Easter Candles

This has hands down been the best Easter I have ever experienced. 

 I trace the beginning back to the start of the year when our southwest area presidency asked us to try to increase our observance of Easter in our homes and in all our auxiliaries. We had a special combined meeting to watch a broadcast about it. The fact that our Easter celebrations pale in comparison with the rest of the Christian community has always seemed like an unnecessary bummer to me, so I was happy to dive in. I bought a book called "Greater Love Hath No Man" by Eric Huntsman. One idea I got from the book was to make Easter candles to light while reading the scriptures or having family devotionals/activities during Holy Week. I bought some candles and was about to buy some wooden candlesticks to hold them when I remembered that Dad moved his woodshop across the country. I asked him to teach me how to make them myself. It ended up being an incredibly meaningful project to me. 

Getting started- Dad prepped some lovely Cherry wood for me. We sawed off the corners, then mounted it on the lathe and shaved it into a cylinder. 

Then it was time to start shaping! I based the design on the Amazon listing of the candlesticks I almost bought. Spinning wood on the lathe was incredibly satisfying. You know how at the beach you can feel like you are still bobbing in the waves as you fall asleep in bed? On days I spent a lot of time at the lathe, I would fall asleep to the feel of spinning wood. 

I gave a talk on Easter Sunday. I pulled some metaphors from my lathe experience into the talk. Each cut of the chisel shaves off a tiny spec of wood, but over time the continued effort created a beautiful shape in the rough hewn wood.

One of the candlesticks got a big crack running through it. Dad told me I could either fill it or leave it in and call it a design change. I thought about it for a while and decided that a crack, a visible brokenness, absolutely belongs in an Easter candlestick. It represents the breaking of the rocks and the veil in the temple when Christ was crucified, and the brokenness in each of us that Christ overcame through the atonement. 

Dad calls this the "rocket man" look. I learned quickly that sawdust filling my pockets and nose was to be prevented if possible.

Huge shout out to Dad for being a patient teacher and letting me spray sawdust all over his shop, and to Aaron for picking up the slack as I abandoned my other duties for many hours to make these. I LOVE how these turned out and will treasure them for the rest of my life. 

Here's our Easter display including the Easter candles, origami flowers by Elliot, a picture of Christ with children drawn by our Primary President Katrina Graham, and a "He is Risen" sign I made at a RS activity this year. 

The Primary did a "Finding Christ" scavenger hunt between sessions of General Conference. There are enough members on the few streets near me that we could have clues hidden in front yards within a few blocks. It was delightful- so many families from the ward were out walking and enjoying the great weather. We found the clues and then went to the Tressler's back yard, where a plushie Jesus that was gifted to the Primary by a recent convert was waiting with a book called "Celebrating a Christ-Centered Easter" by Emily Belle Freeman for each family. I love this book, and we used several of the days from it during our Holy Week celebration. Our ward activities committee also put together an awesome packet that we pulled some activities from. 

Here we got to light the first candle for Palm Sunday! 

I had cut some Palms from my parent's tree and told Annie we were going to act out the Triumphal Entry. I wasn't going to have one of us be Jesus, but Annie took it upon herself to make a costume for Isaac. He did a pretty good job of taking his role seriously as he rode our rocking elephant (closest thing we had to a donkey) through the streets of Jerusalem. 

Eventually I accrued a bigger palm that we could hang some stuff on over the course of the week.

I really liked our ward Easter party. Traditionally we have had a very informal potluck at the green space with an Easter Egg Hunt. The committee this year kept all that but added a spiritual element. Each auxiliary was given a portion of the Easter story and were told to get creative with how we wanted to present it for 10 minutes. Families rotated through the scenes. RS had Gethsemane. My mom volunteered to help us decorate and MAJORLY leveled us up! It truly looked like a garden at night. We had blankets on the floor for kids to sit on and chairs in the back. While the bible video of Christ in Gethsemane played on loop, we had Susan read some stitched together quotes. Then we had a sing-a-long of the song "Gethsemane" while I played guitar. It was very sweet, because most of the primary kids know all the words and were singing along with gusto.

The day before Easter, Aaron and I went to the Temple while my parents hung out with the kids. Later that day, Annie, Mimi, and I went to see a production of The Lamb of God. I had never seen it before, and it absolutely blew me away. I was crying for at least half of the 90 minute production. 

Here's the cutest dressed kids on Easter Morning. I love how tightly Isaac is holding onto Annie's arm. 

Elliot set up this Felix photoshoot all by himself, and Annie added the "Happy Easter" to it. 

I'm so grateful that because of the Easter miracle, I can be forgiven of my sins and be with my family forever!

Cub Scouts

Elliot and Annie joined cub scouts this year. Mimi and Grumpa take them to the den and pack meetings.

The pinewood derby was glow in the dark themed this year!

Elliot occasionally takes instructions such as "decorate your flag" very literally

Annie banked on there being awards for aesthetics and didn't even try for speed. She was disappointed that there weren't awards for best colors. 

Elliot's car was called "The Tear."

These two occasionally acknowledge that they know and like each other

Annie was a great helper lugging our stuff from the far away parking lot to our mini cabin.

It was COLD. I wore my coat almost the entire time. It was fun watching the kids laugh so hard at the campfire songs and skits. They also liked the crafts, cooking, and generally running wild in the woods. We had to have a search party for Isaac a couple times since he's a little too good at wandering off. 

This boy had a rough night. The rest of us could sleep with sleeping bags over our heads, but I didn't trust his breathing abilities for that. He would fall asleep nursing in my sleeping bag, then wake up when his little face was exposed to the 30 degree air despite his MANY layers. I gave up around midnight and did a mile round trip hike in the dark to the car to retrieve his car seat so that he could sleep with a blanket covering him in that. 

The next day, the little kids went on a hike while Elliot's group busted open rocks with pick axes. 

I had the tough job of reading my book in Elliot's hammock with napping Felix while the scouts were out scouting.

Page, starring Paige Allsop

 In March, we ventured up to Page, AZ to meet up with the Allsops and have a four day adventure together. We originally planned to camp but realized that it was going to be freezing cold and that Alyssa is pregnant, so we opted to stay in a hotel and have adventures together. It was a wise decision. They had a 2 room suite next to our single room, so we could hang out and chat after the kids went to bed. The Allsops are great, we love hanging out with them.

The trip started out with an unexpected drive through a blizzard in Flagstaff. We had been monitoring the weather in Page but were completely caught off guard by the terrible weather we had to drive through. We had been planning to stop for dinner, but with the roads getting sketchier as night set in, we plowed on until we got off the mountain. We were fortunate- the traffic heading in the other way was completely blocked off by a semi that jackknifed across the road. We saw several jeeps that tried to go around, only to get stuck themselves. It must have been a long night for the local tow trucks!

A Blood-Allsop picture!

Felix was a great hiking buddy. Next time I'll have to remember his hat...

The kids had a great time digging in the sand. When it was time to go, it was revealed that they had buried Isaac's shoes. No, they did not remember where they buried them. "Somewhere on a hill next to a plant" was what we had to work with. We retraced steps and dug up the hillside until we finally found them.

Later, we ventured to lone rock beach, which was one of the places we had considered camping. The combination of sand, mud, cold, and no shade made me even more grateful for our nice hotel room. It was great to visit for a few hours. Mud cakes were made in abundance. 

This time, we actually left Isaac's shoes behind. We didn't realize it until we got back to the hotel room. 

Hanging Gardens. I found some mormon tea growing on this hike and brought it home to dry! 

We also explored the Glen Canyon Dam and the marina to ogle at the houseboats. 

Horseshoe bend! We live in a beautiful world. 

You can't really get a picture with both us and horseshoe bend in it at the same time, unless you walk out on by the cliffs that we did not trust Isaac near. 

Me, the love of my life, and our son's butt crack. 

Parties

It seems like there have been an awful lot of parties lately!

Annie's 100 day of school

Art Festival at Sahuarita Lake. Note the casual acrobatics display.

 

For my birthday, we went to lunch at La Chaiteria with Breezy and my parents. It was delicious! I did my best to do an "Ash Tango" next to the Ashtanga Yoga studio sign next door. 

Breezy got me this picture for my birthday. I love it. 

My friends threw a karaoke party for 3 of us who have January birthdays. I thought it would be not my thing, but it turns out that with this group of very silly friends it totally was. I'm very blessed with a full social life these days. 

We were all highly amused by Grumpa pinning the "58" over this birthday banner for Mimi's birthday

The birthday girl!

Papa's birthday is on St. Patricks day. We leaned into the theme for him heavily this year. I have no idea how my mom found so many things that said "Happy Birthday" with shamrocks or leprechauns on them!

There have been so many baby showers lately! I was in charge of games for a joint baby shower for my very competitive friends, Becci and Alyssa. I was very amused by these little baby trophies that I made for prizes for the pregnant lady Olympics. 

I hosted another baby shower for Amanda Hatch. Some other ladies put up a balloon arch for it. I kept it in the loft for a while afterwards and couldn't resist having a baby photoshoot with it.

It seriously doesn't get cuter than this.

The Harry Potter Book Club was carried all the way through book 7 with increasingly elaborate efforts by my friends. There was a Triwizard Tournament for book 4 and a Horcrux Hunt for book 7.

This sandwich Nagini with a sword chopping off it's head is a work of art. 

The whole Horcrux hunt was a hoot. Part of it involved finding Becci who was dressed as Harry Potter and shooting a killing curse at her. 

Me drinking the potion in the cave to retrieve the locket. It was pure vinegar and far more disgusting than I thought it would be. 

Fun times all around!

Rodeo

Another year, another time to contemplate why we still have this local holiday!

 

Isaac's preschool had a rodeo party. On the walk home that day, Cooper and Isaac yelled "HOWDY FOLKS" to random people walking their dog across the street. Isaac said "Once, I was a cowboy" with a low, gravelly cowboy voice and called people "Partner" for a day. It was adorable. 

Annie found that Isaac's church shirts make the perfect tight-fitting cowgirl shirts for her

Annie's 1st grade performance was cowboy themed. She belted out instant classics like "Billy the Bad," "Under the Stars," and "Until We Meet Again."

She knocked it out of the park with her memorized line!

Annie and Nellie

Cub scouts had a regional rodeo day event we went to. I love the layers of this picture- Tristan pretending to be the venomous creature, James watching out for him, and Elliot jumping out in front yelling "tuna sandwich!"

After the scout event was the Rancho event. Plenty of hot sun for us that day!

Riding the classic clubhouse robber train. 

Yeehaw, y'all.