Happy Easter

It sure didn't feel like springtime and Easter, but according to the calendar, it was. Luckily the snow had finally melted and we were hitting sweltering temperatures that were approaching 40 degrees, so it wasn't all bad!

The kids had a great time with their usual Easter Egg hunt. (We sure missed Taylor!)

                                      

While they were out hunting, the bunny paid a visit to the house and when we came inside the kids found some fun goodies.

Easter Sunday was lovely with great speakers and classes and an opportunity to really reflect on all that Easter really means. The girls wanted to pose for a few pictures in their new dresses after church. It is truly astonishing to me to see how much they are growing! And even though Spencer didn't have new duds, we decided it was high time to snap a picture or two of his hilarious and handsome self. Kendall was out home teaching when we were taking pictures but we did get one the next day in his scout uniform. (He had come up with the idea to raise some money for scout camp this summer by selling his unbelievably delicious cheesecakes so he needed a photo to put on his flyer.)

Meanwhile out in Utah, the members there were taking great care of Elder Oswald. Taylor got to go and decorate eggs at a members home and they made sure to stock he and his companion up with plenty of candy too.

(These pictures all loaded sideways even though I had them turned right side up before and I don't know how to get them to turn, so you'll just have to crank your head to see them!)

We love when we hear from the members there how Taylor is doing--especially when they send photos too! He looks great and seems so happy. I'm told he was a bit homesick on Easter (and we were sure missing him!) but that he had a great day anyway.

Oh Brothers!

One day after church, Kaya couldn't decide what to put on after she changed out of her church clothes. Kendall and Spencer suggested that they let them pick something out for her. She loved that idea and promised that no matter what they chose for her, she would wear it. Additionally, she had to let them do her hair.

Of course, being silly big brothers, they made sure to go all out. 

Kaya was not thrilled with the result...

But she was a good sport and true to her word and she wore the entire thing for the rest of the day!

Cinderella

Way back before Christmas, Kendall auditioned for a role in the spring musical at his high school. He knew as a lowly freshman that any role he managed to procure would be small and that he would be choosing that lesser role over one of the larger roles if he had done the MCT play with the other kids. But since he wants to be a big part of the drama program at the high school in the future, he knew he needed to start somewhere. So he auditioned and he was given a part in the ensemble where he played three roles in various scenes of the play: a little boy in the crowd, a chef at the palace, and a guest at the ball. As the little boy he had a couple of lines but the rest of the time he was part of the singing and dancing, etc. They began pretty much daily rehearsals in January which was a huge challenge and made it hard to keep up with everything else going on in his busy life, and we sure missed him around here! But he stuck with it and had a lot of fun. 

They wound up doing three different performances and it was phenomenal! Definitely way higher class than the high school plays I was involved in. Our younger kids loved watching it too. Kendall did a great job and I'm sure will have lots of other bigger opportunities over the next three years of high school. It was so funny when Kaya leaned over to me in the middle of the play and said: "I'm really glad that they didn't make Kendall the prince because I wouldn't want him to worry about the kissing and all that love stuff!" 

Meeting the prince.

Meeting the wicked stepmother and step sisters.

Great job Kendall!

Elders

After the time of his life at the MTC in Provo, Taylor was sent to his first area of his mission. He is in the Mount Pleasant/Fairview area (just a little north of Ephraim). His first companion was Elder Falconbury from Alabama. This was his last area since he was on the last few weeks of his mission. Surprisingly, they actually had a lot of work to do. A lot of it was trying to get organized since the previous set of Elder's hadn't kept very good records but they also had several investigators and work a lot with inactive members. Taylor had his first baptism in March so that was very exciting and he was the one to get to perform it so that's even more exciting. I find that I live for Monday's when we finally get emails from him. He sends great emails that often have us cracking up but that also let us see how much he is already growing as a missionary. We are so proud of him!

Rapunzel

As usual, our year wouldn't be complete without the kids being able to participate in the annual Albion Youth Theater with Missoula Children's Theater production. This year they were able to do Rapunzel. And I think this one was one of my favorites so far. It was so funny and the songs were super catchy and fun. The kids had the time of their lives with their parts.

Sadly, Kendall wasn't able to participate for the first time since MCT has been coming to Albion. He was involved in the Marshall High School spring production and his rehearsal schedule didn't permit him the time to do this play as well. He was really disappointed but since he wants so be involved with the high school drama program, he knew he'd have to pass this opportunity even though it meant passing up (most likely) a larger part for just a little tiny part in the high school play. (You have to start somewhere!)

Lynnsey, Spencer and Kaya all auditioned though and they were given some really fun parts.

Spencer played The Littlest Billy Goat Gruff. I know, wrong fairy tale, but that's one of the fun things about these plays. He did a fantastic job and his voice is so perfect for the stage--he can really project loudly and clearly and his singing voice is pretty amazing too.

Kaya got to be a mushroom along with the other under 8 year olds. She loved her purple costume and doing the "robot" during one of their dance numbers.

And Lynnsey, in a sort of reverse Shakespeare tradition, was given the role of a prince! There were actually two Rapunzels (one in the tower and one on the ground) and two princes (one on foot and one on a horse). She did a fantastic job and had so much fun. She loved that she had quite a lot of lines and was a memorable part of the play this time.

There was one little snafu with the music. The usual pianist was out of town so they found someone who thought she could do it but then she had something come up and wasn't able to. So they found someone else to do it, but she had just had a stroke a couple of weeks before and she was really struggling to keep the tempo on some of those songs so she had to back out. The night before, I was contacting everyone I could think of but no one was able to do it. So the show went on anyway and they just did the whole thing a capella. And it was amazing! It was such a talented group of kids and they all nailed it so well without the accompaniment.

We're already looking forward to next year!!!