Church

Today we finally got the outside wood on the house painted!  It was MUCH needed and I had put it off for so long.  We found a painter that had done other homes in our neighborhood and had done a great job.  He power washed the wood and prepared it yesterday, and then painted today.  He even took off all the gutters and put them back on after painting.  It looks great!

Tonight, Sarah and the Laurel Class at church had a Teacher Appreciation Dinner.  She invited her Spanish teacher.  While that was going on, I taught the scouts part 1 of the Computers Merit Badge.  Fun stuff!  🙂  Sarah had a great time and next year, they are going to do it again, but expand it to the entire youth group!

Yesterday we filled all the plastic eggs we had with candy and hid them in the back yard for our annual family Easter egg hunt.  The boys had a blast!  We invited the two little boys from next door over to join and they had a lot of fun as well.  It was fun watching the boys run around the yard and find eggs.  It’s not that much of a challenge for Zach (and the girls joined in as well), but it’s still fun…

Today (Easter Sunday), we had a wonderful day together as a family.  I had abbreviated meetings so I could stay home a little bit with everyone.  The girls got matching Easter dresses and were excited to get pictures taken with them together…

Everyone at church thought that they looked really cute together.  Brittany was a little embarrassed that she looked like everyone else, but she got over it quickly.  🙂  The meetings were really good and when we got home, we had a great dinner and a wonderful “resurrection cake” covered with white frosting and coconut.   Happy Easter everyone!

This weekend was a pretty busy weekend due to General Conference.  Kirstyn had EEP and then the rest of the weekend was spent watching conference sessions and learning a bunch.  Last night for the Priesthood session, we did our usual get-together at Portillos for dinner and then went over to the session as a group.

This morning we had a sister and her son from our ward over for breakfast.  She is moving this next week.   🙁  We are very sad to see her go, but it is the best for her and her son.

Today was a full “play day” for the kids.  Kirstyn did a mall trip with her friends, Brittany hung out with friends as well, and tonight, since it was spring break, we didn’t have any “official” Young Men and Young Women activities.  That said, the Laurels and Priests decided to get together and have a movie and game night at the Laurel Class President’s house which so happened to be Sarah.  🙂  She sprung it on  us at the last minute so we had to rush to get the basement cleaned up and appropriate for the get-together.  The kids had a great time!  After MUCH prompting, we finally let Brittany go down and join the party, even though she’s not a Laurel yet (but most of her friends are and were there).  🙂

Today, Zach lost his first basketball game!  🙁  He played a little better but they still came up short.  He wasn’t sad though.  When they lost, he said, “well, at least our record is better than in football!”  🙂  We had to laugh at that one!

After the game was over, Kirstyn had a band clinic and performance at Crone Middle School.  I went and supported her there while Angela helped Sarah get ready for the big Priest/Laurel Dance tonight (a.k.a. Mormon Prom).  Kirstyn did a great job and they got some great feedback from some wonderful clinicians!

After Kirstyn was done (a little later than expected), I ran the camera and Kirstyn over to where Sarah and all the kids were meeting for dinner prior to going to the dance.  All the other parents were there taking pictures.  Sarah looked stunning!  Almost all the Priests and Laurels from our ward went and so it made a GREAT group!

They had a GREAT dinner and then went over to the White Eagle Owner’s Club for the dance.  Everyone had a wonderful time and Sarah really enjoyed herself!  She said that even the guys were asking people to dance which is a pretty big step for the young men in our ward!  🙂

Here is a picture from the dance itself…

This morning we opened presents for Ben before going to church.  He got some fun stuff, and can’t wait to read his books.

This afternoon we had a fun birthday dinner and party for Ben.  We asked him what he wanted for his birthday dinner and he said that he wanted “Uncle Dan” (Dan Oscarson in our ward) and his family.  He didn’t care what we ate, just as long as Uncle Dan came.  🙂  We got a laugh out of that!  🙂  We also had the Sister Missionaries join us for dinner and we had a great time.

After the party, we had Zach’s Baptism Fireside at the Church.  He is preparing to be baptized this year and can’t wait!  At the fireside, he got his Article of Faith cards on a ring.  Angela and I got a laugh out of that, because we designed those cards back when Angela was the Primary President and they are still using them!  🙂

While we were gone, Ben’s sisters let him play in his cake, and when we came home, we found a bunch of pictures like this on the camera…

What a bunch of goobers!  This is typical when we leave the girls with Ben!  They love to cause mischief at Ben’s expense and then have a great laugh over it!  It’s almost impossible to get mad when you see pictures like this!  🙂

Today Zach’s basketball team played Coach Tony’s and Coach Jeff’s team.  They got to play against the other half of their Packers football team.  We were hoping so much that Zach’s team would win (at least to make up for all the losses on the football field).  They did!  They actually looked really good and beat the other team by a bunch.  It was sad for Jeff and Tony, but oh well…  🙂

Tonight, the girls went to the basketball game at Metea (they won of course) to play in the Pep Band.  After that, they drove over to the Naperville Stake Center to a church dance.  They had a blast and came home talking and talking, and did I mention talking?  🙂