbles. Which because of the bad weather on Easter, ended up on my garage floor! Our egg hunt is usually outside in the yard, but this year it was rainy and dreary so we had our first indoor hunt. It was actually really nice!

Master Evan and his basket.

Along with candy in the eggs we made a couple eggs with some special coupons inside. I didn't think the kids would like them as much as the candy eggs, because the instant gratification was not available. But I was wrong. Those were a hit!! I am going to do more of those next year, and less of the candy!! That will be for my own good!! (I have no will power!!)

Owen, Avery, and Quin.

My Mom came over to join in the festivities. We are so lucky to have her around. She is the BEST Grandma!!

Of course Quin LOVED digging in his eggs. I had to Clorox his nice white shirt after the day!

Evan and Sadie looking for eggs in the "higher" places.

Sue-Sue helping Quin. Quin ate while he hunted.

Easter day was a beautiful day. It was cloudy and rainy and actually ended up snowing later on. But the day itself was beautiful. I am so happy to celebrate the Resurrection of our Savior. What happiness and hope it gives me. The opportunity to be with these awesome people FOREVER!!! I am thankful for my many many blessings!

I wish!

  Ω f

I wish I was here.....

With him......



And my bum looked like this!!!

Christmas Day 2008

Better late than never!

The kids putting out the reindeer food before they went off to bed!

So much time has past that unfortunately I can't remember all the glorious details of the day, but the pictures pretty much sum it all up. We had a WONDERFUL Christmas!

Because Christmas this year was much more simple than in years past I seemed to be more on the ball. Go figure. So almost all of the presents were wrapped before Christmas Eve. Even though Justin and I didn't get to continue our tradition of wrapping while watching A Christmas Story, we did enjoy a very nice, quiet, wrappingless night.

Our kids were told that they were not to wake us up until 7 am. That if they woke up earlier than that, they had to stay in their beds. And if they all were up earlier than that, then they could stay together in their rooms with the door shut. It worked, we slept, and they were quiet. But when 7 am hit they were all over us! ( I was already awake laying there waiting for the excitement too!)

We always go through the stockings first!

We stake our spots in the living room and the kids pass out all the gifts and put them in piles. Look at the smile on Sadie's face!!

(picture is blurry because some sweet little kiddos were playing with my settings and I didn't realize it.)

Santa brought more webkinz!

Merry Christmas Sunshine!

Justin helping Sadie with the Pixos. What a mess those things are!

Avery holding her microphone. She was dancing and singing the whole day with that in hand.

Owen giving Quin rides on the flying turtle. That thing is fun. I even spent some time on it while I was on the phone with my sister Sherry that day. It was great because I could ride around and pick things up that were scattered all over the floor.

Sue-Sue (my mom) got our family a Wii. My kids felt so deprived that they didn't have one, but we have just about every other gaming box, we didn't feel that bad for them. But I guess my mom did. SUCKER!! It was a huge surprise for all of us. She should not have done that, but we sure do love playing it!

Sadie received her first American Girl Doll. The only reason I did this is because she read the whole Samantha series. So I thought it would be fun for her to get the doll. So now she is working on the Molly series, and if she finishes it she may just get the Molly doll next Christmas! Avery did not get an American Girl Doll because she hasn't read any of the books, but maybe next Christmas she will get a series to read! Traditions Traditions Traditions!!

Gotta love that flying turtle!

Justin will kill me for this one. But doesn't he look like the cutest little Christmas angel!!

Christmas really was a great day! Most of us continued our tradition of staying in our jammies all day. That is, those of us that didn't get a new outfit that we were dying to wear. I did take a shower, and put clean jammies right back on. We watched movies, ate lots and lots of food, we played games, and hung out with our family. It was exactly how I like it. No fuss, traditions, and not one single responsibility (well you know what I mean.)!