Easter Festivities

We have had a fun Spring break this week. We went to the park often, slept in, went to the Zoo with some friends, and yesterday we visited my sister Michelle and her family in Layton. We had an Easter egg hunt in her backyard and made some treats. The kids had a wonderful time and did not want to leave.

Lily playing with baby Sarah's toys.

Savannah helping Lily find the eggs

Tyler finding an egg
The kids couldn't see that pink egg on top of the porch roof. I told them if they stood there, they should be able to see it...it took them a while before they actually saw it.
Enjoying the bounty.
Jake with his candy
Michelle and I made rice crispy treat eggs with M&M's inside that shook like a rattle. The kids loved them. Yes...we saw the commercial.inside the egg.

On Saturday morning while Randy and the kids were at the city Easter egg hunt, the actual Easter Bunny visited our house! It left us a note saying that he came a day early just for us. The bunny left us a dozen eggs and an egg coloring kit. It also filled up the kids Easter baskets with all kinds of goodies and then hid the baskets all around the house for us to find.

The eggs and note The Easter bunny left behind

Videos of the kids with their baskets.

We are so glad that we had a fun time this spring break. I am especially glad that the Easter bunny could come a day early so that we can celebrate what Easter is really about on Sunday. Happy Easter Everybody!

For Grandma

I was talking on the phone with my Grandma yesterday while I made cookies for my relief society lesson. She asked me to post them on the blog so she could see them. So, here are photos I took yesterday Grandma.

I taught my lesson today on "Tithes and Offerings" and I used these cookies for my object lesson. They are supposed to look like money (if you couldn't tell).

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I lined up 10 cookies on the table and asked for 10 volunteers. I had each volunteer hold a sign that represented part of a monthly budget. These are the signs I had them hold.

1. Mortgage

2. Utilities

3. Gasoline

4. School

5. Grocery

6. SALE (at Bath and body works or whatever store)

7. Birthday

8. Doctor

9. Insurance

10. Tithing/Phone

I gave each woman a cookie/money for the budget item they represent. When you get to the last person say “Oh, shoot, the phone bill is due”…and take a bite of the cookie and say “I can just take a little bit of the tithing money right? The Lord will understand I still have bills to pay and could pay only part of his tithing this month. I even took it a step further and took another chunk off of the tithing cookie because "the kids were texting too much this month"

So, what is the moral of the story? What better choices could we have made? When we choose to pay the lord first it not only is easier to pay, but it changes the way the whole monthly budget flows. I have read a lot of financial books and they always say “pay yourself first” because at the end of the month you won’t have enough money left over (or very little money) to pay yourself. When writing a budget, you make a list of expected expenditures in order of priority. When you choose to pay the lord first, it shows him that He is our first priority. In doing so, we will surely be blessed.

Anyway, that was just part of my lesson and everyone got a cookie. who doesn't like cookies in the shape of money? Two good things are better than one any day.

I gave some extra cookies to my little cookie monsters as well. Here are way to many photos of them eating them outside last evening.

Love AND cookies.

Cookie Cutie

Beautiful Me

Sometimes we look better than others. The awkward Jr high and teen years are called awkward for a reason. my friend Catie put a photo of herself on her blog. A photo she deems "hideous." She challenged her readers to beat that photo and post theirs for a good laugh. here is one of my less than fine moments caught on camera.note the hair falling out of the 1/2 ponytail, the unruly main straightened and then curled again. I tried and failed. The bangs...oh the bangs.. The EYEBROWS! The gray shirt that looks like long-johns At LEAST my two front teeth had been taken care of by this time. I had to add a photo of the teeth/ hair/ shirt/eyebrows of this next photo. I'll let you guys decide which is worse.

There you go Catie! I think I look much worse in both of these than you do in your photo. At least my bra isn't showing though...:) I'll also challenge MY friends to beat me in finding the most hideous photo and share it with the world.

It's a Hair Thing

I decided to buy this online for 5 bucks.

It's the topsy tail tool.

I remember using it as a kid. So yes it is a very old product. BUT if you want to flip hair through itself in a ponytail, there is no better way to do it. So stinking easy to use. Look what I did with it today.
Yes, I'm totally impressed with myself. (and her for sitting. Thank goodness for "Super Why") She sat so patiently and hardly noticed any pulling. So much easier than flipping it by hand. I highly recommend buying it for little girls' hair. The package came written in Chinese I think, so...there is a downside there, but I can look up instructions right?

Oh, while I'm posting about hair...I attempted a french braid the other day..

Girls are SO much more fun than boys!

Conference Breakfast Pictures

I didn't attempt a prophet pancake but opted instead for my previous plan. Lily with a yummy strawberry

We had pull-aparts, hard boiled eggs and a fruit plate with oranges, strawberries and pineapple with yogurt to dip the fruit in. It was a lot less stressful than a prophet pancake would be. Maybe someday I'll attempt it though. No, Tyler wasn't upset at all. :)

Conference Breakfast

Tyler says: "Mom? are we going to have a special Conference breakfast again?" I say "yes." He says: "OK, can you make pancakes in the shape of the Prophet please?" ...uh...we'll see...