Easter

We had such a beautiful Easter this year! At the end of the weekend, Ben and I sat back with full hearts, feeling so thankful for our Savior, our family and the beautiful life we share. The whole weekend was full of family time and just the right balance of fun holiday memories and sweet lessons about Christ.

Several years ago, we started observing Holy Week. We start the Sunday before Easter and read the scriptures for each day of the week leading up to Christ’s death and resurrection. I love this tradition. It really sets the tone for the holiday and keeps it centered on what is truly important.

The Saturday before Easter we celebrated with the Smiths. My job was to bring the bunny cake, which I do every year. I don’t know why I love it so much, because I’m not really a cake fan. This year I made it out of carrot cake and it was delicious. We had a fun Easter egg hunt with their cousins and a really beautiful, delicious dinner, and I neglected to photograph anything except the cake I made!

Saturday night I set the table with the fine china my aunts got us for our wedding. I hadn’t pulled it out since we had kids, but I think they are old enough now that I’m going to do it more. Chase loved the story behind it and both boys really appreciated the special touch it added to our delicious breakfast (strawberry shortcake biscuits courtesy of Ben). 
   

     

The boys were delighted by the chocolate eggs Nana got them! Davis devoured his right away, but Chase and Hudson both had field trips at school coming up that week and both wanted to save theirs to pack in their sack lunches for their field trips (I’m shocked they made it!). 

  

  

 We tried to do pictures before church, but sweet Lila had other plans and refused to cooperate. Luckily I grabbed a picture of her after church when she was feeling happier because she looked so darling in her little dress! Our Easter service was really beautiful. We hadn’t been to church on Easter for three years (thanks to Covid stuff) and it felt so good to be back!

Easter Sunday was actually beautiful weather after we had SNOW earlier in the week! We spent sometime outside on Sunday afternoon and it was glorious!

I was responsible for bringing dessert to our Hugo family party as well- and I made this coconut cake Chase had been begging to try. It was intense for me- a lot of baking, but it turned out super delicious and he’s already requested it for his birthday next year.

We did another egg hunt at Hugo’s and the kids got SO MUCH CANDY! I didn’t take any pictures of our Easter dinner there either, but it was a good time!

Here are a few more pictures of Easter morning. The kids all woke up so early, so in my efforts to let Ben sleep in a little I corralled them downstairs and we cuddled up on the couch and read all our Easter picture books. Then the kids got to hunt for their baskets.  Davis always takes the cake on stuff like this- he literally squeals with delight over the tiniest things and makes us all laugh! Lila quickly downed a whole bunch of chocolate and then refused to eat breakfast with us- instead she “did the dishes” (played with water in the sink). The whole day was just so easy and relaxed and fun and sweet. We did a little lesson on the first Easter morning to finish up Holy Week and just basked in the beauty of Easter together.

Not every holiday weekend works out like this one- sweetly and without much stress and lots of happiness- so I just want to savor  what it was this year! 

Spring Break

We had a lovely spring break! We didn’t go anywhere, just enjoyed all the fun stuff to do around here and had a really great week of family time!

We decorated for Easter and made our traditional Rice Krispie Treat nests. I love doing these with the boys. They are so easy and yummy.

After a really messy park visit (sand EVERYWHERE!) I threw Davis and Lila right in the shower when we got home. While I was getting Lila dressed again, I came back to Davis drinking the water with a wide open mouth and laughing hysterically while doing it. This kid is a riot!

Most of the weather during spring break was kind of crummy and cold- but we had one glorious 70 degree day and we definitely took advantage by meeting friends at the park.

We went shopping with Nana one morning- Lila insisted on carrying around my shirts to try on in Nordstrom Rack. This photo is so “Heidi” to me- she’s wearing leopard print (a gift from Heidi) and loving shopping in Nordstroms (Heidi’s fav). This girl is already letting us know she will be expensive to raise!

One day I came down to all three boys reading in the family room. (I think I told them they had to read before they could have screens). Such a happy sight for a mom!

We had one comically, funny day of things not working out! We planned to meet Josephs at the trampoline park right when it opened, only to be turned away because it was “toddler time”. So we quickly came up with plan B- bowling! The boys all loved it! It was actually such a fun turn of events (and no worries, we went back to the trampoline park the next day). Then after we went to get lunch at Pizza Pie Cafe- again we struck out! Their pizza oven wasn’t working! We had a little laugh, talked some of the boys through the disappointment (again!) and ended up at the food court at the mall. It was a good learning experience for the boys to be flexible and have fun even if all our plans fell through!

We got a pass to Gateway Discovery and it’s been so fun! I mostly take the little kids while the bigs are at school, but this day we got to take them too! Chase got a little bored, but Hudson had an absolute blast! Will brought the girls too, so there were lots of friends and cousins to play with!

This particular bath was so ridiculous, as Lila kept grabbing Davis’s foot and loudly declaring “MY FOOT!”

Before General Conference, Chase was up early so we took a walk together to the new Layton Temple! It’s about a year away from opening and about a 20 minute walk from our home.

I carried on the tradition of ice cream for breakfast on April Fools day. These boys think its the best, even though I did make them drink a green smoothie with it because I just couldn’t send them out the door having only ice cream! 

March

After we finished with Davis’s birthday, March marked the first of a little bit of a slow down in our life. I felt like we’d been running a million miles an hour for several months with holidays, birthdays, trips and so many extra curricular activities (which finished at the end of February). The weather started to get nice and got to slow down a little bit and enjoy each other in our yard a lot!

March also started so serious “terrible twos” tantrums from our little lady. She’s so darling, but man, can she scream! Will of iron!

I started making sourdough bread! It’s turned out so good! I made a starter from scratch and now we have delicious homemade sourdough several times a week. It’s probably Ben’s favorite thing that happened in March.

One morning, Chase took out the garbage (like he does every morning) and came back inside remarking how nice the spring air felt and the birds singing. A few minutes later I found him outside with Davis. Davis yelled up to me “We are just listening to the birds!” It’s nice when you wake up early enough to enjoy the singing birds on a spring morning!

We had a few lovely evenings out in our yard. Our apricot tree bloomed and as I was sitting under it with Lila, Hudson noticed the bees were buzzing everywhere up in the blossoms. “Please do your work bees! I want apricots!” (Hudson loves apricots)

Davis always wants a picnic for lunch. Sometimes I throw them on the deck with a blanket and he thinks it’s the best thing ever.

I just loved this photo of Ben and Lila talking on their phones to each other. This baby girl has her daddy so wrapped around her little finger.

I got some super weird stomach bug that lasted for several days and was crazy painful. I was just a little bit dramatic about it. Thankfully, Ray and Diane took the littles for a few hours so I could rest, and Lila just looked so cute all ready to go with them! 

Hudson had to read a biography and make a “bottle buddy” for school. He is super into cars right now, so naturally we picked Henry Ford. I was dreading the actual making of the bottle buddy, but really, as he always does, Hudson had a plan and a vision and got it done just fine with very little help from me.

Pi day! Hudson had karate, so he ate his pie later than the rest of us, which was convenient since I hadn’t taken a picture earlier. I love pie so we can never let this day pass without one!

I volunteer at the boys school every Wednesday morning and it’s always a highlight of my week. I love getting to see my boys at school and meet their classmates and get a feel for what their life is like there. I go to Hudson’s class first where I pull the kids out to work on math facts. I always pull Hudson first and he just looked so cute this particular day, so I snapped a photo of him!

We had kindergarten round-up and this boy was smiling ear to ear and couldn’t contain himself he was so excited! He is going to be the cutest little kindergartener! He can’t wait to go to school with “his boys”!

St. Patricks Day! We had green muffins and no one seemed to mind that no leprechauns showed up! I tried to get Lila to get in the photo with them, but she flat out refused. And Chase doesn’t own much green, but he did have a stripe of green on his socks!

Chase got to do BizTown at school! It’s such a cool program! The kids all get jobs and learn how to do them and manage money. Then they spend a day at BizTown (Discovery Gateway) actually doing their job and running a little city. He had been looking forward to this day for months! He was a bank teller, and although it wasn’t his first choice, he ended up loving it. Also- that’s real life buddy! Sometimes you don’t get the job you applied for. Good life lessons happening all around for this boy this year!

Aunt Heidi and Nana went to Paris and brought Lila this darling shirt. When they gave it to her, she immediately insisted on putting it on and wore it all night and the next day. She even slept in it! I love how much she already loves clothes!