Happy Easter!

We are so thankful for this Easter season, and for the bounteous blessings from our Savior, Jesus Christ.  The Ressurrection is so powerful and brings such hope and anticipation of being reunited with loved ones after death.  We are so glad Jesse is here with us.  It is so fun to be with him again.

Jesse is Home!

 We had a wonderful time seeing Jesse again.     He looks awesome and we are so grateful he is home safe and has served his mission honorably.

In the garden

 Things are growing good:)

Never too young to learn

Jed loves to read his scripture stories each night before he goes to bed.  When I let them each pick out a book, Jed says, Mom, we have to read our scripture stories every night!  He has marvelous primary leaders and a wonderful teacher and I know he is learning things there that I forget to teach.   He also LOVES other books!  When he falls asleep at night, he usually has about 15 books lying all around him.  

 Jed's primary teacher gave him a "Future Missionary" tag.

 She also gave him seeds which sprouted in just a few days.  I'm guessing they were learning about faith and the scripture in Alma chapter 32 where it talks about comparing the word of the Lord to a seed.  If it is a true seed, and we plant it in our hearts and allow it to grow, it will become delicious to us, and our understanding begins to be enlightened, and our minds begin to expand.  Missionaries share that seed  with others and it is up to them to let it grow in their hearts and to not cast it out with unbelief.

Busy Times

We've been pretty busy the last couple of months and weeks.  Since we have 4 kids out of the house, 3 at college and 1 on a mission, we decided this would be the best time to renovate a couple of rooms.  We started with this room,

trimmed the window, repainted, and put in new carpet.

Then we started on two small rooms downstairs, took a wall out, and fixed it up to be one nice room with a walk in closet:

 We filled in two of the doors.

 Ada wanted to see if she could pull up the carpet and extra tack strip by herself.  She's a good helper!

 Framing in the new wall.

 Johnny is camera shy.

It was my job to mud, tape, texture, and paint.  Jane and Natalee helped me mud, texture, and prime, and Johnny and Jane helped me paint.  They were a big help!  Brent and Johnny did the carpet pad and helped with the carpet.

 The guys finished the carpet last night, and the boys are moving in today.   I forgot to get a picture before they moved in, and I would be in BIG trouble to do it now, so I will just say it looks very nice.  I am glad it's finished (almost-the boys need to put trim around the door and when we are done working with the closet doors, we will paint those-they don't fit with the carpet)