Easter

Easter was a fun day. We did the usual baskets and small egg hunt inside our house. Then off the church (in new church clothes!). We ended the day with dessert at a friend's house.

Easter Egg Hunt

We did go to 1 egg hunt this year. It was at our church building. First there was a short program about the real meaning of Easter and how we can try to remember Christ during this time. That was followed by the egg hunt. The kids were broken up in to age groups to make it more fair for the little ones. Apparently we did not explain it very well to Johnny. When they said "Go!" and we all started yelling "Go Johnny, run!" that's exactly what he did. He ran through the grass past all of the eggs and would have kept going but he must have finally heard us say stop. Eventually he turned around and came back to get some eggs.

Addie thought she needed to give him some assistance.

Did I mention it was a nice day? Sunny and super bright.

Next we watched Addie's age group. She doesn't need any coaching at this point. I like her strategy though. She takes off running and grabs the eggs furthest away from the start line.

Addie and Jack.

I really wanted a picture of them together but Johnny was not cooperating (not a surprise) and the sun really was pretty bright making it hard to look at the camera.

This is the best we could do!

Dying Easter Eggs and more

We didn't do a lot this year as far as Easter crafts or egg hunts but we did manage to find time to dye eggs. We did this every year when I was a child and I'm pretty sure I've made Daniel do it every year since we've been married. I will say I wasn't feeling very creative this year and I just let the kids do whatever they wanted (which resulted in a bunch a plain colored eggs). We didn't even do any of those shrink wrap things that come with the dye.

I'm making the dye. Yes I know, I look huge (not just in my belly!). I feel that way too!

I saw this idea to use a beater for young children. It would have worked great if the cups we were using were deeper. It only covered half the egg at a time.

She was doing a tri colored egg all on her own.

Obviously excited with the outcome!

I don't think we got a photo of the finished products, this is the best we have. :)

****

Now for some random photos. Picasa has some fun new photo editing tools. I finally got around to playing with some of them.

***

Have I mentioned we are potty training? Johnny D has been in underwear for about 2 weeks now with minimal accidents. I won't go in to too much detail, but we are still having issues with him wanting to go "big poops" as his sister calls it, in the toilet. Other than that he's doing great! We go shopping, to playgroup and even to church with him in underwear. I've decided pull ups don't work with him, he treats them just like diapers. For now, he only wears diapers when he is sleeping. Here's hoping to having him out of diapers before the baby comes!

Showing off his cool underwear.

And his muscles. :)

General Conference

At the end of March we had the opportunity to watch/listen to General Conference. We don't have any TV channels that air it so we watch it online. It does get tricky trying to watch our small computer screen with the kids talking and running around. This time I did my best to be prepared. I was all for 2 days of sitting around in my comfy clothes eating treats and being with my little family.

***

One of my goals was not to get up 50 thousand times for snacks, water, tissues, toys, etc. By the time all the sessions were over, it turned out I had more activities and treats planned than we had time for. This was also the first weekend Johnny was in underwear all day so of course there were lots of trips to the bathroom but for the most part the kids kept themselves quiet and entertained.

***

Johnny was not feeling great. Friday he had a fever of 102.7 when I decided to take him to the doctor. They didn't find anything wrong with him. He just spent Friday and Saturday sleeping a lot. Would it be bad to say how nice it was that he slept through 90% of the Saturday morning session of conference? We had breakfast with Addie and a quiet couple of hours. I didn't know if he was going to take a nap in the afternoon since he woke up at 11. Thankfully he did and we had a semi quiet afternoon as well.

***

Anyway, so I got some good conference ideas off of pinterest. The one thing I tried to do was put the face of a potential speaker on most of the activities/treats. When that person got up to speak the kids could do/eat that item. I was impressed with how well the kids respected this idea and didn't try to go through the baskets of stuff and do whatever they wanted. I also had a sheet printed out that they could glue the face of the speaker on. It kept them (mostly Addie) listening and involved. So here are some of the things we did:

***

We snuggled with Dad.

Did puzzles. (See our assortment of drinks, games and tissues?)

Used lacing cards.

Cut and glued.

Some of us had a hard time staying awake. :)

Glued some more.

We ate doughnuts.

Did more puzzles. I also hung pictures from the Ensign magazine that were familiar things to the kids (family, prayer, reading scriptures). When they heard someone say one of those words they put a sticker on that picture.

That evening while Daniel was at the Priesthood session (just for the men) the kids and I met up with Katy and her boys for some yogurt and some time at the park.

That turned out to be much longer of a post than I had intended. Maybe it will remind me next time when I don't feel like doing all the preparation work for conference that it did work and was worth it!

*****
Moving on. I didn't post a 24 week photo. Daniel thought he would be funny and mimic what I (supposedly) look like in my photos. He is always telling me I need to smile better. As far as I can tell, I am smiling. I am so stinkin tired even my face muscles don't work like they are supposed to I guess!