Braden's Baptism

One of the great things about living in California now is that we will get to spend more time with our amazing nephews in Brentwood.  Braden turned 8 in March and his baptism was April 13.  First we got to watch him play baseball!

Then we went home and changed quickly for the baptism. Isn't he a handsome kid?

Our family, Braden's family, and Grandma and Grandpa

And those great cousins!

Happy Birthday Ryan

In our usual fashion, we dragged out Ryan's birthday for a few days. For years, Ryan's sister Lorie has eaten a double double at In n Out for Ryan for his birthday, since we weren't in California and he couldn't have one. This year for the first time ever Lorie was able to take Ryan to In n Out and buy him his own double double!

Sunday had our at-home celebration with with crab and loaded mashed potatoes for dinner. Monday we went out to eat, then came home and had strawberry banana pie.  (Banana pie with strawberries on top.  Yum!)

For his birthday, I bought Ryan a Lego Death Star. He then pooled all the rest of his birthday money and we stopped by the Lego store so he could also buy a Millennium Falcon.  Both are fun projects - it's good to have a hobby.

Happy Birthday Ryan!

General Conference

Rachael and I arrived in California on the Saturday of General Conference in October 2012. I guess this means that we have officially been here for six months. With sessions at 9 am and 1 pm, we had to change up our usual conference routine. We had cinnamon rolls for the morning session:

And crab for dinner after the afternoon session. (This might be a new tradition!)

Easter Weekend

Saturday the Maddens invited us over for dinner and an Easter egg hunt. We started by coloring eggs.

We had 45 eggs to dye and we had a great time.  The kids even decided to have a hard boiled egg for a snack midway through.

The eggs!  Lots of colors and fun.

Ready for the hunt! We hid approximately 90 eggs in the backyard and the kids really cleaned up.

They even found the hard to reach eggs!

Saturday night Rachael and I went to see the Lamb of God oratorio at the auditorium by the Oakland Temple.  Rachael complained for 40 solid minutes before the program began (I can't see.  How long till it starts? What time is it? Did you bring me a snack? I'm bored.) Once it started, though, she was literally on the edge of her seat for the entire program.  And she fell asleep in the car on the way home.

You can't really tell, but the flowers are beautiful at the temple! Rachael was disappointed there weren't any lights like there were at Christmas.

Sunday morning: between boiling eggs, making potato salad, frosting cupcakes, making rolls, practicing the piano and working on my talk, I completely forgot that we usually do our Easter basket scavenger hunt on Saturday morning.  Oops. So we did it Sunday morning.

Lots of fun chasing the 9 clues around the house!

She found it - in the oven this year! (Don't you love her festive pajamas? I'm starting to think we need new Easter pajamas every year like Christmas.)

And our family picture in the backyard.  Happy Easter!