A Very Special Easter

We had such a fun Easter this year!  The kids were so excited about the holiday, which made it even more fun.  We have made a few more efforts to make Easter special, and a little different from the traditional one.  As you can see above, we still did the traditional Easter baskets and on Easter morning, but we are making efforts to start new traditions for Easter to make it more Christ-centered.
My mom gave me the book "A Christ-Centered Easter" by Janet and Joe Hales.   (I saw this book on sale at Seagull book the other day for less than $5).  In the book, she has several activities you can do the whole week before Easter to celebrate it's true meaning.  I really like a lot of her ideas.   We only did two of them this year, but plan to try a new one every year until we have a whole week of Easter celebration.

Honestly,  I feel like in our American culture, a lot less fuss is made about Easter  (in the commercial world).  Sure, there is the Easter bunny and the candy,  but it seems like Christmas is celebrated for at least a month before the actual day, by everyone.  (And, in most companies, Easter is not really considered a "holiday", like at the hospital, you do not get "holiday pay" for working Easter like you would at Christmas).  So, Easter is not as recognized as a holiday by the world, but that's okay.  I actually do like the simplicity of it.  Personally, Easter is an even more special holiday to me than Christmas.   For one thing, it is celebrated in the spring, close to the time when revealed word has said that Christ was actually born.  And, it is just an exciting time, when the world outside is just starting to come alive.  Everything is turning green, flowers are blooming...  I love it!!  It is so symbolic of the new life that we receive through our Savior Jesus Christ, who gave His life for us.  We not only celebrate his birth, but his death and resurrection.

On Saturday Evening, the day before Easter, we made our first attempt at a "Passover dinner" with our family, to remember the Passover that the Lord commanded Moses to have with the Children of Israel to remember their escape from Egypt.  This same dinner was held by Christ with his apostles the night before he died.  We had lamb served with pita bread, bitter herbs (which was romaine lettuce), grapes, dates, cheese, yogurt, olives, any foods we knew of that may have been eaten at the time of Christ.  I also made homemade hummus, which was super easy!   We would have sat on the floor in the kitchen on a blanket to eat it, but the weather was so beautiful, we just couldn't resist eating outside on our blanket.  During the meal we had the perfect opportunity to talk to the kids about the symbolism of many of the food items, the lamb, unleavened bread, etc.  It was a lot of fun for the kids and we will definitely make it an annual tradition.

After the dinner, we had a "Plan of Salvation treasure hunt" with the kids.  Each clue around the house included scriptures and follow-up questions about God's plan for us.  At the end of the treasure hunt, we added a bit about God's plan for our family-  the "prize" at the end was golden egg, which held the clue.  It was an ultrasound picture.  We announced that we will be having one more baby in our family at the beginning of October.   Yea!!!   The kids were all really excited about the news.

On Easter day, we had a nice breakfast and then after the kids got dressed, they got to find their Easter baskets outside.  We went to Church and had a lovely meeting.  Then, we drove down to Salt Lake to have dinner with my family.  My mother had also made a passover dinner, and it was fun to see the variation.   At the dinner, we gave my parents a small gift- another golden egg, and you know what was inside.  I loved my brother Nate's clever remark about the egg:  "Is it empty like the tomb or full like the womb?"  Ha ha.   He must have know that one was coming!

The kids got to hunt for eggs at my parents' house as well, and my mom had made baskets for each family with scriptures for each item in the basket.  

Here are a few shots of the kids on my dad's "swings" he made for the kids at the barn:

He took a 'horse walker" and put a motor on it.  With 4 swings where the horses would be harnessed, the kids could ride around the circle over and over!  Ingenious!!  

Who needs to go to Lagoon when you can come here?

I am so thankful for the Savior, for all the things he did for us while on this earth, including the atonement and resurrection, and for all He still continues to do for ME personally, daily.  He is my strength and salvation.  Through Him, I have received my greatest "treasures" in this world.  It is through Him that we can find life eternal and a fulness of joy!   I hope, in the years to come, to make Easter more centered on Him!  

Baby Animal Days

We had spring break the weekend of April 3-5th when Aaron and the kids were off school.  Three days off school isn't much compared to some spring breaks, but we'll take what we can get.   Because of Aaron's recent back surgery, instead of going camping or traveling somewhere, we opted to stay at home and just do some things close by.  

On Wednesday evening, we went out to dinner at Pizza Hut in Brigham City and then swimming at Crystal Hot Springs.  It had just been snowing a few hours earlier so we were reluctant to swim, but the hot springs turned out being perfect.  The kids love swimming in the warm water.  It's like a big bathtub!  

The next day, Thursday, we went to Baby Animal Days at the American West Heritage Center in Wellsville, across the mountain.  They only do it once a year and it is a lot of fun!   They have a big farm with a lot of animals for the kids to pet.  They also have wagon rides, pony rides, horse rides, goat milking, and this year they even added a train ride.  This year they also had some baby bears brought down from the Yellowstone Bear world.    The kids also had fun holding some baby turtles and seeing some birds from the Willow Park zoo in Logan.  

Of course, all the kids wanted to cram into the jail car/caboose of the train

I actually think it's kind-of comical that the kids can ride for hours on Opa and Oma's horses, having them all to themselves, and even get to lead them around wherever they want, and yet they will wait in line to ride around in circles for 3 minutes on a pony going nowhere.  I guess they just can't get enough horse rides!  

The kids with their helmets on, getting ready to ride.  

While the other kids were riding ponies, I got to sit with Jordan and get my
laughs at his funny little faces.  He had a few too many oreos, I guess  :)

Jared loved the little baby chicks and ducklings

While we were waiting in line, Jordan found this path between the ropes and I guess he thought it was a race.  He kept going back to the entrance and saying, "Ready, Go!"  and then running as fast as he could.  It was so fun to watch him!  He's training for his first marathon...

Heidi loved the little baby turtles.  

Of course, the baby bunnies were a big favorite and most everyone wanted to buy one, including mommy.   For some reason, those soft cuddly things are too much for any child to resist.  

Spring Fever

Well, we've definitely caught spring fever at our house, I guess you  just can't help it because of the change in the weather.  After being trapped inside for a seemingly endless winter, with the first hint of warmth, the kids were all outside and loving it!    Notice the absence of pictures over the last few months- for some reason once the weather warms up up, there is so much more to take pictures of because we are out and doing!

Jared sporting his 3-D glasses at the theatre

Over President's Day weekend (And Aaron's birthday) we went down to Salt Lake and stayed over Sunday night with my family.  We had dinner with my siblings and enjoyed Sunday evening.  Then, on Monday was no school due to President's Day.  So, we got to do a few fun things as a family for Aaron's birthday.  

Jared LOVES riding horses!!

It was only February, but even the hint of warmth was enough for us!  On Monday morning, my dad took a few of us on a horseback ride to the gully.  Aaron didn't actually go on the ride.  He stayed back at the house with Jordan, but I think to him that was the better option anyway.   I was in heaven, riding with the kids.  

Erika and Kyle were so proud that they could ride the horse all on their own, with no one leading them.  They took turns walking and riding.   I rode with Heidi on one horse and Jared got to be led on another.  We had a nice ride in the gully with the weather just starting to get warm but still requiring coats.   It was still beautiful down in the gully.   I have always loved it down there.  

At 11:00 that day, we went to Thanksgiving point, where we saw the IMAX movie about Jerusalem.  It was really good!   Aaron loved it!  (And it brought back a lot of memories for me from my days there).  After that movie, Aaron and I loved it so much that we wanted to see another one.  So, while Oma and Opa took all the kids through the dinosaur museum,  we watched another IMAX movie about microscopic creatures and sound/heat waves in our environment.  That was pretty interesting, too.  After that, we went out to lunch at Golden Corral, one of Aaron 's favorite restaurants,  and then we headed home!  

A few pictures of Jordan:  He is growing up so fast and has such a fun, lively personality!  

Riding on the classic spring horse.  He really gets into it!!  

Notice the cars in his hands-  he has to have a couple of die-cast cars in his hands
(at least one in each hand) at all times, it seems.  He takes them to dinner, in the bath, to bed, etc.  

On March 24th, I finally decided to cut Jordan's hair.  Aaron was complaining that he looked too much like a girl and it needed to be done.  I knew it was true, but I was still a little sad.  I would never see those beautiful blonde curls again.  They were so cute!   So, I cut it short and here is the end product:  

I will say that it's amazing what a difference a little hair makes!  He looked a lot older after the haircut and now it really seems like his almost 2!  

On March 29th, it was time for another horseback ride, I guess.  The kids love it and can't get enough of it.  (And Opa loves to take them).  My dad actually brought the horses up to our house in the horse trailer.  He took Erika and Kyle on a ride in the mountains for a few hours, and they had a blast!   Then, he walked the horses around in our backyard for a little while, giving the kids rides, along with a bunch of other kids from the neighborhood!  

Kyle riding bareback- he thought that was pretty cool.  

Erika and her friend Lillie

Erika's Recent Events

Erika has had a busy last few months and we are proud of her for all of the things she has accomplished recently.  In December we found out that Erika had made it on to the district level for her Reflections entry at the school.  She wrote a poem about Helen Keller.  Here is the poem:

Helen Keller

  

Helen Keller, deaf and blind,

Had a dream, she’d made up her mind.

She was going to college,  she didn’t care-

when others said she wouldn’t make it there.

She worked hard, she made it through.

Helen’s teacher helped her, too. 

Now people today are inspired

By Helen’s acts and desires.

In herself she did believe

And her dreams she did achieve. 

By Erika Parkinson

There were 12 kids from her whole school who were chosen to go on to district.  We attended the District Awards Ceremony in Brigham City on January 21st and were excited to find that she would again advance to the STATE level!!  Wow!  We have not heard anything further about if she will advance at all since then, but we were so excited that night that she placed again.  When at first they didn't call her name as they were reading out the Awards of Achievement, she seemed really worried, like they forgot her or something.  Aaron and I just smiled because we knew what that meant.  They called her name with the second group of kids,  for the Award of Excellence.  She was so surprised!  Yea!!  The group of kids she is sitting with in the top right picture are all the winners from every elementary school in Box Elder County.  She was the only one from her school who went on.  We are so proud of her!!  

Another exciting thing for Erika was the opportunity to perform in a shakespeare play at her school on March 19th.  She was chosen to be "The Queen".  How fun!   She really didn't have a whole lot more speaking parts than a lot of the other kids that had lines, but her role required that she acted the part, and she DID!   I had a fun time dressing her up like a queen and doing her hair and makeup.   She loves acting and puts her heart into it!   The play was quite short with a 10 min clip from four Shakespeare plays- Macbeth, Merry Wives of Windsor, Much Ado about Nothing, and Romeo and Juliet.   She was part of the "King and Queens' court", which gave commentary before and after each play.  

It was quite comical at times, but I think the kids and teachers did a really good job putting it together!  This was a good opportunity to learn a little about Shakespeare and to be exposed to a different kind of language.  The kids also had the opportunity to be visited by some actors from the actual Shakesperean festival in Cedar City who did an acting workshop.  They also came up on April 13th and performed one play for the older grades- "The Taming of the Shrew."

Just 2 days after the play was over, Erika participated in the Garland Elementary school spelling bee.  She had been studying off and on for weeks before the event, but having after school play practices the month before made it hard to cover it as well as she could've.   Nonetheless,  Erika ended up getting 2ND PLACE in the spelling bee, and it was so fun for Aaron and I to watch!  She did so much better than we had expected!  At the end of the spelling bee,  she and the first place winner went back and forth at least 8 times until finally she missed a word.  I was on the edge of my seat!!   What an exciting week for her!



She ended up going on to the District spelling Bee a couple weeks later, and only made it through a couple rounds.  This included the top 3 spellers from each elementary school.  I could tell Erika was really nervous that night and I think that her nerves just got the better of her.   The word she missed was one that she knew, she just rushed too quickly through it.  We heard later that the spelling bee went over 13 rounds and 2 1/2 hours long, so I guess it was a mixed blessing she didn't win, huh?  It would've been a long night.  We were just proud of her for how far she went with that and for giving it her best!!

Erika getting ready for the district spelling bee

Kyle's Basketball

On February 8th, Aaron and Kyle had the opportunity of going to the Jazz game with Aaron's brother Dave.  Dave is so blessed to get tickets with his job at Hoopes vision. Thanks Uncle Dave!!!

The Cheerleaders all wanted Kyle's name and number! :)

Yeah that's Lebron....During the game we could have reached out and given him a fist bump. So cool!

Once in a lifetime opportunity...Row 1 Seat 1!!!!!!!!! Can you say dream come true!!

Kyle also had the opportunity of playing some basketball with Garland City in January and February.  He still has a lot to learn, but has improved a lot and we're just glad he's having fun doing it!!

Future Lebron in the making. :) 

Ice Fishing

 

Aaron took the kids ice fishing twice in January, Saturday Jan 18th and then again on Monday the 20th, because there was no school that day.  On Saturday, Kyle had a basketball game so he stayed home with me and the little ones.  He took Erika and Heidi and went with a friend who is an avid ice fisher.  They went to Hyrum reservoir.  They caught a lot of fish and had a great time!   On Monday, they went up to the same place, hoping for the same results but didn't do quite as well.  He took Erika, Kyle, and Jared that day.  My mom and dad also came up and spent half a day with them on the lake.  

It was beautiful weather and the kids had a great time fishing with dad.  The girls actually spent a lot  of the time playing "frozen" out on the ice.  

Jared really loved ice fishing!!

Jared hitching a ride behind Opa's dog bear!  

Aaron's back was still hurting at the time he went, but he was still managing with the pain.  He realized after these two trips that he had probably overdone it, but he was glad he had the chance to go.  Ice fishing was a family tradition in my home growing up and I am glad that we can continue it with our own family.  Someday it will be a whole family affair.