Easter 2010

"But there is a ^aresurrection, therefore the grave hath no victory, and the sting of ^bdeath is swallowed up in Christ." -Mosiah 16:8

Together with the rest of Christendom we celebrate the atonement of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

He suffered and died that we might live. We are very grateful to him.

As the world turns to spring, and the promise of renewed life, Mandi and I enjoyed spending this easter time with our family, teaching, learning and playing with our Children of the importance of what our Savior did for us.

Here are just a few pictures of our children on Easter.

Houston Texas Temple

WARNING! More pictures than usual in this post! I just couldn't pick our a few.

And...Just for anyone who is curious... The next several or more posts will be of our trip to Texas so I hope you enjoy my pictures of the place I'll always call home! :)

To start, this trip to the temple was just for fun and to show a friend of mine the Houston Texas Temple. We walked around until little people were slowing down and we were needing to eat. This is Marie getting my attention to show me the tiny flowers she found and looked at for at least 10 minutes.

Sam was running wild and giving Grandad a great warmup for his soon to come exercise when he realized Marie wasn't with him and there was something exciting going on without him. He quickly came to join the fun and discovered a few things himself that Marie couldn't quite get.
Triumph! The prize has been won! And Marie decides to move on...
I love the JOY in this little face even if you are looking at the side. We should all enjoy the wind, water, outdoors and life this much!
More cute faces and splashing in water.
Sam was convinced the fountain water was the only thing to drink within miles. He seems to have survived the experience since we couldn't get him to stop. :) Marie was just not quite able to get it and I was pretty happy about that since I knew it would be followed by a very wet Marie.
Wishing it weren't out of reach. Plotting on how to get in on the fun.
The oh so fascinating water. I think about 1/3 of the time was spent looking at it or playing in it. :)
An attempt at getting in...
Stopped but not giving up. There is a lot of determination in this little gal.
An easier way to keep track of Sam than chasing after him for hours.
I think Sam would live upside down if given the chance.
And that finishes the Temple pictures...More soon of the lunch to follow! :) Mmmmm...Yummy!

TEXAS!!!

So this is way over due but here we go...
We had a somewhat crazy but good flight to Texas and when we arrived Grandad had some work to do in the garden. Sam just couldn't resist helping after sitting on a plane for 10 hours and in a car for at least 2 and a stroller also. That's a long time in anything for a 2 year old!Marie joined in the fun too. I didn't get a picture of the wheel barrel rides since I wasn't fast enough but they had fun riding back and forth on the leaves that got moved.At this point Marie was no longer interested in helping. Sam was a little unsure himself but he kept at it and helped the whole time.
And finally, He's big enough to help push! This is good since this lawnmower isn't so rideable. :)
Overall it was a great start to the trip! :)

Ouch :(

So Marie tried to get revenge on a very overly loving brother just before we went to Texas. She decided to cutely lean over the couch and drop a water bottle on his face or more specifically eye. Since Sam wouldn't hold still for a picture this was taken 2 days after it happened, and as you can see it's in motion too. :)
Marie has decided that she likes to stand on anything that will make her any amount taller. I'm not sure if it's a need to keep up with Sam or what but it's kinda funny to see her put a thin book on the floor and stand on with an expression that says, "Look Mom! I'm taller!" This however is the happy conquering of something a little taller. This expression says, "Now what do I do?"
And finally, Sam in his little Thomas outfit that Aunt Dorothea got him. He loves it and has worn the hat regularly since. How cute is that little happy face? I really do have the cutest kids in the world! :)

Happy St. Patricks day!

HAPPY ST. PATRICKS DAY!!!
As you can see, today Sam decided to put on a cheesy smile when I told them to smile. Marie however was NOT convinced by it.
However I was lucky enough to get some cute pictures anyway of those big blue eyes of hers and eventually she gave in and gave me a smile as Sam decided to reach for the camera. (gotta love his hair!)
And finally... I actually finished this project in a decent amount of time. Sam has a bit of a train obsession which definitely includes(and usually focuses on)Thomas the Tank engine. So while I was in America I found this fabric and just had to get it to do something with. I wanted to make matching aprons for Marie and I so I decided Sam needed one of his own that didn't have pink flowers on it. So this is what I did with the fun train fabric I found. Definitely cheaper to make than to by. It probably cost $3 to make it.

More fun in the snow

One of the weekends when we had a bit of snow we decided to (after shoveling of course) take the kids out on the sled. It was pretty fun and I know Marie enjoyed it a bunch. Notice the shovel that never left Sam's grasp.Sam however didn't stay on the sled for long. It didn't take much before he was off shoveling snow where ever he could. Again in the deepest pile he could find, moving it to the area of least snow he could find. Here he is shoveling the street near a neighbors house while Marie blissfully enjoys the free ride through the snow. I love that happy little face.And finally, the little man that wanted to walk behind just waiting for a nice big pile of snow to shovel. Gotta love the enthusiasm and wish we all had a bit more of it.

Little snow helpers

I don't think you could find a more enthusiastic little snow shoveler than Sam. Every day he would ask if we could go shovel snow. Fortunately for him, most days it needed to happen so out we went to shovel snow. Most days looked like these for all of the month of January and I've heard February was even worse. Too bad I missed it ;)
Even Marie joined in the fun. Some days were deep while others just needed a bit of sweeping but it got done regularly due to the excitement and thrill these little helpers got out of it.
I have to admit that having a 2 and 1 year old help shovel/sweep snow isn't always as helpful as I'd like, although usually funny. Sam had a habit of finding the biggest pile and putting it in a place that didn't have snow. This usually meant that he'd find the pile of snow that I'd been dumping on and move it to places that I had shoveled, but it wasn't too bad because anything that wears these little balls of energy out is a praiseworthy thing to me. And that's just what all that snow shoveling did. :)