To all you Twilight fans and visiting teachers

Easter Fun

Picture this.......The time is 6:00 am. Since church doesn't start until 1:00 pm, mom and dad try to take advantage of sleeping in after a hard week of work, children, school, fights, appointments, and whatever else you can think of that keeps us busy, busy throughout the week. We are deep, deep in sleep, dreaming of peaceful times and a land with no worries. ( Ya right, like that is reality) All of the sudden, 3 very noisy children run and tackle the peaceful dreams away. That is how it started this beautiful Easter day. The kids came screaming in this morning, yelling. "the Easter Bunny came, the Easter Bunny came". I never heard such noise. Well, they were very impatient little children and wouldn't let me go back to that dreamland that I love so much. So, I lazily got out of bed and down the stairs I came. That is how Easter started in the Lamps home today.

It took Jeremy longer to get down stairs. Here is Emilee waiting and waiting until dad came down.

In our home, the Easter Bunny provides an Easter Egg Hunt for the kids each year. Each child is provided with specific colors on their bag of what colored eggs they look for. The Easter Bunny is very fair. This is how he makes sure that each one of the kids gets the same amount of eggs. The eggs sometimes have candy, prizes, and sometimes even money inside them. Here, Hunter is opening his eggs to see what treasures the Easter Bunny has left for him.

Here is Megan and her Easter basket. She got a password journal in her basket. Emilee got a Tinkerbell craft and Tinkerbell bracelet, and Hunter got a Spiderman web shooter. Of course they all got that great Easter candy. Let's just hope they keep it away from mom and dad.

The kids are looking at the treasures from their egg hunt. This year there was no money, but each one had a watch inside one of their eggs.

We are ready for church now. Every year growing up, my mom always bought me an Easter dress. Even when I got home from my mission, she still took me out to buy a new dress for Easter. Of course, I do the same with my kids. Here they are in their new Easter clothes. I think they look so fantastic. Megan really wanted purple shoes with her dress. We hunted, and hunted for them. I can't believe we found some. We must have looked at all the shoes stores in Huntsville and do you know where we ended up finding them? Children's Place of all places. Go figure.

Emilee asked to wear my pearls. These were my grandmother's real pearls, so she always feels really special when I let her wear them.

The watch Hunter found in his Easter egg was a Star Wars watch. He couldn't wait to go to church and show his primary class his new watch. Usually when it is time to go to church, Hunter is not always enthused. Today was the exact opposite. About an hour in a half before we had to go, he kept saying, "Is it time. I can't wait. We have to go now." He was so excited to show his new watch to his friends.

We had a wonderful Easter Day. We hope you all had a great Easter Day as well.

The Boat

So, when we moved away from the west, I learned something about Jeremy that I never knew. Amazing how you learn things about your husband all of the time. Anyway, he loves to fish. I asked him why I never knew this and he replied that in Las Vegas there was no place to fish. No place good anyway. Well, he went with a friend in Virginia from time to time, but they mostly just fished off the shore since neither one of them had possession of a boat. Talk of him wanting a boat then started. Of course he really liked the idea of one of those great fishing boats they used on those fishing channels, but like that would ever happen in the near future. So, he has been looking for the next best thing, and last week he finally got it. In Kentucky of all places. Now, it is just a small John Boat ( I guess that is what it is called. I am not very fluent in boat language) This particular boat is actually 2 pieces. It comes apart so that you can put it easily in your vehicle, then is easily put back together to make a great fishing boat on the lake. He wants to get a small motor to put on it as well. ( he has a name for that too, but I am not fluent in motor language either) The kids are excited to go fishing with him. They each have their very own fishing pole. They just need life jackets now. I have to say I am not the fisherman so I will leave this activity for him and the kids. They like to spend time with just their dad anyway. So, now Jeremy is looking forward to a nice day to try it out. Let's hope it won't sink. I must say, that would be bad.

Crazy Squirrel

OK, so I thought I would share our experience with this baby squirrel that was outside on our back porch the other day. I have never seen a squirrel that was so calm. The kids were outside playing and came across this baby squirrel just basking in the sun on our back deck. The squirrel didn't run away at all. It almost seemed like it was looking for friends or someone to play with. Almost like you might see Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty who could talk to the animals. Not only that, wherever we would walk, the squirrel would walk as well, like a kitten following you or something. If we weren't afraid of getting some disease from the fury little critter, it would have hopped right into our hands, if we would have let it. I have never seen such a thing. We have tons of squirrels around our house, but as soon as you walk outside, they are off, not to stick around. Not this particular squirrel. It was looking for a friend. The kids had so much fun watching it. (Don't worry, I made sure the kids didn't touch it at all, or let the squirrel touch them, though I think Megan was tempted. She is our animal lover) As I tried to take pictures, the squirrel would follow me around. It followed me all over the backyard. I finally let the kids feed it some bread. They threw pieces to it like feeding the ducks. It was crazy. Here are the pictures I took. Enjoy!

I wouldn't let Megan get too close. This was the best we could do.

Emilee was more scared. If you look close, you can see the critter in the leaves. It is getting ready to hop on the deck.

I know, it looks dead here, but no it is not. Just resting and having a little shut eye, basking in the sun. Doesn't care that we are there. Kind of like a pet. Megan calls him Squirrelly.

This is after its short rest. Megan so wants to touch it, but I say no way. That is as close as she gets.

Gladys Knight "Saints Unified Voices"

Tonight, down in Birmingham, we had the opportunity to attend a fireside put on by Gladys Knight. It is called "Saints Unified Voices". It was excellent. We invited our neighbor and her 13 year old son. They both loved it. What amazing performances. I have never seen a choir perform like that in person. Some people couldn't help, but get up and move and clap to the music. Me, myself, had the urge to stand up and yell, "Hallelujah!" But I resisted. Gladys Knight puts on this fireside throughout the country and we were blessed to see it. She gave some of her experiences about coming to know of the gospel and also her husband gave his experiences as well. A couple of others spoke and to my sup rise one of the speakers was one of my seminary teachers from high school. WOW! Mostly, it was some great music with a wonderful spirit. What amazing people, she and her husband are. They both bore wonderful testimonies. It was very very uplifting. Some of the soloist were so fantastic. American Idol has nothing on them. The stories they told were great, the testimonies they bore were wonderful, and the music was unbelievable. If this performance ever has the opportunity to come where you are, please take the chance and invite someone and go. You will love it and so will who ever you invite. It was just wonderful.

We all can create

So, my friend in Virginia had this video clip on her blog. It was a talk that was done by Dieter F. Uchtdorf. They made it into this nice inspiring video clip. I would like to thank her for putting it on her blog. What a great message and what wonderful inspiring words that they were. This was one of my favorite talks given by Elder Uchtodorf from our last Women's Conference. It really does make me think and feel about creation. We all have the ability to create. I myself always feel pride in things that I can create. For example, I love to play the piano. (Though, I am not always good at the piano, but I still love to play) I got this new piece of music to play. A song that I just love. When I started, I thought no way, I am never going to learn it, but I persisted and now I think, how could I have thought that. Now, I didn't create the song, but I created the process in which I learned the song. Other things I like to create might be, a letter to a friend or family member, blogs, a craft for super Saturday (though usually I steal those ideas), lessons for church, a new way in teaching something to help my children learn, friendships, jokes I might share with my husband, time with my children, and even a new skill every once in a great while. We all have the ability to create something. What can you create? If you don't think you can, sit down, and think. I bet you have creations every minute of the day. (you might have to pause my playlist music, so you can hear the clip)

Junior Music Festival

A couple of weeks ago, Megan had the opportunity to perform at a music festival in front of judges. Her piano teacher thought this was a good way to help her play in front of others and to learn how to better her music skills. She played two songs and was in the room by herself. No parents were allowed while they were performing. She did fantastic. We got the results last week, and the outcome was superior ratings for both songs. Megan is doing so well. She gets better all the time. She seems to enjoy it. I hardly ever have to ask her to practice. In fact, she practices sometimes 3 or 4 times in a day. Sometimes she just passes the piano, sits down, and plays. At times, she even thinks she is better then her mom. Well, I wouldn't be surprised if she passes me up in the next year or two. I will be looking forward to it. We are so proud of her.

Oh No, Not Snow

Early this morning, Emilee came into my room, woke us up and screamed, Mom, Dad, it snowed, it snowed. You would think she never saw snow before. I mean she did live in No. Virginia. Well, she opened the curtains, I looked out the window, and what do you think I saw? I groaned, Oh No, Not Snow. Well, it is not much, but it is enough that it means it is cold outside. YUCK! I was hoping we were on our way to nice spring weather. I am so ready for that. Usually, it is not to cold here. A little like Las Vegas and definitely not as cold is Virginia. But this winter we have had a lot of cold, dark, rainy, dreary days. I am ready for spring. Aren't you? Especially those that live in the snowy weather.