Happiest of birthdays to Fay on May 7! It is so exciting that she is finally 13 and a true teenager, because she’s been living the life of a teenager this whole school year. She is in Young Womens, goes to middle school, got braces in February, started wearing contacts, and “hangs out” with friends rather than “playing.” All of those are totally teenage things to be doing, so it’s nice that she finally actually has the “teen” in her age. 🙂

Fay these days is more fun than ever! She still rocks her role as oldest sister–leading the kids in fun adventures and helping me with the little ones when stuff gets crazy. She still loves animals, art, and reading. And she is still a beautiful, sweet, loving girl. PLUS, she is really figuring out who she wants to be. She’s developing her own fashion preferences along with elective class preferences–which are totally unique to her. She has lots of fun new hobbies like tumbling and crocheting. And she’s so excited about the future ahead! We adore her!

Fay has made lots of wonderful new friends since being in middle school! I really wanted to meet them all, so earlier this year we had a fun Valentine’s party with them.

They are seriously all such delightful girls! It is a GIANT blessing to me as a mom to know that Fay is surrounded by friends who help her be her best self and who make her life so fun and joyful!

To prepare for the party, Fay made homemade cupcakes which the girls all decorated.

Fay has always loved cooking; but this year she’s gotten even more excited about it since she got to do some cooking in school. She has made dinner for the family a few times and it is always delicious!

Fay’s friend, Emma, has gotten her really excited about crocheting. She has known how to crochet for a couple of years, but Emma has shown her the joy of amigurumi! Fay has been making so many cute little creations and even shares them with friends and family! For her birthday she requested her OWN crocheting supplies so she didn’t have to keep borrowing hooks and yarn.

Also for her birthday, Fay requested a bow and arrow! Honestly, that gift request was a surprise to me, but I feel like it really fits with our adventure-loving Fay. She is a total beginner to archery; but she is making progress and having fun!

Fay has taken art both semesters of 7th grade and keeps loving it! This past week the school had an art show and we got to go see her beautiful work on display with the other art students’ work. This blue-green succulent she did in oil pastels got second place prize in the art show! We’re so proud of her!

One very teenager type thing Fay did before she actually graced the realm of 13 was back in January. She decided that she REALLY wanted to be trendy and have a Stanley cup and a cross-body bag. Aunt Mary–who is any niece’s dream come true–had both of those and told Fay that she would be willing to let Fay earn them by detailing her car. Fay worked hard for over an hour cleaning, vacuuming, and even washing the outside of Mary’s car (in JANUARY!!!!) Here she is, overjoyed with the spoils of her hard work and fortuitously advantageous family connections!

And I just wanted to remember one more time how terrific a helper Fay was for Bianca’s birthday party! She was as helpful as an adult, but as fun as another kid. The perfect combination!

And honestly, that’s kind of just what she is: the perfect combination of a kid and a grown up. We’re so glad she’s ours!

Happy 11th birthday to our best boy on April 21! Carter was so excited for his birthday he wondered if he would ever be able to make it to the actual day. But his special day really did arrive and, if I’m not mistaken, it was even worth the wait!

Carter knew exactly what he wanted for his birthday this year.

• Darth Maul sweatshirt (to go with his Darth Maul t-shirt and Darth Maul hat)
• A Twix Yard Stick
• A trick yo-yo

In spite of the fact that Twix Yard Sticks are mostly a Christmas phenomenon, Carter’s three wishes all came true (big thanks to Josh for making a custom Twix yard stick)! He was a very happy birthday boy. At the end of the day, he sighed and told me that his birthday was just so perfect that he wished it could go on for another 36 hours. Fortunately, even though the birthday could not last, Carter is ours forever!

Anyway, Carter is just as terrific a dude as ever he has been! Here’s a little more about him as he turns 11!

Carter is still a creator! He loves to build things and make things. When we were on spring break at the creative children’s museum thingy in Mesa, he built this whole car on his own. He was excited that there was a lady who was so impressed by his creation that she requested to photograph it. She said her kids would never believe he had made it himself without photographic evidence. So famous! Carter also has a new favorite medium with which to create: 3D printing. He loves finding free plans on Thingiverse and saving up his money to buy his own filament. On the right, you can see how nicely his prints added to my St. Patrick’s Day Decor. He has also enjoyed exchanging prints with friends at school. I think it is cute to see how all the boys have jumped on the 3D printing band-wagon.

Carter is still loving music (and adding 3D printing to his music–see left). He loves his trumpet–much more than he ever like piano, he reports. And he likes to tinker with other instruments too. He can do some fun stuff on the ukulele, had a blast tinkering with Uncle George’s soprano guitar, and even does return sometimes to play the piano for a while.

Carter also still loves his sports; though he’s adjusting his preferences. He has been doing soccer this year, but is less excited about it than he used to be. He gave basketball a shot this past winter but didn’t really love it. His current favorite sport is pickleball (thanks Grandma!!) and he is excited to take lessons in the fall. He also recently picked up pogo-sticking and is really good at it. And, alas, I have no pictures of any of these activities. And, of course, he loves swimming! What kid doesn’t?!

Carter is still a rockstar at school. He continues to enjoy reading and LOVES math, but is also finding that he can enjoy some opinion writing. His current ambitions for his career are that he wants to be a trumpet player in an orchestra as well as a math professor at BYU. You know how some people say stuff like “If there’s no chocolate in heaven, I’m not going.” ? Well Carter has basically stated “If there’s no math in college, I’m not going.” I love it!

Carter also did Battle of the Books at school again this year. It was interesting to see how much less excited all the boys were about reading the books–because the 5th/6th grade books are much longer than the 3rd/4th grade books, Carter reports. But they were still a fun group of boys, and being on the team absolutely resulted in more reading for them than if they had not done it.

Here’s Carter enjoying his favorite kind of book: a graphic novel! I totally see the appeal of graphic novels to kids. There are loads of pictures! But for me, sometimes the pictures feel like more of a distraction from what’s going on in the book than a fun addition.

(I know that has basically nothing to do with Carter; but I had to get it off my chest.)

We are so grateful to have Carter in our family! He really is our best boy!

I remember two years ago in General Conference when Elder Stevenson invited us to make Easter more of a celebration in our families and in the world. I was/am convinced that his invitation is the coolest Prophetic counsel ever! A Prophet, Seer, and Revelator–who knows stuff–is essentially saying “Elisabeth, it’s probably about time you got serious about rejoicing and celebrating and having lots of fun as you remember how Jesus Christ saved you from endless damnation, and therefore you have ALL the hope you could ever need for progress and joy and love for all eternity.”

How could I say “no”?!

So, we have been trying to up our Easter game ever since then. And then–this year–when I saw the video invitation from President Oaks I got even more excited about it!

Last year, I got some decorations, like an Easter Creche; some books, like Holy Week family activity books; and probably some other things (I felt like it was a lot last year; but right now I can’t remember that much…) and we tried to make Easter a season, rather than just a day. The books I have found (then and now) are mostly about how to observe Holy Week. Last year we followed along with some of the activities in the Holy Week books, and we hung up our printable eggs that each symbolize something about Easter, and then we did the same things we have always done–like epic Easter hunts and springy clothes for church on Easter Sunday.

In Elder Stevenson’s talk, he mentioned hearkening to our celebrations of Christmastime as we try to reinvigorate the celebration of the earth’s most significant, valuable, far-reaching event. When I compare our last year’s Easter festivities with those of Christmas, I can see that we’ve got a long way to go.

And I WANT to go!

As I started thinking about this year’s Easter celebrations, I really wanted to embrace the magic that permeates the Christmas season and infuse it into Easter. After all, “The Christmas Spirit is the Christ Spirit”(Thomas S. Monson) and Easter is even more about Christ than Christmas is. As I considered what makes Christmas magical to me, I thought of a few different things.

• MUSIC!!! I love how it means a lot when we start playing Christmas music in the house. I want to have Easter music that gets us in the mood and fills us with joy! And I love the idea of having special concerts to attend at Easter. I was more than slightly disappointed by the lack of a Tabernacle Choir Easter Concert this year.
• Beautiful decorations all over! I love them in stores and schools and everywhere you look; but I can only make choices for my house and I recognize that. But I like how at Christmas we go ALL OUT with the decorating and the whole house is transformed into a winter wonderland with beautiful representations of the baby Jesus. How magical could a spring wonderland be for Easter?! With similarly beautiful representations of our risen Lord.
• Fun activities as a family–like making gingerbread houses or going to the Festival of Trees at Christmas. I want to have traditions that we do each Easter that we look forward to like those.
• Get-togethers with friends and family. I love the ward, work, and family Christmas parties we have each year, and I would be thrilled to have those same fun gatherings at Easter. I feel like our extended families do get together at Easter, and I truly do love it! But what about some ward parties? Or friend parties? I don’t want it to become overwhelming for anybody; but I feel like celebrations just feel so much more celebratory when everyone comes together to celebrate (celebrationally 😉).
• Festive foods! I love that there are foods that are associated with seasons–like pumpkin everything in the fall, and peppermint and gingerbread and eggnog at Christmas, and BBQs in the summer. I would love it if we had Easter foods that we get excited to eat during the Easter season.
• Reading Scriptures. I love that for my whole life, not a year has gone by that I haven’t read the Christmas story in Luke 2. I also love that there are so many references to different parts of that sacred story all over during December. I would love to get into the habit of reading the accounts of the Savior’s Resurrection in the Gospels and also the account of Christ appearing to the Nephites in 3 Nephi. (#greatestEasterstoryevertold)
• Time off work and school. I LOVE that there is a two week break from school for Christmas. It is that two weeks away from responsibility that makes it more reasonable for us to do all these other fun things. Plus, the fact that school (and, to a lesser extent, work) ceases for the holiday emphasizes just how important it is. I have noticed that if Easter isn’t too late, our school district’s spring-break will frequently coincide with it–either the week before or the week after. But (and again, I know that I have no control over what other people do), wouldn’t it be magical to be able to always count on a break to be with family and friends to celebrate Easter?

This is most of what I have come up with, and I think it sounds downright dreamy! But in creating this dreamy wish-list, I have also seen that there are several hurtles in the way. Here are some that I’ve thought of.

• The biggest thing I’ve thought of that feels like a hindrance to making Easter the new Christmas is that with Christmas we are all benefiting from hundreds and even thousands of years of traditions. Or even if it’s just a couple of generations worth of traditions that make your Christmas celebration what it is, it still has a solid base from which to build upon. Easter has always been just a day to me. I remember when Josh and I had our first Easter away from home, we could only name one or two traditions we remember being associated with it. And, frankly, we have mostly just relied on those one-day type traditions ever since. I think it’s hard to take Easter from bare-bones to full-fledged Christmas-level glory in one year. Or even in a handful of years. I think this is going to be a very gradual process, perhaps even over generations. But hopefully having a goal in mind (see above) and making little efforts each year will make each step of the journey something joyful.
• Another big hurtle I have encountered in our efforts to make Easter its own season is timing. You may or may not have noticed that we have celebrated several birthdays this spring. (All five of our children have their birthdays between March 10 and May 7.) Also, there’s fun little holidays like Mar10 Day and Pi Day and St. Patrick’s Day and April Fool’s Day. Also, there’s sports and school and lessons and work conferences. Life just doesn’t revolve around Easter like it seems to revolve around Christmas. And even if we change a lot of what we do as a family around Easter, it is unlikely to change other organizations’ schedules. Plus, it is tricky to make really solid traditions around Easter because of the fact that Easter changes when it is every year. Last year Easter came nearly a full month sooner than it did this year. That changes a lot of what you can reliably plan to do each year.
• Also, availability of resources in your celebrations. I would truly love to decorate to the nines to celebrate the Savior and His resurrection; but there’s really not a ton of good options for doing so. When I have looked for Christ-centered Easter decorations, I mostly find a lot of crosses (which I find rather interesting seeing as Easter is a celebration that Jesus Christ is no longer dead 🤷🏼‍♀️). Other than that you’ve got bunnies and eggs, which are great, but still not in as much abundant variety as Christmas decorations. It’s just a little harder to feel enveloped in the Easter spirit when the options are so limited. And I would say it isn’t just decorations that are limited in amount and variety, there are also fewer Easter songs and fewer Easter events and fewer Easter fill-in-the-blank. The pickings can feel very slim when you’re trying to enhance your personal Easter celebrations.

But what are those when we’ve got 1. A Prophetic admonition to make this happen. (#1Nephi3:7) 2. As long as we could ever need to make a full transformation. and especially 3. Our knowledge that Jesus truly is the Christ and that He really did conquer death and sin and pain for you and me personally! Just letting that astonishing reality sink in makes it seem like the only natural thing to do to celebrate that miraculous day from 2,000 years ago!

So now, I’m going to share what we did this Easter. We have not reached full-Easter-season status yet; but we did make an effort and were richly rewarded with greater hope and joy in our Savior, Jesus Christ!

Decorations

I have wanted to start a tradition of when we decorate for Easter. We always start decorating for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving, and so I’m trying to make the day after St. Patrick’s Day when we start decorating for Easter. Here’s what I did for this year.

I opted for our Easter creche on the mantel, with Jesus as the very center! I also added a copy of The Living Christ and some springy stuff. As the decoration for our coffee table I tried to go for an Easter basket vibe. This was the site of most of our eggs and bunnies.

My favorite acquisition this year was these triptych pictures of Jesus emerging from the dark tomb walking into the light of the shining sun. We hung it over the hutch in the main entryway, and I love how anyone who comes to our house can see it! I always want everybody who knows me to have no doubt that I worship Jesus Christ as my Savior. And what’s great is that it’s pretty well stuck where it is and so the reminder of our resurrected Savior gets to be a permanent part of our entryway.

For the hutch itself, I decided to use the Easter books we have, especially since we weren’t really getting into them much until Holy Week. Plus we have some fun springy elements.

Activities

I don’t want it to always be this way; but our activities mostly occurred during Holy Week. And I guess my kids had caught the vision of the joy of really celebrating Jesus’ resurrection because they were all totally stoked for Holy Week!

For Palm Sunday, our family got together with my sisters’ families at Kathryn’s house. Kathryn made us a super delicious dinner and then had prepared some really cool activities. We all made paper palm fronds and then reenacted the Lord’s Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem. Kathryn told/read us the story from the scriptures and then we waved our palm fronds and shouted hosanna as Fay–who had the honor of acting as the donkey who carried Jesus–walked through our mini throng of people carrying a picture of Jesus. The whole reenactment took sub 30 seconds. But it was fun for everybody and certainly helped us get in the Easter spirit!

Kathryn also made this cool snack mix where each different ingredient symbolized something from the Savior’s life and ministry. My favorite part of the snack mix was getting to hear Kathryn teach her children and mine about the Savior as she added each ingredient, and to feel the depth and sincerity of her love for Jesus Christ. I wish you all could have been there.

Kathryn actually had a ton of cool things she had been doing with her own family during the Easter season that we got to share in, and they were all inspiring! You should all probably follow Kathryn on social and demand that she share all her wonderful Easter ideas.

Monday of Holy Week we talked about the Savior cleansing the temple. In honor of His cleansing of the temple, we each tried to think of something in our house or life that we could cleanse that would make it easier for us to feel the Spirit. As you might imagine, this idea had mixed reception. But I think it ultimately did make a positive difference. Then, for family party, we went to the grounds around the Oquirrh Mountain Temple and talked about why Jesus spent His time in the temple and why He wants us to spend time there. It was fun to see that lots of people were doing something similar that evening.

Then Tuesday through Thursday our crazy-packed life of after school activities recommenced. And, we really didn’t do much. We didn’t read the books. We didn’t do the suggested activities. We just lived normal life for those days. But, what do you do?

When I first started getting excited about Easter plans in March, I had this idea that we could make Good Friday a really special day by keeping the kids home from school and trying to do Christ-centered activities. And I feel like my efforts and plans were really blessed and magnified because it did turn out as a nice day. We played catch up in our Holy Week books and talked about the different things Jesus did leading up to His crucifixion and resurrection, and we had a great discussion (well, at least the three older kids and I did) about what it all really means for us today. Later, while I was working in the kitchen and Bianca was at preschool (because she had an Easter party she didn’t want to miss) the other four kids watched the Prince of Egypt and we talked a little bit about the symbolism of the Passover and how it all points to Jesus Christ.

Food

Good Friday was really the only day I made anything Eastery to eat. But I was really excited that I got to make something I have always known about, but never knew was totally symbolic of Easter: Hot Cross Buns.

The Wikipedia article on Hot Cross Buns talks about how they are an Easter tradition with the cross symbolizing (you guessed it) the cross where Jesus was crucified, the spices inside symbolizing the herbs used to anoint His body, and sometimes orange peels are used to symbolize the bitterness of the cup Jesus drank on our behalf. They were fun to make and also yummy!

We also had our Jerusalem Dinner where we ate things that Jesus may have eaten, or that are middle-eastern, or that could remind us of the Savior.

We had lamb-burgers and talked again about the Passover and Jesus as the Lamb of God. We had dried figs and talked about the Savior cursing the fig tree that was symbolic of the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. The kids’ favorite part was that we had grape juice.

Bianca also had an idea that she wanted to do all week that we finally did for a snack on Friday morning. She wanted to have bread and water and remember the Sacrament. I kind of pushed off the idea for the first several days because I want to make sure that everything we do is in keeping with the sacredness of these things. But on Friday, I realized that Bianca’s heart was 100% pure and that we could have a snack of bread and water to remember the Sacrament and do it respectfully. And it turned out great. As we ate our bread and drank our water the kids wanted to read the verses in the Book of Mormon that have the Sacrament prayers. So we did, and we talked about the Sacrament and the Savior. And it really was lovely. Plus, the bread was really yummy.

See, I told you my efforts were magnified! (#1Nephi3:7again)

Parties

On Saturday, we got together with the Monsons for a delicious dinner and their traditional Easter hunt. The kids had a blast finding the stuff with their names on them as well as the loads of candy and the eggs filled with money! And of course everything is more fun with cousins and Grandma!

On Sunday after church we had our nuclear family Easter hunt in our back yard which Josh ensured was just as epic as the one at Grandma’s house. The kids were delighted to do the whole thing over again!

We also had delicious food made by Josh all day! I had run out of ideas after Good Friday, so Josh made sure we had an awesome Easter day by making us a super yummy breakfast casserole with chocolate milk, bagel sandwiches for lunch, and homemade country fried steak with potatoes and gravy and salad and peas for dinner. It was seriously all SO GOOD!

And Grandpa Lynn came to visit that evening as well! And the Easter Bunny himself couldn’t have brought more excitement to the kids.

Church

We had a great time at church! My one regret is that I didn’t greet people with “He is Risen” as much as I wanted to. I am REALLY hoping that becomes a widespread tradition, because it is way cool!

Our family was lucky to be very involved in the meeting. Josh led the primary children (including all of our kids but Fay) in their special Easter Song, Because. Josh and I were both part of the choir numbers. And Carter and Portia got to give talks! They both did such a great job sharing what Jesus means to them.

The other talks and music were equally wonderful! And I’m so grateful we got to be there!

One last little tradition that we have is that I am just obsessed with getting new Easter outfits. The kids were such sweeties and let me document them in their spring finery.

Anyway, all of this is LOTS and LOTS of words trying to convey one important idea: I know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who atoned for the pains and sins of all mankind by giving His life and gloriously taking it up again. And that is ABSOLUTELY cause for celebration!

Bianca turned FIVE years old on April 12! She was very excited for this birthday because she got to have her very first friend-party! She was delighted to invite all her preschool and church friends to celebrate with her, and even more delighted that everybody came!

Bianca wanted her birthday party to be themed “colors.” So we decorated with lots of different colors of streamers, balloons, and plates and napkins. She also requested that we do crafts that involved colors. The girls got to decorate their own princess mirror with colored markers and gem stickers, paint rocks with fancy paint markers (thanks for sharing, Fay), and even paint their nails. We also played color games like Red Rover and Red Light, Green Light. Red Rover was my personal favorite. The girls were SOOOOOO cute as they figured out how the game worked.

The whole thing was a lot of fun for me and Bianca. We were so grateful for all the friends and their parents who made the party such a joyful success.

Also, it must be noted that Fay was the absolute hero of the party. She was my second “adult” helper for every single part. And I really needed extra help with all those cute girls playing with all those colors. I’m so grateful for her joyfully willing assistance the entire time!

And now back to Bianca!

Bianca is such a little gem to have at home with me during the day. She is energetic, fun, and always up for some kind of activity; but she’s also patient with the fact that I used up all my energy and funness on Fay and Carter as toddlers. I love when she comes with me to the store or helps me with housework, or when we play games together, read stories, or watch Shimmer and Shine or Strawberry Shortcake.

Bianca is currently enjoying her final year of preschool with Miss Karie as well as ballet classes on Thursday mornings. She likes ballet and is super excited for her recital next month; but she thinks she might like to try a different sport next year. We’ll see what she ultimately decides. 🙂 She also reports that, ever since holding and tinkering with a violin at the violin store, she would like to begin violin lessons immediately. We’ll probably wait a few years before committing to that; but she sure was cute with that tiny violin!

Something that I love doing with Bianca (and she tolerates) is her hair. If you know me at all, you know that none of my girls gets her hair really done for school very often. But with just Bianca at home with me and her having afternoon preschool, there’s time to try out new styles! Bianca likes it better when we look up a YouTube tutorial for the hairstyle first. And she loves having a book to read or something else fun to do while I do her hair.

Other things Bianca loves include:

• Getting her nails painted
• Eating candy (she added this one)
• When the kids come home and play with her
• Making homemade personal pizza (she added this one too)
• Dressing up fancy (especially in her long, green dress)
• Leaving her bed after bedtime and falling asleep in random places on the floor
• Buying things at the store with her OWN money

Things Bianca does NOT love include:

• Me playing the piano when she’s the only kid home

Okay, there’s probably other things that could go on that list. But that’s a consistent one that she gets impressively grumpy about.

Anyway, Bianca is the funnest little cutie ever! We adore her forever! Enjoy some more pictures of her!

If you ask our kids, they can all tell you that we are really good at doing nothing for spring break. The neighbors may go to Europe and DisneyWorld, but we stay home and do nothing while Mom stresses out. 🙂

But THIS year, Josh saved us all from the traditional boredom and we went on a super fun trip to Arizona!

This grand adventure began with a simple, honest love … of cactus! In February, we went to St. George to visit my brother Tanner and his wife Becca and we saw some cool cactus specimens that Josh really enjoyed. And then he came home and found a book about cactus and other desert plants at the library. (Have I ever mentioned to you how much I LOVE being part of the Salt Lake County Library system?! It is seriously the best!) Anyway, the real cacti, plus the pictures in the book sparked in Josh the need to get out and see a BUNCH of cacti. So he started dreaming up this spring break trip to Arizona. I must confess that I find it really cool that Josh was/is so excited about cacti, and that now all our kids are equally excited and much more educated about cacti!

We headed out on our adventure on Sunday, right after church. We drove as far as Las Vegas that night and stopped to eat and sleep (also to drive through the exciting lights on The Strip). The next morning, we headed out again and drove all the way to Scottsdale. The kids made sure we had some fun along the way, like taking advantage of this western sculpture situation at a gas station. ⬆️

Before we could check in to our AirBnB, we hit up hole-in-the-rock. Josh assured me that he and I had gone there before when we were in Arizona in 2021 for a couple’s trip, but I had absolutely no recollection of doing it. Then when we arrived and especially as we started up the trail I remembered everything and admitted that I was way wrong. This time, I made sure to get photographic evidence so I could remember. 🙂

I love Helen’s face in this one! 😂

When we did check in, the kids all knew EXACTLY what they wanted to do. Our place had a pool in the back yard and, despite the fact that the water was FREEZING and it wasn’t all that warm of a day, the kids spent 3 solid hours swimming their hearts out!

And they spent just about every free minute we would allow them in that pool!

The next day we spent all in Scottsdale. We started the day at the Railroad Park. Everyone enjoyed the themed playgrounds, the carousel, the mini train ride, the big retired 1930s train, and the model train museum! After that we went home for lunch and (you guessed it) swimming. This time only 2 hours. Once everybody had been persuaded to vacate the water, we got dressed and went to “The Boardwalk.” There were some cool things we might have done there–like the aquarium or alien experience thingy–but we didn’t have a ton of time, so mostly we just looked at stuff and got some unique candies from the fun candy store. There was also this rad Cinderella carriage we had to document!

The reason that we didn’t have a ton of time to spend at the Boardwalk was because we had very exciting dinner plans!

We went to Medieval Times! I had heard about this place in the past, but didn’t know much. But when Josh was perusing available attractions in Scottsdale and this one came up, I was super excited to try it out! It was spontaneous and unlike anything we usually do on vacation (or at home, for that matter)! And, it didn’t disappoint!

I don’t know how much anybody reading this knows about Medieval Times, but here’s the gist: You buy a ticket for a banquet and competition. When you enter, you are seated in stadium style banquet tables according to the color of crown you are wearing (we were red). Then you get introduced to a King and Queen who have invited you to this banquet as a celebration of their newly made alliance between six distinct groups (not quite kingdoms, I think, but a lot of the “plot” went over my head). Our server informed us that as red-crown-wearers in the red section, we would be rooting for the Red Knight. We were also somewhat instructed on how to cheer on our knight and his comrades (Yellow Knight and Black and White Knight) and to “Boo!!” our knight’s major opponents (Blue Knight, Red and Yellow Knight, and Green Knight). Then we got to see all the knights march around with their squires, practice throwing their lances, etc. We also saw a remarkably trained horse doing some really cool things, as well as a beautiful falcon. All this was in conjunction with our feast! We had soup and bread, followed by half a chicken, corn on the cob, and a seasoned baked potato, and then an eclair for dessert!

Then the tournament began where different combinations of two knights would joust against each other (my personal favorite part) followed by some exciting sword combat. It worked elimination style until only two knights remained. We cheered on our Red Knight with all our hearts through the whole tournament and were elated when he turned out to be the ultimate victor of it all! I know that us being put in the red section was completely arbitrary, but I still felt immense pride when “we” won the whole tournament!

And then, as if our delight at the experience needed any help, we got another very exciting honor! After the Red Knight triumphed over all his foes, he had the choice of all the fair maidens in the red section to select as his “Queen of Love and Beauty.” Josh worked hard to make sure that the knight could see Helen standing on his lap when the search began. The knight came right up to our row and saw Helen along with Portia right next to her and said “Let’s do both of them!” It was such a memorable moment for our two little queens!

I told the kids, as we left, that our experience that night was too perfect to be just chance. I feel like we were blessed (for who knows why) to have had such a fantastic time!

Sorry that was long. But I want to remember the whole thing!

The next day, Wednesday, was our long awaited trip to Saguaro National Park! We had a bit of a drive over to the east side of Tuscon, but the kids were so excited to see cactus that they were honestly quite well behaved for the extra driving.

We went on a mile-ish long hike where we met the several types of cactus that frequent the Sonoran Desert. We saw saguaros, prickly-pears, teddy-bears (Do. Not. Touch.), barrel cactus, jumping cholla, Ocatillo (I know them as “the ones with the orange blossoms”, and Staghorn Cholla (what Fay called “strawberry cactus).” Those are at least the ones I really took note of. And it was really fun to have learned about them on the hike, because for the rest of our time driving and hiking through the park we kept seeing the same ones and recognizing them, almost as old cactus friends!

As we looked out over the desert from the car, I was struck by just how ALIVE the whole place is! It was almost like woods, but instead of trees, it was cacti of all varieties and sizes.

We loved seeing how tall the saguaros got! When we were climbing over the Javelina Rocks and Fay was way on top of a big mountain of rocks, she noted that she was still not as tall as the saguaro right next to her rock stack! Those things are seriously SO big!!!

Another fun thing about going to Saguaro National Park was that Portia got us in for free! When we pulled up to the gate, ready to pay, the guy asked if we had anybody with life long disabilities. I had heard that diabetes qualified you for a lifelong National Parks pass, but we hadn’t brought anything from the girls’ doctor to “prove” their condition, so we thought we would be out of luck. But when we (probably too excitedly) informed him that we had two Type 1 Diabetics, he just handed us a sheet for Portia to sign saying that she COULD have a doctor provide documents citing that she does indeed have a lifelong disability. Portia signed her paper, and then signed her very own card that will let her into any National Park for free for the rest of her life! Thanks for saving us $25, Portia!

I think it will be fun for Portia to take her own family to national parks for free some day and show them her sweet little 9-year-old signature on her official card.

After enjoying the cactus wonderland, we headed back into Tuscon to visit their zoo! We only made it for the last hour, but we still got to see a lot because it was not busy. I guess it wasn’t spring break for people in Arizona.

Something I really loved about this zoo was that most of the animals were awake and active. I don’t know if it was because this zoo is way different from others, or because we didn’t go in the morning like we usually do for zoos, or maybe because the zoo was closing and that means they were all about to be fed; but whatever the reason, it was super fun to see the animals moving around and doing stuff.

I don’t know what was in this exhibit, but this picture had all my favorite people in it. 🙂

How do rhinos lift their heads?! They are SO BIG!

Despite that peacock’s best efforts, those peahens were NOT impressed.

After the zoo, we went over to a place in Tuscon called “The Garden of Gethsemane.” We read that it was a statue garden depicting scenes of the Savior. I was expecting it to be something like the life of Christ statue garden at Ashton Gardens (which is majestic and beautiful, by the way) and I thought it would be a special thing to go see, especially since it’s Eastertime. We were disappointed that it was so small (and I personally was disappointed that one statue showed Jesus still lying in the tomb, rather than being resurrected), but it wasn’t a bad experience. I think it’s always good to think about Jesus.

Apparently Bianca felt like this picture needed some attitude. 😬

Then we called it a day, and went home to eat and go to bed. The kids didn’t swim this day. But they survived.

Our last full day was Thursday. We started the morning with a trip to The Idea Museum in Mesa. It is a children’s museum that has a strong focus on arts and crafts, and all around creativity. Our kids LOVED it! We spent 3 hours there and they could have very happily stayed another hour. Our family does quite a lot of arts and crafts type stuff, but this place had so many fun things that I have never thought or heard of before. It was a highlight of the trip for me! If any of you are ever taking a young family to the Phoenix area, I would HIGHLY recommend this be one of your stops!

Carter worked so hard on that car! And he was apparently rewarded for his efforts; because he reported that a lady stopped to get photographic evidence of his impressive masterpiece to show her family, because otherwise they would never believe he actually made something that sophisticated on his own.

After that, we went back to the house for lunch and, of course, some more swimming! I finally ventured into the water on this last day. But only the hot-tub! The frigid pool did not appeal to me.

After swimming, we hung out in Old Town Scottsdale for a while. I think it would have been more fun if we had been there earlier in the day. By that time–around 6:00–most of the kid friendly gift shop places had closed and there was mostly “adult” entertainment available. So, we didn’t spend long.

Josh’s sister, Lacey sent us an Instagram reel about yummy food in Scottsdale. (Thanks Lacey!!) We had mostly made our own food at the house during the trip, but we wanted to try one more thing we couldn’t get in Riverton before we left. So we went to a place called Lamp Pizza for dinner. It was fancy wood fired personal size pizza, and everybody got happily full there!

But there was another place from the reel that we wanted to try, so we went there too! It was called Jo Jo’s Shake Bar. Scottsdale isn’t the only place you can get this, but Riverton is NOT a place you can get it, so we’re happy we went! It was delicious, but the presentation was my personal favorite thing about it. Also, it is in this super swanky part of town that made me feel fancy (and maybe a little like an imposter) just walking there. Maybe someday when I’m rich and famous I’ll frequent places like that and feel exclusively fancy and NOT like an imposter.

Look at that thing! Isn’t it just so beautiful?!

And then, with our stomachs aching merrily, we went home for our last sleep in Scottsdale.

Friday, we had thought to stop in St. George at Tanner and Becca’s for the night (they were very kind and had agreed to let us stay again), but we changed our minds and decided to just go straight home. It turns out that 10+ hours in the car is hard on everybody, not just the kids, and by the time we got home I was So. Done. and didn’t say a word to Josh all night. (Sorry, Babe! I really do love you!) But waking up at home on Saturday morning with nowhere to drive was really really nice. So, it was worth it!

We had such a dream of a time on this trip! Thank goodness for Josh and cactus-dreams come true!

Did you know that Helen’s birthday is only two days after Portia’s? That means that if/when I’m not on my A-game, they both get their birthday blog-posts written at the same time.😅

Happy 7th birthday to our sweet Helenator!

Helen is seriously the funnest little girl to be around! She kind of just quietly goes about her life absolutely relishing most everything about it. She loved celebrating her birthday. She loved getting a birthday crown at school. She loved going shopping for the ingredients to her birthday foods. She loves playing with her birthday gifts. She just loves it all!

We love her!

Helen had these cupcakes fully planned in her head long before her birthday. It was super fun to help make her mental masterpiece a reality.

For her birthday, Helen requested a fairy costume and also makeup. She is having a blast getting super fancy (and coercing Bianca into doing it with her) whenever she pleases.

And speaking of fancy, Helen has been loving the unique opportunity she has had recently to be a model for Hope and Henry children’s clothes. She has done 4 photo-shoots for them over the last year and always has a super fun time. Plus, she gets free clothes out of it!

When we went to St. George to visit my brother Tanner and his wife Becca, Helen loved finding anything and everything that could count as a cave. She made sure she spent at least some time in each one she encountered.

Just like Portia, Helen loves being creative and crafty. She’ll make something out of just about anything available.

I found these three raccoons snuggling together in a hat on the floor of Helen’s room. It’s nice to know she’s still her raccoon self at heart.

Some other things that Helen really likes include:

• Melting beads
• Playing outside
• Her umbrella
• Ballet–she’s in lessons and has tons of fun!
• Her best friend, Reagan

We’re so grateful that Helen has been ours for 7 whole years!

Sometimes I kind of let it slip my mind that celebrating the kids’ birthdays means that they’re a whole year older. I feel like this year I’m still half in denial that my kids are really growing up.

We celebrated 9 wonderful years of loving Portia on March 10th! She got lots of loving from her siblings, parents, grandparents, teachers, friends, and classmates! I feel like she was bringing home birthday spoils for the whole week. She loved the attention!

Portia is super fun at this season of her life (just like she was in the others)! She is creative, enthusiastic, opinionated, smart, and willing to work hard. She also really excels in academics, music, comedic timing, and making sure she is heard. We love having her in our family!

For her birthday, Portia got a dinosaur lego set. Here she is rocking her dinosaur to sleep. <3

She made this impressive tower of random things from her and Carter’s bedroom. It was taller than me!

Just having fun being herself!

Right now, Portia’s sport of choice is swimming. She loves going each week and is making great progress!

She is also taking piano lessons. She works very hard at practicing, and is richly rewarded for her efforts by her teacher. The other kids in music lessons are rather envious. But she is making wonderful progress and seems to enjoy it all.

No matter where we are, Portia finds a way to make it extra fun!

Some other things Portia enjoys right now are

• Reading–especially graphic novels
• Every conceivable type of craft
• Picking out clothes for the day
• Playing outside (finally!)

I feel like this post really isn’t enough to give you a good idea of just how terrific Portia is. You’ll just have to come hang out with her sometime!

I’m so excited to share my 2025 theme verb with you! It’s a good one! But before we get into that, I have to share with you what Josh and I did to better survive January this year!

As you might imagine, this all began with a very loving and generous mother. 🙂 For Josh’s birthday last June, his mom gifted him free babysitting! We were so grateful that she let us cash in on that gift in a big way! She watched the kids while Josh and I took a whirlwind trip to Disneyland! We left Sunday morning 12 January and were home by lunchtime on Tuesday 14 January! But we maximized every minute of that trip, and we are both so much the happier for having taken it. So thanks again, Mom! We are so grateful for you!

We got to our hotel in the early afternoon and so had lots of time to enjoy Downtown Disney that first day. We found some souvenirs for the kids (because we couldn’t very well go to Disneyland without them AND not get them anything!) explored the grounds of the Disneyland hotel, enjoyed the general ambiance, and even had a reservation for dinner at the Jazz Kitchen. Josh had a goal to eat at all new places this time and this was our first one. It was a fun New Orleans themed spot with live music–which we love! But the biggest thing of note about it was their shrimp and grits. It was next. level. The grits were so creamy and almost chewy-soft. And there was this gravy business that was so flavorful in the most unexpected and delightful way! I wonder if they share their recipe anywhere… Confirmation: the recipe is online! I’ll see you in 20 lbs!

Our in the parks day was so good! I was afraid that I would be the limiting factor in how much we could accomplish–if you know Josh + Disney parks, you understand. But I absolutely held my own! We arrived at Disneyland 15 minutes before opening and left 30 minutes after closing! In that time–thanks to Josh’s expert planning, the lightning lane upgrade we added to our tickets, the fact that it was the middle of January, and excellent speed-walking skills–we rode 30 rides between both parks!

Of those 30, 9 were new to me. I was proud of myself for having tried out so much stuff I didn’t know existed before. But I’m even more proud of Josh! There is one ride in Disneyland which his family (for reasons nobody knows) loves to hate: Storybook Land. And Josh has always taken pride in the fact that he has never ridden it. But, in the spirit of our adventurous couple’s trip, he swallowed his pride and rode it! ♥️♥️♥️ My analysis of the ride is that it was adorable, especially since I knew literally nothing about the ride before going on it. (It has always been a somewhat taboo subject, after all.) I actually really enjoyed seeing all the scenes from classic movies brought to miniature life! The commentary from the boat master was definitely cheesy, but it didn’t bug me. It likely will not make my list of favorite rides, but I’d definitely go on it again! You’ll have to ask Josh what he thought.

We had such a fun time doing Disneyland just the two of us! This is my first time to go without toddlers, and I LOVED doing it Josh’s way from dawn until far past dusk!

And then, it was over. The kids hadn’t even had time to miss us yet when I picked them up from school. They were disappointed that I wasn’t Grandma. 😅

Sigh… It was seriously just so good! But on to the new year with its new theme!

My theme verb for 2025 is Pray. There are a few reasons I chose this word. I had received a tip (from the Follow Him podcast) that I would be amazed at what the Lord would tell me if I would ask for very specific things. I really gave this some effort one week in November-ish, and was indeed amazed! It was then that I first decided that pray should be my word for this year. I want more experiences like that! It does take extra effort, and conscious planning, but it feels like that sort of praying is what people are talking about when they encourage us to live up to our privileges. Truth be told, I haven’t really engaged in that kind of praying very much so far this year.

Another reason I felt like pray was a good word for me this year is because I have had some struggles with the principle. Over the years I have often wondered what prayer actually does. Through years of study and, yes, prayer on the subject I feel like I have gained a testimony of prayer’s power to get God into me, so to speak. I know that when I earnestly pray to know His will, I will sooner or later get an answer, or simply be led to do it. I know that He will answer many of my questions through the power of the Holy Ghost. These are the parts of prayer that led me to choose the word in the first place. But there is a part of prayer that has been a source of deep frustration and even anger for me. In the scriptures, the Savior encourages several times to “ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you.” Amulek teaches us that we should pray to God for even temporal things like the crops of our fields that they may increase. I have been taught my whole life that Heavenly Father cares about the details of my life and wants to bless me (with a fish not a serpent, with bread not a stone). But I must confess, I sometimes have trouble seeing the bread or the fish, and what I receive in response to my prayers feels a lot like serpents and stones. And all of this has brought me to a place where I am wondering if I actually know the God I worship.

And that–TRULY knowing my God and His Son–is what I hope to gain from Pray2025. I want to use prayer this year to forge a real relationship with God. I want to use my faithful efforts of praying in earnest, meaningful ways to rekindle the hope in Him I feel I have lost. I want to begin my journey to the place where I can say, with Job, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.”

I’m excited for this new year! I am looking forward to the things the Lord will teach me and the ways that He will change me in 2025.

It is always fun to look back on a year in terms of the word I chose as my theme verb. This year is especially exciting because of how poorly my word went! 😂

I’ll start this post with the really pessimistic view of the year: I started out in January great. I worked really hard to make running a priority and got many miles in–something like 23. February got a little worse, March a little worse than that, and so on through the year. There were times throughout the year that I would try to recommit myself to running and it would last for a week or two and then fall apart again. And my grand finale of the year is that I have run a total of ZERO times in the month of December. All of this is totally true. And there are times in my life where I would have looked at this year as a remarkable failure.

But even during the down times this year, I feel like I learned a lot of things. I’m going to do some bullet points to kind of explain this.

• I learned that I probably chose this as my year’s verb too soon in my life. I still have little children at home during the day, and not so little children home in the afternoon and all day during the summer. So I’m probably not as free as I was feeling I might be at the beginning of the year.
• I learned from the fact that sometimes I wanted to do something good for myself, but didn’t feel up to running, and since running was what I was “supposed” to be doing I wouldn’t do any exercise at all. I’m proud to say that when I recognized that pattern, I tried to change it.
• And on that note, there were MANY times this year that I saw that something wasn’t working and I decided to lower my expectations and/or change my definition of success. That was probably the best thing I could have done, because it was doing that which gave me the motivation to try again all those times during the year. I would recommend that practice to everyone!
• I didn’t listen to myself in my beginning of the year post. You may or may not recall that I mentioned there was NO WAY I ever would have been able to successfully run that marathon back in college without my running buddy (thanks again, Asael). Well, I didn’t have a solid running buddy this time. Sometimes I ran with Josh (which was great! He’s a better runner than me); but a lot of times he and I find ourselves exhausted and unmotivated at the same time because of the same (5) things, so we had a hard time being a complementary force for running to each other.

Because of these things I learned I feel like this year can still be called a success. Plus here are some other ways I succeeded this year.

• I ran approximately 90 miles this year. I know that’s nothing close to what I set as my goal this past January; but it is also nothing close to 0; so I still feel pretty good about it.
• I DID run a race this year. I had considered training for and running a half-marathon with my brother and that obviously didn’t happen. But I DID run a 5K on Thanksgiving morning and it was super fun! I’m glad I did it!
• My running efforts rubbed off on others. Josh ran with me, Carter ran with me, Portia scootered with me on a run, Helen biked with me on a run. Those were all fun activities with people I love that were good for our bodies and minds and spirits!

So that is how my year looked. At least concerning my Run2024 initiative. I have also had some AMAZING spiritual experiences this year that have changed my life (hopefully forever)! But I really don’t see much of how they could connect with the running theme; so I’ll pass on sharing them.

I have already selected my verb for next year, and I can tell you right now that it’s going to be life changing! I’m so excited!

I thought it would be nice to post some of what we’ve been doing for the past couple months. This post won’t have a cohesive flow; it will just be pictures with explanation. Enjoy!

Our pear tree became ripe enough for the kids to start enjoying pears in late August. Here they all are with their yummy pears! My kids are rarely all in one place together unless they are eating, so I have lots of pictures of them at the table or up to the kitchen counter or with snacks or stuff. I just love seeing them all together! They’re so great!

Also in August, Josh got surgery for a hernia. The surgery went great and he has healed very well. But I have a funny anecdote about surgery day I wanted to share. When I arrived, Josh was still very slowly waking up. We were in the recovery “room” for over an hour before he felt like he was ready to go. The nurse walked us out to the curb and waited with Josh in his wheelchair while I went to get the car and bring it to the doors. When I returned with the car, I saw the nurse chatting away to Josh … who looked literally dead. It was such a funny sight to see her just talking merrily as Josh hung limp and pale in his wheelchair. 😆 (Am I creepy for thinking it was amusing?) Anyway, he had passed out, so we went back to the recovery room for a while until he was truly ready to go and then everything was totally smooth after that. So don’t be worried about Josh. But it was memorable for me.

Then the kids went back to school. Since Helen is now a big first grader who goes to school all day, it is just Bianca and me at home.🤯 The first week the kids were back in school, we took Bianca’s baby doll (Ella is her most recent name, I believe) on a walk every day. Bianca is a sweet little mommy and made sure that if she wasn’t able to attend to all of Ella’s needs, I did it for her. I wanted so bad for somebody to ask me what I had been doing since the kids went back to school. I would reply “Oh, just babysitting my granddaughter.”

But finally, after Labor Day, it was Bianca’s time to go back to school as well! She loves going to Miss Karie’s preschool and all the fun crafts she gets to bring home. Here she is in her horse mask from the week they learned about farm animals. 🥰

Fay started junior high this year and is working so hard at all her classes! One afternoon, I walked into the house from picking up the elementary school kids to find Fay like this. Something about her school work spread around her, her focus on her laptop, and the soda she had saved from lunch just made me feel like she’s so so big and grown-up. Thank goodness she’s still Fay!

With the new school year came the return to after school activities. Carter is doing soccer again, Helen and Bianca are trying ballet this year, and Fay is giving tumbling a go. Portia decided she didn’t want to dance again this year, but instead give tennis a try. She is SO CUTE playing tennis and I think she is making good progress. But it’s hard to know if she likes it or not. She really wishes she had a friend to do it with her. If your daughter is Portia’s age and wants to try tennis, let me know and let’s sign them up together!

So, Josh is the funnest dad ever (I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned to you all how great Josh is. 😉) and one day when he mowed the lawn he mowed part of it into a maze. The kids got literally hours of fun out of that maze over multiple days. They were excited to show it off to their friends when they came over, and they were devastated when it got mowed away. But Josh assured them he would make another maze some day, maybe with the entire yard next time!

One Saturday, Fay and Portia decided to dress all matching. Even down to their black socks with pink toes and heels! Then they decided to do as much stuff in sync as possible. They would whisper to each other what they planned to say and then count to three to say the same thing at the same time. It was so cute! And then Helen and Bianca wanted to do the same. Helen even did hers and Bianca’s hair the same! I just adore my girls!

And my boy!

Fay really wanted to bob for apples in celebration of the beginning of fall. We all went out and had a grand time bobbing, but Carter’s bob was the best! He put on his swimming goggles and just plunged his entire head into the pot of water. He bit so fiercely at the apple, apparently, that each time he thought he had the apple, a bite would come off into his mouth instead of bringing the entire apple. He probably got 5 bites of apple before he finally successfully extracted the apple itself. We all had so much fun watching the battle and Carter’s ultimate triumph!

And speaking of the beginning of fall, we had a fall kickoff party on the autumnal equinox this year! We decorated the whole main floor as autumny as we could and ate soup and pumpkin pie and pumpkin tres leches (provided by Mary)! We were grateful for Camry (Cameron and Mary) and Morgan who came to celebrate with us.

We’ve been really enjoying the spoils of our garden the past two months. A huge thanks goes out to Hyrum and Becky who provided almost all the plants for our garden this year! We got so many glorious zucchini, tomatoes and cucumbers! The only plants they didn’t give us were our pumpkin plants. But those have also done so well! I planted two plants–one orange Jack-O-Lantern pumpkins and one smaller white pumpkins–and each plant produced 5 beautiful pumpkins! I had been watching very closely and was sure we were going to get 9 pumpkins altogether. But then, one day, Carter found a whole jack-o-lantern size pumpkin hiding in the weeds at the very back of the garden behind the corn. (The weeds are, indeed, that big.) It was still green when he found it, but now it is ripe and beautiful and harvested and sitting on our front porch!

I have no recollection as to why this occurred, but a few weeks ago the kids all unanimously decided we needed to have a ball. Everybody got fancy for the occasion (I think Carter put a bow-tie on with his soccer uniform) and danced around the house for a good half hour. Everybody loved it! Except maybe Charlotte (the dog). 😂 Maybe one of our kids will grow up and follow in their father’s ballroom dance footsteps!

I’m grateful for the opportunity this post has given me to look back and see how beautiful our crazy little life is. I tend to let myself get bogged down in the surviving of each day and lose sight of this sacred season of growing up that my family is in. But there really is so much simple joy to be had in every day; and each joyful moment is a gift directly from my own loving Heavenly Father.