The Sewing Project from #"&@

I have been unpicking and replacing FOUR YARDS of frayed fringe on a Western shirt for a guy in our ward for the past several months. (He had cut and drilled holes in 230 wood buttons for our Pioneer Trek last year.) He wore it to a competition last week and TOOK FIRST PLACE FOR THE BEST COSTUME!! (Sorry I didn't take a picture of it - it was truly a work of art :)

Easter at the Paul Household

Kathrin (aka "The Easter Bunny") went all the way out to 9500 South to get me these gluten free cake pops - and they didn't disappoint!

We had the whole family and Grandma (Besta Mor) over for a wonderful Easter dinner (April made a special pan of fantastic gluten-free killer brownies just for me :)

It stopped raining long enough for us to have an Easter egg hunt and then the kids and I put on a little Easter play about Christ's atonement and resurrection. I was so impressed with how much Victoria and Brayden know and understand about it all.

Five of my beautiful girls

Six of my beautiful girls (thankfully, Kathrin didn't inherit her fantastic photography skills from me . . . )




Ellie didn't like the feel of the grass so she picked up the candy with two fingers :) I can't believe she's going to be TWO in less than a month!

Tracie's Dance Concert in Logan

Ellie and her bag of jelly beans (that ended up all down my shirt and pants when she got tired of chewing them :}

Look at that amazing height and form!!! (Tracie's on the left - in the great dress :)

Tracie was in a trio dancing to Paul McCartney's "Blackbird" and it was so thrilling! Come to think of it, the whole concert was totally thrilling and it was so much fun having the whole fam damily there :D

My beautiful girls after Tracie's concert.

Everyone had to head home to go to work the next day except April, the kids and me! We rented a hotel room in Logan :D Victoria and Ellie slept with April in one queen size bed, and Brayden and Audrey slept with me in the other bed. (And I use the term "slept" loosely.) I woke up totally sweating and claustrophobic around midnight with those two hot little bodies plastered against mine. Then poor Ellie kept waking up and coughing, so she and April didn't get much sleep either.

After an "all you can eat" breakfast, and Audrey freaking out thinking that Brayden had stolen her bowl of Fruit Loops, we got into our swimming suits and hit the hotel pool. Speaking of hitting, I was holding Audrey in one arm while she was having a splashing fight with Victoria and Brayden. She went to throw an arm-ful of water at them and ended up smacking me in the face. With a stunned look on her face, she said, "Sorry!"

I talked Ellie & Audrey into getting out of the cold hotel pool and going back to our room to take a warm bath. (They LOVE baths and come running any time they hear some bath water running :)

After I pried the girls out of the bathtub, I wrapped them up and sat them in front of the TV to watch a "boofie" while I showered.

We stopped for lunch at Wendy's before heading home after such a fun evening and night in Logan.

How I Spent My 55th Birthday

This is one of the many tests that Kathrin had on April 4th. Fortunately, all of them were normal - our prayers were answered. She told me she didn't feel weird or anything, but then asked me the same question - twice :)