Walk MS 2012

I saw a flyer for an MS walk and since my Mom had already mentioned possibly doing one, I got us signed up.  We got a little more involved than planned and Dad got a whole story in the Folsom Telegraph!  (http://folsomtelegraph.com/detail/206274.html!)  Our team, 7 Dwarfs, consisted of Ben & I and the kids, Mom & Dad, and Grandma.  We all did the 5K walk and we ALL made it!  It was fun to get out in beautiful Folsom and walk the trails.  My kids had a blast.  When we arrived at the finish line, they handed us each a participant medal and Xander exclaimed, "My first gold medal!"  Adorable.  We stuck around for the festivities afterwards and enjoyed the music, face painting, bounce houses and food.  It was good to be part of something and for Dad to see how many others are struggling just like him.

The April Times

Just some fun random pictures of the happenings...

 Violet has decided that she can dress herself! And she wants nothing to do with my opinion. 

 Mommy's shoes are worn by all...

 

Xander finally got his turn at bringing Corduroy home.  He was all smiles and Corduroy didn't leave his side

 

We celebrated Grumpy's birthday by having ribs!

 Abby LOVES babies and LOVES kissing them.  She's kissing her friend Brenner here and later that week was attacking Parker as well.  Poor boys. 

April was a whirlwind and nobody can believe it is over already!  Now our minds have turned to the end of school and summer vacation!

When You Want a Thing Bad Enough

 

Abby went from non-mobile to mobile in about a week.  She didn't waste any time. And as soon as she could crawl, she started pulling herself up on things.  I was so shocked at her on this particular day that I just sat, watching her as she climbed up the stair because she wanted the keys I'd dropped on the stair!  She is a very observant baby who then figures things out really quickly...watch out world!

Easter Sunday

While we love all the traditional Easter/Spring activities, we have really tried to keep our children focused on the true reason we celebrate Easter: that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ has risen! this year was not the best, as I try to do daily activities, but we tried. Our week started on Palm Sunday with a skit w/ old palm leaves from our back yard. We also spent the week talking about Jesus' parables and other things that happened during that first Holy Week. On Thursday we prepared a special dinner of foods that would have been available when Jesus walked the earth: fish, flat bread, goat cheese, olives, apricots, lentil soup and more. It was super fun and we got to share it with the Sister Missionaries and my folks.

After the kids went to bed on Saturday night, Ben & I did put together their baskets. They each got a chocolate bunny that they had picked out earlier at the store. Then they got something to remind them about our Savior--Xander got a Choose the Right ring and a Primary song piano book. Eliza got a Choose the Right necklace. And then they each got a hand written note from Ben & I with our testimonies of the resurrected Savior, Jesus Christ. We've decided that we will write these notes each Easter so that our children will know what we believe.

Happy Easter everyone! As our speaker at Church on Sunday said, "We all will have our Friday trials, but the light will always come, our Sundays where we are lifted up will always follow" I am so grateful to know that trials cannot last forever and that when they seem to, Jesus Christ will be there to lift us up and carry us along.

PS That was the best pic of the kids I got! :)

Gisler Court Egg Hunt

JC-Violet-Abby-Charlotte
(JC & Abby are 2 yr old twins & they'll start K with Vi!; Charlotte is 2.5 and Violet adores her!)

Saturday morning, a few of the neighbors decided we should put on our own egg hunt in lieu of going to the city one...more pics will follow but between 6 houses we scrounged up nearly 300 eggs for the 15 kids under 10 that live in those 6 houses! It was AWESOME..and I think it may just have to become a tradition! The kids had a blast. One house was in charge of the 2 & U club (see above picture) and then the rest of the eggs were hidden from under the cars to the tops of trees! We LOVE our neighbors!

It's 5 o'clock somewhere

The kids had put a hat on Abby.

Abby grabbed a toy and played with it.
I snapped a few shots and realized what time it was...

It was 5 o'clock.

We sent these to Daddy...

Guess who came home!

Egg Dyin' & Huntin'

I LOVE Easter but doing am not good about doing the 'traditional' things. Thank you Grandma Webster for helping us out this year! The kids had so much fun dying the eggs and hunting with their cousins. And they were super cute.

Cousins Easter Party

My mother-in-law is really good about trying to get all the cousins together when there is a break in school. This past spring break was no exception. After Conference & dinner on April 1, Xander & Eliza were invited to spend the night at Grandma & Papa's so they could hang out a little extra. The next morning, every one else joined them to dye eggs, paint figurines and do an egg hunt. Fun was had by all! But of course, when there are 15 kids, 9 and under, how could fun not be had?
And just for a point of reference, same family 3 years prior:

I just LOVE her smiles

Vi is definitely getting close to 2...and so each smile, in between each tantrum, is that much more precious.