Happy Easter!

In an effort to focus on the real Easter message, we had focused our family prayers, and FHE lessons, evening talks, and scripture study around the life of Christ during his final week. I waited until the day before Easter to buy the basket fillers and candy for the eggs...and had to skim through the last pickings of what was left at the store for Easter because of my procrastination! By 10 pm that night, Calvin came down with croup, Isaac was sick with a Stomach flu, and Zoey was starting a fever and complaining of an earache! Ahh! The last thing our sick kids needed was a bunch of candy! But, it happened anyway. Easter and the bunny and the baskets and the eggs all came whether we were ready for it or not, and whether we needed it or not!

Brian and I didn't get much sleep, so when the kids came hopping into our room to inform us it was EASTER, we asked them to wake us up in an hour! We're so lame! But we were sooo tired! I just have to laugh at our Easter pictures! All the ones I saw posted on Facebook were of other people's children and families cutely dressed in matching spring outfits with smiles. Ours was nothing like that! This is one of our best...Isaac is a gem!

 And of course I'm prompting them to "smile at the camera" and "look at me" with all the enthusiasm I can muster without sounding pissed...and ya....this is what I get. They just want to hunt eggs. What am I thinking?!? I think I'm convinced to forgo family pictures this year. I also think I hear Brian cheering in the background with that news!

Nonetheless, Easter would not be missed at our house, and the kids had an awesome egg hunt. **Spoiler alert** Jackson found out the Easter bunny is not real, and then Zoey found out, and then Eli...so it was kind of sad to see that magic gone. I'm hoping it'll last for a little while longer with Calvin and Isaac.

We had some non-member friends (Rachel and Josh Dees, contacts from Brian's work) and Uncle Brandon over for Easter Dinner. We had our traditional rack of lamb, wild rice salad, pita, hummus, and scalloped potatoes. We topped it off with strawberry shortcake. It was delicious. It was great company. It was great having it on Conference weekend to get a good dose of spirituality mixed in with the weekend!