Easter 2024

 I'm Erica's primary activity leader and for our Easter activity we made empty tombs out of doughnuts and doughnut holes. They turned out so cute and the girls thought it was pretty fun.

Here are this year's wood egg painting. Justin's is the jack-o-lantern and he thinks he's so funny. It did not get displayed in a prominent spot.

I got all inspired in Relief Society by Elder Stephenson's talk from last year which was all about celebrating Easter more intentionally that I went home and made this Hosanna banner out of felt. I can't draw or paint but I can make anything out of felt. The leaves are for Palm Sunday and then each night we added a new symbol of what Christ did that day. The completed banner is at the end so keep reading.

We had our first egg hunt at Justin's parents' house on Saturday. Here are the kiddos ready to head out. Sarah has to participate. We all do!

 

 

Justin's aunt crocheted these bunnies and filled them with candy and I just love them so much. The kids do too, of course but I find them extra special because they remind me of.....

 

...these cute chicks my aunt crocheted for my sisters and I when I was just teeny tiny. I'm the little one in pigtails, maybe 2 and a half? Sadly no one still has theirs.

Emptying eggs.

It was cold and rainy Sunday so we had to take our pictures inside.

Erica is not pleased about something.

Now she's just mad.

These kids clean up pretty good. Last years colors were green and blue. This year is pink and blue. Totally unintentional as each kid picked out their own clothes but nice when it works out that way.

Justin was feeling left out so here you go.

Sarah was half amused/half embarrassed by us.

I like to sit by Erica while she sorts her candy because she will always hand me stuff she doesn't like.

That afternoon we went to my mom's. The kids helped me frost a bunny cake. He's actually a carrot cake because you are what you eat.

We had an extra layer so we made him an Easter basket.

We always take a picture of the kids participating but this year we had all the grandkids that were present included in the picture as well. I love these kids so much! Even though half of them aren't kids anymore.

And then they were off!

This is my little grand-nephew and I could just eat him up! He did a great job getting preoccupied with the first egg he found, just like all one-year-olds do.

Now I'm embarrassed for us. I don't know what we're doing here.

"Stop taking pictures of me so I can find candy," James is saying here.

Always check in the well. Always.

James was pranking everyone with this nesting doll situation. He had a jelly bean hidden in 4 levels of orange plastic eggs. Here he's tricking my dad. They both got a pretty good kick out of it.

Here's our completed banner. The symbols are just clipped on with these mini quilting clips I have. Next year I'm going to put the lettering on another color to make it stiffer and stand out more. And I'll thread the leaves through differently so they don't rotate. 

Justin and I took turns talking about what happened that day and then a child got to clip it on, day by day. Next year I'm going to have the kids take a turn teaching us what Christ did and maybe add some more symbols. 

First time for everything (gory photos alert)

 Tuesday at noon I got a call from the elementary school. James had gotten hurt at recess and I needed to pick him up "right now" because he needed stitches. I turned off the stove, grabbed my keys and wallet and walked out the door.  

When I got to the nurse's office, the secretary was making him an ice pack. His clothes, hands, and neck were all covered in blood but it had stopped bleeding by then. James explained he jumped out of a swing but then the swing hit him in the head. He had a cut on his ear and on his head behind his ear. I could see the one on his ear but didn't dare peek behind at the second wound. We left with the ice pack wrapped in paper towels and an extra roll.

I drove straight to the closest urgent care and went in first to see if they could see him asap. They said yes so I went back to the car and brought James in. We didn't even have to sit down. The receptionist announced a code yellow and we were guided by to a procedure room. A medical assistant got us settled and the NP gave him an initial once over but said we would have to wait for the doctor. Longest ten minutes of James's life so far. The NP gave him a couple of suckers and a Capri Sun so it wasn't all bad. Poor James was so scared and hurt and just wanted to go home. I sat by him and tried to keep his spirits up.

Once the doctor came in, they laid him down and tried to get the hair out of the wound on his head. James was really crying at this point. Once they could get to wound clearly the doctor gave him shots of lidocaine and that hurt too! Poor kid. Then the stitching began. James winced with every single stitch and cried out in pain. I asked for the doctor to give him more lidocaine and he did but James didn't flinch or feel the lidocaine needle. So it's still unclear to me if he was feeling pain or just really hated whatever he could feel with the stitches. It took about 20 minutes for him to do the 12 stitches (3 on his head, 9 on his ear) and by the end I was holding James's head in both of my hands to keep him still. My heart was just breaking.

Then the assistant cleaned him up as best she could, put on bandaids, and we headed home.

We sent a photo to Justin as proof he was home and okay.

While he was in the bathtub I put everything he was wearing into the washer and about lost it. So much blood.

He spent the rest of the afternoon on the couch. He said he felt well enough to go to his piano lesson later and went to school the next day. 

Here are some photos of the progression of healing. We had to take photos to show him what it looked like. He gets the stitches out in a week.

Changing the bandages that night. It's hard to see but he has a big goose egg too.

 

Wednesday

Today

First time for stitches for any of my kids. I hate these reminders how fragile by babies really are.

March comes in with a bang

"Let's go for a drive," suggested Justin one snowy Saturday night. "Ugh okay." We drove around on the slick roads, he and I. We tried doing doughnuts in the church parking lot then on the way back home we drove into a hole. Wham! Boom! What was that?! Construction crews created a four foot deep hole in the road that was covered with a metal plate. The snow plow that went by a minute before displaced the plate and we were the lucky ones that found that out. Mapleton notoriously lacks in street lights but there were no warning signs of a plate or hole either. I honestly don't know how two tires went in and then up and out of that hole. We turned around and parked right there to prevent anyone else from "finding" the hole and we called dispatch. The plow came back and saw us sitting there and got another guy with a front loader (Justin is going to be so mad I don't know the real word for the equipment) to slide the metal plate back. I don't know if the cops ever came. 

This is the angle we drove through it from. The truck has a nice crack the full width of the windshield and a popped tire.

Sarah's orchestra class got to perform at U of U in this beautiful concert hall. I got to watch it live streamed and took these screenshots.

She had so much fun and they played so well. Afterwards they all went to a pizza restuaruant in SLC and I speak with total confidence that that was the best part.

Justin told the kids they could never guess how "ornery" was spelled. These were their guesses.

I talked Justin into taking me to this breakfast place in Orem that I have wanted to go forever: Tru Religion Pancake and Steakhouse. He worked from home last Friday so I put us on the online waiting list and made him go when we got up in queue. I got a biscuit sandwich and a cinnamon roll and those are his pancakes that I'm trying. I'm not that much of a pig. It was pretty good and I want to go back to try more things. I don't eat breakfast foods very often even though I do love them.

Erica and her friend had a sudden interest in playing flag football, one on one. I thought it had to do with impressing boys at school but I later learned they are playing a Harry Potter themed dueling game they learned at school.

I don't want you to be caught off guard next time you come to my house so I am sharing this photo of Sarah's newly hung elk mount. I don't know how I feel about it. Scratch that, I know exactly how I feel about. Way too big, way too dead. Despite wanting to be the dictator of decor in my home Justin will not give me that title so here we are. She's taking it with her as soon as she moves out.

Saturday we put the trampoline back up and life has been so much better ever since. Sunday afternoons are usually full of fights borne of boredom but last Sunday was so quiet I think I fell asleep for a few minutes. The kiddos decided they also needed a tent outside, the weather was so nice.

This was after I kiboshed the plans of putting on their swimming suits and turning on the sprinklers.

For the first time ever we celebrated honored acknowledged pi day by having Moravian chicken pie for dinner and lime pie for dessert. I decided making yummy food is my kind of holiday.

We are having a windy day which isn't that unusual but the swirling snow on the mountain sure is. I got distracted multiple times while cleaning the house. Brr it looks cold up there.

What you're seeing below is the end of the credits of the 1992 Ron Howard/Tom Cruise film "Far and Away" which was my folding laundry show this week. What in the world is "Fungi the Dingle Dolphin"??

Thanks to google I now know it's an actual dolphin and Dingle is a city in Ireland.

"Fungie first showed up in Dingle in 1983 and quickly became a hit amongst locals and tourists alike due to his uncommonly friendly nature. 

The common bottlenose dolphin actively sought out human company and regularly swam close to tourist boats in Dingle Harbor, while local boat tours even offered money-back guarantees if Fungie didn't show up. 

Fungie also regularly accompanied local fishermen as they sailed out to sea from Dingle Harbor.

Question remains, why was it thanked in the movie credits? If I ever meet Ron Howard...

Leap Day 2024

Is leap day to be celebrated? Why an extra day in February? Aren't we all happy to say goodbye to February? Why not tack an extra day onto April or September? Those months seem to fly by. 

James asked to learn cribbage. I think he just likes our boat shaped cribbage board and wanted to learn how to use it. It's a pretty complicated game with lots of parts but it's mostly math so I knew he'd like it. He loved it. He even beat me. For comparison, I was 21 when I learned how to play; he's 7.

(I really didn't mean for all these pictures to be of just James) For President's Day we went to Brooker's ice cream tavern for some "Abraham Lincoln's New Birthday Cake of Freedom" and "George Washington's Indispensable Flavor" and "Paul Revere's Midnight Ride", etc. This ice cream is so good but it's so expensive so we only go twice a year. The other day being Independence Day of course. James manages to get the best ice cream beard every time.

This is his Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial he made at school. He was so proud to show me and tell me all about them.

Henry had an orchestra concert last week. He was sitting on the end for once so we got a good view of him. He wouldn't stop talking while I was taking his picture.

At the end of the concert as people were filing out he did this because he loves orchestra so much. I kind of thought he took the class because he didn't want to do band or chorus but it was quickly his favorite class. So crazy he's moving to 8th grade at the junior high next year. We love Mrs. Harman's concerts so luckily Erica will be playing for her in 2 years.

Sunday it was 61 degrees and the kids begged to get their swimming suits on. Tuesday the garbage can froze shut. I love weather in all it's unpredictability.

No idea what Erica is doing here but I'm pretty sure it was just for me.

Basketball season is all wrapped up and no one wants to play spring sports (phew!) so I think this is a calmer season of the year. Well for me. For Justin he gets to figure out 40+ callings. Our ward boundaries changed and they divided our stake. We lost some great neighbors and friends to the 2nd and 20th wards but I have to keep reminding myself no one moved away but it does feel that way.  Our neighbors across the street are not only in a different ward but a different stake. The church I can see from my driveway is not or building and never will be. Utah is fun like that. But I am looking forward to meeting new people on Sunday. The couple of streets we gained to the south of us are full of kids so that's fun for my kids. 

I always look forward to March because it means we are well on our way to spring but my expectations of March are always way too high and I get even more sad when it snows. But Easter is in March and that's my second favorite holiday so bring it!