Easter Weekend

This Easter was an especially fun one at the Garff house. Our children are finally getting old enough to understand some of it, at least Claire is. The Easter Bunny came to our house on Saturday and later that afternoon he came to Grandpa's as well. Claire was so excited and Ivan caught on pretty quick. Although Nora couldn't hunt for candy, she had no problem raiding her basket and eating the candy. After her first Cadbury Egg, she was trying to eat them with the wrappers on. She takes after her mother :). That afternoon we also colored Easter eggs. It was the first time we had ever done that with the kids and they had so much fun! On Sunday we read the story of the Crucifixion of Christ and the resurrection. Claire was amazed by the whole thing. We watched a video that came out in the Ensign a few years ago called "Finding Faith in Christ." Claire loved it and was full of questions. She was so excited when they watched it in primary too. She asked to watch it again before bed! It is exciting to see your children grasp on to the gospel principles that you try so hard to teach them. Ivan was even excited about it but he tends to be excited over just about anything but nap time. It was a very restful and enjoyable weekend.

Spring break at the zoo

This week has been so fun for us here at the Garff House. We have had some extra visitors, they are the siblings of one of the little boys that I watch. Today we went to the zoo. We took our lunch and we spent 3 hours exploring every inch of the place. We had so much fun but we practically had to crawl to the car because we were so tired afterward. On the way home, the older kids asked if we could go see President Hinckley's grave site. We explored the wrong cemetery first but it turned out to be a good thing because we ran into a heard of at least 20 deer. They came right up to the car, they were so beautiful and the kids were amazed. After finding the right cemetery it was not hard to find President Hinckley's grave. It was so neat to be there. The stone for the monument was made from excess rock from the SLC temple and the conference center. People had left little trinkets at the grave site. There was even a cane with a white hankerchief tied around it. I don't think it was his actual cane but wouldn't that be cool? Here are some pictures of the kids near the monument. One of the kids also found the grave site of David O. McKay. It was an amazing and informational day for all of us. It was sort of like being on a treasure hunt! We had a great time.

Friends

The past couple of days we have had some friends come to visit that have not come for a while. The kids were very excited to see them. Nora also had her first sucker and I think we created a monster. Here are some very cute pictures of our crew!

Spring

It is getting so much warmer here and we at the garff house are very excited about it. Every afternoon we try to go out and play for a couple of hours. The latest favorite is to take out the camping tent and run in and out of it. Ivan loves to spend time practicing his casting with his Shrek fishing pole. We are just so glad not to be pent up inside all of the time. Our kids have far too much energy to be inside all day. We have cut down on the number of kids we have here everyday and it has been nice. Not so crazy. Daily I have my kids and Carter. We also have a neighbor boy some of the time and of course we still have Kirstin, my sister in law. Here are some pictures of our outside fun. Check out Claire and her toy poodle in matching dresses and clunky shoes! the shoes are 3 sizes too big for claire but she loves them!