Grrrrrrr.....!!!!!

I just went to change my background (from Easter to an LDS fun background) and this is what happened!  The whole format of my blog has changed and I can't figure out how to put on my really cute backgrounds anymore.

I have spent the last 2 hours working on this, and so I guess for now, this is what it is going to be.  Grrrrr....

Easter at Pamela's

Friday I finally got a little bit of cleaning done around the house.  And then I had to pack & get ready to go to Pamela's.  Brienna left around 4 pm, and we couldn't leave until after Rusty called about jury duty at 3 pm.  Yep--he has a summons for FEDERAL jury duty--which is in Pocatello.  So he has to call each Friday after 3 pm to see if he needs to report.  The good news on Friday was that he did NOT need to report.  But we didn't get left until a little after 5 pm.

 On Saturday, the kids had fun hiding (and finding) eggs.

 There are tons of hiding places at Pamela's.

 While we made our Easter dinner (on Saturday), Emmalee and Ben took a bubble bath in Pamela's tub.

 The 3 youngest also decided to play with Pamela's ducks.  They made an Easter Bunny out of the ducks--and he even has plastic eggs in his baskets.

 Emmalee, Ben & Callum with their masterpiece.

Rusty making giant bubbles with the turkey rack.  I am glad we had our big meal on Saturday when we could enjoy it & also enjoy leftovers for a few days. 

 We decided to try a "new" way to color (actually marbleize) the eggs.  You use shaving cream & food coloring & swirl the eggs in the food color.

 They worked okay--but it was a bit messy and so when we do it next time (maybe in a few years), I would change a few things--like less shaving cream and only white eggs (instead of the brown eggs from Grandpa's chickens).

 And of course we had to use the "traditional" method also.

 Lots and lots of eggs--and so lots of color combinations.

 It was a bit different without Brienna--the first Easter without her...and Ethan!  Down to 4 kids--I'm not sure I'm ready for that!

 Easter morning the kids were really good at just looking at the eggs (hidden around the house) and their baskets while waiting for everyone to get up.  Pamela has late church, so we weren't in a big hurry.

 This was Ben's "look at the camera" pose.

 Before we got to find the eggs and look through the goodies in our baskets,

 We all got comfortable so we could watch "He is Risen".  I forgot to grab our DVD and Pamela couldn't find hers...

 So thankfully I was able to find it on the internet.

 Our baskets--and the Easter Bunny even filled Brienna's basket.

 She got the latest Hank Smith CD.  We also got Sariah (Lehi's wife) figure to go in our Sunday bag.  Zane received an iTunes gift card, Callum got a new flag (that ended up being too big for his flag pole), and Ben recieved a calculator and bubble.  (It's a "number thing" to him).

And Emmalee fianlly got her own Legos--with a "girl" figure!

The crazy Easter bunny hid 225 eggs around the house!!  And we actually found all of the eggs.  We had a great time at Pamela's house.

Brienna's Music Festival & Zane's Track Meet

Wednesday 3 of the high school girls had performances at a music festival in St. Anthony.  The music teacher, Mr. Germer asked if I would drive the girls there since there was only 4 (1 more to play the piano) and so he could drive straight home (he lives in Rigby) instead of having to come clear back to Dubois.

When he first asked me, he thought we would leave at 2, but then called me later and said that the girls didn't perform until 5:45 & 6 pm so we could leave at 4.  Rusty was going to take the  afternoon off to watch Benjamin, so when I found that out, I let him know so he could take the next afternoon off instead & then we could go to Zane's track meet.

This is Brienna & Mr. Germer talking with the judge (who is a music teacher at BYU-I).

Brienna played a very challenging flute piece that Mr. Germer picked.  I later found out he picked it from a list provided by the state music organization which qualified Brienna to compete for a chance to go to state.  (Didn't know any of this until at the festival).  And then also found out that the music festival was actually districts music festival--and the top 2 or 3 in each category would go to state.

The 2 girls singing (a duet) weren't competing for state, so they just performed 2 pieces.  And then Brienna played her piece.  I thought it was awesome--especially because it was her first solo piece and first time at a festival.  In order to go to state, should would need to receive a "superior" rating (I)--and she received an "excellent" (II+).  So proud of her.  This was a first time experience for our music teacher also, so know he knows more for next year.

 So Thursday afternoon, all of us (except Callum who decided to stay home) went to Firth to watch Zane's track meet.  Here he is running the 400.

 This is the start of that race.

And Brienna and Zane walking across the field.  Brienna brought the yearbook camera so she could get some pictures for yearbook.

 And this is Zane's 100 yard dash.  

Zane does the long jump, high jump (I've missed taking pictures because we are always a few minutes late & miss seeing him), 100 and 400. 

Music Fundraiser--Potato Bar

 Tuesday night was the music department's fundraiser potato bar.  The 4 older children all had performances that night & with that had lots of food assignments.  (Callum on the drums)

 Zane (right) & Alberto ("Berto") on the trumpets.  So we took 7 plates of goodies for the auction, 2 containers of sour cream, and the stuff to make homemade root beer (with dry ice).

 The Jr. & Sr. High band.  (front is Callum & Brienna & standing in the back is Zane)

 Brienna & Callum.  I didn't get to hear all of their songs because I was helping in the kitchen quite a bit.

 But what I did hear was awesome.  Our new music teacher, Mr. Germer, is fun and the kids enjoy singing/playing the pieces he has picked.

 High School band--we only have 7 members.

 Despite their small numbers, they perform with top quality!

 This is the 2nd graders performance.  This song was about the time change--"tick, tock, move the clock back".  I love Emmalee's smile in this picture.  She said this was her favorite song.

This is the song that involved all of the elementary kids--set to an Irish song.  They all did some "Irish dancing".

 As you can see--our gym was packed full.  It was the best turn out for a music fundraiser in the 10 years we've been here.

 On our way home, I was greeted with the full (or almost full) moon.  

This is just 1 minute later, only zoomed in a little.  

Van "Issues", Sunday Rest, & FHE

So our van runs fine, but has some body issues.  It is over 20 years old, so I know it's getting up there in years.  On Friday, Brienna & Lindsay went to Rexburg to pick up their prom dresses and then headed to IF to see Lindsay's mom (Sheree) who was just getting out of surgery (broken ankle/leg).  During their travels, Lindsay was somehow able to get the passenger's side door to open (it hadn't opened from inside or outside for about 1 month) and close so she had been using the door (instead of climbing into the front from the back).

 But as they were leaving the hospital, the door wouldn't stay shut.  So Brienna called home to see what we could do to help her.  Mind you, Rusty and I had just came home from IF & shopping (been home about 1/2 hour) so we really didn't want to drive down to rescue them.  So first I tried to explain the part that needed "pulled out" so it could latch shut to the van body.  But she couldn't get that to work.  So then I suggested tie-down/bungee cords with duct tape.  She was finally able to find the duct tape and one tie-down.

 So this is what she did to the outside of the door.  And on the inside, she used a tie-down from the passenger door handle to the passenger one.  But when she got home, she couldn't figure out how to release the "ratchet" so she climbed out the window.  Hahahaha!  I wish I would have got a picture of that!  

Luckily, Rusty was able to work on the van Sat. morning & now the door opens from the inside & he was able to bend the "hook" so it will shut now.  Needless to say, we are now looking for a "new"(er) van.

 Sunday Brienna decided not to get her hair curled (didn't want to get up so early) so I only had to put a bow in her hair.  And we put in the hair jewels that we didn't get around to the night before.

 a close-up of her beautiful corsage.

 After church, the girls all laid down on the couch (or in Emmalee's case--"sat" down) & took a nice nap.

 For Family Home Evening on Monday, we made Easter egg sugar cookies.

 WE didn't make sugar cookies for Valentine's so I told the kids we would make them for Easter.

 Here we are rolling out the dough

 And putting the on the cooling rack.

 Benjamin frosting his cookie.

 Emmalee working on decorating her cookie.

 They looked at the pictures on the cookie cutter package & tried to copy them.

 If you look close, you can see frosting on the side of her mouth--she said they were delicious!

 The finished products.

 I had therapeutic fun decorating some cookies after everyone was in bed.  It had been quite the eventful few days, so it was a good release to be a little creative.

First thing in the morning I worked on a couple loads of laundry, mixed up the sugar cookie dough (it has to be refrigerated at least 3 hours) and made a double batch of ginger snaps.  I had taken a "quick" trip to Rexburg Monday afternoon to return Brienna's dress along with 2 other dresses & to pick up her purse that she had left at the restaurant they ate at on Sat.  She is lucky that 1) she remembered she left the purse there & immediately called them & 2) that someone was honest enough to turn it in.  I also had a couple of things I needed to get at Wal-Mart.  And of course, we had to stop at Ben's favorite store:  DI where he found a couple of treasures.

In fact, I finished the last cookie at 11:30 pm (I had more cookies, but ran out of frosting so I froze the rest of the cookies for another day).  Some of the cookies are/were for the music fundraiser/potato bar for the dessert silent auction.  With 4 of my kids in music, I ended up taking 2 plates of cupcakes, 2 plates of gingersnaps and 2 of the sugar cookies and 1 plate of choco. chip cookies (the red ones that I had frozen).  More about the potato bar in the next post.