Easter 2011

I love Easter.  Not because of all of the candy, baskets, eggs, hunts, etc., but because of the real reason we celebrate Easter.  It's a time for us to reflect on the life of our Savior Jesus Christ, most importantly, his atonement for us in the Garden of Gethsemane, his death, and then his joyous Resurrection.  I had the opportunity to teach the Easter Nursery lesson on Easter and though these lessons are simple, they are beautiful and the little children got so excited as we pointed to the pictures and talked about the special things that Jesus did for each one of us.  Though it's sometimes challenging to serve in Nursery with my two little people, it's a blessing to be able to teach these choice little spirits that are so close to the Savior.  I'm so grateful for my beautiful family.  I'm grateful for the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ.  I know we can be forgiven of our sins if we will repent and this is made possible through the atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ.  I know that we will each be resurrected, a gift given to each one of us.  I know he loves and knows each one of us individually.  I feel his presence in my life and I know he knows what I need most.  I know he wants each one of us to return to live with him again.  I'm grateful for my membership in his church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

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Easter weekend festivities were super fun because I got to be with my 2 beautiful sisters and my amazing mom!  Though I don't particularly love what Easter has become (more about gifts and candy) I do enjoy seeing the kids have fun hunting for Easter eggs at Grandma's house and I love hanging out with my fam!

Here's the person that makes all of this fun possible.  I love my mom. 

Here's us doing what we do best.  Laughing and being goofy together.   

A fuzzy but pretty good picture of us all, woops, except for mom with her eyes shut.  STINK!

                                              
                               This cake was a childhood favorite.  My mom was always a master at    making awesome cakes for lots of occasions.  Looks like she hasn't lost her touch. 

The troops, minus 4 (the Florida bunch, Luke, Emma, Gavin, and Eva)          

My mom.  I love her.  She's gorgeous!

Jordyn, Chloe, and Lily 

The loot, and the reason my kids haven't come off of their sugar high:)

Do you think we have enough candy? 

painting the favorite tree with water--a kid favorite at grandmas 

Chloe in deep thought 

Stanton showing Jordyn a picture of the dog that will soon be joining the Allen family.  Jordyn was not afraid to voice her frustration and jealousy to me.  All.  night. long.  No, we are not getting a dog.  We have too many children to feed:) 

The gang getting ready to go "hunt" for eggs and other goodies.  There really isn't much hunting involved since the every square inch of the lawn is covered in candy and goodies.  That's what makes it so much fun.  

 

more on the Birthday girl!

We celebrated Morgan's 9th B-Day on Wednesday!  Oh how we love her!  We did things a little different this year because of our crazy schedules.  We had a quick party in the morning where we enjoyed a yummy b-day breakfast and then she opened her presents and then she was off to school with treats in hand for her class.  The evening was busy with Regan's trackmeet so we couldn't have our usual party with the grandparents so G&G Rose had planned to come up for Morg's soccer game on Thursday and bring her their gift.  I didn't realize how important our "typical" B-Day parties are until she mentioned the morning of her B-Day that it felt a little like the B-day that I spent away in the hospital when I was pregnant with the babies.  Morgan is not one to voice her feelings so I knew that she was a little sad so we did some arranging and G&G Rose still came to the soccer game and then they quickly grabbed Grandma Johnson and we had a late B-Day party on Thursday night!  Morgan seeemed genuinely thrilled that it all came together.  She came up with the idea of having a cheesecake and decorated it all on her own.  She isn't one to make a big fuss over her B-Day but evidently she's been planning this out for a bit and I thought it was pretty cute!

She loves horses and thought it would be a cute idea to tint the cake green like grass and then put a big pile of dirt (graham cracker crust) on the top with chocolate chips doubling as either horse poop or rocks. Yes, I did say poop (that's Morgan for you) Thankfully it tasted nothing like poop and we got a kick out of it!

                                          She got some awesome presents like this circle chair from G&G Rose

                                                            I don't think she moved from this spot the rest of the evening.  

                                                                                            

                             Jordyn wanted to be the cake server--I think she was having a little B-Day envy.:):)

 Grandpa & Grandma Rose, Porter, and Grandma Johnson (it just wouldn't be a party without Grandma J.)  In fact when she came, Kamryn squeeled so loud and said, "Grandma J's here, hooray"

Grandpa Rose, Kaleb, and Grandma J!  Grandpa Rose was practicing taking pictures with his new toy (Droid)  I have to admit, it's just wierd seeing my dad texting.:) :)  Love you, Dad! 

The Grandma's, just wishing that Grandpa and Grandma Teichert could be with us.  If only they didn't live so far away but they called on her B-Day and also gave her a big chunk of change (in the form of a check) to spend on whatever she likes!  She is one happy little girl! 

Regan gave her an alarm clock, Jordyn gave her soccer cones, and Kaleb gave her a head lamp which he was super excited about because she always borrows his.  She also got a body pillow, soccer ball, water bottle, and some really cute gifts from her friends! Some of her favorites were the Pixo machine from Alissa and huge bag of M&M's fromWhitnee.  

Morgan is such a great kid.  She has so many great qualities but some that top the list are:

* She's comfortable with herself, she's not afraid to stand alone

*  She's extremely smart and driven in school

*  She's a goofball and keeps us all laughing

*  She has a great knowledge of the scriptures and always asks good questions during scripture study

* She's tenderhearted

* She tries hard to be nice to everyone at school

* She pays attention to detail and you can see it in her facial expressions

*  She always wants to know why (not sure whether that is good or bad)

*  she is hard headed and determined at times but hopefully she'll use these for good!:)

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Some of her likes and dislikes:

*she likes to play games

*she loves to build forts but doesn't love taking them down-(aaarrrgghh)

*she loves to snow ski

*she loves to play soccer- she's getting to be such a great player, in fact, she scored her first goal of the season on Thursday night when G&G Rose came to watch!  She played so agressive the whole time and their team won again.

*she loves to read and has earned almost 500 AR points this year. She's also a math whiz and has loved the challenge of accellerated math and has earned over 200 objectives this year.

*she doesn't love practicing the piano but she's really really good at it!

*she loves to do crafts

*she doesn't like to do jobs but when she puts her mind to it, she's a really good worker

*she hates getting up in the morning and is most always the last one up stairs for scriptures--we're hoping the new alarm clock will help out in that area but I'm not holding my breath:)

*she doesn't like anything fancy done with her hair and almost always has it pulled back in a ponytail (I've had to swallow my mom pride and relax a bit about this)

*she's content with a couple of pairs of jeans, a few shirts, and a pair of tennis shoes (a girl after my own heart) 

We love you, Morgan and hope that you will always try to be your very best in everything that you do!  Look to the Savior for the perfect example and you can't go wrong! 

The "Pepperoni's"

A few years ago we got some new neighbor's right across the street,  George and Dianne Papaioannou.  The babies have a tough time saying their name so they've named them the "Pepperoni's" Hahahah!  We love these people so much and my kids think of them as another set of Grandparents.  They are always doing the sweetest things such as giving the kids cute cards with some money for their B-days, they sent the kids movies for Christmas this past year while they spent the winter away in Arizona, they've come to both Regan and Morgan's baptisms, they've taken a couple of the kids out to a movie, they paid Regan a while back to watch their cat while they were out of town, they also travel a lot so when they vacation they often times bring little souvenir's back for the kids.  I remember when the babies were born they brought over an enormous box of diapers for the twins that lasted a good month.  They are just the most thoughtful people and treat our family like gold and aside from all of the nice things I mentioned above, they are so friendly and caring and are always looking out for our family.  My kids get so sad in the Fall because George and Dianne take off to spend 6 months in Arizona since they don't enjoy the cold weather and they are big time golfers.  It's so sad because the kids count down the months until they will be back.  In fact, starting in January of this month, a couple of times a week while I'd be putting Porter and Kami to bed, they would look out their bedroom windown and point to the Papaioannou's house and say, "no Pepperoni's back home yet."  A couple of weeks ago they sent us an e:mail saying they'd be back in town on Sunday so my kids were screaming with excitement and made a giant poster welcoming them home to stick on their front door.  When we got home from church that afternoon, they noticed the poster was gone which probably meant they were home or it blew away so all 6 kids went running up to their front door hoping George and Dianne would open up.  Sure enough, George opened up the door to some very excited children and scooped them up in his arms while Dianne tried to stay standing upright while the rest bombarded her with hugs.  It was the cutest thing EVER!!  If only I'd had my camera in hand, dang!  Anyway, last week they invited all the kids over for a Easter egg hunt in their front yard.  They set up one section of the lawn for the older kids and a small section for the twins so everyone would get some eggs and then they took them all in the house for a big prize which was the movie, "Tangled", 6 little bottles of bubbles, and some peeps!  How cute is that??  I love these people and I'm grateful that we've been blessed with such great neighbors all the way up and down our street!! 

Happy 9th Birthday, Morg's!!

Yesterday was the big day but she gets an extension on her B-Day because we were gone last night to Regan's track meet.  Tonight my parents are coming to her soccer game and then we'll pick up Grandma Johnson and bring her back for her belated Birthday party!  We love you Morgan!  More to come on the B-Day girl.....very soon.  Until then, we're off to Monster Concert piano practices and a soccer game.

I love this kid so much.  She's one of a kind and always makes us laugh!  These soccer cones quickly became party hats for the kids!

Dad and Morgan--she's definitely a Teichert! 

It's a soccer Birthday! 

Cute kids! 

Spring sports=frozen tooshies

Spring sports in Idaho is always an adventure.  We've endured spring soccer with Morgan for a few years now and we're in the middle of track season with Regan.  So, this means two nights a week bundling everyone up in everything but snow pants, gathering all of the blankets in the house, and freezing our tooshies off for a couple of hours each night.  We had all the kids laughing the other night while we squished together on the bleachers like a big sandwich, DJ and I being the buns and the kids squished in between like the meat, cheese, lettuce, etc.  It kept us all laughing while we endured rain, snow, wind, and bitter cold!  If I didn't love track and soccer so much I would be really angry but I have a little bit of an emotional tie to track since I participated in High School and though I never actually participated in soccer,  Morgan's love for the sport makes me able to endure any weather condition just to see her do something she genuinely loves. 

Regan and her friend waiting on the bleachers for her next event.  She participated in the 100 meter dash, 400 meter, 800 meter, and 4x4 relay. 

Regan coming to report her time to her coach after the 400.  She had a great meet taking 4th in the 100 meter, 1st in both the 400 and 800 meter.  Way to go, Regan!

Lining up for the 800--I think this is her favorite race-she's turning in to a long distance runner ever since she ran cross country.  That's okay with me, I love watching the kids run no matter what distance! 

Porter bundling up at the soccer game 

Kamryn and Larcen trying to stay warm!  Porter and Kamryn affectionately refer to her as "Larcey." 

The boys huddled together under the "sport brella"!  Thanks to the Petersen's for providing the shelter.

(From left to right:  Colman, Ethan, Kade, Kaleb, Brayden, Porter)  A bunch of stinking cute boys!

Morg's running after the opponent

Morgan practicing some of her favorite soccer moves.  They won their first game 2-1!  Way to go "Bullets"

We're headed to another trackmeet tonight and a soccer game tomorrow night.  The weather looks like it will be much of the same so wish us luck!