Easter Sunday

We had a great time at church on Easter.  The spirit was especially strong!  I'm so grateful for my Savior and all he has done for me! 

After church, we headed to the Hills for dinner and fun.  They had the house decorated very cute and fun, and dinner was delicious!

(Click on collages to enlarge.)

Rori... That picture cracks me up!  Most of us were visiting at the dinner table after we had finished eating, then MJ and I saw Rori walking around with that butterfly net on her head, laying the toy trumpet!  We just started giggling, and I grabbed my camera.  Classic Rori! lol

Ryan made THREE fabulous cheesecakes for dessert: Layered Hazelnut, Chocolate Cherry, and Chocolate.  They were all SO. GOOD!!!

Rori again... lol.  For some reason, she started eating her cheesecake with her hands.  The flash was a little bright in that pic, but I couldn't pass up including it.  ;)

The weather was kind of wild!  It would go from sun, to rain, to rainbows, and back to sun again.  Later we saw this crazy cloud that almost looked like a twister touching down (but it was just sitting there, not swirling or moving at all)!  The rainbows were so awesome!  This has to be the brightest rainbow I've ever seen, and it was a full, double rainbow!  Check it out!

After eating, things started to get a little wild.  It all started when Mary Jane wanted to show us the HUGE teddy bears she bought for my cousin's litte girls:

But then another bean bag and some pillows were added to the cushy pile and this started happening:

Easter Dresses

Spring has sprung!

As I've mentioned, I've been enjoying working out in the yard as we've had really nice weather lately.  The flowers are all enjoying the nice weather, too!  They are waking up and starting to bloom.  I worked hard at removing the rocks (ground cover) that filled the rose garden bed, and then planted a lot of flowers to fill in the space.  After these spring flowers die back, I'll add some summer blooms, but for now, it's looking so nice, full of bright, cheerful colors. :)

Easter Fun

On Monday, we dyed Easter Eggs for FHE.  We always dye more than we can eat, so we shared with our neighbors who don't usually dye eggs.  We still had quite a few for ourselves so we've been enjoying egg salad sandwiches and salads topped with hard boiled eggs.  Yum!

Then this morning we woke up to find that the Easter Bunny had come during the night!  He likes to visit us a day early so we can enjoy the egg hunts and baskets on Saturday and then spend Easter Sunday focusing on the real reason for Easter.  We really appreciate Easter Bunny's thoughtfulness. ;)

The girls were very happy with their spoils...

We will be having dinner with the Hills tomorrow so there are sure to be more Easter photos to come, not to mention pics of Easter Dresses!  (It's fun to have girls, especially when they let you dress them up. lol) 

What a week!

But you know, whereas most of the time these busy-at-the-end-of-the-month weeks are beyond stressful, this week was busy, but good.  I think because I know I still have a couple more days next week before I am really out of time, but that's cool, whatever the reason, I'm so glad this week was great!  No stress!  And only one migraine. :)

I got a lot done, enjoyed A LOT of sunshine (so I got tons done in my yard, too), enjoyed the week of Easter preparations, enjoying Easter weekend now... And I have lots of photos to share.  But I need to upload them and my camera battery just died, so it will have to wait just a bit while I finish charging my spare.  It won't be long though, so check back soon. :)

Lovin' Spring

I love spring! 

It is so beautiful here and I love watching all of the plants begin to bloom.  It's fun to watch all of the stuff I planted last year come back again this year.  Last year, my friends and I did a major overhaul on my front yard and this year I'm finishing the job.  We left the section that was home to my roses, surrounded by tons of rock.  So far, in the last week or so, we've removed most of the rock and I've started planting more flowers.  The next area I need to polish up is under my cherry tree, it needs more.  It's so fun to go look at plants and flowers and figure out where to put them in my yard. 

After I'm done with the front, I'm going to work on the back.  I did get some areas worked on last year, but I've still got other areas that need to be cleared away and turned into flower beds.  And in a couple more weeks I'll be planting more in my vegetable garden; I already have peas, onions, and strawberries going, I plan on adding green beans, carrots, zucchini, cucumber, and corn.  Possibly raspberries, too.

What about you?  What do you love about spring?  What are you planting in your flower or vegetable gardens? 

We survived!!!

I don't know of many people who "like" to be asked to speak in Sacrament Meeting.  I don't "mind", but it's not my favorite thing to do, and once I've committed to it, it's no fun until it's done. lol  It's scary!  Talking in front of a bunch of people - and about spiritual things...  That's not easy!  But that was the assignment we were given and though it's not fun, it is scary, and intimidating, we were grateful for the opportunity.  Can't explain why really, just that it's such a blessing to be a part of the Lord's church.  It's a blessing to get to participate in the work, even when it's doing things that are scary, hard, or unpleasant.

My topic was pride, so keep that in mind as I tell you how proud I am of Acadia!  She performed her first Sacrament Meeting piano solo as the musical number today.  For those who have heard the cd that she and I made a few years ago, she played the same arrangement of "I Know That My Redeemer Lives" that I played on that cd.  She has truly come a long way in developing her talent.  I am so proud of her for accepting the assignment, for working hard on developing and increasing her talents, and for having the courage to go through with it!  She was SO NERVOUS!!!  But she did a wonderful job!  I am so incredibly pleased with her!!!

Ryan spoke about increasing spiritual growth through scripture study.  Both his topic and mine were among the topics our ward council had selected to be discussed during our ward conference, so Ryan and I both turned to the talks given back in February to use as a reference point.  It's hard to go wrong when you're using such great material to base your talk on! 

But the best part now, is that it's over!  We can all breath a little easier now.  *deep breath out*  :)

Now time to start working on my lesson for RS in two weeks... :S  lol