Storytime

Ellie loves her friends, and she loves reading to her friends, stuffed animals or anyone who will listen :) I thought this was so cute I just had to take a pic!

Easter

Man oh man have we have a jam packed Easter weekend! 

We started off with a play group Easter egg hunt at the Heslop's house:

Cole felt bad he missed it while at school, so we had another one in our back yard for him:

We had managed to squeeze in meeting with the electrician and digging up the yard so the workers could get to the brick and siding before our next big activity. Sorry no pics because the house stuff is boring :)

Saturday we went to a community hunt in Peoria. It was broken up by age groups. We did the hunt for Cole and Ellie's ages and they only got a few eggs because it was so crazy...so we went over to the hunt for 8-12 year olds and made bank! Crazy that it was less hectic and more fun with the big kids.

 It was such a beautiful day we decided to take a little hike. Ellie and Dax didn't want to stop, but Cole being the ever worrier was scared we would run into wolves so we finally turned around and headed back to the safety of the park :)

After the hunt we ventured to the mall to get Ellie's ears pierced!

Finally, it was time to dye eggs!!

 The Easter Bunny hid some baskets and a few eggs Saturday night so the kids were able to hunt for them Sunday morning before church:

We got dolled up in our Easter best for church and being the mean mom I am we had to get a picture. Dax was not loving it, but after much torture we finally got one of the 3 kids:

After church we enjoyed the beautiful sunshine outside with the basketball hoop, sidewalk chalk and of course some bubbles!!

We had a fabulous Easter weekend as a family! Ben was able to be with us for most of it too!! He was supposed to work all day Easter but managed to only work a few hours in the morning, yay!

I always love a good excuse for quality family time, but by far my favorite part of this last week was the time I took to study the Atonement and resurrection. I am so immensely grateful for my Savior! I am awed by His love for me, His willingness to obey, His desire to suffer for those of us who needed it when He didn't need it. I love my Savior, Jesus Christ. And I love my Heavenly Father and am grateful that He would let His beloved son suffer for my sins, my heartaches, and my salvation. Because of Him I can find peace and joy through every trial I face. Because of Him I can become better than I naturally am. Because of Him I have an amazing husband and children for eternity. Because of Him I have EVERYTHING! And I am so grateful!!

Story Time

This is a rare and precious site:

Ben was actually home before the kids went to bed so he got to read them a story! The kids were loving it...until a few minutes in when Ben started falling asleep and mumbling nonsense :) Cole finally looked at me and said "Mommy, why don't you just read?" Ha ha, poor Ben is so overworked he can't ever keep his eyes open once he sits down. At least they got a few good minutes of bonding time!

Outside!!

Dax's new favorite word is "Outside". Actually, we are all loving the outside lately!! We had such a long, cold winter we are loving every second of this warm weather and playing outside as much as we can. 

We play at parks when we can:

 And we play in the yard the rest of the time:

It's so nice to not be cooped up anymore and to be able to roam free...outside!