Benjamin's First Haircut

My little boy finally got his first haircut. I have been avoiding it, but his curls finally got too unruly to lay down nicely - even when we wet them. So, we called up Grandpa Bevans and asked him if he could give Benjamin a haircut (he has been telling us that Benjamin needed a haircut for a while, and he is the official barber to all the men in the family).

Benjamin eyed the clippers warily as he shoved his ham in his mouth so it wouldn't get hair on it.
He would not sit on the chair by himself, he insisted on sitting on my lap (yes, I did get covered in hair), but once he was on my lap he sat perfectly still the whole time.


In fact, Grandpa said he won the prize for sitting the best of any kid he has ever given a haircut!
Isn't he a handsome little man? He was so proud of his haircut. When we got home he went to each of his sisters and his dad to personally show them his haircut. Yeah Benjamin!

I've Been Married 13 years!

Well, here we are on our anniversary. I got my mom to snap a picture of us as we dropped off the kids at her house. We went to dinner (BJ's) and a movie (National Treasure - Book of Secrets). It has been 13 glorious years. We had a good time that night, but I think the kids had even more fun than we did at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

Anyway, I have been tagged numerous times on numerous blogs, and I never respond...for various no good reasons...so for all of you who want to learn little known facts about me, read on and take a trip down memory lane with me.

This is my wedding day at the Salt Lake City Temple. We had a family picture by the doors, because my great great grandfather carved them. So, we take pictures by the doors whenever we can. I was the third generation in my family married at the SLC temple - my parents and my mom's parents were married there too. If you notice, there are a few of my siblings missing. I was stubborn and bull headed, and thus refused to wait three months for my brother Chris to get home from his mission so he could be at our wedding (hopefully he has forgiven me by now). Jenalee had already died, and since there were going to be kids missing anyway Mom decided to leave Mark home to practice with his baseball team so he could be assured of a starting position and not be punished by being placed on the bench for missing practice.
This is most of the people who were at the temple with us. It was kind of funny, when the temple worker took us to the sealing room, we looked around and didn't know anybody. I told her that we didn't know these people, and she asked us if we were sure? Turned out we were in the wrong room. It was a relief to get to the right room and see all the familiar faces.

Little known fact here. Alan and I went to the SLC temple to go through a session a week before we were married, and when we finished the session a temple worker came up to us and asked us if we could help them with some sealings a family was doing. We said sure, so we actually went through a sealing together before we were married even though it was in proxy. The temple workers were a little embarrassed when they found out we weren't married yet, because they had assumed we were. My dad took this picture of our hands on the temple door knobs. My great great grandfather carved the door knobs too. Take a good look at our rings, because you will never see us wear them. Unfortunately neither one of us can fit our ring on our finger. Alan jammed his finger playing football on Thanksgiving a few years back and his ring hasn't fit since. I haven't been able to wear mine since I gave birth to Leilani. Now I admit, we could make them bigger, but Alan's is engraved on the inside with a loving sentiment that would be lost if stretched. Mine could be made bigger, but...hope, vanity, wishful thinking, imagination, whatever you want to call it I still think it might fit someday.
I was so happy to have my friends at the temple with me. And I am proud to say that I am still friends with all of them, although I do not get to see any of them very often :(
You probably noticed that there is plastic under my dress in most of the pictures. It was spring when I got married (notice the blossoms on the trees and the flowers), but there was a snowstorm the morning I got married. In fact, the storm made me late to the temple, and my dear husband to be was waiting impatiently at the doors for us. It melted fairly quickly once the sun came out, but then we were dodging falling ice off the temple as we took pictures and of course the ground was wet.
I put in this picture to prove a point I have been trying to prove for 13 years. I keep claiming a video exists somewhere of my wedding, but no one seems to believe me. I distinctly remember my brother, Todd, and my Uncle Rod taking video during the day as my dad took photographs. Dad...if you click on this picture and make it bigger, you will see a video camera in Todd's hand! Is there any hope of ever finding that video footage?
My wedding reception in Eugene was a month after I got married, for various scheduling conflicts (I was teaching school when I got married. I bet that is a little known fact. How many of you knew I taught junior high for five glorious years?! They were nice enough to change my name over my door from Miss Bevans to Mrs. Walker in the middle of the year. Another funny tidbit. I had some students that suddenly became related to me after I was married. After I got married I found out that they were the kids of one of Alan's cousins. What a small world!) We had dancing on a small scale after the open house. Jerry and Bry stole the show!
After putting my family through three wedding receptions (or open houses, whatever you want to call them), I still dragged them to the coast for more wedding pictures. I love the ocean and had always wanted wedding pictures on the beach. So, my family indulged me and my dad took pictures of us. I think they turned out really good. You can see more of them in the slideshow below.

Well, I imagine that is more than anyone ever wanted to know about my wedding, but I bet none of you knew any of that information. If you want to see more pictures of my husband and I together through the years, please watch the short slideshow tribute I put together. One thing I discovered is that we haven't taken very many pictures together since we had kids. I guess we need to think about that more often. My husband asked me why I did not use "our song" for my slideshow. The sad truth is that although the words fit better, the tempo was just all wrong. So sad :( As I was picking out pictures to use in the slideshow, I was bemoaning how much weight I have gained since we got married. Alan looked at me puzzled and said, "you haven't gained that much weight since we were married, have you?" Thank goodness love is blind. Gotta love that man!

Easter Day

I took pictures of the kids with their Easter baskets, but those pictures are on film and won't be developed for months. So, our digital story starts with our family pictures after church.

Considering the fact that the kids wanted to change clothes and dive into their candy instead of take pictures, I think they turned out pretty good.
Of course we took a lot of bad pictures to get the good ones...
and each picture has a story behind it. This one for instance. Before we were able to get this picture, my dad told the girls to pull their dresses down to cover their knees. Benjamin didn't want to be left out, so he tried to pull his pant legs down and fell face first off the bench.

We took tons of pictures, but I should have had my dad take one of just Alan and I together, since the next day was our anniversary. I just wasn't thinking about that at the time.


After my sister got out of church (4 pm) we all got together for egg hunting, egg rolling and dinner.
We make the kids start on the stairs, and then they come down one at a time youngest to oldest.
There are a lot of eggs down low for the little kids.
But sometimes they see one up high and need help to reach it (and help not to throw or drop it).
The Easter bunny can get pretty tricky, but usually we find all the eggs (okay, actually it is pretty much a tradition to lose one egg for months and months. But this year we actually found them all!)


Emilyanne knew just where to find the eggs the little kids missed.
Leilani was too short to reach the egg, and all available grown ups were helping the younger kids. But, she finally got her egg!

After the egg hunt we do an egg roll. We get in a circle and on the count of three everyone is supposed to roll their egg into the middle. The egg that goes the longest without being smashed is the winner! (The losers get to be served as deviled eggs at dinner)

Here is a short clip of how the egg rolling goes. It takes a while for the youngest kids to figure out what is going on, but then they love it!
Benjamin wanted to play soccer with his eggs. Then he decided to step on them and see how well they smashed. Luckily I was able to snap the picture and then stop him in time to prevent a big mess on Grandma's living room carpet!

Benjamin loved his stuffed Tigger that the Easter bunny left him at Grandma's house.
We have a lot of fun when we all get together, but sometimes we forget to watch the kids while they are playing. Haylie took advantage and used an entire bottle of Grandma's lipstick to celebrate her Easter in style!

Coloring the Eggs

We got together with our Bevans cousins on Saturday afternoon to dye Easter eggs at Grandma and Grandpa Bevans' house.
The kids colored on the eggs with crayons and then dyed them various colors.
Benjamin stuck with green all night, until someone finally stole it from him.
Then he was forced to use purple/pink.

There were enough cups of dye for each kid to have their own, but half of them were green because the green pellet had leaked onto all the other colors. The kids didn't seem to mind, though.

This is me checking to see if Benjamin's mouth was purple after he decided to taste a spoonful of dye. (Thank goodness is wasn't! I must have screamed right as he was getting it up to his mouth and avoided the damage)
I saved an egg to dye after the kids were all done. I gave my dad one too. What can I say? We are just kids at heart.
When the eggs were all dyed, the kids put on a play. These are the flowers dancing and waving.
These are the three Easter bunnies taking a bow.
This is one of the two "kids". Sophie was the other one, but I guess no one got a picture of them together. They had a good time, and we all enjoyed the day.

Easter Primary Activity

Our ward had an Easter themed primary activity yesterday.
The kids dyed Easter eggs.
(It's a good thing her mom didn't see her doing this in her coat instead of the old t-shirt I sent with her to wear.)
They also made Easter bags for the younger kids to use on an Easter egg hunt at the end. Thank you to my good friend LeaAnne for the pictures I have of my kids at this primary activity, because I only went to the Easter egg hunt at the end. When I got there, Emilyanne came running to me and said, "Sister Larsen took my picture when I was making my bag, so you could put it on your blog!" Hurray for good friends who know how important it is to blog our lives!!!
Leilani was paired up with Benjamin for the Easter egg hunt.
They had a really good time! In fact, Benjamin wanted to do an egg hunt again at church today, not sit through Sacrament meeting.
Emilyanne was paired up with her cousin Charlotte for the egg hunt. They had a good time, and made sure they equally divided everything at the end.
Emiy, of course, got to keep her cute bunny bag and Charlotte just took her half the candy.
I never actually saw Elisabeth with a partner. I heard she was with one of the 12 year old girls who recently graduated primary and still came to the activity, but I never saw them together.
She and her cousin Isabella compared treats at the end. (yes, we are actually all in the same ward)
The kids came away with lots of candy, but they were talking about the video, songs and stories they heard about Christ too. I would say that was a successful activity!