Easter

We had a lovely Easter holiday.  Again Scott was not here with us.  He went to Warrior Leadership Training on March 29.  We will get to visit him for his graduation this Thursday, April 12.  He will be home on Friday morning.  My mom, Grandma Jeppson, came to visit and do some Easter activities with me and the kids.  She came on Friday night and brought Eric and Rubie some Easter gifts.  Rubie was so patient to open hers.  Eric had a birthday party at Tyler Saetrum's to go to.  So Rubie waited until he got back to open her gift.  Grandma gave each of them a very cute story, the favorite one being about Peepsqueak.  Also included was a beautiful book about the Savior, perfect to look at during Sacrament meeting.  A puzzle and some treats.  Saturday morning Grandma and I filled some Easter eggs and I hid them in the back yard.  Eric and Rubie had some much fun finding the eggs.  Grandma even including 10 $1 bills and $10 worth of quarters.  The kids loved that.

After lunch we did a craft making some foam bunny ear visors.  Then we decorated/colored eggs.  The kids loved that and we made some very cute eggs.  At the end they just started mixing all the colors and then the blue got spilled all over the table, floor, and Rubie's clothes.  So I put on a movie and ended up washing the whole floor and cleaning.  

Then Grandma told the kids they could buy a toy with their money they found.  We went to the dollar store but there was nothing really worth buying so went to Target where Eric choose an Iron Man chest light that actually attaches to a T-shirt, and Rubie choose a Little Mermaid doll.

Easter morning the Easter Bunny left some baskets with a big and little chocolate bunnies for the kids and a few gifts.  Also beautiful new Church/Easter outfits.  The kids looked so beautiful I really wanted their Dad to see them.

I was visited in the morning by the bishopric to give me a calling.  Back into Young Women's as a Mia Maid adviser. I am thrilled, I love the young women and really feel like I get to know the ward when I am involved with the youth.  There are 15 Mia Maids and will be 2 more added during the year.  So there is also another adviser along with the 2nd counselor.  It's interesting over the last few weeks, I have seen this ward is full of such capable and faithful people I was thinking there really isn't a need in this ward for me to fulfill.  And I have been happy not having a calling.  Especially with a new baby coming it is nice not to have something that requires so much time.  But, well, in my temple recommend interview the bishop let me know that they really have felt I am the right person to put in this calling.  Mia Maids is a critical time in a young woman's life, as I know, and there are many girls in the ward that really struggle with feelings of worth, self-esteem, confidence, and the Bishop feels I can help.  Well, I do have ideas, but I know only with the Lord will we be able to make a difference.  Sister Evans, the 2nd counselor over the Mia Maids already gave me an assignment to come up with a fitness program for the girls to follow to get them in shape for girls camp and Trek coming up this summer.

We had Easter dinner over at Scott's dad's house.  There was Grandpa Wilson, Dellitt, Angela, Alec, and Maomi.  We had a very nice dinner.  Alec and Maomi were great with Eric and Rubie and entertained them for a long time.  They did probably 10 Easter egg hunts.  Alec hid eggs, then the kids found them.  Then Maomi hid the eggs.  Then Eric hid eggs.  Then Rubie hid eggs.  They all kept taking turns.  We played Eric's Angry Birds game that the Easter Bunny brought him.  Grandpa Wilson gave the kids some bubbles and we played with those for a while.  It was a nice day. 

On my own

Yesterday morning Rubie had a dance class.  There is no where to sit and watch so it is boring for Eric.  I called the neighbors, Christine George, who has a son, Riley, Eric's age to see if he could go play.  When it was time to go I told Eric he could just run up to Riley's on his own.  He looked at me a little surprised.  "I can?!"  He asked.  I asked if he knew which house was theirs.  He said I think so but I told him the house number which he repeated over and over.  I heard him run upstairs and tell Rubie that he could walk up the street to Riley's house all by himself, without me.  "I can do!  I can do it!"  

It is interesting that it usually takes me telling and encouraging Eric before he will do things on his own.  As he does them it builds his confidence.  Rubie on the other hand, tells me what she can do.   Often she becomes frustrated and angry at not being able to do something but won't ask for help.  I try to let her know it is okay to ask for help when we need it.  It also makes her feel good when she can accomplish something on her own.  But I am usually telling her what not to do.

Journal Entries

We have been asked to speak in Church this coming Sunday in our new Pleasant Grove ward.  I have been reading journals looking for experiences I could share.  I used to be really great at keeping journals.  My last entry in a journal was in March 2007.  Eric was 3 months old.  I never found the time to keep it going.  I realized I have missed a lot of experiences of everyday life.  Experiences of the little things I want to remember.  So I am going to make an effort to try to have journal entries on the blog.  After all, that is one thing I wanted this blog for right.

So here is today.  I studied for my talk a bit.  30 minute run around our neighborhood.  Which is up the mountain.  You either go up or down.  Followed by an hour of P90X2 yoga.  Then the kids had Little Gym class.  They love the class and their teacher Mr. K.  He is great!  I love visiting with the other moms.  We don't go back to PG cause Eric has preschool at Kids Village.  So we go to Target and then to the Park to eat a sort of lunch and play.  The sun is out and it is a bit over 40 degrees.  Yeah it feels great.  I haven't been feeling too well lately.  I think I might be pregnant, but I'm not sure yet.  So I make an effort to be fun and push them on the swings.  After I drop Eric off at KV, Rubie and I go pick up Samara Leaper to come and play.  She is cute and plays well with Rubie, but most of Rubie's friends still need lots of attention from me.  I try to have her over though because Sara Leaper is great about having Rubie over after dance class on Mondays.  At 3:00 I take Samara home and go pick up Eric and his friend Nixon Murdock comes home with us.  I actually felt really good about this one.  His mom, Ali, was really happy we asked to have him come over.  They are going to be moving back to Daybreak and she needed to be able to spend some time at the house cleaning and prepping it for new flooring and such (they have been renting it out for a few years).  She was going to just take Nixon along.  But all mom's know how that goes.  She would be lucky to get anything done.  I was happy to be able to help her out and hope to again.  Eric and Nixon play so well together.  They really can make each other laugh and really like to do the same things.  

It's Friday and Scott worked late.  Dinner was mac n cheese and peas.  We never have that but the kids really wanted it when they saw it at Walmart a few weeks ago.  I hope I can find an experience to share in my talk.

Ninjago Earth Dragon

Eric received some really cool Lego sets for Christmas.  Two of which took a REALLY long time to put together.  Both Daddy and Mommy helped with this one.

 

Ready to Exercise

Rubie is ready to exercise with her mama!  It's go time!

 

Christmas Day

This year Christmas Day was on Sunday.  We had church at 9:00am, just Sacrament Meeting because of the holiday.  I was a little worried about getting the kids to go once they saw all the presents around our tree.  We let them open a present that Lloyd brought up for them and their stockings.  Then we went to Church which was the homecoming address from Neil Monroe.  Angela was going to come to church with us, but was late and didn't make it.  When we arrived home we realized that Scott had given Dellitt, Alec, and Maomi the wrong time to come over to open presents.  So Angela realized she probably had time to hit a sacrament meeting and at least take the sacrament.  By the time everyone arrived to open gifts it was closing in on noon.  I'm not sure how we did it but somehow Eric and Rubie managed to stay away from their gifts.  They were so good and so patient.  It was fun to have Dellitt, Angela, Alec, and Maomi with us.  It took a lot of the focus off the kids--although everyone was so nice to give them each great gifts.  It was fun to play with the gifts and build with the legos that the kids got.  Scott and Eric worked on his Ninjago Skeleton Bowling pretty much all day.  It tired Eric out so much that he fell asleep working on it right on the floor.  Andy and Beth also came back in the afternoon.  We had a feast out to munch and enjoy all day.  We had a movie and played lots of games.  It was a wonderful day to celebrate the Savior's birth and all the gifts/blessings that we have received this year.

 

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve festivities ended up at our house, kind of by accident.  It was the year to spend with the in-laws on the Wilson side (meaning we would go to the Jeppson's).  However, with Ben and Cassie coming into town the week before Christmas, we just had a Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa Jeppson.  So we decided to stay home.  Russ and Linda were in Virginia.  We invited Dellitt and Angela and Alec and Naomi to have Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with us.  Then we found out that Andy and Beth were not going to Idaho to be with Beth's family, so we invited them as well.  Because everybody else was coming we also invited Dan and Brandee who came over after they spent most of the day at the Walker's.  It did stress me a bit to have that big of a group but it turned out to be wonderful.  Everyone contributed lots to the meal and of course that left plenty of leftovers for Christmas Day.  We had a nice meal, exchanged gifts, went out to look at the luminaries and sing some Christmas Songs.  We may have even played some games.  It was a very nice evening.