Easter 2014

We had a fun Easter that lasted a few days. The Easter Bunny visited us and left some yummy treats and toys for the boys. Caleb was not a fan of getting up even though it was 9:30.  We had a yummy breakfast of pancakes with strawberries and sausage. We started the prep for our Easter dinner but we didn't get very far when we had our friends the Marshall's come over for a visit. I forgot about the cake in the oven and burned it before I remembered it was there. I have a tendency to burn things when I don't set the timer. We visited with the Marshall's for a little while and made it just in time for church. Since we didn't have time to get dinner in the oven before church we decided that we would have Easter dinner on Monday since we are always starving after church and we didn't want to wait until 6 or 7 for dinner. We made those delicious baked sandwiches with ham in them so that was relatively Easterish.  I forgot about dying Easter eggs until late Friday night and with all the yard work we did we ran out of time on Saturday to do it.  Connor came home Sunday afternoon for his basket and Caleb was too big to get up too early to see what the Easter Bunny brought.  Cayden and Kyle were not so inclined to stay in bed all day.  Kyle loved his bubbles and his sidewalk chalk.  IT is sort of hard for the Easter Bunny to know what to get the bigger boys for Easter but Kyle is really quite easy.  The boys did enjoy their slingshot rockets. We had our Easter egg hunt on Monday night after we had an Easter FHE. Then we played 4-square with the new bouncy ball the kids got for Easter.  Dad had never played 4-square before!  It was lots of fun!

Spring Break

Spring Break started the Saturday of the fair so officially it didn't start for us until the Monday after the fair was over.  We took a mini vacay to Tahiti Village, our favorite place to stay in Vegas.  After stopping for dinner at Outback-where Caleb dumped his entire soda in his lap-we went to our hotel.  We love to stay at Tahiti Village.  The rooms are clean and there is not a casino on site so they don't smell like smoke.  It is pretty family friendly and the pool is super nice.  We also can get a room that has a bedroom with a door that closes off the family room area so that I can get Kyle to bed.  There is a little kitchenette too so we have a fridge and a microwave and even a few dishes.  We stayed there for 3 nights and went to the pool and laid around and ate junk food.  We went to Baskin Robbins every night and ate way too much ice cream.  Don and Caleb went to a Pho noodle house in Mandalay Bay and then the next night Don and I went to a Mexican restaurant in Mandalay Bay.  The boys were content to order food from the pool restaurant or the Denny's that was on site.  Kyle loved the sand and all the toys that they have there to play with.  Caleb played water volleyball for hours and hours.  It was a nice relaxing few days.

On Friday and Saturday we did a lot of yard work.  The spring around here means lots and lots of weeds.  The front yard was terrible.   We replaced a few plants that had died over the summer and pulled and sprayed lots and lots of weeds.  It looked so much better after many hours of work.  Kyle enjoyed the water on the sidewalk.

Saturday night we had a hot dog and smore roast with our friends the Turners.  Don and Caleb played football with all the boys.  Cayden and Dallin played Legos.

Fair Time

The fair came back to Logandale April 10-13.  Don and I have not done anything up there as far as volunteering since the year I was pregnant with Kyle but the boys still work up there and want to be up there as much as possible.  Connor still works with Grandma and Grandpa doing trash.  He also spent hours and hours up there the week of the fair helping with setup.  Caleb worked in the ice cream parlor.  Cayden got to help Grandma one night which was the highlight of his weekend.  Ashley Farmer and Tara and her 3 kids were in Vegas for Spring Break and stopped by on their way back to St. George.  Grandpa Don got us a  few day passes so we could go up there with them for lunch.  We went through the animal barns with them and saw the turkeys and the rabbits and the baby pigs and goats.  I went to the Lonestar concert Friday night with my friend Shelby.  Cayden got to hang out with a few friends on Friday going to the carnival.  Some of those rides are not his favorite but he was content to just wait for his friends while they went on them.  I am glad that he won't do something he doesn't want to even with cajoling and coaxing from his friends-hopefully that will serve him well in the future when it comes to peer pressure.  We ate our favorite fair food-Cayden likes the Dippin' Dots and I loved the Texas Twister drinks.  I found my new favorites this year of the big slabs of peanut butter chocolate fudge and the chocolate dipped strawberries and bananas.  Caleb and Don love the gyros.  Kyle has not yet grasped the concept of the fair food bliss that is available only once a year.  Connor spent the nights at Grandma's house so he could stay late and get up there early in the morning.  We saw our favorite clown PJ and Kyle was not super excited so we had to get a covert shot of her with him.  The weather was really hot this year and the wind came up on Saturday night and then was really bad Sunday.  Since Don and I weren't working up there this year we didn't spend as much time up there and we didn't go up there on Sunday.  It was so hot on Friday and Saturday that we were only there a few hours each day in the afternoon until it was just too hot for Kyle.  Don would usually take Cayden back up in the evening for a treat.  

The joy Cayden finds in riding the cart and picking up trash with the picker-upper is limitless!

Dippin' Dots!

Kyle likes Dippin' Dots too!

Laura found Connor and got ride along and as soon as Kyle saw him, he needed a ride too.

Lonestar!

These boys of ours love to ride and drive these carts all day long!

Kyle seeing the baby pigs and climbing the rails.

Cayden and his friends-Dallin Turner, Spencer Raban and Sinjin something.

Our sneaky clown picture.

Connor and his friend Nephi doing what Connor loves the best.

Scoopin' ice cream!

The Huntsmans came to see us for a bit!

I just thought this was lovely.

Tuckered out after our first day.  He didn't even get a bath that night!

Connor and Hoskins

Connor has a special relationship with many adults.  He has always been much better at talking to adults than to kids his own age.  Two of these special people are the Hoskins.  They are an older couple who are good friends of Don and Dottie.  They have come down here the last few years during the spring and they park their 5th wheel at Don and Dottie's and stay for about a month.  They are the same people that Connor went to visit last summer with Don and Dottie when they went to Idaho and to Yellowstone.

Science Project

The 5th grade has to do a science project every year.  They give them a few months to work on it but true to form for our family we wait until the last minute to get it done!  Cayden wanted to do something with Legos.  We had an idea to make different sized towers and try and make them fall but it didn't work very good.  Cayden's tutor, Mrs. Parker, had an idea about seeing how strong Legos were by building a platform and putting different items on it to see if it would hold.  Cayden made the platform, gathered items from around the house, weighed them on a kitchen scale and then put them on the platform to see if it would collapse or not.  Then after the project was done we had to make a poster board showing the experiment.  They had a science fair at the school so the kids could see each others experiments.

Priesthood Session

All my boys-except the littlest one-got to go to the Priesthood session of conference together.  This was Cayden's first time to go and Cody just happened to come home that weekend too!  I was really glad they were all able to go!  Kyle and I stayed home and watched it some of it and then went to McDonald's for dinner and listened to it in the car!  I think it is so great that we can have so many ways to watch, listen and participate in conference!

Peter Pan

Caleb was in another play at the high school.  Because he is not actually going to school there he had to be enrolled just n the theater class and attend class to be able to participate in the play.  It was kind of a pain to get him up there every other day but Connor had seminary at that same time so it worked out ok.  The play they did was Peter Pan.  Caleb played the part of Mr. Darling.  The theater teacher called me specifically to ask for him the week that I pulled him out of school because she said that she and the whole class really needed him.  He had a couple of other parts too but then she needed to give them to other people which was fine.  I liked the way this teacher handled rehearsal.  She broke it up into the various acts and if you weren't in the act you didn't need to come to rehearsal.  The kids did a really great job and Caleb was a very good grumpy dad.  Caleb's friend Logan was the crocodile and his friend Rachle was amazing as Tinkerbelle.  She didn't have any speaking parts but her actions and facial expressions were perfect.  She is the daugher of our friends Anthony and Anjie Lee.  Don was out of town during that week so we had to take turns going. He made it to the play on Wednesday, grandma and grandpa went on Thursday and I went on Friday so there was some one there each night.  

Relief Society Stuff

I had to teach the lesson in Relief Society on March 2.  I didn't have to do it January when I was scheduled because I had a member of our bishopric teach and give us an introduction to Joseph Fielding Smith, the prophet we are learning about this year.  Since I am in the presidency we get to choose our lesson topics.  About a month prior to my lesson I was thinking about what I was going to teach about.  I really like to reread and listen to talks from Jeffrey R. Holland and I remembered that he had one entitled Broken Things to Mend.  I reread that one and started thinking about broken things.  Then I remembered a song from Kenneth Cope called "Broken" that he sang at a Time Out For Women that I went to.  Here are the words to that song.

Broken clouds give rain
Broken soil grows grain
Broken bread feeds man for one more day
Broken storms yield light
The break of day heals night
Broken pride turns blindness into sight

Broken souls that need His mending
Broken hearts for offering
Could it be that God loves broken things?

Broken chains set free
Broken swords bring peace
Broken walls make friends of you and me
To break the ranks of sin
To break the news of Him
To put on Christ till His name feels broken in

Broken souls that need His mending
Broken hearts for offering
I believe that God loves broken things

And yet our broken faith, our broken promises
Sent love to the cross
And still, that broken flesh, that broken heart of His
Offers us such grace and mercy
Covers us with love undeserving

This broken soul that cries for mending
This broken heart for offering
I'm convinced that God loves broken me

Praise His name, my God loves broken things.

So for the next month I kept a running list of all the ways and phrases the work broken can be used.  I had quite a big list going.  The arrows were phrases that could have positive and negative connotations.

Negative

Broken wings

Broken glass

Broken promises

Broken bone

Broke the law

Break the News-------à

Break down

Broken things-watch, window, clock, dishes

Break out-on your face

Broken eggs

Broken families

Broken homes

Broken hearts---------à

Broken mind

Break in the ranks

Break down in communication

Break the bank

Broken pieces------à

Give me a break-----à

Broken bridges

Break up

Broken will

  

 Positive

Broken walls-Berlin Wall

Broke or break a horse

Break the spell-fairy tales, Sleeping Beauty

Break the curse-Harry Potter

Break bread-sacrament, Savior feeding the 5000

Break the news

Break of day

Break the ground/Broken ground

Break open-fruit, coconut

Broken clouds

Breaker at the beach/sea-stops the waves

Break in the storm

Broken hearts

Break the code

Broken chains-prisoners

Break the mold

Put on the brakes-slow down

Some of the things were mentioned in the song.  After writing these things down all month and thinking about this lesson I pulled it together with the song and the talk.  I started off with the song and had the sisters listen to the words then we made a list of the things they heard in the song that were broken.  Then we kept making a list of broken things.  I shared with them my list and they came up with some that I hadn't thought of.  Then we talked about how these things get broken and how they get fixed.  The basic idea was that each of these broken things could have spiritual applications and that it was through the atonement that things really get fixed.  Then I talked about some scripture stories where it seemed that the people in them could be broken-especially when Nephi breaks his bow.  Then we talked about what Elder Holland said we can do to come unto Christ and get our broken things repaired.  There were 3 ways.  1.Desire to change or have things fixed or believe we can get things fixed.  2.  Change what we need to change.  3.  Then take upon us the name of the Savior by remembering our baptismal covenants and acting on them.  At the end I played the poem that Jeffrey R. Holland reads in his talk called The Carpenter of Nazareth.  I never know what to think about my lessons when I am done.  I do get compliments but I wonder if anyone realized the effort that goes into one of these lessons especially when we have to create our lesson from out of thin air.  It is good that we can do that because we can totally go by the spirit and teach what Heavenly Father wants us to but it much  harder when we don't have the whole lesson ready to go for us.  

I try really hard to not have boring lessons.  I overheard someone say once that they didn't like coming to Relief Society because it was boring.  My goals when I teach are to teach with the spirit and not just talk and to make sure I am involving the sisters as much as I can with questions and thought provoking ideas so that they will comment.  I don't have to teach again until June thank goodness!

In January we had an activity that was a progressive dinner.  It was a lot of work and we only had 38 sisters come but that is almost 3 times what we usually get so I was ok with it.  Our theme was Progress since it was the beginning of the year.  We all met at one sister's house to divide up into groups and then we split up to go to 3 different houses where we had appetizers, salads, and soup respectively.  Then we met back up together at one more house where we were all together and could have dessert.  At each house we had a sister give us a short talk on different areas that we can progress in.  Physical-like exercise and nutrition, spiritual and temporal-like food storage and learning how to do different things to be better prepared.  Then at the last house our bishop's wife spoke on how we need to balance these areas in our lives and not get overwhelmed.  It was a really good activity and we got lots of compliments on it.  We had lots of help too with food prep and the sister's letting us use their homes.  This activity has been a tradition in this ward for a long long time and is usually held in December.  December is way too busy and crazy for me so I wanted to push it to January when things were a little calmer.


In March we had another activity to celebrate the Relief Society birthday.  This was a lot of work too but ended up being really nice.  Our theme was Small and Simple Things based on the scripture from Alma and from our January activity when our bishop's wife spoke to us at the progressive dinner.  She spoke about the book from Marjorie Pay Hinkley with the same name.  After we heard her speak in January we decided that would be our theme for March.  I was prompted to incorporate wheat into our activity because wheat is one of the symbols of  Relief Society and there are some great stories about what the early sisters in Relief Society did with wheat.  I found the instructions to grow wheat grass from regular wheat kernels and learned that it took less than 9 days.  When I was prompted to use this idea of wheat I seriously had 9 days before the activity.  Well it worked out just great!  I grew 12 little planters of wheat to use in our center pieces. Since our theme was "small and simple" all of our food was small.  We had mini slider sandwiches, mini cupcakes, mini cups of fruit salad and mini cups of veggies and dip.  We had planned on about 60 people coming but we only had 28.  That meant there was lots of food to eat.  We had a lot of help again as well.  We had about 8 sisters come and help us with food prep right before the activity started.  We were done and cleaned up before 8pm and that was really nice too!  I took home about 30 mini cupcakes and proceeded to eat almost everyone of them over the next few days.  Curse you mini cupcakes!

 This is the favor that we gave out at our activity.  It was a little bag of wheat with the directions on how to grow it typed out and rolled up on the scroll and a few pieces of chocolate.  Our colors were purple and green so everything was purple and green!

This is one of pots of wheat that I grew.  I didn't grow it in this pot but in a little plastic saucer and then put the saucer in the pot.  I did paint the pots and put the ribbon around them for the decorations. It is being weighed for Cayden's science project.