. . . probably this year's final post about easter . . .

. . . there was

quite an epic egg hunt

on saturday morning

at aunt heather

and uncle sean's house . . .

. . . addi found her share . . .

. . . halleigh's sticking with aqua

as her favorite color . . .

. . . tate kept his eye on the prize{s} . . .

. . . goofball tagg

managed to discover

the ten dollar golden egg . . .

. . . i hear he's got

a new playdoh factory

to show for it . . .

. . . this was elliott's

second round of hunting

that morning . . .

. . . he had quite the stash . . .

. . . and cameron was just bummed

because he

doesn't know how to walk yet . . .

. . . don't worry, though . . .

. . . he managed

to snag plenty of treats . . .

. . . we missed colby . . .

. . . he was partying it up

with his other cousins . . .

. . . you may wonder about

the lack of adult supervision . . .

. . . but, you should have seen

the easter brunch spread

going on inside the house . . .

. . . processed pork products

and carbs aplenty . . .

. . . delicious . . .

. . . and the company

couldn't be beat . . .

. . . thank you to

the kelleher family

for hosting such a fun day . . .

. . . sunday night in one word captions . . .

. . . swinging . . .

. . . climbing . . .

. . . pouting . . .

. . . torturing . . .

. . . panting . . .

. . . grazing . . .

. . . backbending . . .

. . . mimicking . . .

. . . coloring . . .

. . . reading . . .

. . . begging . . .

. . . stealing . . .

. . . and my one word for the day is . . .

. . . exhale . . .

. . . my favorite easter hymn . . .

. . . if i could only choose one . . .

. . . this would be it . . .

. . . i encourage you to listen . . .

. . . i know the savior lives . . .

. . . and because of him ~

we will live, too . . .

. . . i'm going to attempt

to use the lyrics of the fourth verse

when i speak in church tomorrow . . .

. . . this will be easier said

than done . . .

. . . wishing you all

a very happy easter . . .

. . . easter's on its way . . .

. . . i hippety-hopped on over

to the salon today . . .

. . . and now,

thanks to my friend, thuy . . .

. . . my paws are freshly pedicured . . .

. . . thoughts on easter . . .

. . . first things first . . .

. . . plastic easter eggs? . . .

. . . they just don't make 'em

like they used to . . .

. . . i remember

~ back in the good ol' days ~

they were made of hard plastic . . .

. . . with a top half

that actually snapped onto

the bottom half and stayed closed . . .

. . . when we were feeling

particularly festive,

we'd put a green top

with a blue bottom . . .

. . . magically creating another egg

with a blue top

and a green bottom . . .

. . . but nowadays? . . .

. . . what's up with

that wimpy little hinge piece? . . .

. . . and why are there

two ugly holes in each end? . . .

. . . and why do i have to

fiddle around with each egg

to get it to close properly? . . .

. . . what's this world coming to? . . .

. . . another thing that's different

about easter these days? . . .

. . . a whole lot less

pomp and circumstance . . .

. . . i remember putting a lot of effort

into finding matching easter outfits

for our entire family . . .

. . . catalogs were perused . . .

. . . and then i'd actually call

~ on the landline phone ~

and place an order . . .

. . . no online shopping . . .

. . . new shoes and lacy socks for all . . .

{except drew and bill}

. . . i made bows . . .

{ca. 1989 - back row: bill, amber-8,

middle row: amelia-3, steph, amanda-5,

front row: drew-6 weeks}

. . . and, of course,

there was a hairdo marathon . . .

. . . bangs to heaven . . .

{and perms}

. . . those were the days . . .

. . . preveal . . .

. . . it's coming along . . .

. . . but there's waaaaay more to do

than i'd imagined . . .

. . . possibly because

i'm so dang picky . . .

. . . but, anyway . . .

. . . the part that

used to look like this . . .

. . . got raised up . . .

. . . framed in . . .

. . . and blinged out . . .

. . . and now it looks like this . . .

. . . an important endorsement . . .

. . . you might assume

i'm going to rave

about the newly gained support

mitt's received

from florida senator

marco rubio . . .

. . . or perhaps, even,

the fact that he has

former president

george herbert walker bush

on his side . . .

. . . but, for today,

you'd be wrong . . .

. . . today i'm backing

this little orange bottle . . .

. . . floetrol

has forever changed

my painting life . . .

. . . a small amount

added to latex paint and . . .

. . . brush marks? . . .

. . . bye bye . . .

. . . dragging paint? . . .

. . . so long . . .

. . . stop/start lines

when painting

long stretches of trim? . . .

. . . a thing of the past . . .

. . . folks ---

i think we've got

a winner here . . .

. . . slightly breezy . . .

. . . after i finished

my conference ironing

on saturday . . .

. . . i treated myself

to a little sewing time . . .

. . . and finished putting together

my urban cowgirl on a whim

quilt top . . .

. . . but as luck would have it . . .

. . . there are gale force winds

here in mesa today . . .

. . . such that

when i tried to get a photo

of the entire top,

it was as if it was a sail on a boat

or something . . .

. . . no amount of blue painters tape,

clothespins,

or bad words

could get it to hold still

and behave for a photo shoot . . .

. . . so the next best thing

was to drape it

over our scallop topped pool fence,

which definitely

isn't it's most flattering pose . . .

. . . maybe there'll be smoother sailing

after it's quilted and bound . . .

. . . and i have a feeling

that's gonna take a while . . .

. . . my quilter is very popular . . .

. . . conference gems . . .

. . . i cannot tell a lie . . .

. . . music is my favorite part

of general conference . . .

. . . i look forward

to every single number

the mormon tabernacle choir

performs . . .

. . . the arrangements

sometimes leave me breathless . . .

. . . i stand in awe

of the three hundred plus voices

that blend so beautifully

into the most glorious sound . . .

. . . watching and listening

to the tabernacle organists

always makes me happy, too . . .

. . . what can i say? . . .

. . . music always speaks to my spirit . . .

. . . my favorites from this weekend were:

1) "you can make the pathway bright", and

2) "come thou fount of every blessing"

{i have a tiny pet peeve - please don't call it

"come thou FONT of every blessing"}

mormon tabernacle choir

. . . don't worry, though . . .

. . . i also love

hearing the words

of our leaders . . .

. . . here are my top four talks . . .

{in order of when they were given}

. . . first up -

president henry b. eyring . . .

. . . he spoke about

building a strong foundation

of faith . . .

. . . we'll need it to help us

through life's trials . . .

. . . ain't that the truth? . . .

president henry b. eyring

. . . i swear - every talk

elder jeffrey r. holland

gives is an instant classic . . .

. . . this time,

his explanation of the parable

of the labourers in the vineyard

made so much sense to me . . .

. . . let's not waste time or energy

worrying about

perceived problems encountered

during the day's labours . . .

. . . don't be hurt or envious

of the good fortune of others . . .

. . . at the end of the day,

it's all about the goodness of god

and the atonement . . .

elder jeffrey r. holland

. . . good call to invite

an mtc choir to sing

in the saturday afternoon session,

because . . .

. . . oh, hello elder archuleta . . .

. . . and hey - no pressure at all

elder anderson! . . .

elder anderson and elder archuleta

. . . president uchtdorf . . .

. . . enough said . . .

. . . please let him

read all the names

of the church leaders

for our sustaining vote

every time . . .

. . . because everything sounds better

with a german accent . . .

. . . am i right? . . .

. . . also - his talk was amazing . . .

{even though he was wearing an orange tie}

. . . "the topic of judging others

could actually be taught

in a two-word sermon -

when it comes to hating,

gossiping, ignoring, ridiculing,

holding grudges,

or wanting to cause harm -

please apply the following:

stop it!" . . .

president dieter f. uchtdorf

. . . and what about

elder ronald a. rasband's talk? . . .

. . . did you cry as much as i did? . . .

. . . did you think of several friends

who are going

through the heartache

of discovering

their child will require them

to learn special lessons? . . .

. . . did you feel the deep love

his family has

for their little grandson paxton? . . .

elder ronald a. rasband

. . . the icing on the cake

was a text from my sweet daughter

after his talk . . .

. . . she has taught me special lessons

and brought us special blessings . . .

. . . she's amazing . . .

. . . i'm sure you had

favorite conference moments, too . . .

. . . it's tradition . . .

. . . of course,

i do a little here and there

as needed, but . . .

. . . at least once every six months,

my ironing gets done . . .

. . . all of it . . .

. . . it's the perfect

saturday conference activity . . .

. . . along with

the tabernacle choir . . .

. . . the sweet, sweet sound

of power tools

provided today's accompaniment . . .

. . . which was music to my ears . . .