Nutt House: Our Holy Week 2018

What a blessed yet busy Holy Week the Nutt House has enjoyed this year. The Nutt House utilized a book we received last year titled, “The Holy Week For Latter-Day Saint Families”. I believe we got the book after Easter last year so we didn’t use it then, but this year, I spent time going through the book a few weeks ago, planning what stories, what videos and what activities we’d utilize this year to aid us in focusing our Easter season on Christ. This book helped our week so much… it could not have gone better! We loved each of the activities and lessons we learned as we directed our energy on the Holy Week. Each day we had a scripture to read, a story explaining the significance of the day, a correlating video and an activity to round off each day. Some of the activities included sharing gratitude letters with each other, an object lesson on the parable of the wise steward, giving secret kisses to others, thanking the missionaries for their service and more. I knew the kids were enjoying the activities and hoped but didn’t realize the themes and lessons for each day were sinking in until we were sitting at the Easter pageant Thursday evening and Kaden pointed out the scene focusing on Palm Sunday and then Kara pointed out the betrayal scene. I wasn’t feeling the spirit as strongly as I have in years past and was yearning for the spiritual moment. When our munchkins commented on those moments I received so much more of a spiritual moment than I could have ever hoped for. It was one of those moments when I knew the things we were trying to do was paying off and that something positive was sinking in for the kids. A pageant year I was worried about turned out to be my most favorite year at the Easter pageant yet. This book is now a family treasure and one that will be brought out each year and incorporated into our lives during Holy Week to remind us all and to help us all focus on what this week is all about.

Our Wise Steward activity - sucking up candies
with a straw in a certain amount of time. Realizing
how we each were able to get more up and then
talking and sharing more with each other... turning
the activity then into a parable of the talents moment

This has been quite a week for Kaden who savored moments such as buddy week at Jiu Jitsu where he could bring friends to share class with. Of course, Kaden immediately thought of and brought his good friend Noah with him. Kaden is such a good friend and helper, at Jiu Jitsu he is one that is called to assist with the training of most newer students as he is patient and willing to help them along with their skills and sparring when partnered up. The chance to share these skills and this sport he enjoys so much with a friend was exceptional for him.

Kaden, Professor and Noah

Post Jiu Jitsu Fro-Yo

While Kaden was off at Jiu Jitsu, Kara was doing homework
This time, her homework asked her to build a bridge that can
support the weight of a cup of pennies. This is Kara's bridge

In addition to the fun he had at Jiu Jitsu this week brought Kaden his kindergarten field trip. Like with Kara, Brent took the day off and accompanied Kaden as a chaperone to the Children’s Museum. Kaden was so giddy and woke up early just to make sure he was prepared for the field trip on time. The report back to mom was that the trip was “good” and they got to play and do everything other than the painting room. Other reports back that I received indicated that it was great and the group Kaden was with had fun together. Brent did awesome as a chaperone (as we knew he would, which is why I prefer him going… field tripping fits his personality better than it does mine, especially to places where you get to play and be a kid). If Kaden had any complaints he shared that he was bummed he didn’t get to race as many cars as he would have liked. Other than that, a totally successful and memorable day!

Kaden and his rocking kindergarten class!

Serious play time

Four little monkeys swinging on a tree...

Lunch time!

He was excited to do up his face like the Joker

His eyes in this picture just pain me.... apparently he had to step
away and someone took the color we wanted to finish
Fortunately, the sad moment passed as quickly as it was captured

Tower building time

Thank goodness for tall dads that can make
rockin' towers!

I started to share details of our trip to the Mesa Temple Easter Pageant earlier, but here is more of the full scoop. There was an urgency that came with getting to the pageant this year that we haven’t experienced in years past. First, scheduling a time to go turned out to be more challenging with school and kiddos that aren’t quite ready to stay up late and the decreased number of days the pageant was running because of General Conference occurring during Easter weekend. As well, the Mesa temple is going to be closed for a couple years while it undergoes a renovation and with that, that visitor’s center will be closed and the pageant will not be held. Fortunately, the Nutt House was able to secure a day and get to the pageant. We arrived what we thought was plenty early and did get good seats, though we thought arriving three hours early we’d have been able to get better seats that we did. We stopped and picked up our traditional Little Caesars pizza on our way to the pageant and then spent a good couple of hours relaxing on the grounds of the temple while we waited for the pageant to start. The kiddos and I walked around admiring the beauty in the flowers and landscaping that the temple had to offer. Brent took the kids into the visitor’s center to walk around and enjoy some of the exhibits while we waited as well. And, thanks to some friends that we saw, the kiddos found some friends to spend time with. All of these activities helped to speed up the waiting game so it didn’t seem like we were waiting as long as we actually were for the pageant to start. As the start time got closer, the cast came out and the kids were able to meet and interact with some of their favorite performers, which is always a favorite activity. Kara seeks out the dancers cast in the roles of the ten virgins and this year she counted that she was able to meet with eight of them – that is a new record for her! While Kara seeks out the dancers, Kaden hunts down each of the different soldiers and relishes in the chance to hold the various weapons and be the powerful warriors for a few brief minutes. At the start of the pageant, we had good seats, they were on the side and the view slightly obstructed by a pole, but still, the seats were fairly close and good seats. However, as the pageant was underway we noticed a set of missionaries with what I’d guess was an investigator with them, unable to find seats. We chose to embrace the spirit of the evening, doubled up on our seats (Kara on my lap and Kaden on Brent’s) and moved down to make room for the three. Moving down wasn’t meant without challenges as the children behind us complained for most of the night that they couldn’t see as well and the kiddos on our laps were squirmy the entire time. Like I mentioned before though, the kids did pay attention, did recognize, and were able to call out by name different scenes presented as part of the pageant. That coupled with the gratitude expressed by those we shared our seats with at the end made the entire night completely worthwhile and a fantastic addition to our Holy Week activities.

Beautiful temple grounds with two beautiful little souls

This sweet princess wanted her picture taken
on this bench

I can hardly wait until the day I can go inside this amazing
building with these two

And this lil' man wanted his picture taken
from inside these palms

Pageant time!

Ready for it to start!

Soldier and my own lil' mighty man!

The kids love getting to pet the animals each year

More soldiers!

Tiny buy mighty!

This tiny dancer wants to become this big
girl dancer someday (*getting to dance
in the Easter pageant)

Kaden noticed this blue outfit this year and was
eager to find and take a picture with this guy
Mission accomplished!

Tiny dancer with more dancers

The only guy I wanted to seek out all night

More dancers

Another guy in blue

Friday evening brought the Nutt House with more Easter fun. This time, it was the return of an old family favorite, the dino-egg hunt at the Natural History Museum. After a few hiccups a couple years ago, the museum did not hold the event last year so when we saw that it was returning this year we were eager to attend once again. This year, the event was so well organized that the evening ran smoothly and it did not take long for the kids to complete the myriad of activities the museum had for them. They gather eggs, played games, complete craft activities the museum offered and even locate and complete the tasks needed for their bonus golden egg activities (this consisted of finding a golden egg then tracking down an answer to a riddle somewhere in the museum for a bonus prize).

We hardly ever see this side of the museum as it's the opposite
side of the parking lot and not our traditional entrance

My favorite dinosaur lover

Game time!

Score!

Coloring ever so carefully

Cutting time

She's can be so delicate

This describes their personalities all too well

I swear it was just yesterday his head could barely
be seen at the bottom of the screen!

And why is her head taller than the screen now?

Writing down the answer to his golden egg question

A family favorite picture spot

and of course we must get a picture on top of the
bear statue

Once we were finished at the museum, it was time for dinner and since we were already in Mesa, we chose to treat ourselves to Organ Stop Pizza for dinner. It’s been a good minute since we’ve been and the atmosphere was as good as always. We secured seats on the upper level looking down at the organ and other instruments that created the groovy sounds we heard as the organist played. While we ate our pizza, we sang along to the songs we recognized and the kiddos scrutinized every move the organist made as they watched his feet dance their way over the feet pedals and his hands play with the various keys and buttons on the organ operating the multitude of instruments and items that accompanied his playing. Once our bellies were full, the organist went on break we looked at the time and we realized how far past bedtime we were we dashed on out and headed home.

Enamored with the organist

Some goofy, playful dancing to the music

This kid

Saturday morning we were awoken to the sounds of excited kiddos who were anxious to see if the Easter Bunny had been by where the Easter Bunny visits the Nutt House on Saturdays. Once everyone was awake the kiddos scampered away to check out the baskets and the goodies the Easter Bunny had left them. After checking out their goodies (everything from multicolored pens, water balloons, chalk balls, some Lego tape for Kaden and a new glasses case for Kara, along with a little candy for both kiddos) the kids were anxious head into the other room and locate the eggs the Easter Bunny had left for them. Once all the eggs were secured in the house, the kiddos swiftly changed clothes so they could go outside and collect the eggs left there for them. After all the eggs were amassed and the candy dumped into a collective bowl, it was time to switch gears and prepare for General Conference.

Easter basket!

Rushing to get the eggs!

Found one!

And another

She was the master egg finder!

Time to grab the outside ones!

Found another!!!

The past two days have brought a memorable, inspiring, and uplifting General Conference. This session of conference brought many eventful moments – the solemn assemble for President Nelson. Getting to watch Brent stand and sustain our new prophet, taking my turn, then our entire family standing and together sustaining our new prophet was such a powerful moment. One that filled me with immense pride and brought me to tears. There were changes to the apostles (due to the passing of Elder Hales and President Monson); there was the disbandment of the High Priests, and the changes from Home and Visiting Teaching to Ministering. It was a conference full of changes yes, but also full of the Spirit and testimony strengthening moments. I walked away from conference recommitted to being a better example to my family with the things we need to be doing, a vow to do better at temple attendance, and a goal to better love and minister to the sisters in the ward I’m asked to watch over.

While General Conference was spiritually uplifting it could not have been so if the kids weren’t so great about conference. We have our family traditions that help – things like fun things for breakfast and conference packets and of course, the favorite of our kiddos the words for treats. For this we have a variety of treats in bowls… everything from berries to gummy bears, pretzels to cucumbers, trail mix to M&M’s, Easter Candy (this year from the eggs the kids had just found) and a treat they’d both picked out at the candy store – gummy frogs for Kaden and Mamba’s for Kara. Once the treats are in the bowls we associate a word likely to be heard at conference with each bowl, words like prophet, family, scriptures, temple, prayer, revelation, love, discipleship, atonement and more. Each time one of the words is heard the kiddos can take one treat. Therefore, if the word “love” is associated with M&M’s each time the word is heard, the person hearing it can collect 1 M&M at the next song break. It is a great tradition for our family that works and allows the entire family to focus on General Conference, which I love.

Conference treats!

Gotta' get them all!

This year, in between conference sessions we made sure to get out and get the wiggles gone from our bodies. Saturday this meant that we took the kids to the skate park where they rode their scooters around and attempted to complete tricks. They had so much fun and the break did the trick allowing the kids to sit for the next conference session. Today in between sessions, we went out back and the kids opened up their new chalk balls and had a chalk ball fight. What a fun activity it was! The balls are light enough that they don’t hurt and the kids had a great time throwing and covering each other in colored chalk. Brent and I may have gotten in on the action just a little bit.

They had so much fun!

Even more delightful once the whole family was involved

They got covered and had such a blast!

The Nutt House listened to the last couple of speakers of the last session of General Conference in the car as we drove out to Brent’s grandpa’s house to share our Easter evening and Easter dinner with him. What a pleasant time was had! We visited, played games, Kaden observed birds, squirrels and rabbits out the back door then he and I went for a walk to try to find the bunny holes. After our pre-dinner activities were completed, we shared a delicious Easter dinner of ham, funeral potatoes, asparagus, fresh fruit, rolls and a special carrot cake for dessert. The carrot cake was special because Kara made it all by herself, just getting some assistance grating carrots and greasing pans. She did such a good job and her cake turned out delicious!

This cake was made with so much love

She delicately handled every step

And was sweet enough to let her brother help
finish the decorating

Finished cake

Oh! Before I forget, that isn’t quite all for our week. Last evening (Saturday night), the Nutt House got our howl on as we cheered on the Arizona Coyotes National Hockey Team as they played against the St. Louis Blues. Brent’s great friend Lou gave us tickets for Christmas and they could not have been any better! The seats were AMAZING and we all had a fantastic time! Kaden is a sports guy, especially a live sports guy. He feeds off the energy of the crowd around him and was howling with everyone else, cheering on the team and high fiving the people around him when the Coyotes scored. Kara even got a little goofy and did some crazy dancing that earned her a couple brief moments on the big screen during crowd moments. The game was an intense game, the crowd was really into it and the Coyotes won. All of which aided in making it a striking moment for our family. This is maybe the third hockey game we’ve been to and we’ve loved every one of them. As we go more we are each increasing our knowledge of hockey, which is good, additionally having a fantastic time as a family and with friends and we hope to continue on attending at least one game a year!