Easter Week

It was Spring Break and when we don't have a set schedule we don't do as well with regular scripture reading, but we DID manage to read most days...and when we did, we read the scriptures of what Jesus did on the days leading up to His resurrection.  This is a family tradition, and  I LOVE it!  Usually I put out pictures that go with the day, too, but didn't get that far this year.

Isabelle, Abram and Nolan with Maddie back in the corner.  Pace comes and goes:)

The thing that I will remember most about this spring break was Isabelle's restaurant that she did almost every day!

She made everything all fancy every time and even got the atmosphere just right with YouTube "restaurant music" playing.

The boys thought it was really fun the first day, but Isabelle's expectations were high:  they were to sit down and order an item from her menu, and then STAY SEATED until they were served.  It was a long time for them to sit and they complained a bit, even with her coloring sheets that were provided the next day!:D

Her restaurant kept getting more customers, and the same expectations applied to us all!

On Friday, she was excited to find out that I would be watching the Burt boys= MORE CUSTOMERS!!!

She decided, after serving even more rambunctious boys, that her brothers weren't so bad after all;)

Check out these cute menus, too! I love the descriptions for each entree:

 Her menus got even fancier as the week went on:

A multi-paged menu finished the week, and I failed to get pictures of it!  She actually took me shopping for groceries for that one:)

In other news, the Henderson family from the McKay Creek ward invited us to go with them to a trampoline place in Tri-cities on Tuesday.  Pace and Paisley:

Nolan and Abram playing dodge ball:

They got sooooo sweaty!

I didn't get pictures of the rest of us, but the kids had fun...

We watched a few movies during the week, and Pace's favorite place is perched on top of me:

I got my first letter EVER from the Phillipines!  It was all for me, and I was so excited that I got choked up and told the kids that I was going in my room to read my letter.  Maddie said, "why?  So you can cry in private?" Well maybe...;)  Four pages front and back and so much detail about what it's like for her there and experiences she is having that she never emails about.  I loved it so much!!

Also, while on the topic of missionaries, I finished a wall that makes my mother-heart very happy:  clocks that I can glance at and immediately know what time it is where they are, pictures of them and a scripture that our family memorized a couple of years ago:

We went on lots of walks this week-boy do I love walking here!:

And boy is Maddie getting great quads - because have I mentioned?- she is in track:

We see interesting things like this shrub that had beautiful flowers that looked like they had been pasted on since the rest of the shrub still looked dead! I have GOT to find out what this plant is:

I thought this sight was interesting - so did Shawn, but in a whole different way. Apparently this is what he wishes that we had for a family car?!!! He thinks taking the rack off the top and painting it would do the trick.  I think smashing it and starting all over would do the trick....:D

We went to three different parks this week and this particular time the boys all wanted to walk.  This was the day we had the Burts over and I realized on the way there that I was pretty brave to attempt this mission!  LOTS of kids!!:

l-r: Pace, Cameron, Nolan, Abram, Owen and Adam

Lots of yard work Saturday!  We pulled out lots of over-grown ugly shrubs and this yard is going to look amazing.  Especially when we have helpers like these:

Saturday night Isabelle and I went with Lisa Foust to egg some houses.  We hid Easter eggs that were candy-filled:

Belle and I thought it was pretty fun, so we decided to do the same thing for the boys.  We went out in the dark and hid eggs all over the yard so that when they woke up we could start the hunt.

I am enjoying having Easter the same day as conference. We had an investigator come watch with us yesterday with the Sister missionaries and she is coming back again today.

An edition of "the things they say"

Pace praying: "I'm thankful that Kami and Caden are on a mission and that they aren't around "deeps" (creeps)

Pace: "There is a violent baby at the gym!  It whacks people on the head and pushes 4 and 5 year olds!!"

Nolan: "Isabelle just slobbered all over my arm!  And I haven't pinched her bottom for a few minutes!!"

i don't even know....

While Pace and I waited for Nolan in the school office so that we could take him to an appointment, a little girl came in with a tooth that she had just lost.  The secretary said, "just a minute and I will get you something for that.  Pace leaned over to me and said, "Wait...are they getting her a different tooth to put in?!??"

Pace spending a lot of time lately wondering "what his Amy will be like?" And asking if grandpa's "Amy" does this or that?  So cute that a wife in his mind is called Amy:)

Pace when we were looking for vinyl to make floor pillows for the "hideout":  "I can help you look for it with my "sensing eyes" if you want!"

Oh you busy, beautiful week!!

Pace and I get to spend a lot of good, quality time with each other during the day.  I am so lucky to have him home with me for six more months, and I am trying to enjoy the time as much as possible because he will be going to school and I will be home all alone before I even know it:(

My visiting teacher invited Pace and I to lunch on Monday and we got there a little early so we took a picture while we waited:

Almost every day, Pace asks to go on a walk. We only have time to go a couple of times per week, partly because once we get out there, he doesn't want to come home. He keeps saying, "mom!  We aren't done adventuring yet!!"  This particular day, we were enjoying the nice warm weather and I was marveling that we have had spring since February.  And NOW there are flowers blooming.  Our grass stayed green all winter long, too!!

On Wednesday the school called and asked if I could help with school pictures.  It ended up being a great deal, because I got free pictures just for helping.  Pace helped a lot too - our job was to help kids write on these chalk boards and clean them afterwards.  Pretty easy-peasy and Pace enjoyed it:

And he was particularly excited when a fifth grade class came through and he saw this girl:

 I go pick the boys up every day after school and Pace waits for this girl to walk by the car. When he sees her coming, he asks to unbuckle, rolls down the window, and says "hi" to her.  If she notices him, she says "hi" back and sometimes she says more, like, "I like your mohawk!!"  After she walks off, Pace does a fist pump and says "YES!!!" So Pace got to really meet her, and we learned that her name is Chloe:)

Wednesday night was the Pinewood Derby.  Shawn had texted earlier that he was worried about the cars.  I asked why, and he said he hadn't wanted to worry the boys, but the pin stripes that they had painted on them had bled through and he wasn't sure how to fix it.  I told him I would take care of it.  Unfortunately I never got a finished picture of the cars, just these when I asked Shawn if they were looking ok. I ended up putting another strip on the left, too:

Turns out the boys probably won't care to remember these cars because they were some of the slowest there...poor guys. Hopefully next year will be better!!:

They were really good sports, but it was hard to see them lose over and over again:( I guess some years are like that!

Still at the hopeful stage:

Friday I was invited to the school because Abram was receiving an award in his school assembly:

I thought he received the most important award of all!:

It seemed like there was something every evening this week: Monday night was FHE, Tuesday night was the RS birthday celebration, Wednesday night was mutual, Thursday night was the Pinewood Derby, Friday night we went to Lagrande for Isabelle's lesson and met up with my family to celebrate mom and dad's birthday (I looked forward to this for DAYS):

l-r: mom, dad, Ivy (who put this all together) and Joseph:

l-r: Ori, Adam, Steve, Katie, Heidi, Kevin:

l-r: Aaron, Kelly and on down.  Not pictured were Tia, Shawn and I:)

March 11-17

Sunday is a great blogging day...except for when it's not!  This was last week in a nutshell:

I was called to be Young Women's President in our ward!  L-r: Elaina Solomon - second Counselor, Amanda Robinson- secretary, Natalie Crowder- first counselor:

I am really excited to serve with these neat ladies and to serve the Young Women in our ward! This was a picture that the bishop took of us when we were at his house for a presidency meeting that he wanted to join in on.

We had a lot to take care of right off the bat.  First off was mutual and a tri-stake dance.  Maddie made an awesome poster for the dance.  Have I mentioned how awesome she is at writing beautifully?  She is so talented at this!:

For mutual, Maddie was already in charge of the activity.  She had chosen to have the girls make modest wedding dresses out of napkins.  All I had to do was pick up supplies and make cupcakes, per her request:

I was pretty happy with the cupcakes...

All of the Young Women had a great time with this activity! I was amazed what they could do with these napkins.

The beautiful gown creations, on Cassidy Welch, Jenna Welch, and Adelaide Tesch:

On Wednesday night Isabelle had a choir concert.  I was really proud of her, because she tried out for a solo part and got it!  It ended up that her "solo" part was to be sung with four other people, but she was brave enough to do it. Also, Isabelle is so cute and tiny.  Notice how the other girls are in flats or short heels and Isabelle is in TALL heels and still a lot shorter:)

Isabelle got the boys all excited about Leprechauns and St. Patrick's day and helped them build traps.  I'm not entirely sure how any of them work.  They weren't good enough to catch a Leprechaun, but every single one of them had rolos in them when the boys woke up on Saturday morning. 
Pace's trap:

A slide into a dead-end shoe box by Nolan:

Ever random Abram made a trap over the sink. This is AFTER the Leprechaun fell into it...:

Saturday morning Isabelle and I also drove over to Walla Walla to a Beehive conference that I was asked to speak at a month ago.  I don't think I like anticipating something like that for THAT long!  But it was fun and turned out well.  We drove over with these gals, l-r: Julianne Jones, Adelaide Tesch and Isabelle:

That night, we went to a St. Patrick's Day party with the Wares.  Aaron ware smoked some great ribs, and Brittany decorated everything and made a fun dinner! Some of us in our required party clothing:

I had more people send me pictures of Caden. I love receiving these surprise texts throughout the week - it's a definite perk of him serving in the states!!

I commented on their matching ties in this picture, and was told that they wore it to sing at the assisted living center that day:)