Easter Celebrations

The kids are always so excited to dye their eggs.

We even got Uncle Troy to dye a few as well.

 We had wanted the Easter Bunny to come on Saturday instead,

but Paul and I got to chaperone a dance on Friday night.

The Easter Bunny got tired of waiting for us to get home at midnight.

So we had a little egg-hunt bright and early before church on Sunday...

 Matt is still mostly asleep here.

 Nora decided that peanut-butter filled chocolate bunnies are good for breakfast

 Halle was a star egg-locater

 Afton happily pointed out the low eggs to Nora,

who ignored them to concentrate on eating her chocolate bunny.

The kids have come to expect that they're getting an Easter picture, 

so they dutifully march outside and let me take a few.

We have had many Sundays of dinner guests, meetings, firesides and other activities, 

so we decided to have a quiet Easter dinner with just us and Uncle Troy.

We are so grateful for the blessings we have of faith, family and friends.

What a wonderful day to celebrate the reason behind those blessings--

our Savior and His eternal gift and example for us.

Easter

The kids were so fun this year at Easter.

They were so helpful and cooperative--mostly because I kept telling them that we couldn't color eggs until all the chores were done.

They were really excited to color their eggs!

(don't you love Nora's face when we say "smile")

Paul had meetings Easter morning, so I was in charge of the Baskets and Egg Hunt.

The kids let me sleep in (until 7:30 anyway)

There was a bit of competition in the egg hunt.  Nora, however, soon found out there was candy in the eggs and happily waited for her siblings to bring them to her!

I just love Easter Sunday pictures.

The kids had all gotten in the car and Afton reminded me we needed a picture!

Everyone unloaded and took a great picture!  Hooray!

And Matt even happily matched his sisters this year--I think the navy blue color scheme met his approval.  I don't think I will be able to get away with this much longer, but I'm enjoying it while I can!

We enjoyed a nice Sunday dinner and egg hunt with friends,

then sent our sugar-laden children off to bed.

It was a lovely day and I am so grateful for our friends and family 

and most of all for the reason behind our celebrations--our Savior, from whom we receive the greatest blessings.

Easter

The Easter Bunny assumed that we would
be in a hotel room this year.

This kids, however, wanted to come home early and
be in their own house for Easter.

It was low-key and I thought it was perfect.

We had a yummy breakfast, had small bags from the Easter Bunny, 

hunted a few plastic eggs and listened to conference.

No stress for me means a happy Easter for everyone!

Happy Easter!

We had a wonderful Easter weekend.

The kids love to decorate eggs, and we only had a couple broken!

The egg hunt was a success!  

I love dressing my kids in their Sunday Easter best!

We had stake conference, so while Paul wrestled these three at the church,

I got to stay home and relax with Nora--she likes to nap when I'm taking pictures--

I am always grateful for the opportunity to pause our lives and reflect on the life of our Savior.

Because of Him, we are able to enjoy so much beauty and love in our lives

and also to know that these children will be with us for eternity.

We hope your Easter was filled with hope, happiness and love as well!

Happy Easter

We started off the weekend by dyeing our Easter eggs--Halle just liked to crack them, so we ended up with three less...The Easter Bunny visits our house on Friday night so we can do the fun stuff on Saturday. We're trying to get the kids to focus on the importance of Easter on Sunday--we're off to a slow start, they're still just interested in their loot.



Sunday morning was really nice--Paul had no meetings and got to help the kids get ready and drive with us to church! That was a blessing for me! The kids were so cooperative that they let me take a picture of them in their spring Easter outfits. (We still wore them, even with 8 inches of snow!)
We hope you had a lovely weekend as well!

Happy Easter!

I love having my kids dressed up for church--they are so adorable! (I'm obviously biased) They even let me take pictures of them in their Easter clothes. Actually, I couldn't get Afton to stop posing, although Matt and Halle were done after a couple shots!

Dyeing Eggs

Matt and Afton love dyeing eggs for the Easter Bunny. Matt usually likes all the colors while Afton's favorites are pink and purple. It's hard to get them to stop, so many of our eggs are mud colored by the time we're done! It was fun having Aunt Heather here to celebrate Easter with us!