Easter in an Egg Shell!

Easter weekend may be past but the memories are still present and Lydia wanted me to "put pictures of it on the computer." This way we'll never forget it! We decided to drive to Logan and spend Easter weekend with my parents. Emily's fiance, Burke, was brave and drove with us sharing the back seat with the kiddos. They were actually little angels on the way up but on the way back they "had their moments!" Poor Burke, at first I felt bad and then I decided that sitting next to them screaming might actually provide some great birth control or I guess in their case, abstinence until marriage!

We drove up Friday night and had to head back home Sunday afternoon. Although it was a quick trip it never had a dull moment and left us with many endearing memories! One of our favorites was coloring Easter Eggs

 

Here's Emmett with his Easter bucket ready for the egg hunt. Shocking as it seems he actually never left his spot and just enjoyed watching Lydia hunt for eggs with the rest of us!

 

Lydia didn't seem to mind, afterall what kid wouldn't love a great Easter egg hunt with lots of eggs in a great big back yard all to themselves!

 

Now I shouldn't call it an Easter Egg Hunt because growing up we never had the Easter Bunny come deliver the eggs for the hunt it was always the "Spring Bunny!" My parents did a great job of separating the Spring Bunny from the true meaning of Easter. We'd always have the Spring Bunny hunt the Saturday before and then on Easter Sunday we could keep the focus on our Savior Jesus Christ and his glorious Resurrection! I love that tradition and enjoy carrying it into our family. So here are some fun pictures of Lydia hunting for eggs left by the Spring Bunny!

 

Another tradition that we had for as long as I can remember is my Mother's annual egging of the trees! Every year I remember my mom would send us kids out with a ladder and we would help her tie plastic easter eggs to the tree in the front yard. Although we now give her a hard time about it, I am sincerely glad that she still does it. It wouldn't be the same to be at her house during the holidays and not see it. In fact when she came to our house to visit (just the week before) she actually tied eggs in our front tree and although Dan and I were reluctant to let her, seeing Lydia's excitement helped me understand why my mother does it! Lydia's eyes widened with excitement when she looked out the window and saw them. Boy did she think that was AWESOME!

 

In addition to holiday festivities, the kids had a great time playing games at Grandma and Grandpas.

 

Here they are playing "Whack-a-mole" with their Uncle Gabe. Which reminds me of a funny thing Lydia said the week we returned from Logan. One night we made some Guacamole and I asked Lydia if she'd like to try it to which she replied,"Hey just like my Grandma in Logan has "WhackamoleA!" Uncle Gabe is really great to play with the kids and Lydia just adores him. This trip however we need to scold him for taking Lydia in the backyard and introducing her to a game called "Throw the baby doll as high as you can in the air!" She was giggling and really going to town with him. However, when she came home and tried it in her bedroom she threw the dolly right into the ceiling fan and we had to have a little talk about how we treat our baby dolls! We assured Lydia that Uncle Gabe must not know how we should treat our dolls and that we would teach him too. The next morning when she said her prayers before breakfast. She prayed for Uncle Gabe to learn to be nice to baby dolls!

 

If the day wasn't fun enough already, Lydia also played at the park with her daddy and grandpa and we took her ice skating for the first time. She loved it and I did too for the first fifteen minutes but the remainder of the hour my arms were burning from holding her up on the ice. I wish I'd convinced Dan to skate with us seeing as how his daughter has now ice skated before he ever has. Next time I'll recruit him as reinforcements so we can share the pain, oops, I mean joy of skating our little one around the rink. It was actually a sincere joy to see how happy she was ice skating. She just couldn't seem to remember to put her weight on her own legs rather than flopping all of her weight into my arms. My muscles grew that day, but then again so would anyones after dragging around thirty beautiful pounds for an entire hour! Thank you Aunt Tasha for giving me little breaks!

 

After ice skating we enjoyed a nice Indian food dinner and for our entertainment afterward we watched Emmett ride his first horse!Ride Em Cowboy!

 

Isn't he a doll! This is one of my new favorite pictures!

Easter morning we enjoyed dressing our best and although Lydia was distressed to realize she had not brought any of her jewelry, she was rescued by Grandma's dress-up closet where she found such lovely pearls, a bracelet and a bling, bling ring to wear with her new dress!

 

Grandma even ended up giving her a really pretty necklace with a pink heart on it. It is now one of her most treasured possessions!

 

While everyone was getting ready for church Lydia and I had some nice quiet time for just the two of us to sit and go through a special Easter basket my mother had out on the table. It is filled with different items that coordinate with the scriptural account of the events leading up to the Atonement and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. It was really wonderful to read the scriptures to her and then ask her to find the nail, or the rock, or thorns from the basket. The visuals helped her understand a little bit but The Spirit that was present helped her understand a lot. Now when ever Lydia talks about Easter she always tells me, "Mom, Easter is not about eggs and candy, it's about Jesus and the Resurrection!" She's got it!