Birthday boys!

The boys had a fun birthday week! My computer is down and typing on the blogger app on my phone is ridiculous, so you just get to enjoy the pictures, possibly out of order. Happy birthday Ethan and Chase!!

Happy Birthday, Chaser-bug!!

I can't believe it's been 3 years!! Love you kiddo!!

Pineapple

As I'm cutting a pineapple, Chase comes up to me and says, "Mommy I want some pineapple!"
So I reply, "Chase you are a pineapple."
He goes: "Can I eat myself?"

Kansas City Temple Open House

We took a short road trip Monday and visited the brand new Kansas City Temple! Our family was able to take a tour, and our kids were excited to be able to go inside. Although they kept asking where Jesus was, they enjoyed it and said their favorite part was the pictures of Jesus inside. Oh and the cookies :) We decided to visit a few Church history sites while we were in the area, it's crazy to be so close to such a historically significant (to our Church) area and be able to visit all these places. Every state we travel to is one I've never been to before, and I've always wanted to plan out a Church history vacation-- looks like we'll be doing it piece by piece. Next on the list-- Nauvoo!

In front of the Temple-- Hailey was just waking up and it was pretty sunny, as you can tell by Chase's face

Independence visitors center- the boys kept yelling Hi-ya! and whipping the reigns so it was hard to get a picture

The sea shell temple! It's the RLDS temple across from the Independence visitors center. I learned about it in seminary and always wanted to see it :)

Across from the visitors center and sea shell temple is a big hilly field where there Joseph Smith dedicated the ground for a temple but it never got built. The Church of Christ church owns it now.

We were also able to go to Liberty Jail where Joseph Smith was undeservingly imprisoned for 5 months after declaring that Missouri was to be a gathering place for the Saints. The jail itself has been reconstructed inside a visitors center, but within a few feet of where the actually jail had stood. They had replicas of Joseph and the other prisoners, Chase kept asking if they were gonna move :)

Hailey keeping herself entertained

We were going to stop at Adam-ondi-ahmen on the way back but it was a half hour off the highway and I had to get back for a meeting. But it was such a great trip, the kids did great and we were able to test out the new van! It was good to be able to see the Temple and take the kids inside, hopefully they'll remember the experience. If anyone's close to Kansas City they just extended the open house by a week because there were so many people!

Roller derby!!!

Yes I went to a roller derby. And yes, it was as amazing as it sounds.

Happy Easter!!

We had a very Easter filled week!
Thursday we went to an easter egg hunt at DMU- They have crafts and snacks and games and then the Easter Bunny comes to visit! Chase didn't want anything to do with the Easter bunny but Ethan wanted to sit with him so bad, then followed him around and laughed at everything he did, it was funny to watch. Hailey didn't know what was behind her while sitting on his lap, she was just happy her brothers were making silly faces at her :)

Saturday we had a Branch BBQ and Easter egg hunt at our Stake Presidents house- I wish I had gotten more pictures of their property, it is a.m.a.z.i.n.g. They have a huge pond/small lake on their property with 2 paddle boats, and the kids can fish for blue gill and catch frogs, they have a tree house with a big slide coming out of it, playground equipment, a trampoline, a garden, fire pits, picnic tables, a barn...basically anything you want to do outside you can do there. President Pence used to be our Branch President so he lets us go use his house/property whenever we want, they are amazing people. Sorry I got sidetracked...

Here are some pictures at the BBQ:

And finally we got a visit from the Easter bunny! He filled our baskets with candy and hid the eggs we decorated, he's going to have to be a little trickier next year because the boys found the eggs pretty quick.

Hope you all had a great Easter! We tried to focus on the real reason for Easter this year, and helped the boys understand it was really about Christ's ressurection and atonement. There is a video on the Mormon Messages YouTube page called He Is Risen that depicts Christ's last few days on earth, it really strengthened my testimony and made me sincerely grateful for my Savior's sacrifice for me. Happy Easter!!