Easter...A Little Late :(

I am very late getting this posted and I apologize. Life has been a bit out of control these past few weeks. Oh well...at least I got around to it eventually!

We had a great Easter this year. It was very relaxing. We spent the morning in church and then headed to Steve and June's for Easter dinner with Greg's family. Christopher had gone back to California to visit his mission so we only had four kids with us. It was a wonderful day and I really enjoyed just having a nice dinner and visiting with family. There is something to be said for having older children now. I love that the focus is more on Christ and not on the "Bunny Dude". They seem to really have an appreciation of the season and all those years of teaching them the real meaning of Easter are paying off. Below are some pictures of the day. Enjoy!

It's Official!

Well.....it finally official...Tara is engaged! Austin proposed to her tonight. The big date is June 20th in the Draper Temple. Wow...hard to believe that we are going to have a son-in-law. We are just happy to have such a great one like Austin. Welcome to the family, Austin!

Snowy Surprise

This is what we woke up to this morning. We knew that there was a possibility of snow last night, but the weatherman said that we could expect 3-6 inches on the foothills...not the valley floor. SURPRISE! In the pictures below you can see my garden (covered in snow), Mr. Scribbles trying to navigate in the icy white stuff, and my poor tulips in my front flower bed. Oh, to have those 100 plus degree days!

"None Were With Him"

This YouTube video had the most hits of any video on the internet in the past week. If you take a few minutes to watch it, you will understand why. Nobody can say it quite like Jeffrey R. Holland.

Easter Egg Hunt

Today was our annual Easter Egg Hunt for our ward. Every year the Primary puts on a hunt for children ages 0-12. I can't believe that we only have one child that is "legal" to hunt. Seems like just yesterday all five kids were out looking for eggs. Emma's eligibility only lasts for two more years so I made sure I was able to get some pictures of the big event.

Each child was told they could get 6 eggs from their designated area (determined by age) and then they would come back to the pavilion and receive some "prize eggs". The prize eggs had names and addresses of people in the neighborhood. Each child would then go to that home and receive a prize egg. An example of a prize egg could be bubbles, a chocolate bunny, laffy taffy etc. Before the hunt, the neighborhood would sign up for as many prize eggs as they were willing to provide. This is a great opportunity for the children to become familiar with the people of our neighborhood. A lot of the older people in our area love this! It gives them an opportunity to interact with these wonderful kids. Parents accompany the children, so there is never a problem with safety.

The picture below was taken as people were gathering for the hunt.


And....they're off! These are the little children. The older ones had already gone :)

What a great tradition for our neighborhood! I guess pretty soon I may be bringing grandchildren to this event. Hopefully, not for a while, though :)

Happy Birthday Grandma

Today would have been my Grandma's 95th birthday. I know I have blogged about her before, but she was truly a remarkable woman and I miss her. I catch myself thinking that she is still down at Jamestown and that I need to go visit her....crazy, I know. These past few days she has really been on my mind and so I decided that our family would have a small birthday party for her. Yesterday after General Conference we had a lemon birthday cake and sang "Happy Birthday" to Grandma. Yeah...my kids thought I was nuts, but I don't really care. I also had each of them write down one of there favorite memories of her. Here is what they came up with...

Christopher: "Eating the taffy in her candy bowl outside her door at Jamestown and dancing to the player piano."

Jenni: "My favorite memory of Grandma is going to her house in Orem and playing downstairs with the piano that played by itself."

Tara: "My favorite memory of Grandma Brinkerhoff is when we would visit her at Jamestown and feed the ducks. It was always a lot of fun to visit her. I miss her and love her."

Josh: "I remember how fun it was doing the 12 days of Christmas for her and Lloyd."

Emma: "Feeding the ducks and playing with the toys in her room."

Greg: "She was steadfast in living the gospel."

Me: "I love the story involving Christopher and Tyson. Grandma had asked them to come to her house to help with some yard work. We were able to provide transportation one way, but could not get them home. As many people will recall, Grandma was driving long past the time when she should have been. She offered to get them home, and for some strange reason, we agreed. When the time arrived to come home, Christopher and Tyson climbed in the back seat with Grandma as the chauffeur. As Grandma began to drive to our home, she hit a curb, which alarmed the boys. Tyson quipped to Christopher "It is a good thing that I have been on an airplane and know how to assume the crash position."

I have many more stories that I could tell, but I suppose the most important thing to relate would be that she had the strongest testimony of this gospel of anyone I knew. She was certainly steadfast and immovable and a wonderful example to all her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. I love you Grandma and can't wait to see you again :)

(The picture above is of my brother, Mark, and my Grandma at her birthday some time ago)

Sleeping Beauty

Today Emma went into the laundry room and noticed that for some reason the door to the dryer was open. I am not sure why, but she looked inside the dryer before closing the door and noticed that Mr. Scribbles was laying inside taking a little snooze. We are not sure how he got in there because no one had opened the door after the load of laundry was dried. I guess it will be another great mystery of life-Ha! It was hilarious! Christopher was not laughing too much because Mr. Scribbles was draped out all over his clean clothes :) Talk about a Kodak moment :D

Off To The Conference Center

Greg, Christopher and Josh were able to get tickets to go to the Priesthood session of conference this evening in Salt Lake City. It was great seeing all three of them together again heading out the door to listen to the prophet speak. I can't wait to have them come home in a few hours and get the full report.

Josh Has A License To Kill...

Josh has been taking his driver's ed class at school and last week we decided to bite the bullet and go get his permit. After Tara just totaled my Expedition, I was not too enthusiastic about the idea of having another teenage driver in the house. He is excited and is now begging us to take him out driving. Give me patience and strength :) I will be so happy when all my kids finally have this part of their lives over with. Josh has a goal of being the first child in our family to have their license when they are sixteen. All the other kids waited and I was really okay with that. All I can say is to please slow down and watch carefully when passing by our home :)

( I love how he is holding his permit upside down...let's hope that is not an indication of his driving ability)