Resurrection Sunday 2021!

Happy Resurrection Sunday! 

The stage at church looked so nice with the cross and the mountains all lite up. Makes me think of Mr. Richie every time. I don't think I've talked about Mr. Richie on my blog yet....he tested positive for Covid back in late September and he passed away on Thursday, October 28th. I miss him so much, but I know that he's with His Savior and I will see him again one day so that makes it better. He better be waiting for me with a Coke in his hand and a smile on his face. ;) 

  

My beautiful family! 

We are a bunch of dorks...except for Owen.

This is what happens when you ask friends to take your picture. Hahaha! 

After church we headed straight down to Ga-Ga & Pa's for Easter Dinner. The table was set so pretty! 

The girls playing with their Barbie's! 

Look at these handsome guys! 

We had a couple extra friends join us this year so the boys got to sit at the bigger table in the family room. 

The girls got to sit up to the pub table in the kitchen. 

Ga-Ga made lasagna and it was YUMMY!!!! 

MJ & Johnathen had just moved back from TX a few weeks before this. We were SO happy they were back and that they were able to join us for Easter. Aaron and Bronson were pretty happy too! 

All lined up in order by age, giving them the rules for the egg hunt. 

Ga-Ga had to go out and get a few more eggs this year so Aaron and Bronson had some. It worked out nicely that they were younger than Zeke so no ones number changed. Owen still went looking for eggs with a #1 on them and so on and so forth. Each kiddo had 8 eggs to find. 

And their off! 

Christina and I always have so much fun hiding the eggs. It's nice because we know which kid is going to get which number so we can hide the lower numbers harder for the older kids and the higher numbers a bit easier for the youngers kids. 

Spectators! 

This year we had quite a few kids that had a hard time finding their eggs. 

They were eventually found though! 

Happy kids! 

Going through their eggs! 

I love the colors of Easter! 

I asked Owen how long he was going to still hunt for eggs and he looked at me like I was crazy....why would he not want to hunt for candy! 

These cute younger boys! 

Look at all that chocolate! 

All the Easter baskets lined up and ready to pass out. 

Happy Easter! 

The kids loved the big candy eggs....they were filled with lots of yummy candy! 

Ga-Ga also got these super yummy and actually good for you fruit chews....they were awesome! 

Love how Aaron's basket looks like it's a mustache! 

Addison's like look at my haul! 

The craziness of everyone needing help opening things! 

Pastor Tim and Melody joined us a bit later and we had such a nice time visiting with them. 

I'm not even sure how it started but people started playing Pa's piano and before long Pastor Tim & Melody were playing together. I told them it didn't feel like it was officially Easter because we hadn't sung "He Lives" at church this morning. So they played it and we sang it. It was so much fun and it officially felt like Easter after that! :)

Side note: My ear looks like an elf ear here! 

We love our Papa & Miss Ruth! 

Jonathen & MJ...they weren't able to stay very late because they live quite a ways north of us.....it probably was going to take them an hour and a half to get home!

It's always such a nice time to fellowship with each other. We love these special holiday's spent together. 

Ga-Ga with her new sugar bears....you can never have too many! 

You can't finish a holiday without a picture on the stairs! 

Macramé & Closet "Doors"!

Back in March, Ella's KiwiCo crate for the month was all about learning to make macramé, but another aspect of it was learning to make clay pots as well. 

Her crates are super fun because they are a little more intense so instead of having an instructional booklet she has to watch videos to learn how to do her projects. Usually her and I sit down together, watch the video and I'll help her along the way if she needs it. We always like to lay out all the material just like they show in the video. 

Here she is working her clay to soften it in order to mold it around the container that will become the pot. After this step she had to let each container dry and then she was able to paint them the color of her choice. 

 

After that step we moved onto learning about macramé. For her first time she just made a small keychain. 

 

We had everything set up on the desk in the office. We had to keep track of how many knots we made and which type of knot to use. In all she learned how to make a lark’s head knot, a square knot, a half knot, and a wrap knot.

Here were her cute little pots after she painted them. 

They give you a hook that suction cups to the decks....we still had to tape it which they said was normal. Then she moved the cotton cord around making the knots. The paper is where we kept a tally mark of how many knots we'd made so we didn't lose track. 

Here's her pot all nestled into its macramé hanger! 

 

After she finished both hangers, we went to the Dollar Tree & Hobby Lobby in search of fake succulents to put in her planters. We found the florist Styrofoam at the Dollar Tree and a couple of smaller succulents, but she really wanted some succulents that would drape down out of the pot so we found those at Hobby Lobby! 

Look at how cute that is. The best part is she doesn't have to remember to water them! 

Here was her other hanger and pot....see how the knots are different? 

She made this one for Logan and gave it to her a couple months later when she came to stay with us. 

We technically finished Ella's room remodel months ago, but there was still one tiny detail that we needed to take care of. She had white bi-fold closet doors and she wanted them to be stained. They were not stain grade doors and it was definitely going to be hard to make them look like they were stained doors. Plus those silly bi-fold doors are always coming off the track. I told Ella that we could just go to the fabric store and I'd buy her material and I'd sew her curtains for her closet. She did not like that idea at all! 

Awhile later I mentioned it again and she said that she would only be okay with that if we could find shower curtains that actually looked like doors. So I sat on her bed with her and we brought up shower curtains that look like doors on Amazon. Lo and behold that is a thing! 

Ta Da!!! 

Barn door shower curtain closet doors! Who knew! 

The only thing is they are still shower curtains so they only open on the sides....enter my sewing skills! 

One afternoon I cut the shower curtain right down the middle, folded over the seams and stitched them up. 

It's crazy hot good they look. The shower curtain was not super cheap...it was $26, but the curtain rod I got at Walmart for $9 so that was nice. Seriously they look amazing though! 

Now she can access her clothes from right in the middle and she's one happy camper!