Easter Week

I am grateful that I can add the word WEEK into this

posts name!

For years I have watched my sister in awe do a fabulous job of teaching her

children all of the events that led up to Christ's resurrection. 

I asked my kids why we celebrate Easter.
All they could think of was that we get candy.

Epic parent fail moment.

I knew it was time to jump on board.

I was lucky to have Stephanie as a resource. Along with another blog with

lots of ideas on how to go over day by day what exactly happened.

Not going to lie, I learned a ton myself!

Lets start with Palm Sunday.

This was the day for us to dress in our Easter best since we wouldn't be

having church the following week due to General Conference.

I can't really say "best". 

The poor boys need new pants so badly!

 High water pants are in, right? 

I didn't get the girls matching dresses like I wanted to.

I scrambled through their drawers to find something soft and pastel-y.

Non the less, I think they looked adorable.

Even sister Lindi, the missionary:)

The seasonal buffet table in the kitchen.

The wall to the side of it was our Easter week poster!

Its a  time line of pictures of the all the events.

I  loved having this up in the kitchen, where we spend the most time in our house.

The kids could look at the pictures and remember what we discussed each night.

 Palm Sunday:

 Jesus' triumphal entry into the city of Jerusalem.

They colored and cut out palm leaves.

They each took turns acting out Jesus riding in on a donkey while

the rest waved our palms while shouting Hosanna!

Monday:

Jesus cleansed the temple and healed the blind and lame.

After our lesson the kids built their own temples out of sugar cubes.

Tuesday:

Jesus taught by parables.

We discussed the parable of the 10 Virgins.

We made our own oils lamps out of clay.

I under estimated how long it would take for us to make these.

Rusty had a baseball game that night. After dinner and the lesson it was

9pm when we started our lamps!

Lucky kids got a late night on a school night!

Definitely a learning curve to these as well.

They turned out way bigger than anticipated, lol!

Wednesday:

We talked about Judas' betrayal along with healings and miracles 

performed by Jesus. Instead of an activity, we watched different bible videos about Christ

calming the tempest,  and Jesus raising the Daughter of Jairus. We discussed why we must have faith in the Savior and why each of these miracles happened because of faith.

We did switch a few things around to accommodate schedules.

Thursday:

We talked about the Crucifixion and Burial. 

Again no activity, just video clips.

My sister makes rolls that are hallow in the middle, to represent the tomb.

Next year I will make those!

We also dipped into the Atonement in Gethsemane since we would

be having a more fun night the following day and I wanted to keep that more reverent.

Friday:

Last Supper.

I was anticipating this the most!

Stephanie invited us over, along with my cousin Leah and her family for Passover dinner!

She goes all out, of course.

Here she is explaining the different types of food.

We had hard boiled eggs, nan bread, goat cheese, hard boiled eggs, dates, lamb,

super yummy lentil soup and grape juice!

We brought our lamps over to light.

Can you tell which ones are ours?

Haha, I couldn't stop laughing.

I remembered her saying that her pack of clay lasts them many years.

I bought the same package and I was confused because we used all of ours up and could have used more clay!

Now I know.

I guess our lamps wont run out of oil as fast:)

The kids enjoyed eating on the floor

A look at our meal

The grownups enjoyed eating outside and catching up!

Leah is the cousin we were closest to growing up.

We gathered inside for the lesson.

Stephanie had an awesome book called Let My People Go that she read.

She had Lane dress up like Moses and Amelia like Pharaoh. 

The others got to hold things that represented the different plagues.

Perfect way to go over why they had Passovers

and why we don't have them anymore.

She also touched on that was why Jesus came to Jerusalem on a donkey,

to attend the Passover...Last Supper! 

Saturday:

Most leave this up to Easter parties or the day they get their Easter baskets instead of on Sunday.

We briefly talked about how Jesus laid in his tomb while his spirit visited the spirits in prison to preach to them while the earth was dark for 3 days. We talked about how Christ is the light of the world and brings us out of darkness.

Sunday:

I did let them get their baskets on Sunday.

For some reason I think this is totally fine, some may think otherwise.

It was kind of nice for them to have candy to occupy them during conference!

Playing with their hang gliders that were in their baskets.

Our living room tv has been broken.

So we all got to cuddle on our bed and watch our Prophet and leaders!

This was a monumental conference as we received a new prophet, and 2 new apostles.

It was April Fools and I needed to capitalize on it.

I borrowed a neighbors Easter basket and had the kids line up for a picture.

Some of them weren't happy they had to pose... AGAIN!

Can you tell which one?

I sent it to both families in a text feed.

I am happy to say I fooled  a few into thinking we were adding another chickadee to our family:)

This year we didn't have anywhere to be for Easter Sunday!

My family did theirs the Sunday before and Casey's family did theirs early as well.

It was kind of weird not having anywhere not having any obligations.

But it ended up turning out nice!

We went to the cemetery to talk about the last and most important day.

Christ's resurrection.

The whole reason why we celebrate Easter!

We have quite a few family members and friends buried in the Mesa Cemetery.

We made our rounds finding our loved ones that we will get to see again because of HIM!

On the way home we passed by the temple.

It is closing in May for 2 years to be completely remodeled.

The visitor center will be flattened to the ground and moved across the street.

I wanted to visit it one more time so I had Casey make a U turn and in we went!

Pretty girl by the pretty flowers

After the temple the whole neighborhood seemed to have gathered out front.

The weather was amazing and the kids played while the grownups talked for hours.

I love my neighborhood family just as much as my real family.

We truly are blessed beyond measure!

Our Easter Poster is full as well as our hearts!

That week was a special one.

It has taken on a whole new meaning for us.

It was worth all the effort and we now have a new tradition to look forward to.

Spring Break!

We managed to score a Spring Break with decent weather this year!

Which the boys were grateful for since the were headed to the dunes

no matter what!

We needed to put our new trailer and RZR to good use before the Summer hiatus.

Do you think its long enough?

I loved getting pictures through out the day.

I trained Casey right:)

We face timed at the perfect time.

They were stopped for a break and the boys had their shoes off jumping to their sandy delight!

What were us girls up to at home?

Lots of barf, and Lindi was the victim.

She was excited for our movie night.

She picked some type of Barbie movie.

I popped popcorn, Della was in heaven!

The  next day we pretty much stayed in bed, glued to the tv... or toilet:/

Catch up time

We put the finishing touches on the front yard.

Casey poured concrete and put in rock on the side of our house and into the front yard!

We can officially say the front yard is DONE!!

We made a big purchase.

Probably the biggest in our 14 years of marriage, besides our house.

We welcomed a RZR into the family!

It wasn't expected and we certainly weren't looking around for one.

Long story short, our good friends were selling theirs and it just seemed right.

So we bought it.

It's been fun for Casey to pick the kids up from the bus in it.

It was Rusty's turn for his first pinewood derby!

We cross our fingers each year that the cars get a little faster.

Our fingers weren't crossed tight enough I guess.

Poor Rusty, such a good sport.

I think our saving grace was that he got second place in a race, once.

That was enough bragging rights for him, lol!

These next pictures are what I like to call sweet and salty.

Della girl can be the SWEETEST thing.

Here she is helping dad patch up the stucco before getting repainted.

Helping wash the RZR

 Making you laugh with her everyday cuteness.

But then you get the salty.

This girl is by far the BUSIEST baby I have had!

She is quick and smart.

Not a good combo.

For instance:

Lane got up for a second to get a pencil.

When he came back, sister was in his spot munching on his 

after school snack!

See the pout on his face and the smile on hers?

She climbs.

A mothers worst nightmare.

Every chair we own is tipped on the floor.

Not 2 minutes after I took her off the desk did I find her with new skin art.

I have no idea how she got the pen.

It's like she shoved it down her shirt on purpose to say "I will show you not to

take me off the table!".
And then whipped it out after I turned my back for the ultimate come back.

And yes, she knows how to click the pen part down for it to write, UGH!

Church is a joke.

This was the third time dumping out her fruit loops.

She got a nice flick on the face for doing so and busted into tears.

Lucky for her, sis Pendleton has compassion for naughty babies.

I think that Sunday was the hardest by FAR!
I was sitting on a chair by the clerks office during 3rd hour when our bishop

came walking up.

With a chuckle he said, so what have you gotten out of church today Shelley?

I chuckled and thought, what have I gotten out of church the past 18 months!!

2 more weeks till nursery, 2 more weeks.

Basketball came and went!

Originally Rusty was put on a team with all girls.

Even though we knew every girl on the team, I felt bad for him.

 After some hassle by the overly strict city of Mesa coordinator, I was able 

to switch him to a team with other boys.

This was after he versed the all girl team he was supposed to be on.

Lily is his childhood friend.

Lane was on a team with all of his friends.

They called themselves the Purple Party Poopers.

Who has listened to the comedian Ryan Hamilton?

After peeking in on Lane who had made everyone grilled cheese for lunch I wanted

to yell his FREEEDOM!!! bit.

My ship has finally come!

Somebody else who can "cook":)

Another photo shoot at the temple with the cousin's!

I ended up taking home these girlies.

Val and Minda had Stephanies kids because they were out of town.

I wanted to give them a break, plus we like playdates.

We picked up Randon and Dallin and 

with the neighbors mixed in we had ourselves a party!

I signed Lindi up for t-ball.

Not going to lie, it was a huge gamble on whether she would cling to my leg
or actually have fun.
It was a WIN.
She loves it!
And even better that she is on a team with 4 other cousins and
Aunt Val and Uncle Jake as the coaches!

At the first practice Della thought Travis was Casey.

She squealed so loud when she caught glimpse of him and ran over!

But was slightly confused why "dad" wasn't scooping her up and snuggling her.

Ha!

We had a pigeon problem.

Those things are of the devil!

Massive poop and they are LOUD as can be.

Throwing lemons at them from our tree wasn't scaring them away, so I got on 

Amazon and bought an air soft gun!

When it arrived, Casey quickly loaded it and took down the street, "taking care of business". 

Not long did it take for the neighbor boys to catch wind and all the other guns came out of the

wood works!

Buh buy birds!

One of the things I look forward to at the end of the day is my run with

the girls in the stroller.

I am so used to it that I prefer to push the stroller than go by myself!

The girls look forward to it, too.

It must have been a long, hard day.

When I got back to the house I was surprised to see them both conked out!

Back to Ryan Hamilton, I happened upon tickets by accident!

We went with some of Casey's siblings and spouses.

That guy had us rolling.

I was tempted to buy tickets in another city just to hear him perform again.