Happy Easter/Conference!

Easter and Conference has come and gone. Here's what "hopp"ened to the Ryerse's last weekend...

Easter was wonderful. I love Easter and the hope the Savior’s Atonement and Resurrection bring. We’ve been trying to focus on the Savior the last few weeks, and what Easter is really all about. We did an Easter egg hunt for Family night that Emma made at a recent Primary activity. In each of the plastic eggs was a symbol that represented something about the atonement or resurrection. So after we opened each one, we read a scripture that went along with it. We got some illustrated books from the library about Christ and his life, death, and resurrection. We tried to sing songs from the Hymns or Primary Song book that helped us remember.
The Friday before Easter, my mom, sister, Emma and I made Easter treats. We made homemade chocolate marshmallows, chocolate bark, and peanut butter eggs. It is always so fun to get together with the ladies that I love the most! They were fun to make, and also fun to eat!

And here's the final product. Warning…looking at these pictures may make have side-effects
(drooling, chocolate cravings, etc).

I made cinnamon-glazed almonds for some family members as a little Easter gift. These are like the cinnamon almonds you would buy at sporting events, only these are not going to break the bank, and they’re pretty easy to do. The aroma that fills your home as you make them is to die for! Many asked for the recipe, so here you go. You can just copy and paste, make and enjoy!

Cinnamon Glazed Almonds

1/3 c. butter (no substitutes)

2 egg whites, room temperature
Pinch of salt 1 c. sugar
3 to 4 c. whole almonds

4 tsp. cinnamon

Preheat oven to 325. Place butter on jelly roll pan or cookie sheet with sides. Place in oven to melt for 7 minutes. Meanwhile, beat egg whites with salt till frothy. Gradually add sugar, beat to stiff peaks. Gently fold in almonds and cinnamon. Pour almond mixture onto jelly roll pan or cookie sheet; toss with butter. Bake 40 minutes; tossing every 10 minutes, until almonds are crisp. Serve warm or at room temperature. Stores two weeks in air-tight containers.

I worked hard to sew Emma’s dress before Easter, and I got it done, just in the nick of time. Thanks to Amy and my Mom for watching them so I could get it done! One day, Am and Kolb took them to McDonalds so I could work on it. Emma and Cal had a great time and love their Aunt Mamy and Uncle Kolby! Here's Cal at McD's eating a fry...one of his favorite things! He likes to dip them!

Emma on the slide...weee!

For Conference, we always try to do a little something to keep Emma interested in it and excited about it, as much as a three-year-old can be. We got some jelly beans, and cut out pictures of different gospel topics. We glued those pictures to cardstock that matched the colors of jelly beans. When Emma heard them talking about that topic, she’d pick up the picture, give it to us, and we'd give her the corresponding color of jelly bean. She did pretty well and listened great!

I love Conference and the peace and inspiration that comes with it. This year, I observed that one of my favorite scriptures from John was quoted a lot . “My peace I give unto you. Not as the world giveth give I unto you…Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly of heart.” I think in these truly troubled times we live in, we really need that peace that comes from the Savior. And that peace comes from doing the right things and relying on Him. That’s the only way we can navigate through this life successfully. I enjoyed all of the calls, particularly Sister Beck’s, L. Tom Perry’s messages on preparation, and Sister Beck’s and Robert D. Hales on motherhood and family. There are always a few that were just what I needed to hear, and those were it for me. It was especially special (that sounds funny) to have Conference on Easter this year. I think it helped me focus more on the Savior. I am grateful for the living Prophets!

Saturday, after the morning session, we had my side of the family Easter picnic and egg hunt. We were going to do it at a park, but ended up at Grammie’s house, since it was snowy and cold! We did a quick egg hunt and ate lunch and enjoyed the company of our families. Things kind of felt rushed this year to get from Easter back to conference events, and vice-versa.

That afternoon, we watched the afternoon session with Dave’s family. Then we dyed Easter eggs. We do this every year, everyone used to get a dozen, but that was way to many, so we get about half a dozen now. They turned out pretty cute!

During the Priesthood session, we always go out to eat and shopping with the girls! We went to Applebee’s this time around, then off to Ladie’s Night at Roberts and a quick stop to Wal-mart. We always have a great time! Here we are: Cal and I, Kaison and Stacy, Mom Ryerse, Emma, Tayla, and Julie.

Emma and Tayla, hamming it up like always!

Cal loved this balloon he got at Robert's! He even fell asleep in the car holding on tight to it.

When we got back, Emma just started "cleaning"! It was hilarious!

Sunday morning, we awoke to find that the Easter Bunny had visited. "Emma! Wake up, wake up!"

The Easter Bunny (is it a boy or a girl? Does anyone really know? We were debating this with the Ryerse’s…) brought the kids some candy, a couple of books, a Primary Children’s C.D., and a church book. When Emma said the prayer that morning, she said “We’re grateful that the Easter Bunny could come and bring some presents for me, and Callahan and Mommy and Daddy.” It was sweet.

Callahan loved the candy, and Emma really wanted to listen to her C.D.’s, we put it in and listened to that before Conference started.

Then we watched the Sunday morning session of Conference. We went over to Aunt Lois’ house for our bi-annual Conference luncheon. We made a strawberry trifle and chocolate trifle for dessert, and it was a hit! It is a tradition I love and one my siblings and I have said we will carry on. Here's Cal with Grandma.

Emma was going around taking pictures of everything. Here's one of my favorites of Uncle Kolb!

Happy Easter! We got Callahan a cute little 4-piece suit from Sears…adorable! They had so many cute ones, I just couldn’t pick. So Dave chose this one. I think he did a great job, and he also picked out a matching dress shirt and tie, which I thought was too cute! “Oh, you’re so handsome!” is what Emma kept saying to Cal Easter morning. He was, as was Dave, and Emma looked so sweet in her dress!

Sweet little Emma girl! The dress didn't turn out too bad!

Callahan...yeah, that look explains a lot about what it feels like to be wearing a tie and suit.

The kids having a happy Easter!

Then we drove to Bountiful after listening to the afternoon session. We went and played around, Grandma and Grandpa gave the kids their Easter “baskets” (the stockings and baskets have been giant Zip Lock bags for the last few years). Cal and Emma loved these punching balloons! And Emma enjoyed the peeps. We put one in the microwave for her, and she got a kick out of that.

Then we had a yummy ham dinner that night and just hung out. It was a great Easter!

Happy Easter everybody!

Gotcha! Happy April Fools!

April 1st, we woke up to what became the big joke, that it was Mother Nature’s very own April Fool’s prank. So much for spring, especially after the nice week before. Not a very nick trick. I guess it’s good though, we really need the snow, since we haven’t had much since December.

And, we went outside and played in it, which was a great time, and surprisingly, we had more snow to make a snow man on April 1 than we did on Christmas day, the last time we made a snow man.

And made a snow bunny, since Easter is coming up here…

We did snow angels…

And had a snow ball fight!

The snow wasn’t the only joke that day for the Ryerse’s though. I wanted to do something, since Dave and I usually play little pranks on each other. So the kids and I went to the dollar store to find something we could use. We went down the toy aisle and found little gags, and thought this one would be the most believable. It was “spilled” nail polish. When Dave came home from work, we were painting our nails.

Emma said “Hey daddy, look at my pretty nails.” (She did a great job, and didn’t blow our cover)
Daddy looked at her fingernails and said “Oh, those are nice honey.”
“Look at my toes, dad” Emma said, shifting the position she was sitting in. The “spilled” nail polish bottle was on the table the whole time, but Dave just thought Emma knocked it over.
“Oh, Emma,” Dave said rushing to the table to clean up, “be careful, you just knocked that over dear.” Once he got close enough, Emma and I shouted “April Fools!” and had a good laugh. He believed it!

This little boy had no idea what was going on, but he's just so cute!

Gotcha, Dad!

So I thought our little April Fool’s fun was over, but no. Dave was giving the kids a bath that night, and I was in the other room, when Dave yelled “Oh no! Babe, can you come in here, please! Cal just pooped in the bath!” I got up to go help out, “oh no!” I was thinking. He has done this twice in the past two weeks, so it wouldn’t have been a surprise, but I hated it because I’m such a germaphobe sometimes and have to wash the bath and the kids out like ten times. I ran on in, and looked in the bath, Emma jumped right out when Dave said that, worried about Cal getting poop on her, so she was out by Dave, and Cal was in there playing with a smile on his face. Then Dave just laughed and laughed and I knew immediately I had been gullible enough to buy it. “April Fools!” Yeah, he got me (and Emma) really good.

Once nice thing I got to enjoy on April Fools was a bouquet Dave sent me. Awww! Thanks, hon! I love you! You’re the sweetest!

The Luckiest

We've just passed St. Patricks Day (okay, so a few weeks ago, but I'm a little behind) and since Dave's Grandma is half Irish, and I have lots of Irish blood on my side, we like to celebrate the Irish way...except for that our Irish celebrations don't include drinking, which all Irish celebrations do. But we had fun anyway! The Saturday before, we went to the SL St. Patrick’s Day Parade with my parents. It was a fun parade, I haven’t been in years.



But got very rainy and freezing, so we went back to my parent’s house about halfway through the parade and had a traditional Irish meal – corned beef and cabbage, mashed potatoes, green jello (yeah, sure, that’s traditional), Irish soda bread, green salad, leprechaun punch (see, we drank something!), and for dessert, shamrock pudding and thin mints. Here's Dave and Cal, I think you can see the Irish soda bread on his plate. Also notice that Dave is wearing his Callahan shirt. Callahan is an Irish name.


Emma was helping Grandma set the table and put the St. Patrick’s day decorations out. My mom got a few new ones, which still had the tags on. She handed them to Emma and asked her where they should put them. Emma, being the tactful and sensitive girl she is, said “You know, Grandma, a lot of people take these [the tags] off.”


We got a kick out of that. On St. Patrick's Day, we woke up and made green Shamrock pancakes, which Emma was excited about. We all wore green, as tradition calls for.




We took Emma to preschool, where they had a St. Patrick’s Day party. She had a blast, as always.


Then we went to my Gold Medal Schools. The kids there are so funny. They were on hunts to find the leprechauns, no sign of any, though some said they saw Leprechaun poo or hair. Some of the kids told me I was a leprechaun since I’m shorter than they were! Funny kids! They crack me up. That night, I had our Relief Society birthday dinner and program. The theme this year was on Quilting. We had a yummy dinner and cupcakes (I made cupcakes using classic quilting templates), displays and people telling of the stories behind the quilts, had a program on the history of quilts, beginner quilting tips, and we tied a quilt. It was actually neat to learn more about something I know very little about, and that isn’t as much of a part of our life as it used to be. I have been saving scraps from outfits I make for Emma, or crafts I’ve made around the house. Someday, when I have enough, I’m going to make a quilt out of them. It should be fun, but I’ve never really quilted much before, so we’ll see how this goes.


Also last week, the temperature was in the mid-60’s, so we took advantage of it. We went on an “adventure” to the South Ogden Nature Park/Trail. We took a notebook and crayons to take “field notes” and draw pictures and write down what we saw, we took bags and bottles to find samples of plants, rocks, and insects that we liked. We learned about nature, and the creation, talked about some science and principles. Emma asked lots of questions, and it has been so exciting to see her mind become more inquisitive. And Cal loved just pointed at everything and trying to get everywhere. It was such a beautiful day, and though everything was dead and crunchy still from the winter, we had a great time and enjoyed the sunshine. Even more than that, I felt so lucky to be able to stay with my little ones. How I would miss out on so much if I wasn’t able to stay home! I am so grateful for Dave, for making that possible. We didn’t know (and still don’t) how we’d make it through school on such a meager salary, but he always reminded me that if we were doing the right things and have faith, we’d be blessed. And we’ve always had enough for our needs. We might not live in a castle, drive an Escalade around, have an impressive portfolio, or get to go on vacations a lot, but we have got each other, and I wouldn’t miss this for the world! Staying home with my kids has been the best (and yet the hardest sometimes) thing I’ve ever done, but I know the dividends are eternal and do and will bring me (and hopefully my family) more joy than anything else! And that makes me the luckiest. Anyways, I'm rambling. Here are some pictures of our adventure.

I really have been thinking much about how "lucky" I am lately, but it's really that I'm blessed. I'm blessed to have Dave.

This pic was taken a few weeks ago when we went to the WSU game, but they lost. It was a sad game, but it was fun to go out together and remember the good ol' days we had at Weber. Better luck next year! At least the Jazz are on a roll!

Lucky to have my kids, who are just my favorites! Too cute!


They just make me smile!
I
even feel lucky on days like last week, when we were finger painting, and Emma lifted up her hands and accidentally whacked me in the face with paint. Whoops! We had a good laugh.

The song "The Luckiest" by Ben Folds Five has always been one of my favorites. It is so beautiful, and we had that played at our wedding and on our wedding video. The lyrics have come to my thoughts lately. It is by no means a Gaelic, but it is my Irish blessing I leave with you today...it's definately how I feel.

I don't get

Many things right the first time

In fact, I am told that a lot

Now I know all the wrong turns

And stumbles and falls

Brought me here

And where was I before the day

That I first saw your lovely face?

Now I see it every day

And I know

That I am, I am

I am the luckiest

I love you more than I have

Ever found the way

To say

And I am

The Luckiest