Progress

At our Troop's last Court of Honor, Noah received his Family Life and Personal Management merit badges. Two of the "hard ones" out of the way! Noah is right on track to earning his Eagle. Spencer received his Bronze Palm and is on his way to a second palm. So proud of my boys and what they learn in Scouting.

More Easter Pageant

I forgot I had more pictures of us in the Easter Pageant, thanks to Papa who took hundreds of shots as he and Nana came to the Pageant nearly every night. Also, we have a few pictures from Church publicity that we have finally been given clearance to use privately. One of the scenes our family was in was the Cleansing of the Temple. Jeremy, Noah, and Spencer were buyers in that scene. You can see Jeremy and Noah in this photo, the 5th & 7th people from the left, and Spencer, just to the right of center, with a blue and white robe and red hat.

You can see Spencer better in this one, his face is just behind Jesus' right hand.

One of our favorite scenes was Healing and Teaching. Isaac loved to reach toward Jesus (you can see his little arm and hand just in front of Jesus' white robes, on the right) every night. Jesus touched his hand a couple of times and it just made Isaac's time in the Pageant so special.

The Triumphal Entry was another favorite, as we shouted "Hosanna!" and waved our arms and palm fronds. You can see Jeremy and Isaac pretty clearly in the center of this photo, with Jacob in his burgundy robes at the left, on stage.

This is a closeup view, with Jeremy, Isaac, and myself at the center, and Spencer in blue at the left of the photo.

Being in the Mob scene was difficult for Jeremy. To act as if you were one of the men demanding crucifixion of the Savior was very emotional. You can see Jeremy in this photo just to the left of Jesus.

Of course the highlight of every evening was the Finale, as Christ rises into the air above the angel stage, and we are singing "I Know He Lives!" Each night during this scene, the Spirit bore witness to me repeatedly that Jesus Christ does live, and that I Know It!

This is my favorite photo from the Church photographer. I love this scene already, but to highlight the temple in the background was absolutely beautiful! We know that because Jesus Christ died and was resurrected, it is through the ordinances of the temple that we can live with Him again, with our families, forever!

A cute photo of Jeremy, Isaac, and Jacob from some downtime between scene rehearsal.

Another one of all of us together.

In a previous post I said I didn't know how we had made it through the weeks of rehearsals and performances. We definitely felt blessed for our efforts, but really, the angels who made sure we made it through were Jerry and Olivia (Papa and Nana). I can't tell them enough how grateful we were for their help. They just jumped right in and made it all possible! From driving carpool, to making dinner, from cleaning the house, to getting kids ready for bed, they were willing to do anything to make our time in the Pageant go smoothly. We loved that Aunt Kami was able to come on a whirlwind 24 hour trip from Utah to see us in the Pageant, too!

Finally, one of the fondest memories from the Pageant was walking back to our car each night. I don't know where he got the idea, but as we would walk by the temple reflecting pool Isaac would quickly leave the path and go kneel to pray by the water. Every night! We all thought it was so cute, and I am so in awe of his faithful little valiant spirit. I don't even know what he prayed about, but I am blessed to be his mother.

Easter

We asked the Easter Bunny to come on Saturday morning this year. Jeremy, Spencer, and Noah had been assigned to go to Randolph on Sunday with the YM and serve at the Arizona Training Center for severely disabled individuals. So we happily made the change to Saturday. After seeing the movie "Hop" recently we laughed and laughed as the kids picked up their "rabbit pellets" on our traditional jellybean hunt.

Jacob and Isaac got new bike helmets. Jacob's looks like he is being eaten by a monster.

This was also the last day of long hair for the boys. I told them they could grow it out until the Easter Pageant was over (for the "authentic Jerusalem hairstyle-look"). Nana was itching to get her scissors on their hair and she got the go-ahead after the final night of Pageant.

Isaac couldn't even wait to get dressed to go try out his new helmet.

My mom and dad, along with Emily and her family came to visit and to see the Pageant. Eliza posed, reluctantly, in front of my glorious hollyhocks! They were so beautiful this year!

All of us, including Nana and Papa, went to Rumbi's for lunch (oh, yeah!).

Rumbi's food rocks! And the company wasn't bad, either.

Before we left for our last night of Easter Pageant, we colored Easter eggs with our cousins. We got really fancy this year with glitter and stickers and crayons and all kinds of decorating techniques!

Even our neighbor, Richy, came over to get in on the action.

What a fun day. Happy Easter, everyone!

Artichoke

We love to eat artichokes (okay, everyone but Jeremy). And we have found out they are the easiest things in the world to grow if you just ignore them. If you try to do anything to them at all, they die, so we just don't even try to water them! We have three artichoke plants in our backyard and this year they were huge. We harvested over 100 artichokes and have enjoyed them and given them away like crazy. We also planted strawberries for the first time this year. They didn't do so great but sure were yummy to try. So much fun!

Easter Pageant

As we participated in the Easter pageant, we were amazed at how quickly dress rehearsals began. We spent three full weeks "living" at the temple grounds from 6-10 pm five days a week. Looking back, we don't know how we did it! It sounds so impossible but we were blessed so much during that time. Having been set apart made a difference. We were able to consecrate our efforts and were given an extra measure of strength to make up for the time (and sleep!) we missed from our regular lives. My favorite blessing of participation was the miracle of peace and love we felt in our family. There was no teasing or fighting, just a spirit of togetherness that made it so worth it!

All of the boys turned out to be great missionaries! Isaac gave a picture of himself in his Easter Pageant costume, along with a pass-along card about the Pageant, to all of the kids in his preschool class. Even his friend whose parents are Buddhist said they would come!



Each night we had the exciting experience of pre-show greeting. All of us would roam among the crowd, welcoming visitors to the Pageant, and tell about our part in the Pageant and our testimony of Jesus Christ. Noah was especially good at this, overcoming some initial fears and reservations to bear his strong testimony to many people.

During our first rehearsal of the Triumphal Entry scene, we learned a pose in which we would freeze for several seconds. After we had finished that scene, the Director asked Isaac to come up to the stage and show everyone how to do the freeze. She told everyone that if a small child like Isaac could do it, everyone had better follow his example, even the adults. He was so proud that he taught 452 people how to do it right! Jacob and Isaac model the pose:

One of the coolest things about the pageant was the use of live animals in the production. Doves, sheep, miniature horses, and a donkey all make their appearance. My boys just loved the animals and wanted to pet the sheep at every single opportunity.

We loved the night that they let us take family pictures on the stage. We posed on the rocks and here, in the Garden of Eden.

I like this picture because it gives the perspective of how many thousands of people come to view the pageant.

"Snickers" is the name of the donkey that carries Jesus up the ramp and onto the stage during the Triumphal Entry. One night we were a little early to rehearsals and Snickers' owner asked Isaac if he wanted to feed her a carrot. He was so excited to do it!

During the last few performances, Snickers was getting easily spooked and not letting Jesus ride her. It was such a neat experience for the whole cast, including our family, to pray earnestly for a donkey to have peace and be able to perform.

No words can describe the amazing friendships we made with our family group (#8!) during the Pageant. It was unbelievable how close we became to people who were complete strangers at the start. Each night we would spend our time in a circle of chairs beneath a canopy and share games, treats, and testimonies.

One family in our group was a pregnant mother with three small children. I loved to see my family reach out and help Sister Rawls when she needed help. Her husband was one of the Assistant Directors of the Pageant and was the understudy for Christ. He stopped by the tent one night and we asked if we could take his picture with our boys. It turned out to be my favorite picture of the entire Pageant experience.

One reason we got so close to our family group was the weather. The Pageant goes on, rain or shine! One night there was such heavy, freezing rain that we all had to bundle up close under the canopy and just shiver together until the rehearsal was over. We would leave the protection of our group to dash out and do our scenes and then hurry back to our blankets and hot chocolate. Our feet were soaked and freezing but our hearts were warm and full. We felt like Zion's Camp, or the pioneers crossing the plains as we all pulled together.

We laughed because every single night, the little kids wanted to play the card games I brought. They loved "Don't Bug Me" and "The Bee Game" and played them dozens of times, over and over again! At least it kept them still and (mostly) quiet.

We love you Durfees, Rawls, and McGraths!