Oh Baby!

With excitement and a little fear we announce that we are expecting baby number three to make it's debut sometime around November 2, 2010!

Easter Conference

With it being conference weekend and Easter, we had quite an eventful couple of days.

During conference, we have the opportunity to listen to the prophet and apostles share testimonies and teachings about the gospel. This can sometimes to hard for young kids to sit through (all told the conference is about 8 hrs long over the course of 2 days), so we came up with lots of activities to keep them interested in the room happily! Add Easter excitment to the mix and here is a sampling of our excitement:

Can you tell these kids are excited about the idea of decorating eggs??

Easter morning we made a yummy breakfast of cinnamon rolls (a conference tradition), bacon, and these so so good hash brown bakes. I couldn't find the link to the online recipe, so it follows the picture for anyone interested.

Hash Brown Bakes:

Ingredients:
20 oz refrigerated (or thawed frozen) shredded hash browns
1 1/2 cups shredded or diced ham
1/2 cup chopped green onion
2 1/2 Tbsp flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 large lightly beaten eggs

Combine first four ingredients. Add eggs. Toss well. Heat at medium and add 1Tbsp oil to large skillet. Scoop by 1/4 cupfuls and flatten slightly. Cook 3-5 minutes on each side or until browned.

These are best served warm and we had tons of leftovers so if you have a family the size of our small eaters, maybe just do half.

If you have kids, you know the day is not complete without a visit from the Easter bunny. The kids walked right by these when they first woke up but they defintely did not miss them the second pass by.

My kids participated in about four egg hunts this year, with one still set for this upcoming weekend, and they just as excited for the one coming up as they were for the first one.
I love Noah walking into the house and dumping out his haul right on the kitchen floor - good thing it was clean!

A couple of our other weekend activities:

Making strawberry jam. Chloe LOVES to help me cook, and is actually a really good little helper. She was so happy to get to help with this!

Making egg carton flowers. Although I was going to wait to do this while Noah was sleeping, we painted these with his help as well and I am glad it worked out that way because he really enjoyed it - and with washable paint, even though he ended up with it all over, it also came off very easily as well! The stems weren't as sturdy as I thought they would be, and I am still a newbie at things of a crafty nature, but I think they turned out pretty well!

I love that Easter fell on conference weekend and that so many of the messages focused on making our families and our homes places of strength, and places where testimonies are grown, the gospel is loved, and the spirit can dwell. I am not perfect in these goals, but I am grateful for the encouragment and renewed commitment I receive when I hear such council. I am grateful to know the true reason we celebrate Easter - that it's not about the Easter bunny, and egg hunts, but about our Savior Jesus Christ. I am grateful that because of his life, atonement, death, and resurrection, I - with my family - can have eternal life with those I love the most. There is no better message or goal than that.

Carboard Cars Creation

It is no secret that Noah loves Cars. He loves the movie, his soft blanket, all his diecast cars, if it's a car it's perfect for him. We had a huge cardboard box that Joe, being the ever creative dad, decided it turn into Radiator Springs.

Chloe loved being dad's dirty little helper in this project

I never cease to be amazed at the fact that often the kids have more fun with these homemade toys than the one's we pay good money for, but either way I am glad that so far this little creation has brought them lots of entertainment!