Happy Easter

Well, we had a few fun Easter activities going on the past few days. . .

First, we invited a bunch of people from our ward over and had a really fun Easter egg hunt at the park behind our house on Friday. Unfortunately, I left my camera at the house and didn't get any pictures! We did almost get rained out, though, so we headed back home and ate some yummy egg shaped sugar cookies!

That afternoon, I colored eggs with Nathan and Lily. They particularly enjoyed coloring on the eggs with the invisible crayon.

This morning before church (we have 1pm church), we made some super yummy "Resurrection Rolls" that my visiting teacher brought by the day before. They were so easy and fun to make. Basically, you take a triangle crescent roll (which is the tomb), a big marshmallow (which is Christ's body) and dip it in melted butter and then cinnamon and sugar (the oil and spices they annointed Christ's body with) and then roll it up in the "tomb." When they are done baking, Christ's body has "disappeared" from the tomb. The kids loved it and the rolls were delicious! Thanks, Mylea!!

I had about 30 seconds to grab a picture of the kids before church. Nathan came zooming in at the last second and somehow between getting dressed and getting to church, he always takes off his tie and his shirt comes untucked and he practically has to get dressed again! Oh, well. :)

And I have to throw in these cute pictures of Kayla. The other day, she was walking along the rock in our front yard like a balance beam. It was so cute!

It took a lot of concentration. . . .


Happy Easter!!!!

Turbo Soup Cans

One morning last week, I got up to exercise, but didn't quite make it through before the kids were up and needing attention. So, I left my DVD going and went off to get breakfast for Kayla and do "morning" things. A few minutes later I noticed that Nathan and Lily had gone into the pantry to get soup cans for their weights and started exercising along! It was so cute to watch them! They did pretty good, too!!

Tonight, Bryson got out the "real" chess game, not just the one on the computer. Nathan was so excited to play with him. They played a couple games and Nathan is a pretty good little player!

And lastly, here's what saying prayers with Lily is like every night right now:

Lily: "Let's each say our prayers in our head."

Me: "Okay."

So I begin to say my own prayer in my head . . . meanwhile. . .

Lily: "When will you be done? When will you be done? When will you be done? When will you be done? When will you be done?. . . "

Me: "I'm done now."

Lily: "I'm not done yet, I'm saying a long prayer tonight."

I can't help but chuckle every night. :)

My BIG 5 Year-old!

Nathan celebrated his 5th birthday on Saturday, the 7th of March. Crazy! He is so excited for kindergarden. In fact, on his birthday he asked if he would go to school in the morning. He thought that as soon as he turned five, he would start school. :) He now understands, that school will start at the end of the summer.

He is growing up so fast! He is a great helper to both me and Bryson and he is a great big brother who loves to play with Lily and Kayla. Sometimes when I run upstairs to do something real quick, he will surprise me by cleaning up the downstairs! It is always a WONDERFUL surprise! He is always thinking of ways to make something better (boy, does he get that from his dad, or what!) and he likes to help Bryson play chess on the computer before bed. He's becoming a pretty good little player. We are so lucky to have him in our family!

Are you a winner?

Okay, I won on my friend's blog, so now I get to post this:


Lucky you! The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you. This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:



1- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!



2- What I create will be just for you.



3- It'll be done this year.



4- You have no clue what it's going to be. It may be a story. It may be poetry or an article on properly cleaning your face before a masque. I may sew or paint something. I may bake you something and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure!



5- I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.



The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must repost this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog. Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it!

My Favorite Things!

So, beware there are many pictures that follow . . . I just couldn't stop adding pictures. These are my very most favorite things!!

The kids helping Daddy with a mailing project. . .

No, these aren't Halloween pictures. . . they just like to dress up. :)

Yes those are fleece superman blankets tied around them like capes. . .

Oops, I guess I added this pictures twice. . .

How sweet is this one? Nathan is such a good big brother and actually a peacemaker between the girls. I never thought I'd put Nathan and peace in the same sentence. . . he is really growing up.

These two have a lot of fun playing together. . .

Lily. . .

Kayla. . . she has caught on and says her form of "cheese" as soon as I get the camera out.

Nathan . . . miraculously I caught a normal face, you should have seen the ones he was pulling. . .

Gotta love 'em!

Do you know the secret to straight lines?

What is the secret to these perfectly. . . .

straight (sorry they're blurry) . . .

lines. . . ?

Well, here it is: first you tape your wall like normal. Then take the color UNDER the tape and paint just the very corner of the tape and the wall you are about to paint. For example, my wall next to the one I was painting, was red, so I taped the wall (the tape is on the red wall because I'm painting the other wall), and took my red paint and just painted the corner in red. That way, when that little bit of paint leaks under the tape (like it always do and then you don't get nice straight lines. . . even though you taped them!) is the color of the wall. So, in this case, the red paint leaks under the tape and onto the red wall. The paint then dries and seals the tape down so the color you are painting the adjacent wall does not leak. Brilliant, huh? I can't take the credit for this, I learned it from a friend in my ward. I am ever so grateful for my straight lines!!

Before:

After:

And that's it! It is so quick and easy and you get perfect lines every time! Happy painting!

Busy Painting!

This is what I did last week. . .



Antiquarian Brass for the living room walls (the wall opposite this one is the same color now-and I did the red last year - and it's the leftover paint from Bryson's office):

Shingle tan for the family room walls (I did this red last year, too):

Herb tea green for the kitchen:

I am on a total painting kick. We'll see if I'm burnt out yet. . . Nathan wants me to paint his room for his birthday. :)