Happy Easter!

We started the day by decorating easter eggs, I told the girls that they 

wanted to. They were very willing to cooperate with my silly plans.

They jumped right in and started to get very clever.

I had already boiled the eggs, so they each grabbed a cooked, white 

egg and began the process of creating greatness.

Such a poser!

Now they're all posing.

It's not rocket science Courtney, pick a color and dunk!

So cute, smiling for Chris, don't they look awesome?

And the process begins.

A few of the finished product.

Courtney O, spent all morning curling Courtney's hair, looks

gorgeous I know.

Now they're getting a little more clever.

The girls with their finished, colorful, easter eggs.

Courtneys went a little crazy with the stickers found in the egg dying kit.

After the eggs were done, I made some of them into deviled eggs for our

easter picnic, which we ate in our pretend park.  It's hard to picnic outside

with a foot of snow still on the ground.

We had hot dogs, deviled eggs, chips, flavored lemonade,

and frog eye salad, Yum!

After our dinner out at Montana's, we came back to the house to

find that the easter bunny had been there while we were gone.

The girls combed the house to find the treats that had been left.

I only had to help with a few that they struggled to find.

Haley's looking everywhere.

They each found a plateful to enjoy and take home.

Happy Birthday, Courtney!

Because we only have Courtney for a week, and

we've missed so many things with her, we are going

to try and fit them all in during her stay.  Today is

going to be her birthday.  We won't be with her when she

turns 19 at the end of the month, so today is her birthday.

We took the girls to the water park, while we went to pick

up Elder Talauega at the airport.  That's what she wanted to

do for her birthday.

They were waiting for the loop to loop to open, when we got there.

We were able to watch them all ride it once, then they went back

 a second time.  Except for the crazy stalker, before they went

into the water park, they had a great time. 

They came home, exhausted, but had a great day.  

They showered and then did a little homework, well not really,

they just did a lot of texting.

I surprised Courtney with homemade cheesecake for her birthday cake.

It was delicious, I think I've found a perfect recipe.  Cheesecake Factory copy cat.

Look at those eyes sparkle.  

We played lots of games.  Haley even played two dice games

with just me and her.  It was so much fun.

Day Out

We decided we might as well start the week off with a bang,

so we chose to take a trip to the West Ed Mall.  I fixed a nice breakfast,

of course they all slept in until 10:00, then it took them 2 hours 

to get ready.  I'm so glad I didn't have triplets. 

But, don't they look cute!

We stopped at the temple so Haley could see it and took a few pictures.

We are going to try and get them in to do baptisms, later in the week.

I love this mall, it's so full of fun and exciting things to see and do, 

way more than just shopping, that's for sure.

This spot used to be a trampoline jumping attraction and since we've

been here they've changed it to a rope coarse.  We haven't been on it

yet, but I think I would really like to try it.

This is a new attraction that has just opened, I guess it's got a lot

of her personal things, dresses, gowns.  I thought that might be fun

to see until I heard it was like $25 to get in.  No thanks, I love Diana,

but not that much.  I looked for it, but I couldn't ever find it.

Our next stop, the theatre.  Lots of picture opportunities.  I had the

girls pose like the statue they were standing under.

Haley, the thoughtful one, Courtney, the wise one and Courtney, the elephant one.

 The mall got a new store, they've been working on it for months.  It is really

quite fascinating, and it's HUGE!  Welcome to Simons!

 I took these two pictures in the store before Courtney informed me that

 stores don't like it when you take pictures.  Something to do with stealing

their fashion ideas.  I can understand that.  I was going to pose the girls in 

front of these too, to take another picture, but we didn't dare.  Notice, 

there are three of them.

 Then we stopped for nourishment, at the food court.  The girls

had lunch with Mr. Bronze.

 The girls were all quite smitten with him.  It was interesting to see

what they all chose.  Haley had caesar salad with salmon, Courtney 

chose Arby's, Mr. Bronze a burger and Courtney picked oriental.

We took the girls to the amusement park.  They debated riding

the roller coaster, but ended up in the Hurricane Simulator.

Sorry Haley, the flash took out your face

.

That night they all went on a date, with Travis, Adam and

Bryan.  They went to IKEA and did a photo scavenger hunt,

(which I made up for them) had dinner at Red Robin and went

back to Adam's for a movie.  I think they had a good time.

Zone Leader Council

It's St. Patrick's and the wearin' of the green.

So it seemed only appropriate to follow the theme through ZLC.

I set the tables, made the sour cream green, put out the decorations,

I used everything I had to make it look festive.

I made the lemonade green,

tossed a green salad, turned the Ranch green,

added four leaf clover peppers to the meatloaf,

and if I could have found green aluminum foil, I would have 

wrapped the potatoes with that, but alas, I haven't seen any.

I think the elders enjoyed the meal, they seemed to eat it all up.

I made a tasty little layered dessert, using Oreo crumbs,

pistachio pudding, topped with cool whip and brickle bits.

It was delicious.

I did something different this month.  Instead of choosing the shiniest

shoes and giving that elder a prize, I showed the zone leaders how much

I care for them and shined all their shoes, as an act of service.

There were a few that were already pretty nice, but I gave them all

a once over and made them all clean and shiny.

All 16 pair, I even shined President's shoes that were in his den.

We have some very tall elders, and with tall elders come large shoes.

These belong to Elder Johnson, see how my foot compares.

Tasty

We are so excited.  Courtney is driving to Canada (her first time) with 

Haley and Courtney O., to spend spring break with us.

They left at 5:00 am from North Ogden and drove all the way through.

They pulled into Sherwood Park around 8:30 pm.  She came running up 

to the front door and I just happen to be standing there.  Now I can 

stop worrying and enjoy their visit.  We are going to have so much fun.

Courtney jumped right in and started eating.  One of the things she does best.

It's great to have someone here to lick the spoon.

I love her so much.