Easter Weekend

Easter is always a great time of year.  This year I had to teach the Easter lesson in Young Women's.  It was so great to be able to study the events happening up to the crucifixion and the resurrection of the Savior.  It made this year extra special.

This year was especially busy, but extra fun! Saturday morning I worked from 8-12. While I was at work gordon took the girls to the city easter egg hunt and to McDonald's afterward. There were so many people at the city hunt so the girls only got a couple of eggs each - they didn't complain though. We went to my moms house at 4:00 that afternoon for a bbq and egg hunt.

We gave Anastyn and Jayne a head start - Anastyn was a little slower than the rest of the bunch!

Jayne didn't waste any time filling up her basket - with a little help from her dad!

Taeya ended up with $4 and lots of yummy candy.

My mom and dad gave each of us "big kids" an egg $5 and some candy in it.  Gordon and Matt hid all our eggs in the walnut tree and made us girls climb up to get them.  Kelly cheated and had Zach get hers while Matt wasn't looking.   She got a good laugh at Mariel and I in the tree.

Mariel finding her egg!

I found mine too!

Anastyn obviously loved the chocolate!

Our little family



Matt, Mariel, Skyler, Asilia, and Zach

Kelly, Garrick and Jayne

Easter morning was exciting as well - the easter bunny came!  He hid the girls baskets, Anastyn's was behind a pillow on the floor and Taeya's was in the movie cabinent.

Taeya found her basket!

The easter bunny was so nice to the girls.  They each got a chocolate covered bunny, a swimsuit, bubbles, playdough and a toy.  Anastyn's toy was new blocks and Taeya got 2 lala loopsie girls, Taeya also got  a princess book.

Anastyn trying on her new swimsuit.

Taeya showing me her new Loopsie girls.

After Easter baskets we made resurrection rolls for breakfast then got ready for church.

Anasty and Taeya in Their Easter Dresses 
I wish I would have taken more time to get a better shot of these two together but we were in a hurry before church and Anastyn was onery after church.

After church Anastyn had a nap and we got the house and the food ready for Gordon's family to come over for another Easter celebration.  Once again, the girls were spoiled! They got tons of candy -  more than they did for Halloween!

We had more candy than eggs so we threw candy all over in the grass - Anastyn had more fun picking that up then the eggs.

Taeya - Our yard really isn't the best for an easter egg hunt, but we made do!

I think Taeya ended up with about $13 from this hunt, and Grandpa Lee gave each of the grandkids $20 and a king size candy bar as an Easter gift.

Anastyn and Taeya

She is so adorable - I couldn't resist one more pictures! (For those of you hairdressers out there - if you notice, I cut Anastyn's hair at my mom's house Saturday night after the egg hunt, I love it short!)

The gang - minus a few of the big kids.
Cassidy, Rachel, Sammy, Presley, Anastyn, Taeya, Emily, Andrew

Egg Decorating

Last year was the first year I had ever decorated easter eggs - at least that I can remember. I thought I would have my sisters join in the fun this year. I think we should make it a yearly tradition girls. We decorated sugar cookies afterwards, they were delicious!

Naartjie

One of my favorite stores for the girls is Naartjie. I usually love everything in the store - their clothing is so girly, and comfy, and cute that I just can't resist. I used to not feel guilty buying an outfit for Taeya everytime I went to the store, but now that I have to buy 2 I can't always justify it!

In January I saw a sign in their store for a "Casting Call," so I submitted my girls pictures and Anastyn was chosen as one of the models for the summer 2 collection. As compensation we were given $50, several copies of the ad, and a disk with a few images from the photo shoot. Anastyn was such a good little girl. She cooperated nicely even though we had to wait an hour before the shoot even started due to some technical difficulties with the camera. I didn't love the outfits she was given to wear and I definitely would have chosen a larger size (if you look online she is actually in the "newborn" section), but it was still a fun thing for me!

Here are the photos: (the photo shoot was in March, but because the ad wasn't sent out until mid April we didn't receive the photos until then)

Liberty Land During Spring Break

We spent half our spring break in Blanding and the other half home.  On Friday (the last day of spring break) we made plans to go to Liberty Land with Mariel and her kids.  We were worried that it would be really busy so we planned to meet in the morning when they first opened.  We had a great time.  It wasn't too crowded and the kids loved it.

As I was rushing to get out the door Taeya said, "mom take a picture,  Anastyn's on top of me." So, of course I had to stop and take a picture!



Skyler and Zach - I can't even tell you how many times we rode the Merry Go Round, it was probably close to 20!



Anastyn was probably the reason why we rode it so many times - she loves the "neighs."

All of Mariel's kids are so sweet with Anastyn - Zach was nice to take her on the airplane ride.  I thought she really liked it, but then she wouldn't go on it again, it must have scared her a little.

Not a great picture of Taeya - but Asilia and Taeya had a great time too!

Zach and Taeya were the only ones who wanted to go on the climbing wall.  Zach climbed up to the top with no problem at all.  Taeya on the other hand, got a little scared half-way up and I had to climb up there myself to get her to let go of the handles so she could get down!  Silly girl.

Mariel was a good sport to wait in the longest line of all to take her boys on the go-carts.  We went miniature golfing during the wait.

Zach, Asilia, Skyler and Taeya
Love this picture - it was a really bright day (just wish it was a touch warmer) and the kids had a hard time keeping their eyes open for the picture (Anastyn wouldn't even be in the picture).

It was a successful day at Liberty Land.  We all had fun.  Afterwards we went to Maggie Moo's for some yummy ice cream!  Hopefully we will go again real soon.

A Visit to Blanding

On Friday afternoon we loaded up the car and headed to Blanding for a long weekend. We were all so excited to go see the Lyman's and their new home. Taeya was so excited that she sat in the car for an hour while I finished packing up! It took us 6 hours to get there due to my 80ish mile detour (I thought I knew where I was going??) The kids did surprisingly well for such a long drive and we had a great visit. Of course I have a million pictures (cause I always do) and they aren't as organized as the probably should be! But here's a little summary of the visit:

Friday: Drove, arrived around 8 pm, the kids were bouncing off the walls when we got there we were all so excited.

Saturday: Jeremy was hosting a brunch at their house so we tried to clean up as best we could before heading over to Heather in-laws house. The kids loved it. Unfortunately it was a little rainy so they didn't spend as much time outside as we were hoping they would.

Taeya loved being a "free" in Livvy's grandma's yard.  There was so much to do.  She had fun feeding the horse and the donkey.

These 3 babies liked playing outside too but it was a little chilly.  I made Anastyn stay inside after she got soaking wet in the fish pond! 

I should have taken this picture from the side so you could see the toy Taeya and Kira were playing with.  It brought back happy memories, we had this same wooden marble toy growing up.  The girls especially loved this (and they were careful to keep the marbles off the floor so the dogs wouldn't eat them!)

Around 1:30 pm we headed back to Heather's house to let the babies take a nap and Heather and I ran to the local hardware store to get some sewing machine needles so we could start sewing!  We sewed and took care of kids the rest of the day.  Jeremy made us yummy chicken nachos for dinner.  We even made it to the grocery store that night (Alyson and I insisted on going with Heather so we could get a feel for life in Blanding!)

While we were at the grocery store, these 3 were home watching a movie.  Jeremy snapped this picture with his phone for us!

Sunday:  Got ready for church, went to sacrament meeting, came home and the babies took naps while Alyson and I made lasagna roll-ups for dinner.  After dinner we sewed.  That night we tried to go watch "Unstoppable" at Jeremy's sisters house but the babies were a little crazy so we gave up and went home and sewed some more!

I think I owe Heather a new large box of fishy crackers - cause I think Anastyn ate her weight in them!  Actually all 3 babies loved them.  (We just couldn't get a good shot of them all!)

Monday:  Sewed most of the day (of course), while the kids played.  After the babies had naps we headed to "The Field" to watch Mr. Cupcake get his ears pierced.  There was a lot of squealing involved! The kids loved seeing all the animals - cows, pigs, horses, dogs - the big kids loved climbing on the hay, and the little ones loved just walking around.


This is cupcake (the one with black on his face ) and if you look carefully you can see his new earrings (and yes, I said "his!")



For some reason Anastyn loved playing in this cow-milker thing!

Anastyn and I

Taeya, Livvy, Anastyn, Alayna, Kira (not sure were Cohen and McCoy were)

I had to throw this picture in because cowboy Justin fascinated me.  When it was time to feed the horses he drove this truck into the field, then he put the truck in neutral, hopped out and grabbed a bail of hay, hop back in the truck to turn the wheel a bit and grab another bail of hay, he did this several times - it was so fascinating!  You can tell he's done it a few time.:)

After the ear piercing the kids were actually inside the pig pen chasing the pigs around.  They were worried we were going to give the pigs a heart attack so Anastyn and Alayna had to resort to watching from the fence.

Anastyn and the cute little piggy.

The girls loved climbing all over the hay.  You can't tell from the picture but they were quite high up on top of the hay.

On our way home from the field we stopped by Heather's friends house to see her 4 puppies, so cute!

Monday night we got the kids to bed and watched the movie "Unstoppable."

Tuesday: We finished up all our skirts, packed up and then made cake pops.

We made 8 skirts all together - we were quite proud of ourselves!

And these were our yummy cake pops.  Not only do they look cute, they were actually really good.  We had fun making them.

The kids had fun eating them!

All the kids!

My silly girls.

These 3 did so well playing together - they are so darn cute.  We were really missing Lawni, Brielle and Bryce!

Heather, Alyson, and I

Thanks Heather for letting us come and visit and take over your entire house!  Your home in Blanding is so beautiful.  We had so much fun and we are anxious to come again!  Especially since it only took 4 hours and 15 minutes to get home!  We love you and miss you guys! Life in our neighborhood just isn't the same with out you guys!