Easter Eggs and Kite String!

At our house, one of our favorite Easter traditions isn’t coloring Easter eggs or going on Easter egg hunts or even all of the candy we get (even though we do love all of those things)…our favorite tradition is what we call “the string thing”! So what exactly is the “string thing”? Well many years ago I had a friend introduce it to me, telling me that it was one of their favorite family traditions...and since then it has become one of ours too!

It’s really kind of simple. It involves a whole roll of kite string and an Easter basket for each child and takes a little work, but the kids love it. What I do is tie the end of the kite string onto the basket, hide it in a good hiding place somewhere in the house (we’ve done it outside too) and then I take the roll of string and unwind it as I string it in and out of furniture, over and under things, through and around whatever I can find and then when I get to the end of the kite string, I tie the end of the string to the spool and then sit it down and try to remember which child it belongs to...and where it’s at after I do the same thing for everyone else! In the past, I’ve tried to make the spools all end at about the same place, but that’s not always easy to do!

By the time I get done doing that for 2 or 3 or 4 kids, it’s nearly impossible to make your way through the main part of the house! Rod doesn’t really like it because he gets stuck in his bedroom, unless he wants to crawl and climb through all of the string, and that just frustrates him, so he usually just stays in his room. That’s not always easy though because the kids are usually hanging out with him while they wait for me to get things ready...and they’re bouncing off the walls so it’s hard to be with them for very long!

This year before I hid anything or did any of our Easter activities, I waited until we heard from Jon and Brittney. I knew they probably weren’t going to join us for dinner because they already had plans with Brittney’s family, but it had sounded like they were going to come over for a few minutes before that and I wanted to wait to see what their plans were and sure enough, as soon as their church got out, they came by. I wasn’t sure if they would want to do anything or if they would just want me to give them their baskets...but they were good sports and said that they would do the “string thing” with us since Brittney had never done it before! I even coerced Jon and Brittney into hiding all of the candy filled Easter eggs out in the back yard because the kids usually go on an Easter hunt for their candy after they’ve found their baskets!

While Jon and Brittney were busy outside, the boys were in their room with the door closed and I was hurrying to get the baskets hid and the string all strung throughout the house. I even got Jon to help me a little. Then everything went awry! I was just about done with my last string, and I heard Brittney, who was sitting in the living room say “Hello President Reed!” as she looked out towards the front door! I stopped dead in my tracks! Was she just kidding or was he really at the front door? And why would he be at our front door on Easter Sunday? I didn’t have to question for long because as soon as she said Hello, I heard President Reed’s voice and I knew she wasn’t kidding. I immediately wanted to go into stealth mode and crawl away and hide (because that would have been the only way to get out of there at that point!), but I obviously couldn’t just leave, so I made my way out to the front door to greet President Reed myself. I almost laughed when I saw him standing at the front door surrounded by strings going every direction, but I knew that wouldn’t have been so smart! Instead, I could see that he had come to visit, so I did my best to hold the strings up and push some of them down so he could make his way into the living room. It wasn’t easy!

He had come to visit Rod about some church stuff and I wasn’t sure if I should make myself scarce or stick around. I kind of hoped he didn’t mind us all sticking around because Jon and Brittney were pretty much trapped on the couch. Needless to say, we had our visit but it was a very uncomfortable visit because President Reed couldn’t sit back and relax since he was completely surrounded by string! To top it all off, I could hear the boys in their room hollering, “can we come out yet?” I’m sure President Reed was wondering what in the world we were doing. I tried to explain but suddenly our fun little family tradition seemed like more of a nuisance than anything! I think I would have cut all of the strings just to get rid of them if I could have, but it would have just made a bigger mess of my string and I wasn’t sure it was worth that!

When President Reed got ready to leave, he volunteered to go out the back sliding door because it looked much easier to get out there than to climb back through the string to get to the front door. Somehow I just knew that Rod was going to be unhappy with me as soon as President Reed left, but guess what? He just said that it was OK and not to worry about it!

Once we finally got around to actually doing our Easter festivities, everything seemed OK again, but for a few minutes, I thought we might just have to give up on tradition and settle for something much simpler…like just handing over the Easter baskets already full of candy! But honestly, how much fun would that have been?

Cows, Sheep and Kids!

It’s that time of year when the kids get to go on field trips and of course, what mom doesn’t love to go along for the fun? It’s one of the things that I love the most! Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t informed that it was supposed to be nice and so it wasn’t! Even though no one likes to go on field trips when it’s raining and miserably cold, I guess it all comes back to that little phrase that all kids know very well, “you get what you get and you don’t throw a fit”! Fortunately, we mostly got the “cold” part for both field trips although we did get some rain at Hayden’s...but it only came when the kids were ready to eat their lunch, so we just moved into a big barn. It may not have been an ideal spot for lunch (with dirt floors and no real place to sit down) but it was better than being stuck out in the rain!

For Connor’s field trip we went to the Hamblin Dairy farm in Syracuse, so it wasn’t too far away from the school, which was kind of nice. At the farm, the kids got to learn about cows and all that they can do for us, they learned about how fertilizers can pollute our rain water, they got to make a wheat necklace, they got to see where and how the cows get milked, they got to pet some baby farm animals and they got to see a sheep get sheared. It was fun to see all of it, but it was sure cold! Fortunately, after days and days of rain, we finally had a dry day, and it was even sunny, but the wind was blowing so it was definitely cold! The field trip only lasted about an hour, so despite the cold, we figured we could handle anything for that long, especially if we got to be with our kids...right? I had to keep reminding myself of that fact, but it worked!

The baby animal petting part

Connor with his best friend Austin Harrison at the sheep shearing part

Connor didn't want to get too close to the cows

At Hayden’s field trip a week later, I thought for sure that it would be nice because we’d had a nice week (after Connor’s field trip of course), but we weren’t so lucky. I volunteered to drive my van and take all of the moms along since there were only 4 of us! Surprisingly, all of the rest of the parent volunteers (about 6 or 7 of them) were dads! I only had about ¼ of a tank of gas when we left the school, but we were only going to Antelope Island and that’s only about 5 or 6 miles away from the school so I wasn’t too concerned. What I didn’t know is that once we got to Antelope Island, we had to go all the way to the south end of the island, which was about as far away as it would have been to drive all the way to Salt Lake! The further and further we went, the more I got nervous about running out of gas as I watched the gas needle steadily drop towards EMPTY! We made it to the Garr Ranch, which is where we were going, but I wasn’t sure we’d make it all the way back to the school...unless it was on fumes! I tried not to think about it while the kids were on their field trip though!

Hayden with his group in the sheep shearing barn

The kids started off their field trip by taking a walk around the wetlands while the parents got a quick lesson on the mini classes we were teaching the kids. The class that I got to teach was about spinning wool. They were only at each station for about 10 minutes but there were 9 groups of kids, so it felt like an eternity before we were done, but at least I had the help of another mom so I didn’t have to do it myself! I definitely couldn’t do that every day! The three things that made teaching my class tolerable was first of all the fact that we were doing it for our kids, then second that I got to do it with another mom that I enjoy working with, and last of all, that we got to be inside the barn to do it and that they’d closed the barn door so that we didn’t have to deal with the miserably cold wind that was blowing outside!

Hayden with his best friend Brighton Huggard

Standing out in the rain with the Great Salt Lake in the background

Hayden with his teacher, Miss Andersen

The barn where we did our class and ate our lunch

When the classes were finally over, we got to eat lunch with our kids inside the barn like I mentioned earlier and then I got to stress over my gas situation again! We decided to leave before anyone else did so that if we ran out of gas, at least we’d have someone behind us to stop and help us! Otherwise, we might be stuck out there on the island forever! All the way home we watched the gas gage that showed the miles we had left until we were out of gas as it dropped from 21 miles down to 17 and then continue to drop down until it got to 5 miles…and that’s when I got the most nervous because we had at least 7 or more miles left to go! I finally just switched the gage back over to the temperature because I figured if we were going to run out of gas, it was going to happen whether we were watching it or not and why put ourselves through that stress? We barely made it and I’m sure we were on fumes because the gas gage registered 0 miles when I got to the gas station! At least we made it…and we had a fun time with the kids too!

Who Would Have Thought?

Guess what? Guess what? Guess what? I’m going to get another daughter in law! It’s almost more than I could hope for…and all in just a few months time!

This is the best picture that I could get of Patrick (he wasn't very cooperative)

Patrick came home from Korea for Jon and Brittney’s wedding and with him, he brought (or sent via Federal Express) a beautiful diamond ring that he had plans to give to Marie while he was here. As excited as we were for the wedding, we were equally excited for Patrick to ask Marie and in the days leading up to Jon and Brittney’s wedding, we kept asking Patrick when he was going to “pop the question”. Do you know what he told us? He told us that he didn’t want to steal Jon’s thunder so he was going to wait until after the wedding. I was impressed that he even thought of that. He didn’t wait for long though because the very day after the wedding, he got down on his knee and proposed!

Obviously Marie accepted the proposal because she now sports that beautiful ring on her finger and we’re looking forward to having another addition to our family! We’re still not sure when it will be and neither are Patrick and Marie (or at least they haven’t shared it with us) but we’re excited for that day! For now, Patrick has gone back to Korea to finalize things there and in just a few weeks he’ll return to the states where he’ll be stationed in El Paso, Texas at Fort Bliss. I know he’ll be excited to be “home” again…but now he has even more reason to be excited to be home!

Introducing The Newest MR. and MRS. MOSHER!

Jon and Brittney got married today...and what a wonderful day it was!

Every part of the day was so nice, except maybe the time when we had to stand outside the temple for pictures because it was awfully cold! It was fun to see Jon and Brittney so happy though! And who doesn’t love pictures? Hayden sure did! I think if you asked him, he thought he was the photographer today...and he followed the real photographer around like he was his right hand man!

We started our day at Jeremiah’s for the wedding breakfast. It was kind of weird having the breakfast before the wedding, but with the wedding at 1:00 and having to be at the reception center at 4:00, there wasn’t enough time in between the two to do much. So we chose to have an earlier breakfast. It turned out nice though and we were able to enjoy the company of a lot of our family and friends.

I think this is supposed to be for "Jon and Brittney" even though neither name is spelled right

This is what Connor did during most of the breakfast

After the breakfast, we went straight to the temple with Jon and Brittney to help them get ready for the wedding...and the boys went with Vicki to The Treehouse Museum! As much as I was thrilled to be at the wedding, I think the boys were equally excited to be at the museum because they got to spend time with their cousins there too...but if you ask them, they didn’t get to spend nearly enough time there!! The wedding really was beautiful and it made me feel special to be able to sit with the bride and groom as the mother of the groom!

The happy couple

Jon and his brothers

Jon and his groomsmen

Jon and Brittney...and me! So where's Rod?

Jon and Brittney with her parents

The Carling cousins

Hayden and Carli

The Ogden temple!

I loved this picture!

We barely had time after we got done with the pictures at the temple to go home and change and get back to the reception center by 4:00. In fact, we didn’t get there until 4:30 but we still had plenty of time to relax and get plenty of family pictures before the reception started. Then even before 6:30, the first people started showing up and the reception officially started...and once the line of guests formed, it went on and on and on for the next 1 ½ hours and I thought my feet were going to fall off! Who ever thought that women would be comfortable wearing high heels for any length of time? And as uncomfortable as I was, I thought Rod was going to have an anxiety attack! He doesn’t do well with crowds and being social, so to see the line going out the door and having to talk to all of those people, he definitely wasn’t in his comfort zone! But guess what? It wasn’t about us...and we survived!

My cute little buddy!

Rod and some of the boys

Brittney getting ready for the reception

Buddies!

Aren't these guys handsome? The Mosher men!

This is Patrick's girlfriend, Marie

In the reception line

Jon and Brittney

Kissing cousins!

Hayden taking photos of his cousins

Cutting the cake

Leaving the reception...or at least that's what it looks like (they really didn't leave yet!)

Obviously it was a long day!

Just like the rest of the day, it turned out to be a wonderful night and we were truly blessed that so many people that are a part of our lives and that we love so much came to share the day with us! And best of all…I now have a daughter! Welcome to the family Brittney Ann Mosher!

Color My World!

Just recently I’ve decided that I need more color in my life so that’s what I’ve done, I’ve added more color to my life…in almost every room of my house! Quite honestly, I was sick of having white walls all through my house so I’ve slowly been adding one or two walls of color in each room.

Just a little less than a year ago when we remodeled the kitchen, I started my color transformation by painting the kitchen in a wonderful tan-ish, brown-ish color called Moose Mousse. Ironically two of my favorite things are Moose and Chocolate Mousse, so how could I go wrong with a color with that name? I was just lucky that that was the color that looked best in my kitchen. At the same time, after re-rocking my fireplace I painted a wall in the front room in Pine Needle green because it felt so “outdoor-ish” and as long as I was at it, I decided to paint a room in the family room the same color.

Moose Mousse Kitchen

Pine Needle Green Family and Front Room

Then just before Christmas, we decided to paint a couple of walls in Hayden’s new room in the most beautiful shade of blue…and I even let Hayden pick the color out all by himself. It was called Roadster Blue. It was a little darker than I would have chosen myself but I decided that since it was his room, he deserved to have any color he wanted (as long as it was something I agreed to). At that same time, we also re-painted Connor’s room in the original light shade of baby blue that I had chosen when Hayden was born and had made that room the baby’s room. Somehow though in the 9 years since we originally used that paint, it had turned a little yellow, so we’re still going to have to repaint that room again...but not right now!

Hayden's Roadster Blue Room

Connor's Blue Room

At the beginning of the year, I began a “deep cleaning” routine where I clean everything in a room including wiping down walls, cleaning and wiping down light fixtures and ceiling fans, cleaning out drawers (that takes forever), vacuuming under all furniture, and…painting! I started the deep cleaning routine in my bedroom and when I was all finished cleaning, it was time to pick out the paint. With Hayden’s help I picked out a rustic, cabin-ish color called Wagon Wheel brown and I painted the main wall in my bedroom. Rod thinks I’m turning Hayden into a “poof” by letting him help me choose paint colors, but someone has to give me an opinion and Rod just agrees with whatever I decide, which isn’t a bad thing but it’s not always what I’m looking for!

Wagon Wheel Brown Master Bedroom

Lastly, I just finished cleaning my master bathroom and painted a couple of walls in an incredible purple color called Gothic Amethyst. It sounds kind of dark and mysterious but it’s really a nice shade of purple. One of my very favorite purple colors is an eggplant color, which happens to be the color of my bathroom rugs and Gothic Amethyst went perfectly with them. If I didn’t add one more color to my house, I would be perfectly happy, but somehow I feel like I’ve just begun to make changes...and I kind of like this new, more colorful me!

Gothic Amethyst Bathroom

P.S. I just made another addition to my colorful life...my guest bathroom! I painted it in a light blue color and added white accents. I love it almost as much as my purple bathroom...but not quite!