Happy Easter!

First an foremost, Happy Easter! What a wonderful day, a day we celebrate the atonement and our Savior Jesus Christ. I am so grateful for him and all that he did for me, for us. I have tried to reflect upon all that I have because of Him and I am moved beyond words. Today was extra special in our house because my Mom is here visiting. We had a wonderful Easter day. I want to show you a little of our day (and a few things that preceded today!)

This was our Easter Card this year. Sorry it is the wrong way, I couldn't get it to fix and I am too tired to try any longer, and I am determined to get this posted before midnight!!

On Monday I let all of the girls have a friend over. I went and picked them all up just because I could with our big van!! While they were here we made Easter/Springtime treats.... rice crispy treat nests will jellybean eggs. It was fun and the kids enjoyed eating them!! You can find the recipe here, it was really easy.

Thursday we cleaned the house and decorated. Just before bed we colored a few eggs!
This morning we woke up and looked for baskets hidden by the Easter Bunny. Then I made breakfast. The kids really liked their apple cinnamon bunny pancakes!
After chores my Mom and I filled and hid eggs all over the house. The kids took turns finding 17 eggs each. It was super fun and we of course couldn't find one egg... it is in the kitchen somewhere, who knows when we will find it. ( I plan on a post dedicated to just the egg hunt). This is a picture of everyone ready to look!
After relaxing (I admit I had a nap, thanks to my Mom who is the one who really should have had one) we made a fun dinner. Jessica found this recipe for "April fools cupcakes" the other day. We decided to have them tonight and have a big Ham dinner later in the week when Deric is home. I modified the recipe due to the fact that I didn't have all of the ingredients, but they were a big hit. Everyone ate two!
With dinner we also had resurrection rolls. I saw a recipe earlier in the week and decided to try them. You roll a marshmallow in butter and then in cinnamon and sugar (similar to the oil and spices that were used during the time of Christ) then you wrap it in a crescent roll and bake. When they are done you open the roll and the marshmallow is gone just like Jesus was. I thought this was a fun lesson and a great reminder of what the day was really about.

After dinner we got our our eggs filled with reminders of the Atonement and the kids told Meme (my mom) about how Jesus died for us and how he was resurrected. I was proud of all that they remembered. Over all it was a wonderful day. I hope you all had a very Happy Easter as well.

Grammie Pammie's Birthday

Grammie Pam's birthday was yesterday. We decided to have cake and Ice Cream to celebrate. It was fun, as always, to have the cousins over to play. Since her birthday was so close to Easter I decided to make an Easter themed cake. The cake was originally round but the dog we were sitting decided to have a bite and hence the flat bottom. I was really upset when it happened but I have to admit I like the way it turned out! Hope you liked it Grammie, and that you had a "Hoppy Birthday!"

Sewing 101

I love being a homemaker! As a newly-wed I was in awe of all the things that I saw women doing in their homes. Sewing, cooking, caring for children, and on and on.... I felt so inadequate and unprepared. But rather than fold I took the opportunity to learn and grow. I now dabble in all things homemaking and I enjoy it all (ok maybe not the cleaning!) I in turn want to teach my girls now so that they might be more prepared in the future. We started our own sewing class a few weeks ago. We have gone over sewing basics, the sewing machine, and much more. This is our first project. Both Jess and Sam made these bags by themselves. They are very proud of them. We have made many more since these (they make a great gift with note cards and a pen in them).

Carrie "strikes" again!

Here is cute little Wally enjoying his bouncer. He LOVES to bounce! He was having so much fun. I had left the room and went back to check on him... this is what I found....


Like I said... he is so cute, but what is that green thing on his head?

"Hi Mom!"

Upon further inspection you can see the green thing is a barrette that I know I saw Carrie wearing only a few minutes before.

Ahh... much better! Carrie sure does love this little guy, and he loves her. She is always giving him things, this time she was trying to make him beautiful!!

I guess I do like running!

The other day (as you all know because of my husband's last post) I ran a half marathon. 13.2 miles of running really gives you a lot of time to think. As I started the race all I could think was how crazy I was for deciding to run. I had not trained at all, and it was cold enough that I could see my breath. But by mile three I was warmed up and really into it. Then I started to think about my life... how grateful I was to be able to run, how beautiful the area was, the family that I had at home that I love soooo much. A lot of reflection and concentration goes into that much running. I felt so strong this time, and grateful for the opportunity. I was asked the other day if I like to run, my initial response was NO... but while I was running I decided that I really must like running, otherwise why on earth would I be doing it!!! There is something so invigorating when hundreds or even thousands of people are all running together, and there is nothing like the feeling when you reach the finish line... I guess I really do like it!!

As a side note I wanted to share with you a joy of mine. I love to read, I have since I was little. Once I start a good book I can't put it down. I have been known to finish 300-400 page books in less than a day. I have tried to instill this love of reading to my children, and so far it is going well. We go to the library, read daily, and have a huge library of children's books. You can imagine my delight when I went to put the kids to be the other night and found this.....


Jess reading to Nelson... he is pointing out shapes and colors to her. (In his new bunk bed)

Sammy reading to Sarah and Carrie... "Just one more" I heard them ask! "OK" said Sam!
OK... this is a random shot of Wally but I wanted to include him. He is so cute, he likes to eat books right now!

Muria Rocks

So Yesterday Muria was told that a friend had singed up for the Dole Agoura Hills Great race 1/2 Marathon. This is the same race that Muria had run last year only it is a different course. The friend decided not to run the race and offered to let Muria take her place. Without any training for a Half Marathon this was going to be a hard race. Muria not only finished but she did it with a better time than last year. We are so proud of her and the strength she has. You Rock Muria!

How to have a Louisiana Crawfish Boil

The first and probably the most important thing is to be prepared to feed all of the children Mac and Cheese! (This is to ensure that the adults get the Crawfish, and not because the children won't like it!!!)
Seriously... first you start with 70 lbs of fresh Louisiana Crawfish. (pictured here is a 35 lb sack)
Then you ensure that they are all alive!!!
Next you dump them into a cooler and sort and wash them.

After the first rinse you add salt. Here Nelson is dumping the last of the salt on them. When they ingest the salt in causes them to purge (what? the kids ask... oh, you mean throw up!) This helps them to be cleaner inside as you eat them!!

Once they are cleaner you dump them into an already boiling pot of water filled with Cajun spices, sausage, potatoes, onions, garlic, and oranges! At the end you also add mushrooms and corn on the cob.

20 minuets later you pull the enormous basket out of the water....
...and dump it onto a table. (careful not to spill!)
Then you put it all on platters and enjoy. Enjoying includes snapping the tails off and pulling the meat out and discarding the rest, unless you want to squeeze the head (gross in my opinion). During this time you pull apart potatoes and add butter, enjoy garlic and sausages, and enjoy each others conversation and company. (Unless you are Deric's brother Clark in which case you eat as many craw fish as you can possibly shuck in an hour and a half!!!

We had such a wonderful time! We are grateful to Brad (and Deric) who drove the Crawfish all the way from Louisiana for us to enjoy. There were 32 people that came to eat, which included many kids!! We were celebrating Brad's upcoming birthday and celebrating the fact that he joined the Army National Guard to be a helicopter pilot.