Sunday, June 24, 2012

This Easter with the Chandler Fam!

Karl's family came to visit us over Conference and Easter weekend. It was so fun. They came one weekend and then their parents left Luke and I to take care of all 8 kids (including my 2) for a week while they went house shopping in Houston where he will be going to Oral Surgery school for 3 years. It will be fun to visit them there some time.
I made so many oreo, chocolate, and candy suckers for the YW fundraise that I just decided to make a few extra for Easter too. They were super fun and sold really well. I will have to share that story on another post. Love Megan!


Luke is leading FHE in this pic. These kids are the best kids in the world. I want my kids to grow up to be like them. They helped make meals, clean up meals and the house and obeyed all the rules. We had tons of fun. The only incident was one with the closet door falling off and getting a hole in it when someone slammed it but it was an easy fix with some plaster and paint. We didn't get charged when we moved out so I guess we fixed it good enough.
We got to go out on our friends' ranch and tour their farm, ride horses, and have dinner. It was pretty fun.




We went to Abbeville, the town where the South finally seceded to the North to end the Civil war. It was a fun outing. It is also the home to the true person named Radio - you know the movie. He is still alive and signs autographs at his home. He still works at the school too. Didn't meet him though.

We got ice cream and the guy asked me if I was running a day care service!!!
The kids had tons of fun decorating their own baby food jar to hold their treasures. The Easter bunny filled them with candy on Easter. It was really fun to see how each one turned out and very simple with hot glue and mod podge.

Like my mom did, I make my girls dresses for Easter so we decided to make all the girls ruffle skirts. Lydea is a great sewer and she totally cut my sewing time in half.

And of course we had to make the boys ties. I would definitely make them out of thinner silkier fabric than cotton next time because it made for a really thick knot on the big boys ties. :( They picked out music note fabric which I loved though.
We had a great Easter egg hunt on the school grounds across the street. Gracie loved it.

Kate loved her little basket.
There's Haylee getting a hard to reach one. Love her face. I think they each got to find 5 plastic filled eggs with candy and money and 5 real eggs.

Here we all are looking for the final GOLDEN EGG. This was Megan's fun addition and I loved it. Even when she said adults could look and she even told us it was hidden in the fence covered by all of these bushes/vines, we still couldn't find it. No worries though, I found it just when we were going to give up! Megan couldn't even find it and she hid it. So fun. And I got 5 BUCKS to keep!

We did homemade dye which made for some pretty cool colors.
Cute cute Zac, Gracie's best bud.
No I think these girls are best buds. I love how they are each other's best friends even in their differences.
Megan is the awesome mother, who told us she was pregnant by surprise with her 7th kid. You go girl, you are amazing.
Had to cover some pretzel rods. These were a favorite!

Okay so we wore our new skirts to church and my some of my YW saw them and their mom wanted to make some. So we spent one of the days before we moved helping them sew some skirts too. So we all wore them to church the next Sunday at their request. I ended up making about 5 more skirts in a hurry before we moved because I felt bad that some of the girls would be left out of having a skirt because they weren't there. It was a fun thing to do for them. And they are pretty quick. So comfy. I would not wear mine with my ruffle shirt that I made again. Way too many ruffles!! Ha ha. No mocking the pick. Katie looked cute with a string of pearls and her black waist band up higher with her shirt tucked in like a little lady.


I had to throw these two pictures of Gracie and Katie modeling their Christmas dresses in here too. I never got a decent picture of them dressed up together this winter so I made them model them before I put them away in boxes for good. I made Gracie's sweater dress from one of my old white sweaters I didn't wear anymore. The neck was stretched out so I threaded a ribbon through it to tighten it up. I think it one of my favorite creations. And it was so easy to just cut it and sew it smaller. I hoping that Gracie can wear it again this winter if she is not too tall. She is a tall fun girl. Don't you love her faces? Katie on the other hand won't model and smile for nothing. I have taken so many pictures of her and they are all crying. I love her cute sassy one in her blue Easter skirt.
Good memories and good times! So glad I could watch your kids for you Karl and Megan. We would do it again any time. You might have to wait till we have a bigger place though :). Or we will come there. Thanks for a Happy Easter this year in Greenwood. 



3 comments:

The Mickelsens said...

Cute girls. I can't believe how big they are getting!

Brandon,J'lene, Kamiah,Braelyn, Chelsea, Aussie said...

what is the material on those skirts? pattern??? Way fun I want to make some!!! Stay positive, and now there are many prayers in your behalf. I love you Hollie!

Scarlett said...

Your girls are so big! And adorable! Congrats on your surprise pregnancy! So excited for your fam!