Easter and a priesthood ordination

Easter Sunday dawned bright and beautiful this year. We colored eggs this morning. Only 3 dozen this time. Not nearly enough to satisfy everyone but what am I going to do with 6 dozen hard boiled eggs?

I miraculously managed to find everyone Easter finery the day before and everyone cooperated willingly for some before church portraits.

The week before was Fast Sunday. The Primary president came over that morning and had encouraged Slade to share his testimony. He expressed to her that speaking in front of people was very hard for him. She asked him to pray about it. He insisted quite adamantly all morning that he was not going to share his testimony. No one was pressuring him but he let us know repeatedly that he wasn't going to go up there. However, in the middle of the testimony meeting, he stood up and went up on the stand, leaving us all in shock. He bore a really sweet testimony and was impressively calm as he spoke. The rest of us were in tears of joy and amazement. It is a wonderful thing to see your kids growing up!

Slade was ordained a deacon after our church meetings. When the bishop asked him if he would like to share his testimony, he declined stating that he'd already done that last week. He was ordained by Dave with the bishop, Grandpa Daniel, Uncle Tim and Uncle Michael in the circle. Funny side note: I had given Dave a blue checked dress shirt to wear. He looked really nice but had a very hard time doing an ordinance in a shirt that wasn't white. Dave's dad was in a bright, Hawaiian shirt too. Despite all that, I think the ordinance was still effective. Anyhow, I thought it was neat that Slade was ordained on Easter. I think he'll always remember that.

We had most of the Daniel family over for dinner and an Easter egg hunt. Yes, Ben is wearing a dress. And he was wearing a ballerina outfit that morning. We are hopeful he'll grow out of this phase soon enough.

Easter is always a wonderful holiday. I am so thankful for my testimony of the atonement and resurrection. He is what bring true joy and peace to our lives. In our sacrament program today, the choir sang This is the Christ, a favorite of mine. I love the words of the chorus. True words, indeed.

This is the Christ.

This is the Christ, the holy Son of God,

Our Savior, Lord, Redeemer of mankind.

This is the Christ, the Healer of our souls,

Who ransomed us with love divine.

a night on broadway

I am our stake's cultural arts director. As part of that calling, I am responsible for two activities a year. One is the Christmas Choirside that we do in December. The other activity varies in theme but usually happens in the spring. This year I proposed doing a stake Broadway revue.

I wrangled my good friend, Lisa, into being my assistant director. She was amazing and I could not have pulled this off without her. We began with a casting call in January. Stake members either came with a specific song that they wanted to perform or sang a church hymn/Primary song so they could be included in one of the three large ensembles. We had rehearsals on Thursday evenings and Saturday mornings in January and February.

The activity was on March 8. We did two shows and had a great turn out from the stake. I think we ended up with a great line up with a good mix of performers and Broadway shows. I was able to get a live band for several of the numbers with the help of the awesome and talented people in my ward.

Sawyer and Nathan were in the children's ensemble. They keep asking me when we are going to do it again. Emma felt forced into performing but I think had fun in the end. Dave loved the whole thing and spent lots of time singing his songs until all the kids knew them too.

More pictures here.
Videos of the shows here.

It was a crazy amount of work but I think it was a positive experience for all involved from performers to audience. I had never really been in the director position before. I thought it would be hard to watch and not feel sad that I wasn't performing myself. In reality though, it was awesome to sit back and feel great satisfaction at what I (with lots of help) was able to pull together.

baptism word art

I had these printed up and displayed at Nathan's baptism. I thought they added a nice touch.

 

 I got the CTR printable from here and just recolored the black to blue.

I recreated this one that I saw on-line. Here is a link to the etsy shop where you can buy it.

Nathan's baptism pictures

random snippets

A few random snapshots of life from the last three months:


Anne always keeps life interesting.

I have no idea what is in her hair.

Dave ran his first half marathon in April.

My mom brought me my wedding dress on a recent visit. Of course, Emma needed to try it on. She says she wants to wear it when she get married. We shall see. These pictures were taken with my brand new d7000. I finally upgraded my camera. I was so excited but it proved to be a huge disappointment. The camera would not focus properly. Out of 50 or so pictures I got maybe 3 or  4 in focus. Not good. I ended up taking it back. The salesman told me there was a firmware update that would have fixed the issue but I was too mad at the camera at that point. For $1200, a camera should be able to focus! So I still don't have a new camera and I'm back to wishing I could justify the $2400 price tag for the camera I really want.

I love this picture of all the kids on a beautiful day at the park.

I was released from my calling as Primary Chorister after serving this time for about three years. I calculated that I have been chorister for probably 8 out of the last 13 years. I haven't been in Relief Society for 10 years. I haven't been in Sunday School for 12. I am not looking forward to just sitting for three hours of church. I was released because I was called to be the Stake Cultural Arts director. I will be in charge of planning two stake activities per year (one of which is already planned). I'm not all that happy about going from a fairly demanding calling where I felt needed to one that I feel will require very little of me. Oh well. The Primary gave me this apron on my last Sunday. The notes are made from the thumbprints of the Primary children. It was very thoughtful and sweet.

One day, after seeing what I was wearing, Emma went and put on an outfit and curled her hair to match. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right?

These ones are just for fun.