Happy Easter!

 Nana and Papa had us over for Easter dinner and Aunt Sam brought cascarones to celebrate. We loved breaking these confetti-filled eggs on each other's heads when we lived in San Antonio, so I was really excited she brought them! We had confetti everywhere and it stayed in our hair until we showered but it was a lot of fun.

Spring Break

 We really have had a lot of snow this year. We had a blizzard-like snow this week. PC tried to get to work on Wednesday and found out the road he normally takes was closed, so he took another. He only got about a mile down the road when everyone came to a standstill. He was stuck there for almost seven hours! He could have probably done around them, but wasn't sure how far down the median dipped and didn't want to get stuck in the snow, so he waited until everyone got cleared out. The road was closed though, so he had to take an even more remote way home. We were so glad he made it though. The wind had been blowing like crazy in all different directions. It really felt like we were right in the middle of a tornado. Crazy wind.

 This morning we put the candy in our eggs for our hunt tomorrow. Rosie loved them and rolled across the entire room trying to get them. That's the first time she's used rolling to get places.

 Tink went bowling and to a movie with friends, so I took everyone else to Ruzuto's for ice cream and then roller skating. It's one spring/fall break tradition that we love.

Murder Mystery

 Some friends from church put together a murder mystery dinner at their house. Unfortunately, PC had to work, so I went solo. My character was Jacqueline Hyde, otherwise known as Jackie. She was a workout-aholic who liked to party all night. It was a fun role to play. And we had great food and lots of fun with good friends.

Spring

 Little Rosie has been signing "more" for a while now, and I was able to get video of her doing it and snapped this picture. I love that all my babies were able to communicate through sign at a young age. PC keeps telling us that we all need to practice more ASL, and I agree. We have been practicing more and have checked out some Signing Time DVD's from the library. The kids make fun of them a little, but they enjoy them and are learning more signs!

 We had some nice weather, so I took the kids for a walk in the neighborhood. Minnie wanted to "hold" Pikes Peak in her hand.

 And Shortcake always has to have her picture taken too. She ran onto the golf course right after this, which she isn't supposed to do. Story of her life.

And we stopped at the park too. Rosie loves the swing!

Friends

It still amazes me how fast kids grow up. I do NOT remember it feeling fast when I was a teenager. In fact, I couldn't ever wait for the next stage. Having lived here now for over 4 years, we are seeing these kids grow up into something great. Tink wanted to have a party with some friends to play games. They had a blast. There was laughter throughout the house the whole night long. They played games and made memories. I loved hearing their conversations, too. It made me so grateful that we live in an area where my children will have friends who share their same values and standards. The boys were all talking about what they hope to do on their missions (like what kind of transportation they would like to use). It was hilarious, but also made me so appreciative of their insight and goals. I hope Tink continues to have these fun nights for them all to get to know each other better and be anchors for each other in this tubulent world.

American Girl

Minnie has been going to an American Girl book club at the library this school year with a friend. She has had so much fun with that, and a few weeks ago the librarian sent out an e-mail asking if any of the girls did not have their own American Girl doll. I quickly responded that Minnie did not and would love to have one. She worked it out with this great company that gives refurbished dolls to girls who don't have one to get one to her. We picked it up last night and Minnie is in love! I was so happy we could work that out for her. Today they had their last book club meeting for this school year and had a party with their dolls.

New Beginnings

The Laurels planned and executed our entire New Beginnings night this year. One young woman really wanted to do the theme around Fruit Roll-ups, so we did! Since the mutual theme this year is 2 Nephi 31:20, which reads, "Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life," we decided to focus on pressing forward one foot at a time. One of the Mia Maids made cute handouts we attached to the Fruit Roll-ups.

I was asked to give the talk about Personal Progress and introduce the Mutual theme. I ended up buying a file that had these cute handouts and this idea to build a mountain out of the values with a young woman pressing forward and heading to the top. I think it turned out pretty well. We did have some real fruit for dessert as well.