EASTER!

Easter was fun, and IN DOORS this year. Cause it snowed! And was cold....but that didn't stop us from having lots of fun, and doing all the traditional stuff!

Here are the kids decorating their Easter Eggs.

See the snow out the window, behind Eli.... Yep. So the kids had to hunt for Eggs inside the house. They had a ton of fun.

Now it's time to enjoy the treats!!!

"How Sweet It is!".....

"If you give a woman some Cream....."
(Just trying to be cleaver and do a "play on words" with that cute book about giving a mouse a cookie.) Anyway, because we made the butter.... we had some cream that I just couldn't let go to waste, so I figured I would try making caramels. And I must say that for my first try...they turned out fabulous! But maybe that is because I had pretty detailed instructions from my mother-in-law's cook book. Jared loves them!! And I thought they would make for a fun Easter treat. Who knows....Maybe this will become an Easter tradition! They are certainly yummy! Especially when I covered them in some chocolate!!! Wow...the joys of sugar!

MAKING BUTTER!

For Family Home Evening, Jared thought it would be cool to show the kids how Butter is made. (He was also showing me.) It was really cool, and really easy! We got heavy whipping cream (from Costco...they had the best price on it), and then Jared separated out a little bit for everyone to have their own jar to shake. (You could do this with less mess..by only having one container, or by putting it in your kitchen aid or blender....but the shaking is fun for the kids activity.)



And then you SHAKE!


And SHAKE!

And SHAKE some more, until the cream becomes butter. (Believe me, it works! And we only had to shake for like 5-10 min.)

Then you have to separate out the buttermilk.

And then you have to wash it with cold water... to make sure all the buttermilk is off it. (You have to rinse it like 7 times, until the water comes off clear.) And then you mix some salt in it, if you want, and finally...shape into logs, or whatever with cling wrap.

It is actually pretty easy, and then we made wheat pancakes with the buttermilk, and put our fresh made butter on top of them! It isn't something we'll be doing all the time. (It really isn't cost effective. It's less expensive to just buy butter already made vs. the cream.) But it made for a really fun family night, and hopefully the kids gained a better appreciation for how butter is made. I know that I did. And thanks to a dishwasher...the cleanup was pretty easy! If felt a little "pioneer", and really made me grateful for all the modern conveniences that we enjoy! But I totally recomend you try it sometime!

Our Arizona Trip!

We had a lot of fun in Arizona, visiting our family down there. It is always fun for everyone to get together. And the weather was beautiful! It was a great trip!

Here's Scott and Megan...who, if you didn't know...you would think they were twiners! They are so cute together! They were having fun jumping on the trampoline together one night.



Of course there are lots of fun games to be played on the Wii.

Having fun on the tramp.

Enjoying a yummy dinner!

Sadie.....so cute! And loving her new patio, to ride her bike on.

Hope, smiling for the camera!

While we were down, we got to go to one of Luke's baseball games. It was a lot of fun. And Lukes' team won!

Joshua and Luke, wearing his outfit.

Breanne, in the stands.

Go Luke! #3!!! He played really well. He is really good.

All the kids on the couch for a prayer at Adam and Christine's. I tried to get a picture of them all before they got up and started to play and eat. They were so cute all lined up on the couch like that.

Breanne, having a soda.

Games! Games! Games! One of our favorite things to do when we all get together, is to play games together. We always have a lot of fun, and laugh a lot. Especially when we play "American Idol" on the Wii! (But sorry....I don't have any pictures of the great performances!)

Seth and Caroline have this super awesome jacuzzi in their backyard. It made for a fun swimming pool for the kids. They would just turn the heat way down, and the kids loved being able to splash around a little bit.

It was fun, because we were never able to make it to the "big pool". Breanne really loved it!

Luke and Eli! Eli LOVES Luke! It is always the cuttest thing to see them together! Luke is very sweet and patient with Eli, and I think they had a good time together.

One of the things we did was to go to a really fun place called Schnefph Farms. They have animals and some rides and things. It was a really fun place to take the kids for a day. Here are Seth and Caroline's kids possing in this "train."

And here are my kids.

The kids favorite part was this giant slide that was built on this little hill. They would all pile in together and make a train to go down the slide. They did this over and over! They Loved it!

Scott loved feeding the animals! He would just laugh and laugh! He thought it was the coolest thing! We were worried that he would be afraid, but instead...he had a lot of fun!

They had horses, a cow, sheep, goats, chickens, and probably some other animals I'm missing. It was fun, but Josh didn't really like the smell!

There was also a dog that roamed around called "Buttercup" that the girls all loved! It was one of the most well behaved dogs I've ever seen. It would let the kids pet her, and never barked once...even when Scott pulled on her tail. So that was a fun and memorable part of the visit.

Luke and Hope, who climed up this beautiful tree.

The kids also love the train ride!

Luke, Josh, and Hope in front of the deer they had there. It was also a lot of fun to feed the deer! It was our favorite part, just because Scott was so cute, laughing and giggling about it when the deer would nibble at his fist. Luckily they didn't bite to hard.

And you did feed them though a fence.

(That's Breanne.)

Here we are on a "hay ride" that took us around the grounds of the farm. That was fun too.

Sadie, and Seth.

The Carousel ride was also a real hit!

Megan, and Carlie in the back.

Sadie, Caroline, and Ella.

Eli.

Breanne and Hope.

Our big kids...who just keep on growing!

Josh and Eli.

We did a lot more things while in Arizona, and even at that park, but this is what I got the best pictures of. It was mostly fun to just relax and visit, and let the kids play together. The gals got to scrapbook and craft, and the guys got to watch March Madness so I think everyone was happy! What a great vistit! We look forward to the next one!