Time Out For Women

 This year I had the opportunity to go to TOFW in Lethbridge.  I have wanted to go for years, and this year I just made it happen.  It was such a wonderful experience, and I can't wait to go again next year!.  Bree, Mom and I left Friday afternoon, and talked all the way down.  We were lucky enough to hear from some wonderful speakers, and hear Jenny Oaks Baker play her violin - she is an extremely talented musician! Bree and I stayed up way too late Friday night, and then had an early morning to get back in to Lethbridge.  Mom, Sandy, Sue, Larramie, Bree and I had a wonderful time.  My favorite analogy was in a talk by Emily Watts.  She talks about being on a segway, and how in order to move forward you need to be off balance and lean forward, if you lean back, you stop, and if you are perfectly balanced there is no movement.  She talks about how in life we need to be slightly off balance to be progressing, if we have total harmony and balance in our home, then we are not progressing.  It is such a good reminder for me.  It seems like I am always striving for balance, but I need to remember that as long as I am leaning forward, then I can m0ove toward progression.

My favorite speaker though came in at the very end.  Her name was Kris Belcher.  She has suffered immense hardships with her health, and she talked about finding happiness, and learning to laugh again.  She was a phenomenal speaker, and could have us all in stitches from laughing soo hard, and in the next minute crying because we were so touched.  It was a wonderful weekend, and I am grateful to everyone who helped make it possible for me to go, and for the memories that I was able to make, and the lessons learned.

Easter 2013

We spent some time saturday afternoon decorating Easter eggs with the kids. I am hopeful that in another year or two it will be a less stressful event in our home.  These 3 kids can manage to spill anything, and get paint everywhere.  Regardless, memories were made, and we had some great looking eggs.

Sunday morning Skyler was in our room at 7, like every morning, and he quickly had both of his siblings up because they were soo excited about Easter.  This year I did very little candy, and just looked for 1 gift, and then practical things that we needed anyways.  I used useful things for the baskets, Ethans was a pair of rain boots, Skylers was a storage bag for his skylanders, and Ryleys was a new helmet for this spring/summers bike and scootering.

I also spent a lot of time in the weeks prior to Easter working to teach the kids about the true meaning of Easter.  I feel blessed that my kids have such great primary teachers at church because they all really get what the celebration is all about.  Something I want to change - Next year I want all of the fun stuff done on Saturday so that Sunday we can really concentrate on the spiritual side of Easter, and what it is all about!

Easter Egg Hunt

 This year Bree organized a little Easter egg hunt, and I feel lucky to be one of the participating families.  We just went over to the field at the church, everyone supplied 10 eggs per child, and we set the kids free.  I love these shots of the kids with friends, and I love how casual and fun it was.  Maybe next year we will elaborate a little, but it was fantastic, and as you can see, my kids all loved it!

Egging houses

A family tradition that we have started with our kids is to fill some eggs with treats, and to egg someones house before Easter.  This year we did glow in the dark eggs, so we had to wait until past bed time for it to be dark enough to do.  Here are my 3 little Easter bunnies, all done up in their jammies, and bunny ears.