Easter 2012

 {The day before Easter, I walked to Rewe with my girls to get some flowers for our dining room table. I was thinking more like Lilys or something but they only had this or dark roses left to pick from. This sweet little plant ended up winning!}

Have you ever had a holiday that wasn't stressful or hectic? If so, you are my hero! I think in most cases, holidays tend to get a little crazy with all the hustle and bustle going on - even when you try to prevent it from happening. I would love to say that our Easter was amazing - and in ways, it still was! Friends joining us for dinner, talking to family on the phone and knowing the true meaning of why we celebrate Easter was the amazing part! The not so amazing part however was so many of us waking up in bad moods which lead to a few disagreements throughout the day and tears shed, it being really cold outside and kids not cooperating for a few pictures and Landon hurting his finger which resulted in us missing Sacrament meeting at church. You know, just normal daily stuff. :) But we definitely made the most of it and did what we could to still have a fun and enjoyable day as a family. In order to do this though, we had to simplify some of our plans which turned out being a huge blessing! Us girls forfeited painting our nails and doing them another day instead. We didn't dye any Easter eggs. And I didn't make homemade cinnamon rolls. And a few other things. Simplicity at it's best! I don't like a lot of stress so this was nice to cut some fun things out of our normal Easter festivities and be okay with it in order to have a calm and functional family. A baby keeps things busy and us on our toes a lot anyways.

The kids woke up to find their Easter baskets. We ate breakfast and then got ready for church. Landon sliced his finger pretty bad on what I have no idea and it took quite a bit of time to get that sucker to stop bleeding! And just in case anyone was wondering....a band-aid and a 12 month old does NOT mix too well. That band-aid didn't stay out of his mouth or on his finger for very long! I know, surprise surprise! :) So as I mentioned, we missed Sacrament meeting. I was completely bummed about this to be honest. I love being able to take the Sacrament and hear the speakers and testimonies shared. Especially on a day like today! It was so easy at this point to have everyone hang up their Easter clothes and stay home but I still had to be at church to teach a primary class. Andrew's Sunbeam class actually. My friend teaches his class but her and her family were on vacation so I gladly accepted to fill in and teach for her. We may have missed Sacrament meeting, but boy was it nice to still be able to go and attend Sunday school. It completely lifted my spirit to be there, to see so many friendly faces and to teach 3 wonderful three year olds (which the little girl was the only one to stay in her seat! This also doesn't surprise me! :) Hard age for little kids to hold still in their seats longer than 2 minutes. In fact....not a lot surprises me anymore these days)! :)

Once we got back home, we found out that the Easter bunny had stopped by while we were at church and left a ton of eggs throughout the house. (AKA: John got upstairs faster than the rest of us and planted eggs as fast as he could)! :) We figured that if we hid them any sooner, let's say last night? Jocelyn would have had a field day. That girl sneaks sweets any chance she can get! So back to the Easter egg hunt. Kids went crazy racing around the house. Aubrey was generous and helped the others find some that she had already spotted. Or even gifted a few of hers to them. She's so sweet and helpful! Landon threw one of his recently developed tantrums on the floor! Haha!! With him being child number four, it doesn't get to me like it used to with the others. Now we're like, "be my guest....acting like that is not going to get you anything!" :) He then crawled (and sometimes walked) around and found some low to the ground eggs which Aubrey quickly opened and broke up some Robbins Eggs for him to devour. He was happy after that! Honestly, who wouldn't be? It was pretty fun watching them search and find their eggs.

We then changed over into some comfy clothes, put Landon down for his afternoon nap, kids played and helped tidy up for our company and John and I got things started with the dinner. Ham, homemade mashed potatoes + gravy, mixed vegetables, rolls and a salad. Our friends, another Marine Corps family, brought a delicious cake and some drinks. Their kids are close to our kids' ages - for Jocelyn and Andrew anyways. Their daughter is going to be in Kindergarten with Jocelyn this coming year and their son is a year or so younger than Andrew. (They also have a baby that is about 10 months younger than Landon who will one day be buddies together!) All four of them got along really well like they did when we got them together for the first time at the playground a few weeks ago. Their family is super nice and are expected to be here as long as we are. We're pretty happy about that! :) I'm not sure how I did it, but I managed to forget to take a photo of all of us adults. But the kids are plenty cute, so they make up for me forgetting! :)

As the night began to wind down and our company left for home, we made a few calls to family to wish them a Happy Easter. This 9 hour time difference can be quite hard to reach everyone! We didn't get to talk to a lot of them which made us sad but we at least got to talk to a few. Got the kids into their pajamas, talked about the real meaning of Easter (Got some strange looks from Andrew like: "What? It's NOT about candy and the Easter Bunny?" And this one came from Jocelyn: "Is the Easter Bunny real or fake?") and then we watched an Easter video on the churches website called "He Is Risen." It was a good end to a sort of not good start to the day. I am very thankful for my Savior, Jesus Christ! That he paid for our sins and died on the cross so that we may all live again. That He was resurrected. That He lives and loves us and wants us to be happy! I have so much to be thankful for!

Especially my family!

Happy Easter!