Easter 2013

We started off this Easter celebration with a trip to the temple to view the Easter Pageant.  Josh had a few friends join him - Tiffany, Rachel, Sadie and David.  Before the Pageant, the girls and I walked around and ran into Devon.  He was an angel that performed in the Pageant.  I was able to see him in the beginning.  It was great to go as a family and see the Pageant.

The Easter Bunny found our house and made the kids hunt for their baskets.  Emily found her plus a few more.  The older kids like to sleep in, so Emily hunted for the their baskets too. She left them in their hiding spot, but gave the kids great clues.   She sure does love Easter!!!

Emmy and her Easter basket

I love Easter morning!!! I love getting the kids all dressed up in new outfits and taking pictures of them.  I love the lessons centered around Christ's resurrection.  I love the message of hope that centers on this special day.   I'm grateful for the knowledge of the Atonement and the Resurrection. I know that my Savior loves me and he made it possible for me to return to live with Heavenly Father.  This day has special meaning and it gets overlooked by the worldly traditions.  I love those traditions, but it's important to remember the true meaning of Easter 

Kids in Easter outfits 2013

Family Easter Pics 2013

Danni had a long-time friend, Megan Smith, visit during the Easter Holiday.  I had to get a picture of her and Danni and Jocelyn.  They sure do look cute!!

Megan, Danni, Jocelyn

Monday night, we headed off to our traditional Pace family Easter Egg Hunt.  The older kids hid the Easter Eggs and the younger kids went to go find them.  The younger kids had a blast looking for the eggs and some of them were well hidden.  Grandma bough a pinata for the kids too!  The older kids would move the pinata up and down and the kids tried to hide it.  I'm not sure that the younger kids appreciated that much, but the older kids LOVED it.  It was a great family activity!!!

Easter tradition at the park with the Paces

We had so many activities during the Easter weekend, that we were unable to squeeze time for dyeing eggs.  We found some time during the week after for the activity.  We used Kool-Aid instead of the dye found in the Easter aisle of the store.  The colors were bold and colorful - I'm using Kool-Aid every time.  Angela and Emily had a great time dyeing the eggs, even after Easter.

Dyeing Easter Eggs

Briley's Baptism

We went down to Benson for Briley's baptism.   My girls really love Briley and love visiting with her.  It was a great baptism!

Donuts with Dad

With a new principal comes new activities.  The PTO at Porter wanted to increase the number of parents that come on campus.  We invited the dads to come to school 1/2 early and have donuts with their kids.  It was a smashing success!  I think I see a new tradition starting!!!

Memorable MondayJim's Eagle Project

This is not my Memorable Monday, it belongs to Jim.  For Jim's Eagle project, he cleared a section of the Mormon Battalion Trail.  Here are some pictures of his Eagle project.  Jim had an ancestor named James Pace that served as a Mormon Battalion leader.

Memorable MondayHolding Hands

The Christmas before Jim and I were engaged, Jim invited me over  to his house to watch "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs with him.  I was excited to hear from him that day and couldn't think of a better way to end the day the spend it with Jim.   I remember sitting on a couch near the window and holding hands as we watched the movie.  This was the first time we held hands, watching "Snow White" on Christmas Day.

A picture when we were engaged

Wedding Anniversary - 18 years

18 years ago, Jim picked me up in his little red truck and we entered the temple to get married.  It was the best decision that I made.  We have had some amazing adventures these past 18 years. 

 Happy Anniversary Jim!!!

Danni's Trip to Texas

Danni went to Texas with the Clawsons for Rebecca's Wedding.  She took great pictures at Six Flags while she was there and it looks like she is had a great time.  With her cell phone, she made collages of her pictures and shared them with us with she was in Texas.   It was fun to see what adventures Danni was having in Texas.  I wanted to share them so Danni can remember her trip to Texas. 

Driving to Texas

Six Flags

Danni is such a cute girl.

Dallas Temple

Waiting outside the temple

Spring Break

We had an amazing spring break,  Danni went with the Clawsons to Texas to attend a Meyer wedding.  We had the younger Clawsons with us., so we tried to have a lot of fun events planned for the kids.  We also found time to go to Taylor to work on Josh's eagle project.  We had a really busy spring break.

March 11th - Salt River - We started our week by heading up to see the river.  We packed a lunch and headed out.  We went on a small hike and watched some boys play with the a toy boat.  It was fun just hanging out by the river.

March 12th - Movie - We saw went to the dollar movie theater to see "Wreck It Ralph" in 3D.   I really liked this movie and would totally see it again.

"Wreck in Ralph"

March 13th - Phoenix Zoo - We took the kids to the zoo and we had a great time.  

Trip to the Zoo

The Petting Zoo

We had fun at the zoo

March 14th - MAC - We went to the MAC to see what events they had planned.  We played with some toys that were available as we waited to see the Dinosaur show.  The kids were so excited to see the show.  Kenzie even told a joke to the audience beforehand.  Joey was sitting right in front to see the dinosaurs up  close.  But when the T-rex came, he was in back anxiously watching.  He was downright scared of that thing.  He was charging at the kids, so I would've ran to the back too.

Waiting for the show to start

Kids played with this life-sized puppets

The dinosaurs

March 15th -  MAC again - We came back the next day to catch the shows we missed the day before.  There was a truck band that had different and unique musical instruments.  The piano rotated, which was super cool.  After seeing the show, we walked around the MAC and met some great characters.  Some of us went to see the dinosaur show again, it was that captivating. 

Truck Band

Emily and Kenzie met a butterfly

March 15th - Dinner in the Desert - We invited Tiffany and went out to the desert just north of Fountain Hills.  We had dinner and the kids went on a small hike, played on the playground  We played card games until the sun started to set.  The sunsets on the desert are gorgeous!!!  We had a fun night when our guests.  We should do it again.

Memorable MondayGirls Club

Danni and some of the neighborhood kids were in a club.  The moms planned activities for the girls to do.  They had a blast and became really good friends. 

Megan Smith, Maybree Spilsbury, Dani Pace,
Cambryn Spilsbury, Taylor Boren, Jocelyn Malmberg,
 Alyssa Santos, Alex, Santos, and Riley Boren

Halloween pic

Danni turns 15

Danni had a birthday party at the Clawsons.  Here are some pics of her party that someone took for me.  It looks like she had a lot of fun.

Danni is an amazing girl with such a positive spin on life. Here are 15 pics to show off that positive outlook she has.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DANNI!!!!

Tiffany's Baptism

Josh's friend, Tiffany was baptized.  It was a great baptism and I really felt the Spirit.  Her father, who is a non-member, gave the baptism talk.  It was great to hear his perspective and support as his daughter made the decision to get baptized.

March Concerts

Feb. 28th - Taylor Choir Concert - Angela has a concert on the eve of her 13th birthday.  She would much rather be hanging out celebrating her birthday, but she loves to sing so the concert will be fun.  She is always so nervous when she performs for others.  She hopes that the audience will like the songs that they are singing. She is so sweet and I tell her that the audience will enjoy the concert.

Angela before the concert

Angela singing in the concert

March 5th - Choir Concert - The choir sang the songs that the took or will take to their festivals.  Chorale still is going to their festival next month.  It was a great concert, as they always are.  I took some pics of Danni and her friends after the concert.  Afterwards, the Mesa High Choir headed off to Nielsens.  It's a tradition that they've started since Taylor Junior High.  Danni has some amazing friends at Mesa High.

After the concert

At Nielsens

March 7th - Band Concert - This is their 3rd quarter concert where the jazz band and the combined band play the pieces that the band takes to competition.  Since Josh is in both jazz bands and in Symphonic Band, he was on stage quite a bit tonight.

Josh before the concert

Josh and Keenan - Tiff's brother

The Jazz Band

Memorable MondayPinewood Derby

Our ward had a rocket derby on Saturday morning after the 5K run.   They added a model rocket booster to the pinewood derby car and raced them in the parking lot of the church.

Josh participated in 3 pinewood derbies as a cub scout.  It was so fun to watch Josh and Jim build the pinewood derby cars over the years.  The weigh off day was always fun because something always bad happened to the car and needed to fixed ASAP.  Josh won 2nd place a couple of times and won the best sportsmanship award as a webelo.  Pinewood Derbies were one of the highlights of the cub scout program for me.

Wolf Year

Bear Year

Webelos Year

Angela and Emily came to every race

 The Activity Day girls had a couple of pinewood derbies.  Danni's won first place the first year that she participated.  I guess Jim learned a lot of the years when  he helped Josh.  The girls really enjoyed making and racing their cars.  They only did this event for two years - I'm sure glad that they did.

Danni's first year
She won first place

Danni's second year