Random January Happenings, Part I

Here are some fun things we did in the month of January:

Jan. 1

For New Years Eve, I made up a fun 14-course meal for the kids. I put in a fair amount of effort (so did Erik-he made the cheese balls), but it wasn't too stressful considering some of the courses were nuts or something pre-made like cocktail shrimp. I let the kids choose the next course, and Gabe would cross it off the list when we had finished the course. I think the kids enjoyed it. Some of the courses were drinks too, like hot chocolate and root beer. Other than this meal, we didn't do much else for New Year's; I believe Erik worked that day.

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Jan. 2

One of Elisa's Christmas presents was a trip to the nail salon. She wanted acrylic nails. I got a pedicure. Unfortunately, her nails didn't last too long.

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Jan. 4

I didn't make these all in one day--I made them over the course of several days. I like how they turned out! It's too bad I have to throw them away every year, I just can't figure out a good way to save and store these without driving myself crazy.

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January 7th

Ian had a primary activity to preview the New Testament. His class acted out the story of the Good Samaritan.

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Jan 7

With the Eufy cameras, we caught Gabe being Gabe: picking his nose and wasting time on his chromebook.

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Jan 8

Elisa's guinea pig Nutmeg died. She wasn't looking so good one Sunday evening, and the next morning she was dead in her hidey hole. Alas, another pig to bury in the backyard. Elisa wasn't too devastated, thankfully. When Skittles died, Gabe took it really hard. I really liked Nutmeg; she was a sweet little piggy. After she died, I put Fluffers (my one remaining pig) up for sale on craigslist. A week later, some girl came by to get her along with all of her stuff. I honestly was so, SO happy to be pet-free. It has freed up much of my time and energy! So, goodbye Nutmeg and Fluffers; hello freedom from the drudgery of pet ownership!

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Jan. 12

A cherubic Ian-bean snoozing away 

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Jan 13

My first time buying, cooking, and eating crab legs (at least first time in a long time eating)! They were on sale at Fry's. I cooked them up in my instant pot with some Old Bay seasoning and ate them with melted butter. They were good, but salted butter ended up tasting too salty with all the seasoning, so for next time eating crab legs: unsalted butter.

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Jan 14

Gabe and Elisa participated in a service activity one Saturday picking fruit in Glendale. I don't know how much "fun" they had, but the point of service activities isn't to just have fun.  

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Jan 14

I took this cutie to Party City to pick out some Mario stuff for his upcoming birthday Party

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Jan 16

Ian made an awesome basketball contraption out of cardboard and duct tape

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Jan. 20-21

Elisa went to a Retreat for teens with her friend Lily. It was held at a really cool air-bnb house in Mesa that had a pool, and she even got her own room. She did all kinds of fun things like painting and swimming (you can see on the pic I took for the itinerary). She had such a good time that she wants to go again!

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Jan 21

I love this kid's morning hair!

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Jan. 22

Ian gave a talk in primary, always fun to listen to him.

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Jan. 22

Putting together a baptism puzzle I made some 13 years ago for a Primary lesson when Erik was in Med school. Ian was excited to learn all about baptism since his was coming up.

Easter Celebrations 2022, Part II: Easter Sunday

Here are the pictures of our Easter celebration for 2022 (April 17)!

Frist, a few pre-Easter crafts:

An Easter dress for Elisa that she never wears

The kids were really into peep plushies (I'm not sure why) so I made one for each kid as a prize for the Easter egg hunt I planned for Easter Sunday morning. They were pretty easy to make. I was happy that I had the perfect types of fabric in just the right colors. My sewing machine has a circle embroidery stitch so I was able to make the faces look semi-professional. For some weight, I poured some lentils into the bottom, and I hid these bunnies until the egg hunt where I brought them out at the end to be redeemed as a prize. 

Erik was thankfully home Friday night to help the kids dye Easter eggs for the next morning:

The Easter Bunny came!

Easter Sunday was Stake conference so we didn't go to church. I almost took the kids to CCV (the local megachurch her in the valley that everyone seems to go to) but they all strongly vetoed that idea. So we stayed home and enjoyed some of our typical Easter activities, sans Erik because he was working that morning. The kids found their Easter baskets and chowed down on the candy as soon as they were up. 

We had some Easter fun with the guinea pigs!

Elisa and Fluffers. Silly girly made herself some bunny ears.

Not quite a bunny, but we'll take her anyway.

Haha I love this picture. Its just so weird and funny! Having a glass table makes for some fun pictures.

The underside of the guinea pigs. And a reflection of my phone.

If I had to do it all over again, I would have waited a little bit longer to do the egg hunt so Erik could be there, but I didn't know when he'd be back, the kids were getting impatient, and the day was getting hotter and sunnier. I filled all the eggs the night before. I used all the eggs I had in the box. I filled them with non-chocolate candy, dollar bills, and coins. I also hid three special eggs-one for each kid to find. I put a $10 bill in a glitter egg, a squishy banana-toy I bought at the store in a large green egg (it barely fit!) and I found a war-head egg filled with war-head candy at the store. I told the kids to look for special eggs, and that they only get one. The hunt was over sooner than later. the kids ended up with about the same number of eggs, but for some reason, Elisa ended up with most of the money! She even got the $10 glitter egg. Surprisingly, the war-head egg was the most desired. Elisa offered to trade Gabe her $10 for the egg, but he refused, even though I told him he could buy three of those eggs for that money. Ian was pretty happy with his squishy stretch banana. In the golden eggs I put a slip of paper that said they could redeem it for a prize, which was the stuffed peeps I had made earlier. They all loved their peeps!

                                            

It was funny to watch them pass over so many eggs, while at the same time trying to hurry to get as many as they could. 

Enjoying their spoils:

Elisa made about $15-$20 in the egg hunt!

Cute Ian had so much fun!

Gabe was really happy with his war-head prize egg.

3 cuties with their Peep plushies

I made an egg cake for dessert. I did a gross job at decorating it and I didn't think that it even tasted that great, but the kids didn't mind devouring it. 

Erik came home not long after the egg hunt ended. For Easter dinner (sorry no pictures) I made potato salad, rolls, and deviled eggs. I had bought some lamb at the store for Erik and I to eat, and a slab of ham for the kids. Erik smoked the lamb and grilled the ham. We thought the kids would love the ham, but they wanted nothing to do with it...they all wanted our lamb! Good thing there was plenty to go around. I also made Jell-O eggs (as is tradition) but I put them in the small fridge and totally forgot about them until a week later. They were still good though, even after a week (they're just sugar anyway). 

Random April Happenings, Part II

Here are some fun things we did in the month of April:

April 9

Elisa went to her friend Kassidy's birthday party at SkyZone. Her mom sent me this video of Elisa flying off this huge slide

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April 9

We all went out to Abuelo's for dinner. We had to wait for a long time before we were seated. I think this was the last time we will be eating at Abuelos. We have been less and less impressed with it each time we go.

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April 13

I caught this stinker sneaking ice cream. He's guilty, as you can see by the look on his face. Oh, and the ice cream bowl in his hand.

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April 16

I helped Gabe deep-clean his room. It was the cleanest is been since we moved in, I'm pretty sure! I'm not sure how that video got taken.

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April 16

Silly piggies in their house made of straw

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April 16

I snapped a picture of this cutie mid-snooze.

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Ian at the dentist. He wasn't too happy to be there. But who is happy to be at the dentist??

April 19

While at the dentist, I noticed Ian's shoes had a bunch of holes at the top and that there was not much room between his toes and the front of the shoe. On our way to school after the dentist, we stopped by the Sketchers outlet and picked out some new shoes for Ian. I'm not sure how Ian's shoes got to looking as bad as they did, but hopefully it wasn't because Sketchers is getting cheap. Ian's old shoes weren't that old. We'll see how well these new ones hold up. At least now he doesn't look like a hobo.

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April 23

We went out to eat as a family to Zupas. I don't think anyone was impressed. Ian ordered mac n cheese (of course) but didn't like it because it was watery and fake-tasting. I think the only one that liked their food was Elisa, of all people.

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April 30

Another eating out picture. 

Grandma and Grandpa Came down a few days before Elisa's birthday. We all went out to eat at Ajo Al's. I think the food has been pretty yummy every time we've gone.