Easter traditions...

# 1- the bunny cake.
Yesterday I bought everything needed for our glorious cake. I think Angie and I will get the kids together again this year to make them!

# 2- Easter in eggs. We made this for a Primary activity YEARS ago when we lived in Boise. I absoultly love this and the kids do too. It's fun to do bunny stuff- but this really teaches them that Easter is about Jesus. I tried to take upclose pictures incase anyone wants to double click on the photo (to enlarge it) and copy the story down for your own family!

Back to school...

Spring Break is offically over, and I win the most boring mother award. The only exciting things the kids did were: sleep in, go to the park, the library and eat pizza.

There were hardly any craft projects, we ran errands, we helped a friend move half the week, and we cleaned and organized. How cool is that?

They did have fun helping Lisa move though. (Our neighbor) They got to help Liam pack, ride in G-ma & G-pa's truck, play at their new house, play with their pets, and climb the huge tree in their back yard.

We also had General Confrence this weekend, which was wonderful (what I was able to watch/listen too. What I loved from it was:

***Bumper sticker: "don't judge me because I sin diffrently than you do" _ (the whole talk on judging was great).
*** Don't judge others. If you do, stop it.
*** Forgive yurself & don't be too hard on yourself.
*** Don't gossip, even if it's true.
*** If you see someone drowning- don't ask if they need help- jump in!
*** Faith. Family. Relief.

It was nice to have the kids home for a week & a half, but now with them gone, we need to get back on our schedule. Poor grace and Willow will be bored without the big kids to play with for hours. Only 8 more weeks until school is out though! Crazy.

Swim Lessons have begun...

Last night was the 1st night of swim lessons for the 3 big kids. I was able to get them all in the same night, back-to-back classes for all their swim levels. It's a good thing too, because I am going to sweat to death and probably die the next month from the heat and humidity in that place. If I can endure the 65 min, 2 nights a week- then I might be ok, but seriously, for a girl who has a sweating problem to begin with, plus is pregnant, plus gets to sit for over a hour in a heat induced swimming pool- it doesn't come out to be very fun.Or pretty.

But it's not about me, right?

They loved it by the way. Willow was a little sad that she didn't get to hop in, but Trav will make it up to her and take her swimming one of these nights. I think my last swimming suit appearance a few weeks ago may have been my last. There is just nothing sweet about putting my gross thighs and huge self into a swimming suit right now. It didn't help that all I had to cover my grossness was Trav's "man" shorts too. Yeah, I was one of those cool insucure Mama's with man shorts.
Please, kids, do not desire another family swim night any time soon!

Daisy:

Grace:

Happy 85th Birthday Mama!

Just kidding... she's only 58, but I always joke about how fast she's aging and she loves it! She also LOVES it when I take her picture- and then she LOVES it even more when I post them on my blog for other people to see! (so basically, she will hate me when she sees all the pictures!)

I just hung up the phone so she knows that when she goes into work tomorrow morning she will have a tribute to her old self with a few pictures. She will probably curse my name and try to google a way to get the pictures off of here, but oh well, I'm a grown up now and she can't do anything about it!It was fun to sit down and go through the past few years. I didn't put every picture up, just a few so I could be reminded of how incredible she is, how much she has changed my life and how every second I thank the Lord that we are best friends.

My Mama is my entire world. I couldn't love her more if I tried. She is truely the first person I share everything with (besides Trav sometimes, men just don't get it all the time), the first one that tells me to calm down or get mad as h*ll. She's the first one to be excited for me, worry about me or tell me I'm overreacting. She is honest with me every moment, she's as real and down to earth as you could ever hope for. She's selfless and never stops giving. She sends packages for every birthday, holiday and special moment in our lives. She over does everything just to make you feel loved and important. She adores my babies and comes to visit even when she has 2 morgages to pay for. She secretely wants to be a back up singer and she makes the best enchaladas in the world. I love her because she still sacrafices everything she can for her children. She works hard everyday and then comes home to deal with 8 grown up kids that never stop calling her for support. She loves like there's no tomorrow and she has been there every step of the way. She is so embedded in each of our hearts that we would all be lost without her- and we are! If I go 2 or 3 days without talking to her, my world starts spinning and things just don't feel right. I have to hear her voice. I have to hear her laugh and I have to imagine her putting her hair up in her old rollers and sitting in her flower nightgown.

I simply adore her more than words can express. I could never thank her for being the most amazing example in my life either. She always supported me and my decisions even when they were different from her own. She always gave me room to grow and be myself. She rarly pushed or forced, she simply let me decorate my bedroom in painted toilet paper rolls and cover inch of my walls with the craziest stuff imaginable. She gave me freedom and love. She gave me courage and she listened. She was my best friend then, and now and I am so thankful my heart hurts this much being away from her.

Happy 85th Mom!