Day Trip to Annapolis

We took a fun day trip up to Annapolis during Spring Break. The girls had never been up there and it had been years for either me or Tom. It is a darling town with great little shops and restaurants and a fun water front. The weather forecast was not great but we got in most of the day before the down pour began. We toured a cute little museum and Tom, Abby and Jenn went on a boat tour while Sarah, Amy and myself did some checking out of the shops and had fun in a funky little bookstore where we were mesmorized by a cookbook all about how you could cook with a certain weed all with pictures of a perfect looking Mom smiling at us while was cooking away!! Gave us a good laugh!! We definitely want to go back when the weather will be good all day. We had a great time!!

Photo Shoot!!

The girls love to have photo shoots whenever we are over at Mom's house, or really wherever they are!! They love to pose for a good photo, I have trained them well!! Jacob came down at one point to ask if he could climb a tree and Mom said not her special dogwood tree and Jacob said "Oh, Man, you are ruining our photo shoot!!" He has been hanging out around the girls way too much, he does not stand a chance!!

Firepit!!

We had so much fun using Mom and Dad's new fire pit last night after our big Easter egg hunt. The kids loved making smores and were shocked that Dad had NEVER had a real smore!! Amy enjoyed roasting starburts!! What is up with that?? She is a strange child!! We all loved the new swing and picnic table and enjoyed being together and just chatting and laughing!!

Easter Egg Hunt!!

We had such a wonderful Saturday starting with Jacob's Baptism. We were so proud of his decision to get baptized, he is such a special little boy. We went back to Mom's house to a wonderful brunch of egg casserole, chicken salad, pumpkin muffins, great harvest bread and yummy treats!! We went home for a little break and then back to Mom's for our big egg hunt of over 300 small eggs and 12 big eggs!! The kids were so excited!! They were so thrilled with their finds!! The big kids (Sarah and Matthew) were busy with Grandpa plotting a pizza party for later that night, finally having success with with their "we are leaving for college soon" plot!! They were SO pleased with themselves!! So the plan was hatched which included breaking in the new fire pit for smores!! There were trips to the store for smores supplies, trips to Dominos for pizza and a really fun day!! We hung out and laughed and laughed and had such a great time!! Highlights is Matthew beating Jacob's score of badmitton of 3 and telling him "in your face!!" We were so proud of Matthew :) It was very fun to all be together for the day!!

Amy receives her Young Women's Medalion!!!

I am so proud of Amy for receiving her Young Women's Medalion!! She has worked SO hard to finish up her Personal Progress this year. Her last few projects were so special to her, working on the family newsletter, studying all of General Conference and taking such careful notes of every talk and giving family home evening lessons on them and of course reading the Book of Mormon all of the way through. I am SO proud of the fine Young Women that Amy is and what a fabulous example she is to those around her. The light of the Gospel shines from her and I am proud and lucky to be her Mom!! I love my sweet Amy so very much!!

Best Sunday School Class EVA!!

Sarah is so lucky to have had Mark Okishi for a Seminary teacher for 2 years and is now her Sunday school teacher. He is amazing!! He is such a great teacher and all of the kids LOVE him!! He is so creative and does such fun things with the kids. This Sunday he tied all of the kids together as part of his lesson, they loved it of course!! What a blessing he is to the youth is our ward!!

Amy and Lauren = Besties!!!

Taty did such a beautiful job on these photos of Amy and Lauren!! She is a great photographer and Amy and Lauren are such lovely subjects!! I am thankful for their friendship and that they have each other to lean on and support each other during these tough high school years!! They are such darling friends and such cute girls, I adore Amy, Lauren and Taty!!!

Disney!! Disney!!