Easter

Gwendalin walked around all week with her Easter basket calling it her "Easter"..."Mom, where's my Easter? I left something in it." etc. It was pretty cute.

Hunter adopted his as a space helmet which spilled over to Tyler and Gwennie too and they all wore them on their heads.

For FHE on Monday night, Hunter did the lesson about the Resurrection/Atonement with his "Resurrection Eggs"...there are 12 eggs in a carton (Plastic) with something in each one: nail, white piece of cloth, rubber band piece (whip), crown of thorns, spear, empty egg (empty tomb), cup (last supper), money (30 pieces of silver), donkey (rode a donkey), dice (they played "games" for Christ's belongings), praying hands (praying in Gethsemane), and rock (stone in front of the tomb). Those are listed out of order, but you get the idea. I save them and we pull them out every year. It's a good way for them to remember the purpose of the season.

Our egg hunt was fun. Tyler played in the sandbox as soon as he got outside and Hunter loaded up on eggs...Gwendalin got the idea and did a pretty good job collecting herself.

Church was fun. I had rolled Gwendalin's hair the night before so she was super curly princessey for the occasion. I didn't get pictures of them in their clothes, but I do have pictures of the day.
The fruits of their labors....


We had a family dinner that evening...Travis and I hosted but we assigned food so that it would be easier...this is proof that I made the tarts....it was a 3 day process but I did it... I couldn't be prouder. :)

This is a picture from yesterday- Gwennie wouldn't let me do her hair, but she fell asleep and you can see how curly her hair still was.

A Day at the "Races"

We have a couple in our ward who breed and raise horses. They had a little foal born the other morning so I took the kiddos to check it out. Lots of horse manure and dogs and horses, etc. Tyler was fearless of it all. He loved the dog although it was bigger than him and he loved the horses as well. He mostly hung out by the dog or chased the dog rather and yelled at it to "SIT" while pointing his finger at her.




Gwendalin wasn't quite sure, but my cousin Carrie Lynn was here and convinced her that it would be okay to touch one. :)



Hunter discovered the joy of feeding the horses hay and continuously ran from the barn to the pasture to feed them.

The 4th and Final

Yes, you may have guessed by the entry's title - we have number 4 in the oven. Our last to come. August 10th to be exact and today we had our ultra sound...BOY #3. We decided since it was our last, we would go out with a bang and not tell anyone until we knew what it was....so here we are half way through and people are just finding out. It's been a fun way to share...hard to keep hidden- luckily it's been winter and I could wear big sweaters and sweatshirts. So, any suggestions on boy names...we welcome...we are clueless.

If ye are prepared...?

I have had the persisting thoughts all week on food storage and overall preparedness. This all triggered by an article my dad gave me last week to read...I can't get it out of my head and I am trying to take it in stride along with everything else that comes at us on a daily basis. It has, however, made me focus on what I can continue to do to be prepared for hard times along with what we have already done.

My in-laws were kind enough to provide us with quite a bit of food storage that we keep in the shed...now on my mind is, do we have enough, could we survive on it ( I am clueless on how to use any of it...wheat? without a bread machine....) So, we have a good starting point. My mom and dad helped us out with a start on our 72 hour kits...but we still need some more to complete them.

In reading on the provident living site by the church, the big push right now is to have a solid 3 month food supply on hand of the every day food items you consume. So, rather than fret over the huge picture, I am going to start here. Sounds easy enough, but it means rearranging my cupboards to fit 3 months worth of food and slowly adding extra groceries to my cart each time I go shopping to meet my goal without breaking the bank.

I hope this doesn't consume my life...I don't take bad news well, it consumes me and I am just hoping that if I am in the process of doing what I should be, all will be okay....

Primary Talent Show

We just had our ward primary talent show. Although Gwendalin did not actively do a talent on stage, she participated in the dancing between talents...I don't know why I shot the camera sideways, but it's still a cute clip.





Hunter did a bit a karate...he was so nervous! Travis had to convince him before he went on that he could do it and then he had to stand in the wings and coach him. He did a great job. You can see him looking to the side to get Travis' help...he didn't need it, but he thought he did.




They served popcorn and cotton candy - here's a few pictures of waiting in line to get the goods...Mom and dad came so they helped wait in a few lines and chase Tyler as he ate popcorn remnants off of the floor. :)

Church and Enrichment and Family Home Evening

This past week for Home Evening, we discussed how we can be more like Jesus during the week. The trigger for this lesson was an almost 6 year old and a 3 1/2 year old that constantly egg each other on and are fighting. So, we had our lesson and then drafted pictures that got to hang over the fire place the whole week. It turned out pretty good and the drawings were good reminders of what we were working on.






I can also prove that I attended enrichment last week. They needed a camera before I got there and so my mom called and had me take mine (thus the proof that I was there is on my camera.) Anyway, we played family feud using survey questions about relief society that the Priesthood answered.


I also captured a few shots before we left for church on Sunday...my kids wanted to pose for the camera....




So, I think that's about it for the exciting events of the week...we had the primary talent show as well, I am trying to figure out how to embed videos of Hunter and Gwendalin on another post....hopefully I will prevail, cause they were cute!

The relaxing plan....and events of the week.

Not much to report on this week...not even a lot of pictures. Just slow recovery (yes still) from the lingering cough, runny nose that has fallen upon us.

I did get the chance to go to Hunter's classroom on Wednesday. I rather enjoy that and I think he looks forward to it as well. There's something special about "your mom" being the one that comes to help. I remember having the same feeling.

We roasted marshmallows at grandpa and grandma's house this week. That was a nice thing to do, as the weather is not really warm, but warmer and very nice to be outside again. The fresh air does us good. Plus, my mom and dad's porch is just very inviting. It's peaceful to sit back there and listen to the little ditch behind their house.

Travis had to go to Portland for a few days. It's always challenging when he is away, but duty calls and we survive each time.

I have found myself wondering a lot this week just about things that never seem to go away:

• laundry - no matter how caught up you think you are, the clothes you have on will need washed as soon as you take them off
• dishes - there are always clean dishes to be put away and dirty ones that need cleaned.
• cleaning in general- i love a clean house I would say I love one certain thing in particular, but I love everything clean: bathrooms, floors, kitchen, dusting. It all drives me nuts and it is never caught up all at one time....and it tends to be that the day you feel really great about what you did get done, no one comes to visit or drop in...but on the days you feel it's at its worst, everyone has to stop by.

Now, I don't feel like I am a negative person - I am pretty optimistic, but the last few posts being sick and even venting the afore mentioned you may feel that I do focus on the negative. I have come to the conclusion though that it's a learning process, all of it. I have been trying to not be so tense about things that are so materialistic. I can't let go completely or you'll find me in a looney bin because I could write my name in the dust on my bookcase, however, I have decided that I need to prioritize better- do little things each day and teach my kids to help. I know preachy you think, but I am trying to be more fun around my little ones and less uptight about getting the toys out to play and causing a mess. I don't want them to remember me as always cleaning, but rather playing with them and having fun. We'll see how well I adapt to my new way of thinking. I may be getting up super early so I can clean before we play! It's worth a try right.

I didn't take a lot of pictures this week, but here are a few: He's been so tired all week...if I had a picture of me, it would look much much similar to his. :)