Easter

This year the church put out a really wonderful video with the theme of "Because of Him" for Easter. (Click HERE if you haven't seen it!)

I love the message that this video sends, a message I've been identifying a lot lately. One of encouragement and hope. Life is hard, the world we live in can be a trying and dark place but we can do this. We can get through and be strong and live good lives and become better people. As it says in the movie, we can begin again and again and again. There is no end, only new beginnings. I love this sentiment and feeling especially around this Easter Spring time of new beginnings and freshness and love for our Savior, his atonement and most of all his resurrection. I feel truly blessed to have this knowledge and to have my family to share and go through life with, into eternity.   

I love Easter and its perfect mix of fun and spiritual:

Monday for Family Home Evening we dyed Easter eggs. The kids loved it and Paul's idea to do it outside was a complete lifesaver. Nolan literally threw the eggs into the cup, usually a couple in each then would reach in and switch them around. Caitlin learned to color on them with the crayon. We actually came out with some pretty ones and definitely a few cracked ones as well. 

Friday we went to a fun play date party at the Bryant's. Lots of yummy food for the moms to eat and chat and lots of cute kids and toys for the kids. They also had an egg hunt! They had some chickens in their yard that my kids were mesmerized by and one of the little girls let one out and Caitlin came running into the house saying "Mom! one of the chickens got out of the coop!" I was laughing so hard because I was wondering how she knew a chicken's house was called a coop?!    

Saturday morning we went to the "Eggstravaganza" egg hunt at Thanksgiving Point and it was pretty much like any other public egg hunt... an intense 4 seconds. Then we ate treats and played in the bounce houses and said hi to the Easter Bunny.  

After the hunt we went to the store to pick our our Easter animal. After our VERY failed attempt with the bunny last year I was not quite sure that I was ready to step into this but Paul thinks it's good for the kids. So we went and looked at our options. The bunnies were tempting but we eventually decided on a trio of fluffy yellow chicks. They are very soft and actually really mellow and cute. We brought our chicks home and set up their "bunny coop" as Caitlin calls it (revamped left over bunny cage) and had fun playing with them. That is until a few hours later when Nolan was holding one then forgot about it and stated playing and was squeezing it and fell on top of it and... yes. It died. So after day one we are 2 for 3. Literally the worst pet owners. Caitlin has taken really loving care of them so she immediately noticed one was missing and I had to tell her that it died. She was really sad but about 5 minutes later she was telling someone "yah we had 3 chicks but then one totally died!" I guess after all our pet mishaps it's not to traumatizing. The two we still have are very sweet and doing well thus far. Caitlin changes their names every time someone asks but so far one is always named "color" and the other is variable. 

Easter Sunday we attended Jackson Turnbull's homecoming in the morning at their ward then came back to our ward for the third hour. I will openly admit I was a little obsessed with how cute the kids looked in their Easter outfits. So we came home and took lots of pictures. The Stuarts came and joined us for a few with the chicks. After that we got to have our own egg hunt in the yard! The kids loved all their treats. Then we got dinner ready and ate with the McCulloughs and Chris. The Easter bunny came to fill the kid's baskets during their nap and put them in the family room so I put a blanket up so the kids couldn't see when they got up. We were cleaning up from dinner and planned to unveil the baskets after when we noticed we couldn't find Nolan. All of the sudden he popped out from behind the blanket yelling "treats!" Wearing the sunglasses from his basket holding his jellybeans with a huge grin on his face. It was hilarious! ...So we did baskets. I always get the kids new swimsuits for Easter, plus other fun things that they played with and we enjoyed for the rest of the day. The McCulloughs brought over confetti eggs so we had a hunt for those and cracked them on each other. Caitlin liked just grabbing them and cracking them on her own head!