Easter Swamp

Sunday, March 27, 2016

In preparation for Easter, the boys and I made some crafts, of course, to decorate the house a little. Ryan made sure to color some eggs with the boys too. They had a lot of fun getting to make color combinations like Daddy showed them.

 Emmaline laid near by, while the boys colored eggs.

 

 

 Easter morning we sat in bed and played Hungry Hungry Hippos, one of the things we got the boys for Easter. When we got home from church Ryan checked outside to see if the Easter bunny had come and came back inside to tell us that he had. While I went outside to help the boys get started, Ryan went back inside to check on something and grab the camera.

 Since half our backyard is full of puddles, the Easter bunny was very careful to only hide eggs near the house where it was dry.

 The boys found most the eggs, while I helped Emmaline pick up a few. I didn't want her to miss out on her first Easter.

 

 

 The boys did a good job finding all the eggs and then Daddy announced that he spotted the Easter bunny running out of the house. We went inside to find that the Easter bunny had left a few more eggs in the living room.

 After that we opened all the eggs to see what candy they got and the boys got to open a few presents. Ryan and I got Jared a new spade because he likes to dig outside and he had just started an indoor garden with Daddy. Karl we gave a huge bouncy ball, since he has an undying love of balls. Ryan and I got our selves a coach style lamp bird feeder. It's posted at the corner of our deck now and we've really enjoyed watching all the birds that will come to eat from it.

Karl with his new Superman toy.

My contribution for our Easter day was dinner. I did my first homemade glaze baked ham and it turned out soo good. This year we also decided to do egg salad sandwiches with our Easter eggs, and they turned out pretty good. Karl, my faithful kitchen helper, really enjoyed getting to chop the eggs with the egg chopper. I think we had a fun day!!

St. Patrick's Day in Michigan

Thursday, March 17, 2016

 St. Patrick's Day turned out to be a beautiful day here in Michigan. So the boys and I took Emmaline on her first walk here in Michigan. That morning and the days before I reminded the boys about the little fun things we do on St. Patrick's day and they were excited to pick out something green to wear that morning. We took a picture together before going on our walk.

selfie :)

Karl's St. Patrick's finger painting

At home, we did a finger painting craft together. Finger painting is probably the boys absolute favorite way of doing art. They also like when they get to do some gluing, so we did these pictures of leprechauns. I cut out the hats, belts, and pots and the boys glued them where they wanted to. When Daddy got home he laughed to see their leprechauns' dreadlock-beards. :) Jared decided to name his leprechauns Jasper and Nicholas (after a boy in my CTR 7 class and another that he played with the other day at a b-day party).

Jared's St. Patrick's finger painting

In the evening, I put a clue with a map on it in the mail box. Ryan found it when he got the mail when he got home from work. He showed it to Jared and they were off on a hunt for a pot of gold. That map led to another map and so on, 'til the sixth map led to the rainbow in Emmaline's pack-n-play, which had green packaged cookies under it and a Happy St. Patrick's Day love note from their Mommy Leprechaun. :)

Emmaline's Blessing

March 5-6, 2016

We had a fun weekend for Emmaline's baby blessing. We were able to have Ryan's parents and sister's family come out to support us. The weekend prior to her blessing, Ryan sewed Emmaline a beautiful blessing dress. We went to the craft store and he let me pick out the fabric and lace. I picked both the lace and clothe to be sparkly white. He made most the dress in one day and then finished it off during a week night.

I thought it turned out soo pretty!! Ryan used a doll dress pattern we'd borrowed from Alisha, so he had to take a few measurements on Emmaline and let it out a little from the pattern.

Ryan's parents came on Friday night and we were able to have a relaxing night with them. We decided to have a little birthday night for Mark since we had only just missed his birthday.

On Saturday afternoon, Alisha, Chris, Katie, Elena, Eliza, and Ben came to spend the night. We had a pizza dinner. Elena also made a delicious chop salad! It was so good! The kids then all helped me with a little project. They each painted an 8x10 canvas so I could decorate our play area with them. They turned out so bright and colorful. We have some very creative nieces and nephew; and I think Jared and Karl had a great time getting to play with paint with their cousins. :)

Sunday morning we got to try Emmaline's dress on her. It fit beautifully! She looked like the precious little angel that she is!

At church we got to see the Edmunds, Ryan's old friends from his home town, who drove across Michigan that morning to be here for Emmaline's blessing. We so greatful for their support and sacrifice in being there!

Emmaline was a good girl for her blessing, and didn't cry. After sacrament meeting she took a nap, most of it in Aunt Alisha' arms. Meanwhile I got to go to my CTR 7 class with Eliza, and Jared got to take Ben to his CTR 4 class. That was a special treat for us!

After church, at home, we had our celebratory meal. Mark and Kris had made some nice appetizers. I had lots of help with making the different things for dinner.

For the afternoon activities we went on a walk, took naps, and even cleaned up a major toilet overflow. Luckily many hands make light -and fast- work. We are grateful to have family there to help whenever we seem to have plumbing issues. ;)

Later in the afternoon we got to have these pies that Eliza came up with, called "Cutie Pie"s that I then helped her make. They turned out really good! Saturday night we made the crusts, partially backed them, put some canned mandarin oranges in the bottom, whipped up a filling with sweetened condensed milk and cutie orange juice, baked them, and let them chill over night. On Sunday, we put one slice of fresh cutie orange on top of each filling. Papa Mark helped her whisk up a meringue and then we baked them one last time. They turned out to be really good, especially for a spare of the moment idea. Eliza was pretty clever for coming up with the idea for these Cutie Pies and she put a lot of love and work into them! This will definitely be a special memory for me getting to make them with her! :)