Easter 2010

We had a great and relaxing Easter day on Sunday. I think that General Conference should be on Easter every year! Alan sent the kids on a great scavenger hunt around the property where the kids had to answer questions about the Savior before they went on to their next clue and the last clue was to give mom a massage to find out the location of their baskets. I should have milked that one a little bit longer than I did!

Zach was a bit annoyed that I had to take 3 pictures.

During the break in between sessions we colored eggs. At least we don't wait until the last day!

I so enjoyed conference this time. I wish that we could do it 4 times a year. I loved all the talks and felt that there were a lot of talks towards mothers. After conference we traveled to Malad Gorge and had an Easter egg hunt and potluck with my family on a cold and windy day. We have never been there before but we have driven past it a thousand times.

 Me and my sistas!

Ashley (Jeremy and Amber's oldest daughter) & Andrea (Mark & Angie's youngest)

Rachel and Emily (Jeremy & Amber's daughter)

MaKayla (Ryan & Angela's daughter)

Cache (Ryan & Angela's son)

Lucas & his daddy.

Happy Easter!

Volleyball, Zach's Birthday and New Easter Dresses

Rachel played in her first volleyball tournament this past weekend in Twin Falls. She had a great time and even got a few serves over. They won all their pool play games but lost their first tournament game. She plays in Kimberley this weekend.

Zach turned 18 on Sunday. He got lots of mula for his birthday. He has had a lot of "lasts" this past year. His last year in high school, last HS football games and his last year at home. We will miss him when he goes to school this fall but we are excited for him and all the "firsts" he will be having. We love you Zach!

This Sunday the girls got to wear some new dresses to church. Alan got some cute pictures of them outside. Pink was the color this year! (Not on purpose of course). Melissa was off at a farewell.

Another girl to add to the mix!

My brother Ryan and his wife Angela had a baby girl on Monday the 22nd. They named her Harlee Raine (pronounced rain). She was 9 lbs 6 oz. and 21 in. long. She came a few days past her due date. She is a beautiful little baby. Love those cheeks!  It looks like she will only be in newborn clothes for a few days! Congrats!

Alan is 41!

Alan turned 41 on March 20th. March is an endless birthday month for our family. Zach will be the big 18 on Sunday. Alan spent the morning tinkering around outside while I prepared a noon meal to have with the kids and Jane and Leon. We enjoyed watching him open a few presents and the four youngest girls put a lot of thought in to some nice poems and letters for him. That evening Alan and I went to a movie. Pretty low key but that is the way he likes it.

Rachel Is 11!

Rachel turned 11 on March 12th. She has been looking forward to her birthday for quite some time now. Rachel started the day with breakfast in bed before school and she even got to open up a few presents. A couple of her good friends came over that evening to spend the night and celebrate her birthday with her. We took them to see "Alice in Wonderland" that evening. It was a pretty cute show but Alice in Wonderland has never been a favorite of mine. Rachel had a great time with her friends and family but the day went by too quickly. She is excited her birthday falls on a Saturday next year where she can be pampered the whole day. The last picture of Rachel is her grabbing her hair so she didn't get to close to the flames. We tease her about burning the ends of hair around her face from the candles last year. She still doesn't think that it is funny.

Rachel is getting so big. We did measurements on the wall the other day and Rachel is the tallest girl at 11 so far and also the skinniest. I think that she will be our tallest daughter. It will be interesting to see what happens. Allison and Abigail seems to be growing at the same rate that Melissa and Hannah did. Zach is officially 6 ft 1 1/4 in. Yeah!

Rachel has become the number one babysitter for us this year. She is excited for school to get over and summer to begin. We are trying to talk her into doing swim team this summer. She has mastered doing her own hair for the most part now! (Yes!) Rachel is going to get her ears pierced after she finishes with a four week volleyball course. She is excited about that. She loves listening to music on her IPod and has accumulated about $35 dollars in iTune gift cards that she needs to figure out how to use. Rachel does well in her grade and has been in the top two for accelerated reading points this year. Her teacher never says anything bad about her and loves having her in class. She loves to read and chat with her friends on the internet. She has a beautiful smile and we are so lucky to be her parents. We love you, Rachel!

Hello from Idaho

Spring has sprung here in Idaho! I love to see the tulips popping through the ground, reaching for the sun! We have gotten a lot of outside clean-up done at our home the past two weeks. It is exciting to think of planting a garden soon but in the same breath it is a bit overwhelming too! I am so excited to see how Leon's garden boxes work for him this year. It is definitely something that I want to do at our next house. I certainly want to simplify my life at our next place - less weeds and less grass!
Our hunt for some good land in Jerome has been so frustrating. I wish that we could look outside the box but then our kids would probably have a heart attack if we did. We were leaning towards a 4.22 acre parcel but have been having 2nd thoughts about it lately. It really is too much land for us and we plan to make our next house our last. Do we really want to manage that much acreage when we are older???? We are looking at some acre parcels (2) in a subdivision up the road from our home. There are some advantages to a paved road in front of your home and pressurized irrigation. We shall see - too many decisions and sleepless nights.
One good thing that has happened is that we have narrowed down who we want to build our home. We are still waiting on a bid from Westec before we make the final decision. A guy from Preston, ID who has built the same style of home before is in the lead. We would have liked to keep it local but money talks! I have decided that we could keep getting bids forever and ever and ever.
We haven't had any takers on our home yet. We are going to give it another month to try and sell by ourselves. The 6% the Realtor takes off the top is a lot of money! Things are not moving very fast around here. We are trying to stay positive and not get discouraged. With spring here and green grass people are more eager to move. Everything seems to take time and a lot of it!
The latest from our kids is that Melissa went on her first date with Ethan Wheatley. It was to a Valentine's dance. We spent hours in the mall looking for a long enough and modest dress for her to wear. We honestly went through every store and the last store we ended up in was Sears - just for kicks. I really don't like to go into Sears because everything is so old and honestly smells old in there. But we went in there just to see and we found a cute dress there that was even on clearance! We were excited and it looked so cute on her. Here she is with her group. She is going to the Prom on April 10th with Tom Crozier. We found a beautiful, modest, sea-foam colored dress on our last visit to Logan.
Melissa is also getting ready for district speech in April. I listened to part of her speech today on the effects of bad language and it is really good. She definitely gets her writing skills from her dad!

Zach also went to the dance with Aubrey Callen. The boys in this picture are all of Zach's closest friends and the girls had so much fun with them that they talked about all going again with them to the Prom.

You may be asking yourself who the guy is in the back - Adam Sandler's. He made a special appearance at our high school. No actually the photo's were being taken in one of their favorite teacher's room and they grabbed his cut out and the Call of Duty head to be in the picture with them.

Abigail recently did a book report in her class about Florance Nightingale. She had to dress up like her person and it took a lot of time and step by step instructions (with photos) to make that nurse's hat. She looked so cute.

Rachel performed in a dance with 3 other classes in her grade recently. I think that it is cool that they are teaching young kids dances that even I don't know how to do. She thinks that she wants to join a dance group next year. It is hard to believe that she will be going to middle school next year. I am getting so old.

Hannah has been keeping us busy running to and from Twin twice a week for club volleyball practice. We have been doing this since Jan. on Mondays and Tuesdays. Too bad Melissa and Hannah's practice couldn't be at the same time! Hannah just started track and is very pooped after practice. I told her she should have been running over spring break - but no-o-o-o!
I can't believe that we will be registering Allison for kindergarten soon. She is ready to go but I still need to get those dreaded shots! Hopefully we can get the teacher we want for kindergarten. We shall see.... I can't believe that I will be approaching the time in my life that all my kids will be in school. O.k. I am really feeling old now.