We hope all had a wonderful Easter. As you can tell from the picture above we had a great time. The kids love looking for eggs and candy and money and whatever else they can find.

April 12th was Abby's BIG 10th birthday. She asked to have a party and we of course said yes. Long story short she left out the part of inviting 13 friends and having the party last for 4 HOURS!!!! To get back at her the first thing we did  was a spanking machine with all 13 of her friends.

 As you can see she was a little sore after that fun time. I think she might think of inviting less people next time! Nope she invite more.

 Below are the soccer pictures for Robbie, Abby, and Tyler. Soccer consumed our lives for 4 weeks with 2 game a week for each child and one practice a week for Robbie and Abby. It was fun to watch and coach. I had the chance to coach Abby's team and I might add that we went 6-2. That this age it's all coaching. Not!

 Finally Tiffany had a great Mother's Day. We invites Julie, Tiffany's mom up for dinner which I made. Well, Tiffany made it and I helped eat it. We hope all had a wonderful Mother's Day!

Love you all.

The McVeys of West Jordan

Happy Soon to be Summer!

We in the Craig household are doing great :) April was a fun month.

For Easter, we had some families over and had a huge Easter Egg Hunt. It was a blast seeing all these kids run around and find eggs. One of the little boys liked the rocks more than the eggs but he is 15 months old. He will learn :) Easter morning Paul, Lilah and I searched for our baskets from the Easter Bunny and enjoyed some candy. Well Paul and I enjoyed the candy; Lilah will have some next year. We enjoyed a quiet evening as a family.

Nothing else really happened in April. It was spent being together and watching Lilah grow. Here are some of the fun pictures of our little family. once again we are trying to start a blog so I will let you know when that happens.

Love Mollie, Paul and Lilah




 
This is at our Easter Egg Hunt. This is some friends with a few of the kids looking for eggs.




Here is Lilah with all of our Easter Baskets



 
The Craig Family before Church on Easter. I loved Lilah's Easter Dress

 
The main goal in April was trying to get Lilah use to sleeping without being swaddled and wrapped up tight like a burrito. This was one of the first days.




 Thankfully it only took 2 days for her to get use to it. Now we are working on the self soothing. It is not going as well but we will get it down :)


Here are cute Lilah at 3 months old on 4-30

Beautiful Autumn

I know it seems strange, but it is fall here. Fall back for day-light savings and flu shots. We have had beautiful weather, unlike the summer. It has been cooler, but a lot more sunny days.  Over Easter break we (Overtons) decided to travel to Masterton and Napier.  We are digitizing the probates from those two courts, some we wanted to have our picture taken by the courthouse. I only have Masterton, it was raining in Napier so dad has those pictures on the mission blog.

On the way to Napier, we stopped at Castlepoint, a little resort town with a beautiful lighthouse. We walked across the little inlet and up to the lighthouse.

Dad likes to get out, away from the beaten track to take great pictures. We stayed up on the trail and watched and hope he could find away back up. He did.

Not sure you can see, but the little spots out on the cliff, our fisherman. No idea how they got out there, or how they will get back, but it didn't seem to worry them.

We stopped at this old LDS Chapel in Dannevirke.  A lot of Church and Maori history inside. So fun to look at and see old pictures and records that are just sitting inside with no protection from the elements.  A local church member comes by every now and then to clean things up, mow the lawn, and to check on the building.

In Napier, the Farnes, another senior couple, showed us around.  We had dinner in Napier, but also drove around Hastings, which is one of the most beautiful cities we have seen.  It is very neat and clean. I think they said that the streets are cleaned twice a week and the sidewalks once a week. There was no trash on the ground, no graffiti, and all the houses we saw, enough though older and small, they had neat and tidy yards.  It rained on Friday, so we had breakfast with the Farnes and pictures at the old Courthouse, then home. Dad has a lot more pictures on the mission blog. 

We made it back to Wellington for Easter Sunday.  We had a broadcast of General Conference, so we were at church for about 5 hours, which was actually wonderful to celebrate Easter listening to wonderful talks about Christ.

On April 25, Anzac Day is celebrated.  Anzac Day, Australian New Zealand Army Corp, is a day to celebrate and remember the soldiers who past away during WWI, WWII , Vietnam, and Afghanistan.  We got up at 5 in the morning to make it to the sunrise service, which was actually over before the sun came up, but worth it.  There were thousands of people waiting for the service to start, and everyone was very quiet and respectful while waiting.  The band started and veterans, their families and supporters walked down the street and stopped in front of memorial. Then to start the service a cannon was fired, and then a lone bag pipe played. It was all very touching and moving. 

Later that day we went through the tunnels for gun placement that were built in the hills above Wellington during WWII in case the Japanese attacked. Unfortunately, they weren't completed until after the war.

The view of Wellington above the tunnels

That night we went to a concert. The price was right, $5.  The Air Force Jazz Band played and the Beat Girls sang.  All of the music was from the Forties and it was great.

The final song was "We'll Meet Again" which they said was the most popular song of that time and we were to all sing along because we knew the words. We didn't, but many people did and it was great to hear the Town Hall filled with voices.  Dad and I realized that we did more for Anzac Day then we have ever done for Veterans Day or Memorial Day, we might have to change that.

We were busy all through the month doing our normal things, working at the Archives, feeding the Missionaries, Family Home Evening with the Singles and talking with the missionaires about education.  We realized to, that after Anzac Day, we will not have another break or holiday until the Queen's Birthday in June. We are all sad about no break, so yea, for the Queen having a birthday.

The Johnson Family

 Hello Family-
I hope every one is enjoying the nice spring weather.  It has been beautiful here and I am loving the warmer weather.  I love being outside and I love when the kids get to play outside... definitely keeps them busy, and therefore makes me happy.

Here is a quick update from our family in pictures and some words:

Easter was wonderful!! The girls always look forward to this time of year and I love being able to focus a little more on the life of Christ.  The girls spent a lot of time preparing fun family home evening activities centered around Christ.  Taylor decorated some Easter eggs at school (she goes to a Methodist Preschool - they do a great job!!) that had little items inside each egg that symbolized a part of Christ's life.  It is always fun to hear what she has to say about Jesus, and also try to help her understand what everything means.  She desperately wants to understand everything.

 For the first time in years, it did not snow on Easter.  It was beautiful.  The girls could wear their new fancy sandals to church.

 Kaylee did it.  She saved up enough money to buy her own bike.  Warren found this one on Craig's list and she loves it.  It is still a little big for her, but she is loving it.

Kaylee also competed in her first piano playing competition. Last year she competed in a state composition competition and won!!  This was her first time to play for someone and she did great.  She scored a Perfect in everything from scales, theory, memorization, and performance.  She had to practice quite a bit to get ready for the day, so we made a calendar for her to fill out every time she practiced for 30 minutes.  She accomplished her goal and got her award..the game "Guess Who?"  Love that game.

 I had to post this because this cracks me up.  When Warren is home from work or has a day off, Taylor likes to set up her office right by Dad.  She works on her computer (a piece of paper with letters all over it) and works on writing her letters.  This girls is so ready for school!! She asks a lot of questions and Warren patiently answers all of them, even the ones that ask "Why do we have muscles?" or "Why do we have to sleep?"

 Warren and I celebrated 13 years of marriage on May 1st.  I can't believe it has been that long...life is good.

 This boy makes us so happy.  He has got the sweetest face and most beautiful eyelashes.  He is such a handsome little dude!!  And we love his motorcycle jersey.

 He has got a serious obsession with his tongue.  It is always out !!

 The biggest adventure this month for Blake has been introducing solid food.  At first, he hated it and actually got pretty mad.  But, he now likes it and hums while he eats...just like Big Sister Nicole.

Nicole is doing great.  She loves school and also loves the warmer weather.  This girl could live in the outdoors.  Her reading and confidence in her speaking has improved so much this year.  I am so grateful for such wonderful teachers who love her.  I had one teacher tell me, "She wishes all children could work as hard as Nicole."

I hope everyone has a great May and end of school!!