{Easter Egg Lesson}

Back when we lived in Iowa I had the cutest visiting teachers, Jennilyn and Amanda. One Easter they brought me the best idea - an Easter Egg Family Home Evening Lesson! It has been a family favorite ever since we received it years ago. When we moved to Lehi, we put everything in storage. Last year I searched and searched through every holiday bin and box I could find, and I could not find our favorite Easter Egg Lesson. I can see it in my mind, I know we had it in Bountiful, but I could not find it. The kids were so sad. This year, after looking again for it, with no success, I decided to make it myself.  
(I've made this before for ladies I visit taught in Washington, but the info was on our old dinosaur computer which would take longer to turn on than to start over...so I started over from scratch)

I did a quick search on pinterest and found a lesson pretty similar to the one we had. I made a few changes to the items, to match what I remember what we had in some of the eggs. Last night we did our favorite Easter Egg Lesson and it was a hit! A couple people have asked on Instagram the details, so I thought I would share....

The Easter Egg Lesson

Inside each egg is an object and a scripture.

Here is a copy of the scripture references. You can either copy the scriptures and include the text on the strip of paper, or this year I just decided to just include the reference. Gage had a great time looking up each scripture, instead of just reading the strip of paper. My old one had the text included. I think that can be nice too, when you have small kids, for an easy option. I just really thought since our kids are getting older looking them up themselves.

1-Matthew 26:14-16

2-Matthew 26:26-28

3-Mathew 26: 36-37, 39, 42, 44

4-Matthew 27:1-2

5-Matthew 27:22-24

6-Mark 15:16-19

7-Luke 23:26-27, 33

8-Luke 23:34

9-Matthew 27:50-51, 54

10-Luke 23:50-53, Matthew 27:60

11-Mark 16:1-4

12-Mark 16:5-6

Inside each egg you will have an object to pass around the circle and let the kids inspect. Here is a copy of what is in each egg:

1-Three dimes

2-A small cracker or piece of bread. (I just let the kid who opened this eat it and I'll replace it every year) 

3-A sacrament cup 

4-A length of twine

5-A piece of soap

6-A swatch of purple cloth

7-A nail

8-A die, to represent casting lots. I found die in the game section at the store

9-A bag of crushed rocks and potting soil 

10-A rock 

11-Spices (I used allspice and hae used cloves before too. You can tie them in a cloth, or just place them in the egg)

12-Leave this one empty

The kids LOVE opening the last one and reading the scripture.  

I will be the first to admit, our family home evening lessons are not always the most spiritual.  We have a lot of competition, a lot of "he's breathing my air" or "she's touching me" or "someone is in my space"...but this lesson does it every time.  It is fun and keeps their attention and then the last egg really brings it all together.

The tomb was empty.  

Because He Lives!

Happy Easter.

Sunday Photo: 13

One would think after four and half years my kids would catch on to this Sunday Photo business and give their mom a break.  

But I love little Eli, he is such a ham. It always seems to be Eli...

But my favorite in this photo is the one legged Lucy...

Then a great shot of Eli and Lucy:

Followed by... quick: Eli, open your eyes, Noah impersonate a giraffe, Lucy look a bug in the plants:

And the almost good one.....

Then they said they wanted to do a funny face...so funny face on the count of 3.

And then after everyone left...I got a good smile out of Lucy.  Cute girl in her Easter dress.

Some highlights of the day:

Lucy walked up to me this morning after Wade got her out of her crib 

(which she will be staying in until she is 16, btw)

She looked at me and said,

"I wake up!  I need sausage!"

Avery announced at breakfast (which lucky enough for Lucy did include sausage) that

"Mom, Dad is way more awesome-er than you"

uh...who cooked your sausage this morning?!?!  That's right...mom! 

(btw: pork must not equal awesomeness in Avery's eyes)

And then this:  These boys can make anything into a competition.  Every Sunday they are always trying to get out of the van first and inside the house first so they can be the first one to change their clothes.  I'm not really sure why this even matters, but it matters to them.  Today they had their shirts unbuttoned before we even came around the corner towards our house.  Then Wade didn't even have the van in park before they were elbowing their way towards the doors.  They just had to fight about it.  So Wade came up with the perfect punishment:

hold hands and skip to the front door together. 

bahaha.

meanest dad ever, or smartest dad ever.  Depending on how you see it.  It reminded me of the time Wade told them they had to hug until they could stop fighting.  Wade is much more creative with his punishments than me. Of course, for further future embarrassment I needed to take photos of this and document it here on the family blog.  

We finished the day off with some time up American Fork Canyon and a yummy monthly birthday celebration dinner at my sister's house.

It's been a good relaxing day.

Can't wait to see what Wade's going to make these boys do next week...

Happy Sunday.

{Clear Creek}

This week I got to go to Clear Creek Camp with Gage!  

Clear Creek is a camp that our school district owns that fifth graders get to spend one night at every school year. (They can also pay and go to a longer summer camp too).  A lot of parents always want to go, so just because you so you want to go, doesn't mean you'll get too, but this year I got to go! (maybe sometimes being a school district employee pays off?)  I was so excited!

This ended up being a crazy-horrible-no-good-week and we had a bad stomach bug fly through our house.  The night before we left Noah and Lucy were up all night long being sick - at the same exact time.  I've had stomach bugs move through all 5 kids before, but I have NEVER had two kids get it at the exact same time.  That was NOT fun. I never want two kids to get it at the same time again.  I wasn't sure if we should even go, but that morning we just decided to give it a try, I drove our own car, instead of riding on the bus, just in case.

Here we are - ready to go, with the sun in our faces!

 I was in charge of a group of 6 kids, three boys and three girls, there were 12 parents there, 6 moms and 6 dads...and lots of kids.

Gage wasn't feeling well when we left, but he is also my kid that thinks he had ebola a couple weeks ago when he had pink eye (and he really didn't have pink eye, he just had some allergies).  If anyone in our family is sick, he immediately starts feeling sick too.  I never know when he is really sick or not.  Thursday I told him he had to tough it out and go.  He ended up getting up there and having a great time.

Here is Gage by his cabin.  I was the only parent there that was the opposite gender of my kid.  So Gage was in the bunk with some other dads and I was in a cabin full of 11 year old girls.  That was eye opening to me! 

I didn't end up taking a lot of pictures.  I should have given Gage my phone so he could take some.  He had a good time Thursday.  We went on a hike, we listened to some stories, had lots of free time to play and had some activities and crafts.  Thursday night we had a sing a long and each group did some skits.  Another group that went before us did our exact skit so we did some last minute changes and added some bathroom-potty humor to it, which the kids in our group thought was a great idea. The parents and teachers did a skit too, and the teachers played chubby-bunny, which the kids thought was really funny.

Thursday night we had snacks and movie time for the kids.  Then it was off to bed...or more like just off to our cabin.  I am really not used to 11 year old girls, they never went to bed!  I was just laughing to myself all night long.  They giggled and danced and sang songs and talked about hair and boys.  It was cracking me up.  We told them lights out and quiet time at 11, but that really never happened.  Some of them woke up at 3, and claimed they didn't know what time it was, they said they thought they were whispering, but they were so loud and laughing and having a great time.  Of course, when it was 7 and time to wake up, every one was asleep and pretty tired.

There is such a difference between boys and girls!  One example - when we first got there and got our cabin assignments we could then unpack and get settled.  The girls came in, rolled out their sleeping bags, decorated their beds, made their areas pretty.  Gage said he threw his stuff by a bed and ran out.  He said instead of unpacking the two boy cabins played war.

I asked Gage what the boys did in their cabin after the movie and he said "they ran around with their shirts off, told ghost stories and had pillow fights."  

Gage with his friends:

Friday morning Gage was feeling sick and came over to our cabin, before most of the girls woke up.  I really thought he just needed to eat, but breakfast wasn't until 8:30.  He usually has breakfast, second breakfast and is at school by 8:30...so  I gave him a snack and let him hang out with us for a while.  After breakfast and packing up he still wasn't feeling good and he was just having a hard time.  He was pretty much done, so I decided to call it good and head home.

He did end up getting sick in the car on the way home, so I'm glad we left when we did.  (But I kinda think it was car sickness too, since we were driving on a small canyon road with lots of turns and curves. It is so hard to know when he is really sick!)  He was so tired and slept all afternoon when we got home.  

When we got home I opened all the windows, and cleaned the house top to bottom.  Everything got vacuumed, swept, mopped, sprayed or wiped off with Clorox wipes or Lysol spray.  I am so sick of this bug!  Poor Wade was sick and had 4 kids sick,so he got big bonus points for staying home and taking care of everyone.  He might be a Dr, he might be a surgeon, but he cannot handle throw up. I can't figure that out, but I have seen fist hand him try to handle it and it's not pretty.  So I really owe him big time.  6 out of 8 of us got hit with this mess.  Wade's dad avoided us as much as he could and I just crossed my fingers since I've taken care of everyone since Monday and still haven't got it (and it's Saturday now), that I'm clear.

I am so glad that we decided to go.  I am positive that Gage was just anxious on Thursday.  We've been working on helping him with his anxiety. He even said to me on the way home, he thinks he was just anxious on Thursday.

He said he had a great time and he was glad he went.  He says he would want to go back, but only if his tummy wouldn't hurt the whole time.

His said his favorite part: hanging out with my friends

His least favorite part: sleeping (or not sleeping)

Best memory: ambushing the girls with snowballs on the hike

Funniest thing: teachers doing the chubby bunny contest

I had a great time.  I think Noah will really love it when it's his turn. He and Gage are so opposite.  I think Noah would eat up Clear Creek and have a blast!  Gage has amazing teachers. I already knew this team of 5th grade teachers were pretty talented, but these are really truly amazing ladies!  They are so talented at their jobs and the kids all had such a fun time with them.

I hope I get a chance to go with some of my kids again.

{The Big Race}

I have no idea how it came up, but last night while making dinner Wade and I were talking about running and he said the craziest thing...he said he was faster than me.

What?  What?

You think you are faster than me?  

I know I am not a fast runner, but he doesn't even like running.  It sounded like a challenge to me. And once I told the kids that Dad thought he was faster, it was game time.  They thought this was SO fun.  He had to race me. There was no getting out of this.

And let's be honest, there was no way for him to win this thing - if he wins, I'm sad and he loses. If he loses, he loses.  There was no way out. 

So we decided just to call it good and race.

Wade's brothers family was over visiting so they helped and took pictures.  Wade wanted a sprint (and I knew he would totally win because I am bad at fast sprints) but a sprint he got.  Down to the corner fence and back.

He made me laugh so hard the whole time.  (or at least that is my excuse for the race results)

Ready...

Set...

Go!

He even fake tripped, and kept running behind me and yelling "I'm drafting, I'm drafting!"

But in the end I say we tied.  He says I won.  I wasn't sure where the finishing line was, because Gage was at the end, but he was only holding out a hand for Wade to tag.  I'm pretty sure Gage was rooting for his dad.  But really - I mean look at this picture.  He is just skipping along.  He totally let me win.  punk.

After we raced, the kids all ran too.  Little Eli was SO into this.  His little legs just go-go-go.  He is the cutest kid.

He went down and back a couple times and even crashed and got some road rash one time.  Wade told him he was an "official runner" now.

Gage was a good brother and gave up his second place spot to help Eli up and finish the race.

It was a fun night. I was laughing so hard.  But it's on now.  After I add some speed running to my workouts for a couple weeks, we'll have to do a re-match for sure.

This time we raced sprints.

Next time we'll race distance.  

And I know I can win that.

Sunday Photo:12

How's this for a real-life Sunday Photo.  

This depicts each of their personalities almost perfectly.  

It's been a busy weekend.  Yesterday I ran a little 5K here in town. I'll post about it tomorrow on My Reading Spot blog.  I was pretty happy with my time.  I beat my goal time.

After that we played at the park some, then headed home and did some yard work.  

Then Wade went to his brothers house for the afternoon 

(they are building some sort of machine, I'm really not sure what it is.  I'm honestly not even sure what they are doing.  I think they just like to get together...but whatever)

I decided to surprise Wade and move some furniture.  He loves it (can you hear  my sarcasm?) when I move furniture.  But this time he really will/does love me, because when we moved in with Wade's dad we moved into a guest room that had a full size bed.  All our furniture and things went into storage. There wasn't room for it in here. Of course, we didn't expect to be here this long...but almost 2 years later, we are still sleeping (or trying) on that tiny full size bed.  Honestly, it just doesn't work and half the time someone sleeps on the couch.

sounds.like.fun.

So yesterday I did it..I swapped that full size bed for the queen size in storage!  I feel like it's HUGE! (and moving it did feel huge)  Which is funny...because we were planning to upgrade our queen to a king before this last move. Because we never felt like it was good enough.  It's funny how sometimes you just don't appreciate what you have.

 But between running in the morning, yard work at lunch and moving around the beds around my muscles are hurting today! What was I thinking?  I should be able to log all of that as a work out, right?

Today cute baby Alice was blessed at church!  These are amazing girls.  We've come along way from Iowa so many years ago, when we were babies (with babies) and all lived across the street from one another.  It's been a few years and a few moves, but now I am so thankful we live within 30 minutes of each other again.  We've grown from 3 kids to 12 between us.  Alice was adorable today and Jon gave a beautiful blessing.  What a great reason to get together.

Some days I feel the growing pains from our little family moving around so much.  I mean 10 (maybe more if you count rotations) moves in 15 years has taken it's toll.  Sometimes I am really jealous of friends and family members who haven't moved like us.  Maybe a couple times but have stayed in one place, in one town.  I wonder if we've done the right thing, or messed up our kids for life, or made them stronger, or given them enough experiences...the list goes on and on.  We could have a 30 year mortgage half way paid off by now!  

It sounds so nice and appealing.

But we have these experiences.  

I'm moving around beds this weekend in and out of storage, and trying to make room here and there for our family as we build this practice.  We are building a practice from scratch!  Sometimes I can't believe it myself!  We are crazy. We've given up a lot to get here, but I know it's the right place and the right thing we should be doing.  No matter how hard it is.  

I've met the most amazing people, friends and seen so many examples from our moves.  These ladies are proof of that.  They are friends I can count on.  I can't imagine getting though tough days without them.  There are days I think motherhood is hard (because it is!) but I always think of an amazing Sister in Iowa who I look up to, she has 7 kids, and she said to me once, "I've never been bored a day in my life.  There is always something good to be done"  I try and live by that.  Because it's true.  There IS always something GOOD to be done.  In Washington I met amazing women who taught me how to stretch myself. I am sure I could sit here and list something for every move.   

I know though - there are days, when it's still a toss-up.  Days when I think, man we should have bagged this whole adventure and called it good after undergrad.  Just being honest here - days when I am SO super jealous of those around me.  

but then there are days like today.  

When I can hug Anne-Marie, give little Alice a cuddle and support their family.

Her friendship means a lot to me.  

I am so thankful she is in my life.

Pretty sure we would have never crossed paths if it weren't for those 10 moves.

My muscles might hurt from moving all that furniture by myself yesterday.  But it was worth it. Because what I have now is so much better...even though at one time I didn't even appreciate it for what it was.

I'm banking on that thought today. 

I'm going to cross my fingers and pray that we haven't scarred our kids for life...that we've made the best choices.  Because I really truly believe that we have.  I might not have always seen it has a blessing.

because it's perspective.

Today, I watched baby Alice light up when my kids made faces at her across the church, 

and that's worth it.  

I watched little Jonas throw his lego minecraft guy over the church pew on a string and my boys loaded it up with a dum-dum sucker for him, and that's worth it (and totally funny too).

I sat and ate lunch with Julianne, and watched these kids that used to be babies run around and play together.

  These ladies, these friends. 

these experiences...

I wouldn't trade them for the world.

It might have hurt a little bit to get here.

but today's a day I'm going to say it was worth it, because it was.

Sunday Photo: 11 & the big 3-5

My birthday marks the end of birthday extravaganza around our house.  

(Four birthdays in six weeks, and now we are all caught up until August.)

One of my sisters sent me a text early this morning 

(fyi: only my sister send me texts before 6:30am, but she knows I'm awake)

Anyway, she said I should write a blog posts with all my favorites, just like I make my kids do.  

HA!

This is NOT that.

But it is a little bit of our weekend.

The kids surprised me with pictures, notes and cards that they worked out yesterday.  My favorite card came from Noah.  

This is you.  

This is not you.

The "real me" is holding a diet coke in my hand.  

Noah always cracks me up.

Wade totally surprised me this year! We usually don't do much for each other's birthdays. We usually go out on a date, but don't do much as far as gifts go.  (Last year, for example, I got Wade a BYU sticker for his car that he still hasn't put on) We are kinda lame.
 But this year he got me with a Garmin Forerunner watch!  I have been wanting one for so long and he knows I talk a lot about it.  So....he used his money from Christmas and bought it for me! 

The pressure is now on...

He got me my Kitchen Aid mixer when I turned 30.  So I'm totally expecting another good gift when I turn 40.  He has 5 years to plan this. 

haha 

He made fun of me because I don't run on Sundays, but I  just had to go on a small run and try it out..just to the rail road tracks and back.  I can't wait to start using this!

Yesterday we celebrated a little bit.  I slept in a little bit, and Wade watching the kids so I could run.  Then we had a relaxing day; played at the park, went to the library and enjoyed happy hour drinks from Sonic. We picked up Jimmy John's for dinner, so I wouldn't have to cook and after the kids went to bed we watched MockingJay that just came out at the Redbox. 

By the way - the movie was great! We've both read the books, so we know how it ends, but we are still looking forward to the last movie.

Today was relaxing.  Church this morning and then the kids played outside a lot this afternoon.  Lucy tried to fight a stick with her face.  The stick won.  I made the homemade rolls for dinner and Wade made the homemade mac and cheese.  Noah made me a cake,  I melted some chocolate and put some swirls on the top and he told me that I needed to get a new job at a cake bakery. ha.  It really was not fancy at all.  Lucy told us all that it was her birthday and when Wade came in the dining room with a candle on the cake she yelled "MINE!"  she then proceed to blow out one candle 4-5 times while Wade kept re-lighting it and the rest of us ate cake.

I was looking back through my blog today and read a blog from when I turned 30. I said, 

"I think I'll spend my 30's enjoying those top three things I know that I am, A Daughter of God, A Wife and A Mother. If there is a time and a season to enjoy it, it's right now. No one else can fill this role. There is always time to enjoy hobbies and explore talents, but these, these are my priorities. If I've learned nothing else in 30 years, it's that."

I think I've learned a lot, grown and been stretched a lot in the past 5 years.  

I've got 5 more years in my 30's.

I'm looking forward to what the next 5 years can bring. 

And I'll be honest, since we are going for the big every 5 year plan....I'm wondering what Wade can figure out to give me in 5 years.  haha

just maybe, it will be a house.

j/k

kinda

kinda not

:)

Happy Sunday.

Sunday Photo: 10

Wade and his dad took advantage of the spring like weather yesterday and headed out with the ATV for a little ride.  They came home with the Razor and just a "little bit" of mud.

Today Wade pulled the Razor out of the trailer and took the kids for a couple rides around the yard.

Of course they couldn't resist some donuts in the garden.

It's been a nice relaxing day.  We fixed a deer roast with potatoes, carrots, onions and gravy in the crock pot and added some homemade rolls.  Thanks to my sister, who told me her super easy-super yummy recipe, the roast tasted great and didn't taste too much like deer meat. Sometimes living with family is stressful.  I am SO thankful that we can live here, don't get me wrong.  But there can be times...and it's not our own place.  But tonight, tonight at dinner Wade and his dad told the kids story after story about camping and fishing trips they took while Wade was growing up.  It was pretty awesome.  I am so thankful that my kids can spend this time with their Grandpa.  Sometimes I just sit back and think about all the amazing blessings this has brought us all.

The time change wasn't too bad on us.  I had a meeting at 7:30, so Wade played super-dad and got all 5 kids up and ready and to church by 9.  Even with the time change everyone seems to have survived.  Although I think Wade is super tired from staying up way too late watching the BYU basketball game last night and the kids told me it was still light outside when I put them to bed.

Some weeks I just feel so blessed by the awesome church I belong to.  Thursday we had our annual Relief Society Birthday Dinner activity.  We had about 100 sisters that came!  We ate yummy homemade Cafe Rio, and super yummy cup cakes made by amazing ladies in the ward.  We played a couple games.  And mostly we just visited.  It was such a nice evening. I think it was just what everyone needed.  I LOVE the ladies in our congregation.  I can learn so much from them.  They are all so different and so amazing.  I have been trying to learn every single sister's name.  We have a new development that is being built right now so we have new sisters move in almost every week  It's been a challenge, but they are all such great ladies! 

I feel so blessed to be a part of Relief Society. I love it. I love even more that no matter where we move or where we go, or visit, I find this awesome sisterhood everyplace in the world that I attend church.

(although I have to say, after 10 moves and many rotations in the past 15 years,

 we are done with moving for a very, very long time)

Today we were fed such a good spiritual lesson in Relief Society on repentance.  There were so many comments and a great discussion.  This quote really stuck out to me.  It is SO true.

Happy Sunday.

“The Lord works from the inside out. The world works from the outside in. The world would take people out of the slums. Christ takes the slums out of people, and then they take themselves out of the slums. The world would mold men by changing their environment. Christ changes men, who then change their environment. The world would shape human behavior, but Christ can change human nature. …

“Yes, Christ changes men, and changed men can change the world.” - Ezra Taft Benson

Sunday Photo: 9 & the Big Eleven!

Obligatory birthday mugshot:

Our Little Man is turning eleven today!  

Eleven! 

You can't even show that with one hand!

Gage is such a great kid.  He is always striving to do the right thing.  He is meticulous with his choices and decisions.  He tries his best to always get everything right.  

Gage is quiet and not really the most outgoing but he has a good group of friends.  He is pretty funny when he wants to be.  He is sweet and worries about his friends and his teachers and their families.  The cub master in our Ward has been really sick with cancer.  He recently got released and now Wade is the cub master.  Gage is always worried about Brother John.  He prays for him and hopes the cancer will someday go away.  

Gage wants to serve a mission.  He was really impressed with the stories his cousin told when he came home from his mission.  He is trying to learn more skills, like cooking and cleaning, so he can be ready.  Today he said he was practicing by making his own microwave popcorn for an afternoon movie.  haha.

Little Man was his nick name when he was baby.  He always was so serious, and little for his size.  So we called him Little Man.  He's still a little guy, but don't let that fool you.  He can pack down some food.

Gage got a lego movie lego set for his birthday.  Wade barely had the car in park today after church before Gage was out and running towards the door to get inside and put it together.  He already had his white shirt unbuttoned and was taking it off as he ran in the front door!  Wade and I were laughing so hard.

Another big hit was a remote control mini-helicopter-drone that one of his friends gave him yesterday.  Although, I'm not sure who likes it more, Wade or Gage.

Yesterday we took some of his friends to the Museum of Natural Curiosity. Then we came home and they ate/inhaled/devoured 6 pizzas. Haha!

Wade kept commenting how good his friends are.  He has a good set of friends and I hope they all had a good time.

For his birthday post I tried to ask him some questions about what his favorites where, like I do every year.  This year he just looked at me and said he was too old for this and he didn't want to do it. nice.

Happy Birthday Gage.  

We are so proud of you!