cakes

 I made cakes one week to turn into a birthday cake for Hyrum's favorite friend.  But Hyrum's friend got sick and they rescheduled the party.  So I let the kids decorate the cakes instead.

 Many, many sprinkles were used!

 The next week I made cakes again, but this time I stacked them, cut them, and decorated them to look like an orca.

4-H Show

 Brielle joined 4-H in March, and the week after our first meeting

 there was a Rabbit Show at the fairgrounds.

Brielle entered Jack Frost, our BEW Holland. (blue-eyed white)

 It ended up going very badly, but these pictures are before we knew that would happen.

It started out hard for Brielle when Jack Frost wanted to run around and see all of the other rabbits on the show table.  The rabbit must remain on their square of carpet, facing the judge.  If they even turn to the side, then you must replace them in the proper position.  Most of the other kids' rabbits were nicely complying, but Brielle really had to work to keep Jack in the right spot.  (They are supposed to cover the rabbit's eyes to keep them from wandering, Brielle did a great job of that.)

It took several minutes to get all of the kids in her bracket to the table.  During that time Brielle had to control Jack and keep him in the right spot.  Then the Judge came and moved all of the children around for a few minutes.  Right before they actually started the judging and the questions, Jack Frost sprayed all over poor Brielle.

After that Jack decided to whip out the upset stomach and loose stools (stressed rabbits will do that)  Even though Brielle was covered in urine, cold and wet, she still carried on, posing her rabbit, and answering questions.  She even smiled!  What a good sport!

And Brielle won two ribbons!

Easter

 Easter morning, before the children could run and look for eggs, we talked about the Resurrection.  We went through our "Resurrection Eggs", and practiced Hyrum's talk for Primary.  Then the kids went and found their baskets with stuffed animals and books in them.

 Our Easter tree looked better before the kids knocked it over.  This is post tumble.

 After church our cousins, the Muglestons came over, as did the Missionaries in our ward.  We had a scrumptious meal, brunch for dinner, and then another Easter egg hunt.

I only seem to have pictures of the two youngest girls searching, before we let the four older kids outside.

 If you look back to Easter last year, it's remarkably similar!  http://www.russellandheidi.blogspot.com/2012/05/easter.html

Aaahh, dessert.  Dark chocolate cheesecake with brownie crust and a thick layer of ganache on top.  Made to look like a sunflower.

Easter Activity at the Church

On the Saturday before Easter our church had a lunch, with a short Easter Program, and then an egg hunt for the kids.  My children love doing egg hunts!

 We're a much smaller ward than we were last year before the split, and so there were easily two dozen eggs for each child to find.

Snow in March

 Our only snow this winter came on the first day of Spring!

 The kids had fun throwing snowballs for Nephi to catch.

Eventually Nephi tired of snowballs and decided to wrestle the gloves off of Hyrum.

 Notice the paw on Hyrum's head.  Here Nephi is tugging the glove off while holding Hyrum down.

 Nephi ran around the yard throwing the glove up into the air and catching it.

 Finally Hyrum was able to reclaim his glove.

 Clara loved playing in the snow.  She lasted at least half an hour after the other kids had come in.

Pucker Up

 Happy Valentine's Day