I love this

At the older girls' school we are allowed to park and drop off/pick up in the church parking lot across the street. The week before Easter this cross had a purple cloth draped over it. I was very touched Monday morning to see in its place a white drape with a yellow ribbon wreath. I get goose bumps every time I see it. I feel it's because I knew what once was there - a beautiful purple cloth and now it's an amazing reminder that Christ has risen. So thankful that the church did this. I hope they keep it up.

Easter Egg Hunt!!!

Our friends put on an Easter egg hunt for all the kids. We had a blast! 

 

Girls were scoping the field out. They were told ahead of time of the "golden egg" which was hid and had $5 in it! 

 Playing games before we started. We were waiting on another friend to arrive. 

 and...they're off! I love how Ash is looking our way and all the other kids are long gone! 

 Bella ran right to the drain pipe and found the gold egg first off! The kids teased her and said she didn't give them a chance! ha! She was so excited. She talked about this egg and how she went right to it for the remainder of the day! 

 Group Shot! 

We were so happy to have this chance to be with friends and the kids LoVEd it!! 

Easter Joy

Us on Easter morning.

 Bentley's First Easter. He loved to throw his plastic eggs! He also loved breaking them open and holding a side in each hand and clapping them together! Cute boy!

 The girls dyed eggs and decorated them into monsters. This was Braelyn's. It had a nest with an egg in it's hair! 

 One of Bella's 

 One of Cali's (from olden times)

 They were talking to me! 

 Frolicking! Second Easter egg hunt! Our good friends put on one Saturday for the kids. They had so much fun!! 

 Cali pointing to the hair (from her egg) that was left behind after she found one of her eggs. 

 The slugs celebrate Easter too. This one hitched a ride on Cali's egg. So gross. 

 Beauties! 

 Bentster's got some Puffs and a new Truck set. 

 The Bishop from our ward brought over this arrangement that afternoon. It is so lovely! 

 We have a tradition every Sunday to eat pancakes for dinner. We call it (are you ready for this??....)

"Pancake Sunday". 

For Easter we colored the pancakes. 

Bella had some green...

 Bentley LOVES pancakes and he had some yellow...

 Brae and Cali had some green and blue

This was the best Easter I've ever had. I was concerned a few days before as I felt a little down. I thought I might be depressed since it was a holiday and those are harder for me to deal with. It dawned on me Friday or Saturday that this is the perfect holiday for me to celebrate because I have very recently been coming more to Christ to help me in overcoming a "dream" I had (not a dream like while sleeping but a real life dream. As in "I have a dream"):) What an appropriate and beautiful time to celebrate Christ in my life! It was the most spiritual holiday for me and it was peaceful and lovely. We went to church Sunday and had a great service. After lunch I took a nap that was so nice. It wasn't interrupted like it normally is and it was over two hours. We had our home teacher come over and we watched a video on faith in Christ. It was such a wonderful day. 

Good candy. Good spirit. Good laughs. Good memories. Good times. 

(and as a side~note I learned that you can not add "ies" to the end of every word and have it be ok. I talk like that naturally and say "loveies""puffies" "shoesies" "sissies" "napsies" ok, you get the idea. Cali went to a church activity last week and when she came home she brought Peeps. I love those things. And that's what I said. Out loud. And I added an "ies" to the end of it and removed the "s". You say it out loud. " 

I love peepies!"

Not very appropriate is it. I immediately said how bad that sounded and warned the girls what would happen if they were to ever repeat that I said that! haha 

Happy Easter to each of you and may it remain in your hearts all year through. I'm so thankful for Jesus Christ in my life. I love him. 

Kensington Is At It Again

This girl cracks me up. She has so much personality. She busts at the seems with it! Last night she was in charge of Family Home Evening (FHE) and her topic was "gratitude". She came up with the topic herself. I have a video of her singing a song she made up about it but it wouldn't download. Following is the lesson:

"Once upon a Merry Gold there was a very proud mother with 5 children and the kids names were Calollypop, Isabeard, Braeden, Kensand & Bentnado. Those children were very ungrateful for all the things they were given. Their mom told them to pray about the choices they made so that night they did. The next day they apologized to their  mother and the mother forgave them. The end."

How about that!! She is hilarious. I will work on the video. It was just great.

Kicked Out

We got back from our Florida trip last week ( I still need to blog about that) and Bentley has been sleeping horribly. I am simply so exhausted! Last week I was even feeling more exhausted than normal. I am not sure if it was allergies or my body is worn down from all this asthma being out of control or if I was depressed or a combo of everything but it was bad.

Last night we were up literally all night. We may have dozed here and there but it was bad. So, today I am making it official. We are about 3 weeks away from his first birthday and he's getting the boot! I am kicking my sweet, sweet angel out of my bed so we can both sleep better.

It's a hard thing bc at the end of the day I am so tired and I feel like I don't have the energy or strength to do this but I have to. I will keep you posted on the progress. Wish me luck!

{hard to kick him out when he's so yummy and cuddly...}

Addiction

So, if you know me you know I've had an attraction to Dr. Pepper lately. It was out of control. After hearing a lesson in church a month or so ago I have cut WAY back. I used to get a 60 oz before 9am and then have more throughout the day. I cut back to one can a day or somedays I get a fountain drink, but not 60 oz anymore. Well, every morning when I would go to get my soda Cali and Bella would talk to their gym teacher who was also out doing the cross walk about where I was going and how I loved my soda.

I was just informed over the weekend that I was used as an example in their P.E. class last week. Their teacher was talking to the kids about addictions and Cali raised her hand and said "like my mom's addiction to Dr. Pepper?". Oh, just brilliant. Just what I always wanted- to be used as a prime example of an ADDICT. I am so proud.