Easter Boys

I seriously need to give up trying to capture any decent pictures all my boys together-the attempt is exhausting! Chris Wilson and Andrea Sorensen, you guys definitely need to practice photography with these kids; if you can master them, you will be a PRO!! Here are my Easter attempts; ha-ha!

Easter

So, I was feeling very dissatisfied with Easter this year. I just feel like Easter is supposed to be the celebration of the Atonement of the Savior but it just feels so nonspiritual with the Easter bunny and all the egg decorating. Not that I don't feel like that stuff is fun; it's just that I don't feel like I really get the true meaning of Easter the way I want to.

So, a friend of mine lent me a book on how to make your Easter Christ-centered and it is fabulous! It has planned out an entire week of Easter celebration based upon the last week of Christ's life. It includes activities, devotionals (reading what Christ did each day from the scriptures and discussing them), learning and listening to appropriate hymns and music, eating the food that Christ may have eaten, and much more. It goes through all the traditional holy Jewish practices from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday going through the Last Supper, Gethsemane, the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. And you don't have to abandon the commercial Easter stuff; you just move it a week or so prior and call it a Spring celebration-that way you can totally ditch the Easter bunny altogether which is just fine with me! Anyways, you sit with your family at FHE the week prior to Easter week and figure out which activities, foods, etc you want to do to make sure all your festivities fit in with the age of your kids and your schedules.

In the book the author said various shouts of, "He is Risen! He is Risen!" could be heard in her home on Easter morning. I WANT THAT in my home- Jon and I look forward to trying this out next Easter.

I am so grateful for the example my elder brother, Jesus Christ set in His life. I am grateful for his sacrifice that allows me to return to live with Him, Heavenly Father and my family again for eternity. I hope I can honor Him by teaching my children the true meaning of Easter.

(If anyone else is interested the book is called, "A Christ-Centered Easter" by Janet and Joe Hales.)

Decorating eggs with some great friends:







Easter Morning: (in our home the "Easter bunny" brings books and treats)




My secret vice: preservative-filled, wax flavored chocolate donuts-YUMMY!



HAPPY EASTER!

Murder Mystery Cruise

The night started out innocent enough-just 3 regular couples having a nice birthday meal celebration on a dinner cruise. What unfolded was astonishing, horrifying, and frankly amusing. Jon (the birthday boy-or should I say old man since he did turn 30 only two days prior) became a suspect in a murder investigation. He was dubbed "Jon the liar" and questioned by the authorities about the murder of a certain Detective Steel (or was he really a detective?) in Motel 6 room the night before.

In the end (after a rather delicious meal), Jon was exonerated and the whodunit was unraveled in a witty and complex story of love and money- written by none other then Jon's beautiful and rather intelligent wife-me (hee-hee)! I couldn't believe it, they had us all write what we thought happened at the end of the performance and they would pick one to use and they picked mine...CRAZY huh? They also picked Jill's as a "dishonorable mention".

Well, anyways, we had a great time. The performance was fun, the view of Seattle was beautiful, and most importantly, we had our good friends' the Higgins and the Martins to enjoy it with; thanks guys for coming. What a night!

My winning ending :)

We recommend this show-it was awesome!

The Boys' First Soccer Game!

I am so thrilled that my boys are old enough to play sports! I signed them up for soccer at the YMCA on a team with a few friends from the ward (actually the coach is from our ward as well). They started practice two weeks ago on Friday nights and they had their first game last Saturday morning. It was so exciting!

Go team! (I think we are called the sharks or something)

Clay did alright chasing the ball and kicking it but had no real destination in mind and he also kept getting distracted and pushing around his buddy Sam.

If you see a lot of sitting, well, that's because a) my boys did a lot
of sitting and b) all my action shots were blurry.

Ephraim on the other hand was a crack up! When Tom (the coach) put him out first he had this deep scowl on his face and planted himself (thumb in mouth) in the middle of the "field" (its actually just in a gym but this will make it more soccer-like).

You want me to play what?

The ball at one point was at his feet, yet he refused to budge. Finally, when Clay was sent in Ephraim's scowl faded and he was on the move...yet, in no particular direction (definitely not anywhere near the ball) and he refused to pull out the thumb.

At my feet.

Throughout the game he kept coming back to me and hanging on my legs; I finally told him that he could either go out on the field and play or sit on the bench with his teammates. Next thing I know he marches off and sits on the opposing team's bench!

I love the arms in the shin guards.

The funny thing was, that neither he nor the kids on the other team seemed to think it was strange that he was sitting on the wrong bench. After he came back he spent the rest of the game lying spread-eagle on our bench. I had a blast watching them play and look forward to years of soccer and other sports!

This part required no prodding or explanation!

Kai turns 1!

I can't believe my little baby is one already-he grew up so fast! Malakai turned one on March 2nd and we (or I) decided just to have a low-key family party (Uncle Josh came over) at home. I made Kai his first cake (the cake itself was not great-turned out like shortbread, but the frosting was divine-heavy whipping cream whipped with vanilla and strawberry jam). He loved it! The boys enjoying singing, eating cake, and "helping" Kai open his presents. I was a smart Mommy, and bought 3 presents so Kai would get to play with one! I love this little guy! He is so happy and friendly.

The Cake.

"Happy Birthday"

Hmm...what is this?

YUMMY!!!

I love this concentration face!

Some recent milestones:

He recently learned how to say "No" and says it with quite a bit of force whenever we take something away from him.

He calls every animal and baby "Keeee" (kitty).

He can point to his nose and likes to give kisses with an open mouth then smacks his lips right after-so dang cute!

He is almost almost weaned...he still talks me into nursing him every few days.

He loves balls and cars- just like his brothers.

I am so happy that Heavenly Father gave Malakai to us!

Eph's 3rd Birthday!

I am such a loser mom, I totally forgot to bring a camera to Ephraim's birthday party! I took some pics with Dean and Beau's phones but then realized I had no way of getting the pics from the phone to my computer...so, you are stuck with using your imaginations.
Anyway, Ephraim's birthday was February 16th and we celebrated his real birthday at Red Robin with just our family, a horrible waiter rendition of "Happy Birthday" and a free sunday. The following weekend we had Ephraim's "friend birthday" with most of Eph's buddies and their families. We went to Mountlake Terrace pool for the free swim then rented out the indoor playground for play and cake. I even made a homemade oreo ice cream cake (well, actually I bought the stuff then watched Chandra make the cake); it was yummy! We had such a great time Mountlake Terrace Rec Pavilion is definately a favorite for birthday parties with my boys. Thanks for all the friends who came!!