Easter

We had a lovely Easter weekend. The kids get some candy and a book in the baskets. This year they also got flip flops to wear to the pool this year.

Megan Instead of a book this year, Kate got a 3-D puzzle
Carli is into weird faces when I take her picture lately. A little disturbing, but still cute, I suppose. Here she is with her basket.

Another weird look for the camera. Hmmm...

Brooke was loving her soft and fuzzy Easter lamb! She has remnants of a chocolate egg running down her chin, too.

She loved all the chocolate!

Taking a little break to snuggle her blankie and suck her thumb for a minute. So sweet. :)

Brandon trying to open an egg.

Today I watched "The Testaments" and enjoyed watching the account of the Savior and the people in the Americas at the time of his death and resurrection. What an amazing gift our Savior gave us. Because he suffered in the Garden of Gethsemane, because he died for us, because he rose again from the tomb, we know that we can return to live with him and our Father in Heaven after we die. I am so grateful for this knowledge and for my membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Swimming!

Yesterday we met a bunch of friends from church at our pool and had a blast. It was cooler so the moms didn't feel so much like we had to get in the pool. :) We just hung out and visited while the kiddos had fun swimming and playing with their friends. It turned out to be a perfect morning to swim. I decided to get some shots of one of our last swimming dates of the summer. Here they are:

Carli

Carli and Jill's Trevor
Lindy's Sydney and Allison
Carli again...LOL!
Brandon
Kate...what a look with the goggles
Jill's Trevor again. He's just so cute!!!
A bunch of them
Cate and Kate Girlfriends...is there anything better?

Megan, what a ham

The boys
Lindy's Madelyn
Jill's Courtney jumping
A small group shot
There were so many of us there and it was just so nice to hang out with each other and become better friends. It's always a treat to let the kids play with so many friends, too.

Could it get any worse?

Yesterday Ben and I spoke in church. The topic was really great, the scriptures and the restoration of the gospel. I went first, of course, and Ben was left to fend for himself with the 4 kids. After about 10 minutes he had to take Carli out. I'm usually out in the hall with her for part of sacrament meeting. Since Daddy was out the girls took upon themselves to come up to stand with me on the podium. Ok, so not good. They take that as show off time. I calmly told them to sit down. Did they listen? Well, for about 5 seconds. How totally embarassing. After a minute a sweet sister came and helped them down and took them out to my husband and sat with Brandon in the bench. How grateful I am to her! The other problem is that whenever I speak in church, bear my testimony or whatever, I am pretty much overwhelmed with the Spirit and I get very emotional. I pretty much cry through the whole thing. After sacrament meeting I just wanted to hang my head and not talk to anyone. I'm grateful to the people who did come up to me and tell me they thought I did a great job (especially being so calm when my girls went up front, but come one, what did they expect me to do--yell at them in front of everyone?). So anyway, it was kind of a nightmare and I hope the bishopric learns from this and doesn't ask us to do that again for a very, very, very long time. We've only been in the ward for 1 year and it's the second time we've spoken. Ugh...