Easter Sunday

We hosted Easter dinner at our house today. Patrick took Will & Jack to church and Sam, Luke, and I stayed home. Blake and Lauren arrived first, and then Brett. We got the last minute things ready for lunch. Mom and Joe and Holly's family came a little later. Bryce's family stopped by for an egg hunt after lunch. It was so nice having everyone here. I loved it.

I love Easter and the many things it reminds me of. This was the first Easter without Grandma Miller. I thought a lot about her. A lot of my Easter memories are connected to her. I missed her a lot today. I made her ham, and even used her roasting pan. I'm so thankful for my Savior and what he has done for me that gives me the hope that one day I will see not only my Grandma again, but be with all those I love and who are so important to me.

I was really wanting a picture of me with all 4 boys today, but could never find the right time. This so did not turn out the way I had been imagining it. Me with my four boys, but this is I'm sure a much more accurate depiction of each of their personalties when it comes to picture making...Love 'em anyway!

 ALSO! Today was Luke's due date. So happy he's already here!

Movie Night

The boys got the movie Inside Out for Christmas. So we invited the Blatter's over for a movie night. We made popcorn, and I tried to get rid of lots of our Christmas candy. Ella was a big help. She came and sat in my lap for a while during the movie, and I let her eat all she wanted. :) The movie was really cute and we had a fun night visiting and playing.

Christmas Morning

Will woke up bright and early Christmas morning. Patrick and I painfully pulled ourselves from bed. We had only had about 3 hours of sleep. One of these days we are going to stop waiting till the last minute. We told Will he could look through his stocking and what Santa had brought, but that he had to wait for everyone else to wake up first. Jack woke up next followed by Sam. Love getting to witness a child's excitement. Mom and Brett came over and visited with us for a little while that afternoon. It was a nice, easy-going, beautiful Christmas day.

Sam's new ride

Snuggling on Cooper's new bed

 POKEMON!! This kid is obssessed. I would have never imagined we would get such a great reaction from this book. 

 Our little scientist loves all things STEM. Magnetic building blocks for him.

 After first unwrapping the box, he said, " A BOX!!" 

 He got even more excited when he realized there was a Transformer Rescue Bot in there. He took the rest of the day opening his presents. He was so excited with just this one. It was cute after he had opened it, he found the rescue bots he already owns and played with them. I heard him saying, "We're best friends." Adorable.

Outer Space Book

Electric Scooters

Sam finally finished opening his presents around 5:30. We would ask him if he wanted to open another one and he would say, no. His big brothers couldn't take not knowing what was in those presents anymore and finally convinced him to open them up.

Thanksgiving

Wish Grandma could have been in the picture with us! Love these people.

Family Pictures

I had asked my dad to take our family pictures while he was visiting from CA. The best time to do that looked like it would be on Thanksgiving at Grandma and Papa's. Mandy and Bryce's family thought that was a good idea too.

Since we were shooting with a fallen sun and so many people who wanted their picture made, we had to move quick and there wasn't much time to take many of any one family. Luckily we got 2 good ones. Love this little family of mine!

Here is one I took of Bryce's beautiful family

And the ones I took of Dad and Silvana

How to Prepare a Turkey

According to Jack:

Halloween