Easter 2025

First off, here's some tulips I grew for you to admire and get you in the Easter spirit.

And some blossoms that I thought were ever so pretty I found whilst on a walk.

And a gigantic lemon from my aunt's California lemon trees. I think having a lemon tree is the only thing I'd like about living in California.

Okay, more random stuff. The ice cream scoop on the left is one that Justin and I bought with a giftcard from our wedding. Nearly 19 years later the handle is pretty gummy and the metal is kind of pitting. So I ordered a new one. I had to take pictures of it before I gently placed it into the garbage can. That scoop got used more than any other utensil in our kitchen, for sure.

 

 Now we can talk about Easter. The seeker crew was a little small this year. They are just growing up! Some of my grown nieces and nephews better be replenishing the seeker group pretty quick or there's going to be no egg hunt here in a few years.

 

 

 

 

Sunday morning. Justin was home so that alone was cause for celebration. I cut some fresh flowers for the table and I got breakfast started. Pancakes, buttermilk syrup, bacon, and scrambled eggs.

After breakfast James opened the tomb that we closed on Friday.

These kiddos clean up pretty well.

Yes Henry's tie is the color of a Peep. His request.

After church I finished up the carrot cake for dessert and we watched a church video about Christ's atonement and resurrection then we went to Justin's parent's house for dinner. All of his brothers and their families were there and his aunt. After dinner we had an egg hunt, of course.

And then we served dessert. Erica was sad I didn't make the bunny cut-out cake like last year but instead made a triple layer cake. I told her she could make ears for it anyway.

Happy Easter!

Not so springy break, conference and something that bugs me

I am obsessed, obsessed, I tell you, with tulips in my yard. I have like 100 of them in like 6 different beds and they are blooming at different times and it brings me so much joy. Here are the first of the flock and I just want them to last forever. If they are especially dense, I cut a few and bring them into the house.

 

We did not do much this spring break. Sarah had to work and Justin had some deadlines plus the weather was just cold and wet so not worth taking time off. The kids slept in and watched TV each morning which is their favorite thing anyway. They all played with friends a lot, we ate out a lot, went shopping, did some deep cleaning, cooked some fun foods. I made raspberry jam and it is up there in my top 10 bestest creations. I had a bag of frozen raspberries in my freezer from last year and when the great freezer deaths of 2024 occurred last May, they defrosted into a big mass and that's how they refroze when I saved them. No longer good for smoothies--just jam. Great jam.

Sarah had to work one night when we took the middles to a Thai restaurant so we took her out to lunch just the three of us. (James went to the zoo and Chick-fil-a that night so I don't feel like I had to make up anything to him.) We went to a restaurant where you order over the phone. We all ordered breakfast food which is Sarah's favorite restaurant food.

That week we also painted our wooden eggs for the year. This is our 6th year doing it so we now have 36 eggs around the house! They are so cute and fun to spot on bookshelves and other places. My Easter decoration collection is slowly growing. More on that in my Easter post.

We ended Spring break week with general conference. I gathered up some treats that I had in the house and bought a few more. I also printed some activity sheets and bought a few easter craft kits at Hobby Lobby to make 18 speaker treats. This year I added 3 for women speakers.

The kids do so great these days. It wasn't that long ago that I considered myself lucky if I could hear one talk uninterupted. The littles still like to do the bingo cards and we pulled out a few jigsaw puzzles.

It works best if we spread out as much as possible, especially for Henry.

And of course the best part of conference weekend (besides the talks of course): cinnamon rolls! I'm so glad I finally found my go-to recipe. I betcha I've made more than a dozen different recipes over the years but I've made these 3 conferences in a row now. I sub in some gluten for some of the flour and they are so, so good.

Saturday afternoon was Mason's birthday so we went there for cake. He's such a great cousin and friend to Henry.

Justin's aunt gave us a free-standing hammock and the kids have had so much fun with it. I told them it is for sure not a rough-housing hammock like our blue one in the trees and they have done a good job just relaxing in it. Yard stuff is the best stuff.

Alrighty, spring break is over and Sarah is a student of the month! She was nominated by her biology teacher Mr. Hyer. He said some very kind things about her like how she is so happy and helpful, is never late or absent, does all her work and even does the extra credit assignments even though she doesn't need it.

Justin took the priests and oldest YW class on a hike in southern Utah. They left Friday night and started the hike Saturday morning. Here's a picture before they started.

It took a lot longer than they expected since it was a larger group than he's done before but all the kids seemed to enjoy stemming through the narrow canyons.

And here's a picture of them at the end. Very tired and very dirty.

I have been watching this house being built on the way to school and as soon as the framing was done I knew something was wrong. To me, at least. It will always bug me that this window is not centered in the triangle of the house.

Like the windows are centered in the houses right across the street.

 

Anyways....thus begins my favorite week counting down to my favorite holiday. Candy is bought, church clothes mostly arrived. Now we just get to settle in and retrace the steps Jesus took His last week.