Easter Sunday

I love Easter.  I love the hope it brings into my life.  I love the symbolism of the world being dark while Christ was in the tomb and that the darkness gave way to light when Christ was resurrected.  My relationship with Christ has been an anchor and a source of peace and hope through out my life.  I've been blessed that with all of my struggles and questions, I have never questioned my Savior and have always felt a connection to him.  I hope and pray that my kids build that relationship with Him as well.

Hallee got a new dress for Easter.  She loves to pose for pictures.  There are shorts in the front and the skirt in the back, it's so cute.

Hallee and Caitlyn had the same hairdo.

I sure love these good looking kids!

We had no one to take a family picture so Keith and I took turns taking a picture with the kids.

The other kids don't love pictures like Hallee does, but they will usually cooperate for me.

We had home church again.  I really love home church.  We do the opening song and sacrament on our own and then we facetime with mom and dad.  Keith gave an Easter lesson yesterday and it was beautiful.  He shared so many wonderful things and all of the kids seemed to be soaking it in.  Well, maybe not Wyatt, but you never know.  Later Jonah said, "I felt the Spirit more than I ever have, I was like wow!"  He also said, "you learn a lot more when you can feel the Spirit, I learned that today."  I loved hearing that from Jonah.  He isn't one to voluntarily share things, so that was special. The kids all shared a scripture that helps them feel close to Christ.  It was so great to hear from all of them.  Mom, dad and Alexys shared their testimony of Christ as well, it was beautiful.  It was a such a special meeting.  It was the perfect way to spend Easter Sunday.

After lunch we all played Codename pictures.  We all love that game!

After that we did our Easter egg hunt. We had two hunts, one with candy in the eggs and one with money in the eggs.  The older kids hid the money eggs upstairs and the younger ones hid them down stairs.  I love this picture of Wyatt and Hallee.

Wyatt was happy to use his climbing skills to get an egg.

The kids had so much fun hiding eggs for each other.

It was fun to see them give hints to each other.

For the candy round of the egg hunt we switched it up and the boys hid eggs downstairs and the girls hid them upstairs.

I think we found almost all of them, we always lose track of a couple of them.

I was surprised that the older kids enjoyed the hunt so much.

After that we did a zoom call with my family.  It was a lot less crazy than the one with the Hawkins the night before.  Fewer people definitely make it easier to talk. It was so great to see everyone.  Gary, Julie and Lindy were on for a little bit, but then they lost service because they were on a hike.  It was so good to see EJ.  He looks so grown up. I hope we can see him in person soon.  Kyle got on with his girlfriend, Paige so everyone got to meet her.  He seems so happy!  It was so fun to see everyone.

We all loved it.  Hallee and Wyatt went off to play, but the rest of us stayed the whole time.

After that we had dinner.  I was pretty proud of our Easter dinner.  I don't love cooking so it's a big deal if I make a big meal.  Everyone was happy and Caitlyn and Keith kept telling me how good it all was.

After that the kids wanted to have a pool tournament.  Wyatt decided he wanted to be the commentator while Caitlyn and Jonah played.  His comments were hilarious.

After that we had Jell-O cake for dessert.

We played Apples to Apples while we ate. Keith put whipped cream on Cailtyn's nose and the look she gave him was hilarious! It was a wonderful Easter.