Easter 2025

For the past couple of years, the church has talked about focusing our Easter celebrations on Christ and his resurrection. We've tried to do that by using Wendee Rosborough's book about Holy Week. This year the Church also put out daily lessons for Easter.

Tiffani gave me this beautiful wooden scene as an early birthday present. I love it.

 

We had the elders over to decorate eggs and we also made resurrection rolls. Elder Forese had never made them before. I learned about this last year and I think they're so cool.

Elder Forese also thought the empty tomb was pretty cool.

I am obsessed with my egg decorator. We've had it five years now and I never get tired of it.

I still love decorating eggs.

And so did the kids.

The Elders loved their baskets and were proud of their eggs.

David didn't get to make many because he was making our pizzas.

Baylie and I bought Easter dresses at Goodwill. Hers was $4.50 and looks like a work of art. I love it. Mine was $5.50 and from Old Navy.

We only had sacrament meeting on Sunday so we could spend more time worshipping at home. We were invited to the Workman's for Easter dinner. They had been my home teachers in Houston and their daughter Rissy Hummel and her daughter Tybee are now in our ward. It was so nice to join them - plus I didn't have to do much of the cooking. I just made rolls and deviled eggs.

I believe in Christ and am grateful for his atonement. Without it, everything else would be meaningless.

Lacrosse & Boys' Tennis

This has been a very busy spring. Baylie played lacrosse (in addition to the musical) and Jalen played tennis. It was a bit crazy.

Baylie had never played lacrosse before, but the team needed more people or they wouldn't have enough to field a team. She just didn't realize how hard it would be to go to seminary at 6:30 in the morning, go to school, go to musical practice, and then lacrosse, not getting home until 8:30. Plus the lacrosse coaches did a lot of yelling and criticizing, making it not as enjoyable as she had hoped. In the end, Baylie loved the sport, but didn't enjoy the overall experience.

She started out on JV with mostly middle schoolers.

One unexpected surprise was when she got to play against Madisyn Ross in Greenville. The Rosses are good friends from when they lived in Columbia and we spent a lot of time together.

Baylie was eventually moved up to varsity. (Personally, I think it should have happened sooner...)

She improved so much and became a very good defender.

I'm glad she tried it out, but I'm also glad it's over.

Jalen played tennis for the second year. He has really improved, especially his serve.

He usually played singles, but he actually preferred doubles because he had more fun and got less in his head. He made good friends on the team.

Doubles with Dylan

Final Match against Dutch Fork.

We're glad the kids are so involved, but we also believe that Elder Oaks was correct when he said that we should make sure we don't sacrifice what's best for good things. We are glad to have more time as a family and hope to not be so overscheduled in the future.

Spring Break 2025

We had originally planned to go to Boston for Spring Break since both kids are studying U.S. History. But after the NYC trip, looking at our current economic situation, and recognizing we were all exhausted, we decided to stay home and relax. We ended up staying up late watching movies and sleeping in every day. It was exactly what we needed. We did do a few fun things though.

The Bailey girls came over for a cookie cookoff. The three girls - Kaitlyn, Natalie, and Alee - and Baylie each made a cookie. Then David and Jalen judged them.

The bakers

Kaitlyn

Natalie

Alee

Baylie

You can see the final judging HERE.

Later in the week we went strawberry picking. This is one of my favorite things about living in South Carolina. We went with the Baileys and were joined by Riley Filter.

Beth, Bailey, Kaitlyn & Natalie

Strawberry Fields

Kaitlyn, Jalen, Baylie, & Kaitlyn

They also had beautiful snap dragons and you could pick a jar full for only $8. 

I made strawberry jam.

Baylie made strawberry pound cake.

It wasn't an exciting spring break, but it was exactly what we needed.