David David

Today was a moment every parent dreams of, David bore his testimony in church today. We have been practicing a lot at home with the kids for FHE and family scripture study and every fast Sunday we ask the kids if they are going to go up and share their testimony and they always say they are "too shy". Which I totally understand since I am usually "too shy" to share my feelings about the gospel with others, especially in front of such a large audience. Anyway, today we pulled the game bribery card-and of course he went running up to the podium. He had to wait while the lady up there finished her testimony so he was nervous and looking down at us with scared eyes, but he did so great. He bore his testimony and then when he sat down he leaned over and said-"my heart feels good right now". Isn't that great? What a sweetheart!

Busch Gardens

We took a much needed break from the yard cleanup & moving prep to take the kids to Busch Gardens for the day. We went with friends the Latteiers who have kids around our kids' age and had a lot of fun. It is a beautiful amusement park based on different countries in Europe-Italy, France, Germany, Scotland, Britain. The kids had fun and even went on some "scary" rides which is much better than the last time we went when David was 5 & Savannah was 3 -Savannah was too small for all but a few rides & David was too chicken so we basically walked around the park & went home. This time we went on rides, had lunch and enjoyed being together!

A mini-mini-mini version of Munich's clock tower!

The kids hiding in a tree in Leprechan ville!

Bella riding the horses next to the Clydesdales barn

The girls in the balloon ride in Italy

David & Caleb

Savannah & Helen

Isabella is mad because Helen & Savannah are together without her

Phillip decides to be nice & ride with her

Benj hanging out with the wet clothes

Are we having fun yet??

Slave Driving Parents

More Easter Pics for your viewing pleasure!!

Isn't he getting so big??? I can't believe my baby is 9!

Always the sweetheart...she loves to pose!

Savannah helped this little one pose, but it took 3 tries to get her to listen to big sister!

The little man...what a bundle of love he is! No smiles this morning though.

After 3 days of intense yard work we accumulated 42 bags of leaves & a giant pile of dead branches. The dead branches are partly from our trees and partly from our little neighbor girl who has been vandalizing things around our home, including the pretty maple in our front yard. I caught her with hedge trimmers but not before she had trimmed off every branch up to her height and was starting to climb to get more. Poor little maple didn't hurt anybody. Anyways, we have really been getting the yard cleaned up.

We thought we were so great, I was feeling good in Nov so we got our grass & flower beds all cleaned off from leaves falling. Then Thanksgiving hit and we had a big windstorm and our flower beds and grass were completely covered again. We decided to bag the efforts and wait until spring to clean it. SOOOO...we have been driving our kids mercilessly with rewards of popsicles, treats and even an evening at the local burger joint-Five Guys Burgers & Fries. 42 bags of leaves, that doesn't include the ones we did in the fall...we thought we were going to have to take the seats out of the van to get it all to the dump!


Thank heaven, we went to drop Dave's car off to be fixed today from his little hit & run accident (not his fault) and instead of bringing us a tiny little economy car they brought us a big giant pickup! YEAH! Savannah said "this is the funnest car we've ever had". So we made two pickup load full trips to the dump to get rid of all the yard debris, but as you can see from the Easter pictures, there are still leaves in the grass & flowers, but it is as good as it is going to get. And tomorrow we are taking the kids to Busch Gardens to celebrate & relax. Yeah for Spring break. Well this is a longer post than I thought it would be. Oh well...for those who are interested-10 days until we leave VA & 18 days until we are home!!

Happy Easter

What a lovely day, warm weather, flowers blooming, cute kids & celebrating the life and resurrection of the Savior. Who can ask for anything more. Here are some pics of the kids in their matchy matchy Easter clothes-which I LOVE. I have to say that David was so excited to have a little brother to dress like him, he was so cute-gave me a giant hug when I brought home the sweaters. He really loves his little brother.

We had a wonderful morning, the kids woke up to look for baskets which the bunny likes to hide-a wicked tradition that I had in my family and I have to say I ended up hating because the bunny got trickier the older you got. One year I was SO MAD at the "easter bunny" that by the time we got back from church and I still hadn't found my basket I totally gave up. I am sure I threw a huge hissy fit but just remembering going up to my room and saying that I "DIDN"T CARE". I don't know which of my sweet siblings ended up finding the basket but that was a holiday to remember. By the time I got out of bed the kids were busy enjoying their baskets and then one of them peeked out the window and saw there was an egg on one of the hedges. So we had to throw shoes on and run outside to hunt for eggs. They were so busy eating candy & hard boiled eggs they didn't even ask for breakfast this morning.

So we dyed eggs on Saturday night and this was such a good example of each one of the kids personalities. There were 9 glasses with colors in them. Savannah carefully selected the best color, carefully dipped her egg into it and then turned it over & over so it would be just the right color. Isabella also carefully selected her favorite color-PINK but spoons were just not doing it for her so she had to use her hands to roll the eggs in the color to get it just right. David lined up 2 rows of 3 glasses (we were coloring 6 eggs each) into perfect lines and plopped an egg into each glass. Waited all of 1 minute and then pronounced-I"m done! They are such characters!!

We had a devotional before church to talk about the real meaning of Easter which was really great. I love the stage of life David & Savannah are at that they are starting to understand scripture and also wanting to help the little ones understand. Savannah always asks an easy question for bella so she can participate in our lessons and they both pray for Ben in every prayer-that he will be healthy and learn the gospel. It is too sweet. As I was reading the scriptures this morning I felt really blessed to have the gospel and thought about my grandma and those who have passed recently. My friend Patti has really been an inspiration to me recently and if you want to read her Easter post you can go to www.caringbridge.org/visit/robepperson she is so amazing dealing with the tragedy of loosing a husband and still retaining her incredible faith in Christ and the resurrection. She is inspiring!

You're It

I've been tagged by my "fashionista" cousin Anna so here goes:

10 years ago I was:

Working at Novell in Orem, trying desperately to get pregnant (it had been a year of trying) and getting ready to move to Washington, Dave had just gotten accepted to UW dental school so we were starting to look for apartments & jobs.

5 things on my to do list today:

1. gym-check

2. pick up Dave's crap from work (today was his LAST day of work at the clinic-insert hip hip hoorays here-so he is cleaning out his office)-check

3. fold laundry-not check

4. Take kids to park (spring break starts today)-check

5. rake leaves (the never ending process)-not check

Things I would do if I became a billionaire:

1. buy Dave a dental practice

2. Take my extended family on a 3 month long trip to Europe to see everything we did and more

3. Donate the rest to BYU, UW, and the church

Places I've lived:

1. Vancouver, WA

2. Provo, UT

3. Seattle, WA

4. Fayetteville, NC

5. Kitzingen Germany

6. Landstuhl Germany

7. Chester, VA

Jobs I've had (in random order):

1. porcelin doll maker

2. berry picker-lasted all of two hours

3. Accounting Clerk

4. Dental Assistant

5. Administrative Assistant

6. Paper Route Delivery Girl

7. Collection Agent (which I actually sucked at so bad that they fired me!)

8. MOM EXTRORDINAIRE

Things most people don't know about me:

1. I'm a nail biter-it comes with the worrying for me and I really have to work hard at not biting my nails!!

2. I have to have my toenails painted...not my fingernails just my toes

3. I"m a googler-I am way curious about anyone and everyone I have ever known and have even been known to google people!

4. I love R&B music-Dave makes fun of me...I like other kinds too but I LOVE old R&B from when I was in high school

5. I am a sun worshipper, I LOVE to lay out in the sun-we had my dream vacation to spain and and we laid on the beach for 10 days-listening to music, the water and our kids playing in the surf-YUMMY!

Okay so I tag:

1. Rebecca L.

2. Tara

3. Rebecca A.

4. Kailey

5. Jody

And since I can't post without posting a picture, here is sunny spain:

Oh Edward

This post is mostly for my sweet sister in law Marzee who is Edward obsessed, well I guess I don't know if she is team Edward or Jacob but I do know she LOVES twilight & all things Stephanie Meyer. If you are Edward haters you might as well skip this post. I too love twilight-such a good read it makes me high school giggly! I got the book for Christmas from my awesome sister Rebecca and I devoured it and had to go buy the next two books IMMEDIATELY. Of course that was right when I was having Benjamin, I read the last book in the hospital in labor so I had to read it again a few weeks later since I was a little distracted and I wanted to give Edward my full attention. Well, my friend Tara has the most indulgent husband ever, and he actually tagged along with her and her sister on a pilgrimmage to Forks, La Push & the Olympic peninsula. Even posing for some sweet Edward like pictures! Check out her blog, you will love the pics and see the beauty of the Olympics too! As for my husband, he pretty much mocks my "smutty romance novels" and especially got a kick out of it when in Barnes & Noble I couldn't find the books so asked a salesclerk who said-in her most snooty voice as if I was not a real reader-"those are in the TEEN ROMANCE section" and huffed away. Dave laughed for weeks! Anywhoo, for those of you who are living under a rock and have not joined "team edward" as Tara puts it go out and buy the books!! And visit Tara's blog-it is awesome!

When it rains...

I was going to post yesterday about our car issues (long story)...but then I read a friends blog and found out another friend from college-who I haven't kept in touch with the last 5 years- had passed away. He passed swiftly and suddenly, leaving his wife-another friend and their 5 children behind. Reading about his illness and reading her posts and sharing in her faith reminded me about the important things in life. Enjoying every minute-enjoying those you love. I wish the last 5 years that we had stayed in touch with the Eppersons because now those moments are gone. I know that death is not the end and this sweet family will be together again, but I still believe that every minute we have here on earth is important. Rather than focus on the negative issues in our lives, we need to see the positive. Rather than get irritated with our children or husbands, tell them you love them, give them a sweet hug & kiss. Enjoy the spring flowers, the rain that brings with it not clouds, but growth. Just thought I'd share that today, not to be depressing but to share with you my friends & super awesome family that I care about each of you. And for those in Washington, I CANNOT WAIT to see you all again. So here is a picture of Boo (Bella) holding her new little brother in the hospital, enjoying the promise of new life.