The Next American Idol is.....

She unfortunately sings like a Cottrell if you know what I mean and yes, she is wearing her Snow White dress yet again. My favorite part is when she falls and just keeps singing. Such a professional.

Mission Reunion

Last night we got together with a few of Robert's mission buddies (pretty much all those still left in Utah!) and his mission president. We had dinner at a Thai restaurant and just spent some time catching up and of course, reminiscing about the mission.

McKinney's, Kerr, President and Sister Colton, us, Bodell's

Hopefully everyone (in Utah at least) watched the Cambodia special that was shown in between conference sessions last Sunday. Shame on you if you didn't! :) Robert was thrilled to see the growth that has occurred there since he left. He saw a few people he knew and even someone he baptized that is now an RM, married, kids, etc. I think he was a little disappointed though when he realized just how long it's been since he was there. I think he still thinks he's like 23 or something.

I know most of you probably don't care but I thought I would post this for any mission people that might see it. This is a photo of all the mission presidents and wives that have served since the Cambodia Phnom Penh Mission was created (not including the one currently serving of course)

Hoppy Easter!

Hope everyone had a Happy Easter! Ours was good. Nothing terribly special but it was fun. Saturday my mom came over and we made sugar cookies and dyed eggs. Emily really loved dying the eggs and managed to end up with only 2 cracked ones. I was quite surprised by that. I'm not sure if you can tell but she is wearing a crown on the back of her head. Apparently princesses like to dye easter eggs too.

Easter morning began with of course, the easter baskets. The Easter bunny was kind enough to bring candy-free baskets this year. Emily also did a mini easter egg hunt around the house. I was a little surprised to witness some OCD behavior from a 2 year old. Emily would put all the eggs in piles according to how they were decorated. It was a little frightening. Anyway, then it was on to conference, Cambodia special, afternoon conference, and then on to my dads for dinner, more egg hunting, and more easter baskets.

My stepmom made these awesome bird nests for dessert. So cute! And tasty.

She had just dropped an egg and was watching it roll away. It was pretty funny.





For me, the best part of this Easter was the fact that Emily was old enough to learn about the real reason we celebrate Easter. Last week we had family home evening and talked about the resurrection. I was amazed at how much she learned about the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. She was talking about it all week. It made me want to cry when this sweet little girl would talk about how the "bad people killed Jesus" and "Jesus died so we can live with Heavenly Father again." It is really amazing to see her so eager to learn about Jesus. It made our Easter that much more special.

St. George getaway

Last week we headed down to St. George for 5 days with Robert's family. Robert only has one time a year where he gets consecutive days off and this was it. This was the first time we had ever gone somewhere where we had to drive so I was a little nervous about the car ride but the kids did amazingly well. It was lots of fun and lots of cousin time. We stayed in a condo all together which was great but I feel a little bad for everyone that had to listen to Chase cry all day every day. The kid was terrible. He was so out of his routine and away from his own stuff and he didn't like it and wanted everyone to know his displeasure. That made the trip a little rough but I guess we survived.

The first day we went to the temple and the arcade and the St. George DI (for Robert's uncle Brad). We put the kids down for naps and then Robert and I were going to leave for a little while and his parents would watch the kids. I told them to call Robert's phone if they needed us. Apparently Chase woke up from his nap and was just screaming bloody murder and they couldn't get him to stop. This of course woke Emily up so she was crying. They had been crying for about an hour when we came back. I failed to tell Robert that they would call him so he turned his phone off because his work had been calling him. His parents tried to call about 8 times. Whoops. I don't think they want to watch our kids any time soon. :)

Before we went down to St. George we told Emily that we were going to go to the temple and her first comment was "I want to see a bride!" This girl is crazy obsessed with weddings. It's weird. She's 2. But we first went on Thursday so there weren't any weddings. But we took some pictures and walked around.



Trever and Diane came down that night. Friday we spent some time with Robert's grandma who happened to be there visiting a friend. We don't get to see her much since she lives in California. It was a nice coincidence that she was there at the same time. After that we went to Snow Canyon.



I think this is quite possibly the cutest picture in the history of the universe. I love these kids.

Since the next day was Saturday (and Trever and Diane's family hadn't gone) we went back to the temple in search of a bride. We were lucky enough to find one. Emily was so happy!
Haley, Trever, Diane, Kylie, Robert, Emily, Lindsay, Chase

The rest of the day was spent at Historic St. George, swimming, and taking the kids to the arcade.


The next day we headed home and back to the grind. :( But we had fun and enjoyed getting to stay up late playing games and talking. And it was great cousin time for the kids. Even if there were a few fights over toys.