We went out to Virginia last week! What a wonderful trip! We got to play "Rock Band", go to the best BBQ place ever, "Buzz and Ned's", feed the ducks, play with baby goats and bunnies at Maymont, get a sundae at "Friendly's" with Orin, play "Catch Phrase" and laugh like crazy, have precious Easter family time, hang out with my Mom and sis, kiss baby Ella about a million times! That girl is PRECIOUS!!!!... have a blast with Cordell (he's hilarious!), play zilch and laugh SO hard because we were all rolling horribly, go to an awesome bouncy house where the kids went crazy, laughed with my Dad and watched him wrestle with the grandkids, laze around the house during a stormy day, start Dave's 30th birthday celebration (don't worry, the actually birthday isn't for a few weeks), watch Lils babysit Ella and dote on her every whim, tickle Rose, go to Lorel's cute place in C-ville, play at the park and watch E launch rockets into the air!

These photos are in no particular order, but they are my favorites from the trip!

Cordell and Ella on the merry-go-round.. more like barfy-go-round since Lils was on there for a half hour, got a headache and puked in the car on the way home! Good times...

Feeding the ducks

Papa and Ella

Ella Easter egg hunting

Lorel and Ella

Lils

Peep wars showdown!
Before...

After. The peeps and toothpicks got more and more elaborate as the night went on!

Feeding the baby goats at Maymont

Easter Sunday in my parent's front yard

Grammy and "Baby No", as E calls her!

Me, 'rel, and Rose

Easter Rose

Love you Grammy!

Rose loved getting flipped around by her Papa! What a great time back home in Virginia- I miss you guys and love you all so much.

Resurrection Rolls

My sister and I just did a great little Easter activity with the kids! We put these together and taught the kids about the resurrection of Jesus, while also making a delicious treat- like cinnamon rolls! I am just so grateful for the Savior and the atonement. I feel so humbled and in awe when I think about the Lord and his sacrifice for all of us! I hope we all can remember Jesus and his love for us this Easter season, please watch the video at the end of this blog for an incredible message!

Resurrection Rolls

• 1 package Cresent rolls
• melted butter
• large marshmallows
• cinnamon
• sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Give each child a triangle of cresent rolls.
The cresent roll represents the cloth that Jesus was wrapped in.

Give each child a marshmallow.
This represents Jesus and His purity.

Have child dip the marshmallow in melted butter.
This represents the oils of embalming.

Dip the buttered marshmallow in the cinnamon and sugar.
This represents the spices used to annoint the body of Jesus.

Wrap the coated marshmallow tightly in the cresent roll
(not like a typical cresent roll up, but bring the sides up and seal the marshmallow inside)
This represents the wrapping of Jesus' body after death.

Place in a 350 degree oven for 10 to 12 minutes.
The oven represents the tomb (pretend like it was 3 days and nights!)

When the rolls have cooled slightly, the children can open their rolls (cloths) and discover that Jesus is no longer there,

HE IS RISEN! The marshmallow melts and the cresent roll is puffed up,
but like the tomb - IT IS EMPTY!

Our kids love these two videos-

Family Update

Last Monday Lils really wanted to sell something to earn money to buy this $10 unicorn. So, I drew a unicorn on paper, made some copies and then she colored them all different colors and sold those along with some bird feeders in our driveway! She did it all, poked the string through the paper cups, covered them in peanut butter and then rolled them in bird seed. She sold the bird feeders for 50 cents and the paper unicorns for 11 cents! She made little posters and drew pictures of birds and wrote the money amount all by herself! It was so fun to watch her work. She then taped the posters to my coffee table and I took it outside to the driveway around 3 o' clock. She sold her first unicorn to Margie, the neighbor next door. Lils was so EXCITED!!!! By 4:30, she had sold almost everything and earned $3. So we packed up shop and she put her money in a safe place. She also has chores like replacing the garbage bags around the house and scooping Wookie poop everyday. She gets a quarter a day for that! And yes, I know her outfit is horrible, but she has a mind of her own about what she wears now, nothin' I can do about it! :)



E-bomb is doing great, he's cute and mostly happy. His favorite thing to do now is to cuddle and read for hours in the love sac every day. While Rose is napping from 9:30 - 12, I'll straighten up the house and then we'll read book after book until lunch time. Those are the sweet moments I really cherish with Lil E since he is usually riding his bike or throwing things. His favorite books are the dinosaur books that used to be Dave's.

Rosie is the best baby ever! She naps from 9:30-12, and then from 2-4:30 everyday and then sleeps at night from 7-6:30. We'll give her a bottle at 6:30 and she'll hang out in her crib until 7 or 7:30! Pretty awesome! When she's awake, she's scooting on her bum from one end of the room to another... slooooowly, you'll see her playing with one thing and the next time you look, she's somewhere else, still sitting up. She sort of scoots around somehow. She is happy, sweet, and has a VERY snookie nose lately. She also eats whatever we're eating as a family, which is nice. She hated baby food- we fed her that for a few weeks, and just gave up! She eats meat like crazy! It's her favorite- she had a whole slice of tri-tip the other days, wrigglin' her wrists like crazy with excitement!

We went to Utah with Jeff last weekend! It was the best trip! We got two babysitters on Saturday (mine and my sister's kids, a handful!) and my sis and I went shopping and now I have some really cute clothes! She helped me pick out clothes I never would've chosen ('cause I always get the same lame shirts from Old Navy or Gap... but we went to Kohl's and she taught me how to look cute again!) Dave and Brian went with his bro and my cousin up in the mountains to shoot their arsenal of 14 guns between them all. We had a great time!

Photoshop

I studied graphic design and art in college, but I feel like I am discovering Photoshop all over again! He's a little tweek I did:

before:

after:

New Camera!!!!

Holy cow! Dave and I just got a new Nikon D40 camera- and it is amazing! I had a little photo shoot with Rose today (the other two won't let me!) So, I put her in her Easter dress and went a little crazy!

uhhh... America Idol, anyone?!!!!!!

Hello, I am sorry, but after all of my years of watching an enjoying "American Idol" a little... I am IN LOVE WITH THIS SHOW! I voted for the first time ever! This is the reason why... anyone else LOVE ADAM Lambert??!! Holy cow! And a ton of the other contestants- my other favs are Danny Gokey, Matt Giraud and Allison.

Ok... yes, he was weird last night, but hey, we all know he's a drama queen!