Eggs, Candy and Lamb''

What do all these things have in common?  Our Easter celebration this year.  We did all the traditional Easter things, but also tried to really emphasize the true purpose of Easter...the Atonement and Resurrection of our Savior.  I hope we were successful.

No Easter is complete without dying eggs. One of my favorite parts.

 Since we have church pretty early we didn't do any of the celebrating until after.  Maria was with us for the week, so she got to be with us.

We kept the baskets simple this year.  Can you guess which one is Hyrum's?

 Jared and Grandma arranged the annual Easter egg hunt.

The kids got quite the stash of goodies.

David, Rachel and their kids came over for an Easter dinner.  Rachel made the most delicious lamb. You can make more anytime!!!  David got the privilege of cutting the ham.

I love that this picture has such a 70's vibe.

I hope each year are able to help our kids understand the true reason for Easter and it will be as special to them as it is to us.

We Love Him

This is a basic recap of Richy's visit. We loved having him here and wish he could have spent even more time with us.  He sure is missed now that he is home.

Great-Grandma Dautel sent us all money as a special treat to go as a family to Chuck-a-Rama.  My kids were soooooo excited and loved it.  They ate themselves silly.

Katie...ever the poser.

Scripture time

He does manicures

A favorite with all children

General Conference...What a Weekend

We had a crazy fun conference weekend, the beginning of this month.  Mandi, Ben and the kids were in town and spent a lot of Saturday with us.  My kids just loved having their cousins around. My parents and Kathi came over also. Around lunch time David, Rachel and the kids came to spend lunch with us all. Needless to say it was chaos.  But so much fun!!!

My kids loved having their cousins around.  I loved being with my family. They are the best.

Annie went the Saturday morning session with Uncle Richy.  That girls is so spoiled. She had a great time.

Aunty Kay bought a new car and we all went out to oooh and ahhh.

We took the chance with us all together to celebrate my dad's birthday. I made cheesecake and it was soooo good.

Sunday was spent with Jared's side of the family. Since there were fewer people it was bit calmer.

Katie got tired, so she got the rare privilege of sleeping in our bed.

Annie and I saw these great fruit pizzas being made on a cooking show and decided to make them for the treat on Sunday. She got to help me shop and everything.

Katie spent awhile making a canopy for Emilee. She sure was determined. And Emilee wasn't bothered by her. It was funny to watch.

The Photo Shoot

Annie got baptized earlier this month.  Since Temple Square is so beautiful in the spring and the timing was perfect, we took the family one afternoon and did a photo shoot for our girl.  Here is just a sampling of the pictures.

This girl's got personality.

 Jared took the pictures of Annie while I entertained the other kids.  They loved getting their pictures taken also.

Hyrum knew exactly which statue was Hyrum Smith.  He sure loves his namesake.

Can anyone guess what my favorite part of this picture is? It made me laugh.

Part of the invitation Jared made for Annie's baptism.

We Grew Up

Last month was Jared and I's ninth anniversary.  I can't believe it has been that long. But then I think about all we have done and experienced I wonder how it all fit into just 9 years.  We decided to do something big to celebrate later and just spend time together the evening of our anniversary.

Temple Square is one of my favorite places on earth.  Jared knows how much I love it, so we drove there and walked around.  We found ourselves reminiscing about an experience we had there when we were engaged.

Just after we got engaged Jared traveled to Utah for a 3 week business trip.  We decided to surprise him and have been come a week into the trip.  My brother, David, picked me up at he airport.  Ray arranged to have the two of them at Temple Square waiting for us. Jared was very cold and frustrated, he couldn't understand why they were there again.

They were waiting for us at the Christus.  When Jared saw me walk up all he could think to say was a very romantic, "Why are you here?" I gave him a kiss anyway.

During the week we were separated, Jared had bought my engagement ring. Before coming to Temple Square Ray hid it in his pocket, thinking Jared might want it once he saw me.  Jared and I headed out to walk around and Ray slipped it to him.

Reenacting his surprise.  This is the actual place he was sitting.

We walked around and talked. Then we got to the podium in front of the temple and there Jared officially proposed to me. He was so cute and love him even more now than I did then.

I am so glad I got to marry the most perfect man in the world for me.  He treats me like a queen and thinks I am so beautiful.  I often thank Heavenly Father for blessing me with my Jared.

It was wonderful to relive the memories and think about our lives together.  Here's to another 9 years and beyond!!

My Boy

My boy loves BYU things. I guess I did something right.

His crazy hair is the result of a combination of my thickness and Jared's craziness.

He was downstairs playing one day and then he was quiet for awhile. I went down to check on him and found that he had put himself down for a nap.

I love the little spot of drool.

He dived in to give me a hug goodnight and gave me a fat lip. There are worse reasons to get a fat lip.

Hyrum loves his baby sister.  He is surrounded by girls but handles it well. He is absolutely all boy.

I sure love my boy. He challenges my patience, but is also so sweet.  On Monday we are going to try potty-training again. I will probably be a wreck within a couple hours.

We were at Temple Square the other day. We were by the statues of Hyrum and Joseph. I asked him which one was Hyrum and he knew exactly which one it was.  He loves Hyrum Smith and I am so glad.  He does the cutest thing.  He holds up one thumbs up and says "this is me." Then he holds up the other hand in a thumbs up and says "this is Hyrum Smith!"

We Met

This one is a little out of order, but I have so many I am trying to catch up on.  Before Emma had to go back into the hospital with RSV Jared and I went down to see some family. My mom was out of town visiting my sister. We wanted to see my dad and introduce Emma to my grandparents (some of the most special people in to whole world to me).

I never been able to share one of my brand new babies with my grandparents (they did meet Anne when she was 3 months and Hyrum when he was 5 months) and I loved seeing their excitement.  These are such special moments for me and I am so grateful we are here to experience them.  We missed having my mom there though. It is just not the same without her.