Man Face

I walked into the bathroom one morning to discover this...

When I asked her what she was doing, Abby replied "I'm putting on my 'man-face'."

Oh, of course, how silly of me!!!

Runner Girl

In conjunction with a 5K charity race that I am thinking about running in May, there is a kid's 1K (.62 mile) race. I was thinking of entering Abby in it, but I was curious to see how far she could run without stopping and I am pretty eager to see if I can train her to go the entire distance. After seeing her mommy run two marathons, Abby has wanted to do a race of her own for quite some time so I'm thinking this may be her time to shine!!

Abby and I ready to head out on our very first "run" together. First we do some dynamic stretches to warm-up...

High knees...

And hip circles...

And we're off...

Look at that big smile. See, running is fun!!

A long distance shot of mommy-daughter running!!

She actually fared pretty well. She made it .25 miles before she tripped and skinned her knee. We then had to walk/run the next .75 miles before she looked down at her slightly scraped up knee and had a minor panic attack. It took us about 18 minutes to finish 1 mile (world-record, here we come, LOL!!) I was proud of her for finishing despite the small casualty she suffered. I think we'll try running together a couple of times a week to prepare for her first race.

I have to admit though that I was probably more excited about running with Abby than she was about running with me!! I hope my children develop a love of running so that we can go on many family runs together in the future. Landon already has a head start on most people...he's already run a marathon (granted it was inside my womb, but he was there!!!)

Easter 2010

Our Easter festivities started on Friday night by coloring our Easter eggs. Abby remembered doing this from last year and was very excited. Landon wasn't sure what the heck we were doing...

Landon was still a little nervous watching Abby color her first egg...

But then he realized how fun it really was (especially since eggs look like balls and he LOVES all things that look like balls!!)

We colored 20 eggs for our Easter egg hunt the next day before going to bed so that the Easter Bunny could visit our house. (Growing up, the Saturday before Easter was always considered Easter "Fun Day" where we would do Easter baskets, Egg hunts, Easter Bunny stuff, etc. This way on Sunday we could really focus on the religious aspect of the Easter holiday. Jason and I have decided to continue this tradition with our own little family.)

The Easter Bunny left some fun gifts (a stuffed bunny and a book for each plus the big gift, a new basketball hoop!)

After checking out their gifts, the kids found all the eggs around the house that were filled with candy from the Easter bunny.

Landon caught on pretty fast to this tradition, although he wouldn't put his new basketball down for anything, even gathering eggs!

"Following the Leader" (and still carrying the basketball around) as we head outside to do the outdoor Easter egg hunt.

Ohhhh, a pretty green egg (and yes, he still has that basketball!)

A blue egg too!

We finished off Saturday by watching General Conference in the afternoon and then playing with some good friends who came over to celebrate both Easter and Conference weekend with us.

The next morning we woke up to make "Resurrection Rolls"...

First, we picked out a marshmallow to represent the "body of Christ" after his crucifixion...

Next we covered His "body" in oils (butter)...

Then we covered His "body" in spices (cinnamon and sugar)...

And we finished by wrapping up His "body" for burial (in dough) and put it in the "tomb" (oven) for three days (or around 15 minutes!!)

The finished product!!

The rolls were empty when the children opened them up, just like the tomb was empty on Easter morning because Christ had been resurrected!!

The kids really seemed to enjoy this activity. I think it will become a new Easter tradition for us!!


Later that morning we visited a local cemetery so that we could talk a bit more with the kids about Jesus Christ and how He makes it possible for us all to be resurrected and to live again one day.

We ended our Easter activities by watching two more sessions of Conference on Sunday afternoon and enjoying a yummy Easter dinner with good food, good friends and thankful hearts for the hope that Jesus Christ gives us all because of his sacrifice and resurrection. What a glorious holiday!!!