Rachael's Room

Fantastic News

In the mail on Friday we finally got a letter that we'd been waiting to get for 6 weeks. Rachael has been accepted into the Accelerated Learning Program they have in Alpine School District. We're so excited for Rachael to be in a class that will challenge her and let her be around other children on her same level. The only down side is that she and Dustin will attend a different school than they currently are which means they will have gone to 3 schools in 1 year. But it will be worth it. I'm so proud of Rachael for always trying her best and loving to learn. Love you Sweetie!!!

Saturday Festivities

We had one huge Easter party with Keith's family Saturday evening. It started off with all the grandkids dying eggs together. It was sort of messy, but very fun!While the eggs dried, Keith's sister Sarah helped the kids make dessert, rice krispie birds nests complete with jelly beans and marshmallow peeps. All the women also retreated into the back bedroom to prepare for the gigantic Easter Egg Hunt. Kudos again to Sarah who hits the sale racks the previous year and scores lots of fun treats for the kids to find! And hunt they did, in the POURING rain!

All in all, it was a very good way to kick of the Easter weekend. Lots of delicious food, lots of fun company and kids who were ready to go to bed when it was all over. Thanks to Dave and Janette for letting us invade your house. We had a great time!

Easter Sunday

Usually we celebrate the Easter Bunny on Saturday morning and let Sunday be the day we focus on the Atonement and true meaning of Easter. Unfortunately, Keith had a rock climbing class that put a halt to those plans. Instead the kids received their Easter baskets before church (thank you for our 11 o'clock starting time) and we presented our gifts to the kids after we came home. The Easter Bunny was very nice this year. Rachael and Dustin both got new helmets so they can start riding their bikes to school and Claire and Hillary got fun golf and bowling games. Keith and I gave all the kids a framed picture of Christ (thanks to Janette for the idea) which they all seemed to really like, plus a Book of Mormon game. I know it's a lot of pictures below, but I wanted you all to see how cute my children looked going to church in their new clothes!Also, Dustin gave a talk in Primary and did such and excellent job. He went up to the podium all by himself and without any help gave a wonderful talk which he helped write!

We spent Sunday afternoon outside blowing bubbles (another Easter Bunny gift) and then headed out to eat dinner with my family. There's nothing like the first grilled hamburger of the year along with tons of yummy food! It's always fun to get together and catch up with my brothers and sisters and their families. We don't get together nearly as often as we should.Just one last pic of my 5 favorite people in the whole world!

Zoo Trip

Monday we decided to take advantage of Keith having a half day off. So, with it being the only day when good weather expected, we traveled to the zoo. It was Claire's first trip since being 4 months old and she had fun seeing the animals that close up. It was pretty busy because of Spring Break but we were able to see all the animals and take a train ride without anyone throwing a huge fit. We did have some pretty tired kids on the ride home :)

My on a Whim Project

So, on the fly, I've started a project which includes two things I've never done before. I spent most of today and half of yesterday stripping the wallpaper in Rachael's room. I had nothing to do yesterday afternoon and decided, "What the heck" and away I went. And if all goes well, I'll be painting it on Monday. That's right, never stripped before :), and never painted before. I've been promising Rach since we moved in we would fix her room up a little. And as I'm sitting here I realized that I have no before picture of the wallpaper. Oh well, I'm convinced that I can't screw the painting up enough to make it look as bad as the black and white drawings of a little boy and girl.

Thanks to my SIL April for answering all my annoying phone calls and questions about how to do this and that. She's coming by on Monday to make sure I do all right. Hopefully I can post some after pics next week!

Easter Goodies

So, my mind has been wandering to the task of filling up Easter baskets. Keith and I have always given a family gift that is more of a spiritual nature but I'm having such a tough time with ideas for the Easter bunny. What are some fun things the Easter bunny has brought your kids or might bring them this year? What are some of the things you remember receiving as a child?