Easter

Gma and Gpa Cribbins sent a fun package with some Easter treats and gifts! Thank you!!

The Friend Magazine this year put out a really neat little article/lesson for Easter. It was a reading of scriptures for each day leading up to Easter morning. So for the 7 days before Easter Sunday as a family we sat down and read the daily scriptures and discussed and learned about the events in Jesus's life leading up to his resurrection. It was a wonderful week and the kids really looked forward to our readings and discussions. My hope is that it helped instill in them a feeling of thankfulness and gratitude for all that the Savior has done for each of us! I am keeping this years Friend magazine and I think we will make this a yearly tradition so that we can better focus on the Savior during this special time of year!

On Saturday morning, the day before Easter, the Bunny came and filled our baskets! The kids had so much fun and they sure loved the yo-yo's that the bunny brought this year. :) Candy is always a hit too! After we opened our baskets we set up out side on the front lawn to decorate eggs. Later on we had a really fun Easter egg hunt in the back yard, where there were plenty of great places to hide the eggs. I hope we found them all...I guess if we didn't then some wild animal from our pasture will find it and have a fun little treat!! :)

Jeff's 33rd Birthday

Jeff turned 33 this year, on April 14th! We had a nice celebration with our family. The kids made him posters and I made him a chocolate chocolate cake, per his request. It was super yummy! For his birthday this year all he wanted was to get his dirt bike in good working condition so he had some work done on it. It runs great and he is having fun, when he gets to, riding it! I know he wishes he had more time to play on it so we try to let him go when ever he is able to.

Happy Birthday Jeff! We love you :)

Thorpes for a visit!

Rick, Becky and the kids came to visit last month and it was wonderful! Of course it always goes by way to fast but we had a lot of fun while they were here! First of all I have to say what good sports they are and what great friends...they drove very late in the night to get to us so that they could spend as much time as possible here playing! We are so glad you guys made it safely here! :) A good nights rest after their long drive was what they needed so we all slept and couldn't wait to get up the next day to play. Our kids were asleep when they arrived so the morning was such a sweet and fun reunion! The kids jumped right into playing. While they were here we went bowling, out to eat for yummy food, the guys went for a drive, Becky and I were able to run, the kids played and explored out side, and we had a fire to roast marshmallows by! It wouldn't be a weekend with Becky if we didn't do some cooking/baking of some sort and boy did we have some good laughs! I have been doing some changing to our families diet and so I've been trying to make our sweets, when we have them, as healthy as I can. We did some experimenting with chocolate chip cookies. As you can see from the pics it didn't go so well! We finally gave up and made them the good old fashioned way and they were DELICIOUS!!

It was such a wonderful and cherished time! Thank you Thorpe's for coming to see us! Can't wait till the next time. Love you all!

Pony Rides

Our friends, Nathan and Kiersten Walker, invited us over a while ago to have an afternoon of fun with pony rides, games, and dinner. We had so much fun! Every single one of the kids LOVED the pony and loved riding in the cart. Of course the whole ride home that evening there was talk in the car of when WE could get our own pony!! (Not going to happen by the way...we'll just ride Nathan's brothers for now! :) It was so nice of them to have us over and I know it was a fair amount of work for them. We loved it and after the sun went down and the ponies went home, we ate dinner and played games. The Walkers have been so kind to us and we are so thankful for their friendship. They are a busy family with 6 kids ranging from 11 yrs. old down to 2 yrs. old. Each of our kids match up to a friend and they get along so well. We feel so blessed to know them and call them our friends now. I know Heavenly Father places people in our lives for a reason and I know that it has been no accident that we have become friends with them!

Thanks for a great day Walkers!!

Grandma Mary for a visit

Jeff's mom came to visit a few months ago and I am so behind that I am just now getting to post this! We had so much fun with her and we are so glad she came...In fact it won't be more than about 3 more weeks and she'll be back visiting again. :) Whenever Grandma Mary comes to visit we know we'll be having fun. This time we went to a really fun indoor pizza and game joint. It was a hoot! We also went to the Birds of Prey wildlife refuge and were able to see some pretty amazing birds up close! The kids got to dress up like birds and try on some California Condor mock wings. They liked them SO much that we stopped by a fabric store on the way home and bought the material to make our own for here at home! There's nothing better than being a kid and pretending you have wings to fly!! We played lots of games here at home too. Gma Mary is a great game player and the kids love it! It was a wonderful time and we are counting down the days until she returns! Love you Grandma!

Volleyball

Abby is trying something new this year. A friend of hers at school wanted to play volleyball so they decided to do it together. There is safety in numbers, right! It is going well and she is enjoying it. She says her arms get sore and she has a few bruises but that's the way the game is played. I think she likes having the battle wounds and likes to show them off!! It takes a lot of courage to try something completely new, especially the older we get. Abby, we are so proud of you, how brave you are, and we marvel in watching you succeed at what ever you put your mind to! Great job!

Grandma Mary

We hadn't seen Grandma Mary (Grammie as Lainey calls her!) since we moved and a few weeks ago she flew in for a visit. We had such a wonderful time with her site seeing, playing games, coloring, and watching movies. For a special treat she took us all to Po Jo's in Boise (it's like Chucky Cheese but a bit bigger) where we got pizza, played games, earned tickets and had fun collecting prizes. All the kids loved the bumper cars and Lainey especially loved the Carrousel! We took Mary to the World Center for Birds of Prey. That was so cool! They have some beautiful birds there and we had a wonderful time. The kids got to dress up like birds, and get really close to some really big birds.

It was so wonderful to have you here Mary! We love you and can't wait until you come again. We all miss you!

(Sorry these pics are a little blurry but they'll have to do)