Cookie Decorating with Grandma

A few days before Easter, we went to the Estioko's house to decorate "Merry Cutouts" with Grandma Wright. I think it is fair to say that everyone loves grandma. Most people would not like being so squished, but you know that Grandma loves it!

Here is Claire and Sydney carefully decorating their cookies.

And VIOLA! The final product. Claire was the only child I have left who would come with me to decorate cookies. My other kids are too old and too mature for such foolishness. But as you will see, they are not nearly too mature to receive an Easter basket from the Easter bunny.

Easter 2010

The night before Easter Claire and I did the traditional egg dying. I couldn't interest any of the boys to join us. It is a good thing I still have Claire or my holidays would be very boring. We decided to only hard boil 6 eggs, and then we dyed 6 raw eggs. Who says they HAVE to be hard boiled?

Now Easter this year coincided with General Conference. We have our family tradition of cinnamon rolls for Sunday morning conference and Easter or not, we weren't going to break with that tradition. So when Claire and I finished the egg dying, we began the cinnamon roll making.

Stone and Aiden are not much into the Easter traditions anymore. They are too old for that. But they are not too old to get a basket from the Easter bunny. And they want it hidden as well. We are down to only three kids at home for Easter morning now.

Lindsey had to work at the bakery on Easter Sunday. So we brought her Easter basket to her. Her basket is the white one on the counter. She stood on the corner with her bunny ears and a sign advertising the bakery. She said it was absolutely freezing. I mailed an Easter basket to Richard at BYU-I.

This was our Easter table. I decided to try my hand at lamb this year. So we had ham and lamb, along with alot of other good stuff. Of course Grandma and Grandpa Hoopes joined in the fun.

Two and a Half Years in the Making

This is the first time in two and a half years that all five of my children have been home for dinner! I had forgotten what a big crowd we can be. Who knows when this will happen again. Hopefully it won't as long next time.

"Sisters. Sisters. There were never such devoted sisters." Lindsey decided to go around the table and take MYSPACE photos of everyone. So here she is with her favorite sister, Claire.

And with her "twin" as people at school used to say. I don't see it.

Like father like daughter. Lindsey is like her father in many ways. Don't you think Richard's eyes could be as pretty as Lindsey's if we could put make up on him?!

Interestingly enough, Lindsey is also very much like her mother, and not just in appearance. She has many of the same personality traits. I like to think she got the best of both worlds.

And here is a classic MYSPACE photo with Lindsey's favorite brother.

Okay, so maybe this is Lindsey's favorite brother. It is kind of hard to tell sometimes. She seems to love all her brothers.

And on a final note, here is the whole gang. Hmmm. Who do you think is the character of our family? That's okay, we love her anyway!

The Current Hoopes Family

Compare this photo with the family picture below. Who has changed, and who has stayed the same?