***FAVORITE THINGS FRIDAY***

For my weekly "favorite things" post I decided to post a picture of my birthday cake and ice cream (mint chocolate chip from Baskin Robbins) and the yellow tulips my friend Lori gave me for my birthday. Another friend gave me roses and I've decided that someday when I'm filthy rich I'm going to have fresh flowers in my house all the time!

Happy Easter!

This morning, all the kids found sunglasses in their Easter baskets so we took a quick picture of them before church.
Hannah and Rachel in their Easter dresses.
Handsome Charlie and Dad

Hope you enjoyed your Easter as much as we did! Charlie and Hannah did a great job singing with the Primary in Sacrament meeting. They sang "Tell Me the Stories of Jesus" and when they got to the part that says, "...if He were here" Charlie sang, "in Texas" loud enough for everyone to hear. Funny. We had a boring traditional Easter dinner too - pink meat (aka ham) and potatoes, asparagus, jello, rolls. Happy Resurrection Day!

***FAVORITE THINGS FRIDAY***

I love my new-ish lantern. It's hanging on the wall just outside the office and I love the way it looks. I'm thinking about doing a collage on this wall with all different kinds of lanterns - I'm really liking them lately. So now I'm noticing them everywhere.

"Not Quite What I Was Planning"

I heard about this book from a friend of a friend and thought it was so intriguing. It's a book of people writing their life memoirs in 6 words. It made me wonder what I would write for my own. She wrote hers as

Unplanned detours. Same destination. Different path.

So it's gotten me thinking, what would mine say? What would yours say?

I read a few online (through their blogs) and some people came up with really good ones like:

Striving a little harder each day

Divinely guided through life's thorny paths

So here's an attempt (with the understanding that I reserve the right to edit, change my mind, backpedal or do over at any time):

Finding my way. Learning to change.

Once I started thinking about it (and counting words) I thought of lots of options but it was really hard for me to come up with one that really fits me and my outlook on life. I guess I'll keep working on this one.

Hannah's Birthday Party

Now that I can post pictures again, I thought I would share a few shots from Hannah's party last week (when all my picture-posting frustration began...) It wasn't a dress-up party, but as soon as the first few girls arrived, they all ran upstairs and raided Hannah's costumes. Even Charlie got his Jedi robe on to watch the Mariposa movie (which lasted about 20 minutes by the way...)
Opening presents...
her favorite part of the night
Instead of a cake, she requested birthday donuts and they were a big hit.
Charlie can't eat donuts (since they have yeast in them) he got some birthday cookies instead. We had a great time.

Happy Birthday Hannah! I can't believe you're already 7!

SPRING BREAK!!!

Hallelujah! I FINALLY figured out what I was doing wrong and I can once again post photos. So, I had to share our "first day of Spring Break" photos. We had a mini heat wave on Fri and Sat with temps in the upper 80's or low 90's - HOT! So yesterday we got out the little backyard pool.
The water was FREEZING...so cold that Rachel cried when we tried to put her in. But Dad and the kids were game!

Charlie attempted a backflip into the pool so,
of course Hannah had to try too.
I was SO HOT, I finally decided to get in to cool off a little bit. AND THEN
CJ offered me $100 to completely submerge myself. Easiest $100 I ever made. I can't believe he didn't think I would do it.
So, here I am, soaking wet and $100 richer and my kids thought it was the funniest thing ever to have mom in the pool with her clothes on. Now, we'll see if I ever get my money...