Our Easter Traditions

Finding their hidden Easter baskets

Our newest tradition, the Easter egg toss.

Dying Easter eggs

Taking turns hiding and finding eggs.

Our Spring Break

Our hotel in Newport Beach was beautiful with an amazing view of the ocean.  The best part for me was that it had a washer and dryer and full kitchen!  We were there for 5 nights.

Jonah and Nicole had a good time playing checkers and ping pong by the pool.

Even though the water was freezing, the kids still got in.  Esther loved having the waves chase her.

This is Crystal Cove beach that is across the street from our hotel.  It had several tide pools and we found hermit crabs and sea urchins.

Here we are watching 4 dolphins.  Scott spotted them.  It was amazing to see dolphins in the wild.  They were jumping and following each other.  When I told my mom we saw dolphins, she was surprised since she grew up in California 30 minutes from the beach and had never seen any.  We were lucky.

I wanted to be sure and get in line early for our first day at Disneyland.  We were the first ones there, notice it is still dark.  A security guard came by and told us to go over to security first, then we were the first in line again. Jonah and Scott dropped us off at 6:10 am and went to park the suburban.  We ran to Fatasyland and did most of those rides in an hour.  Esther did not like our 2nd ride, Mr.Toad, and refused to go on any others that were "Too dark".  Scott took her on the carousel, then I took her to the Princess Faire, where we got 3 princess autographs for her book.  She LOVED meeting the princesses.

Esther and Aurora

Hannah, Esther and I went to eat lunch at Ariel's Grotto.  It was a wonderful meal and 5 princesses came to each table to visit and take their picture.  It was a highlight of Disneyland for us.  We had a wonderful time and everyone got along.

Fun in February

Can you tell which mouse is Ezra?  All the 2nd graders performed a play about mice that came from outer space and how the earthly mice can be friends with them even though they are different.  Every grade in our school does a play at different times throughout the year.

We finally broke down and bought another vehicle. Scott's Honda hasn't been outside of Page for 5 years and we have been wanting another reliable vehicle.  I haven't ever seen Scott so happy and smiley as he was when we surprised our kids with his new truck.  Of course we plan on this Chevy will last as long as his dad's.
The boys think it is way better than my suburban.

February means basketball.  Noah and Jayce again on the same team.  They took first place of all the middle school teams.

It is hard to see Jonah, but he is shooting a lay up, which he made.  It was so fun watching him this year.  He played in the older 5th grade league.  He doesn't even notice that he is a foot shorter than the other players.  He has an incredible sense of running the floor and he will score no matter who is guarding him.  He is never intimidated.  I know this sounds like a biased mother but I think this is one of his special talents.

This shows some of his team, some of the kids are taller than me!

This was Ezra's first year of basketball.  He's our lefty and learned how to make layups going to the left and right.  Scott coached Ezra's team and had fun.

Ezra's Baptism

We had a wonderful weekend celebrating Ezra's baptism.  We are so blessed to have another wonderful 8 year old!  His baptism was a week after he turned 8 and the whole week he kept saying, "Mom just let me get baptized, I don't want to wait!"  It was great to see him so excited.  He was so happy.  I know he has a strong testimony that the gospel is true and being baptized is part of the plan to return to Heavenly Father.  Hannah played the piano while Esther sang a song.  Jonah gave a talk on the Holy Ghost and Uncle Sam gave a talk on baptism.  Grandma Hardy and Noah gave prayers.  I am so thankful to have the gospel and I am grateful to Ezra for his example and strong spirit.  We were so thankful to have our family come and support us.  We love having family visit!  Thanks for coming.  I had fun making an 8 cookie bouquet and used gumballs in the vase, I took that idea from sugardoodle and altered it a little.

Carnival Celebration

This year I was in charge of our school's carnival.  The games and food, popcorn, lemonade and cotton candy are all free and everyone who has 100% homework or attendance get to go.  About 90% of the kids get to go.  They go at different hours according to their grade.  It was so fun seeing Esther and her class come into the gym because this is their first year.  This carnival tradition started when Hannah was in 1st grade and I would bring our cotton candy machine.   For the past 3 years we haven't been able to give away cotton candy because of a state law passed that prohibits certain foods but our principal let us this year because the students could choose a fat free granola bar or cotton candy.  I think only 3 kids picked the granola bar.  Scott was in charge of the cotton candy this year and made 460!  We had 80 parents/grandparents volunteer.  It is a production but so fun. 

Noah's Boy Scout Court of Honor

We have been so blessed to have the Chischilley family move from Lindon, Utah to Page last August.  He is Noah's scoutmaster and knows what he is doing.  It is great!  Page has always struggled with scouting and our troop has gone in spurts.  Scott is now converted to Scouting as the Young Men's President and hopefully we will have some of our boys earn their eagle.

Snow Cave Camping

Scott and Noah went with our Boy Scout troop to dig out snow caves one Saturday in January.  They went up to Cedar Mountain.  One of the Asst.Scoutmasters works for the Utah Dept. of Transportation so he had a location that people don't use that would be there the following Friday for their campout.  When they drove up to camp the next Friday it was snowing and when they got to the mountain the road was closed!  So they had to dig out new caves while it was snowing.  They were at a different Transportation storage area that had a shed and was fenced in.  Half the boys left their snow caves in the middle of the night and went in the shed.  The next morning they went sledding and loved the snow.