Easter celebrations

Easter is my favorite holiday. I love it most. More than Christmas, Halloween, New Year's or Independence day. I love that I get to celebrate the death and resurrection of my Savior with the rest of the Christian world. 

However, I know not all people who are Christians celebrate Easter like this. Recently Jared and I spend an entire evening discussing with our neighbors who are Jehovah's witnesses. I know they don't call their celebration "Easter" and neither do some of our other nondenominational Christian neighbors. Since the holiday has no origin in the Bible and has "pagan origins" instead, they celebrate Christ's resurrection differently. 

Personally, I'm more of a purist in this way also. I love Easter, not for the celebration of Spring solstice but for the symbolism of rebirth that is offered through Christ's atonement. The egg hunts are fun, but I'd rather find fruit in my eggs than candy. Actually, we filled our eggs with prunes and small toys this year. Jared and I had a good laugh at ourselves for being the weirdos that filled their eggs with individually wrapped prunes! Who thought of that anyway!? "I'm going to make a fortune selling individually wrapped prunes!" What? I thought it was hilarious. I had to support the person who made that possible. 

Anyway, back to the point. I love Easter and really appreciate when time is set aside to celebrate resurrection, rebirth, and renewal. I may start a family tradition of celebrating our rebirth through Christ's resurrection on the day of His birth. Joint (re)birthday celebrations!

This year we enjoyed lots of different festivities. First we went to a community egg hunt and brunch with lots of church friends. That's where we contributed plastic toys and individually wrapped prunes. ;) Next we enjoyed a family egg hunt and lunch with family and friends. Thank you to the Watson's for hosting and always sharing their fun traditions with us. 

We also celebrated using a week-long activity from the Friend magazine, remember events from the life of Christ leading to his resurrection on Easter day. Lastly, on Easter day my little guy and I delivered a single carnation flower to about a dozen friends, teachers, and neighbors to wish them Happy Easter. S picked which flower they received and then told them the good news: "Jesus was resurrected and lives again!" That was my favorite part of all our Easter rejoicings. 

Check out S's shinner. He had a bad slip and fall at home where he hit his face on the corner of our fireplace tile. Yikes. It bled a bit but mostly bruised all around his eye. He was brave and was confused was it was called a "black eye" when it was never really the color black. 

Family egg hunt

our Sunday morning gifts to the kids

They received face stickers for the eggs

S's on the left. L's on the right. So appropriate for their personalities. 

 Easter dinner was lamb chops, deviled eggs and a green salad. We tried explaining to the kids why we picked lamb. (Well, really Jared picked it but I rather like making a tradition out of eating our Pascal Lamb each year). It wasn't easy to explain that Jesus is the Lamb of God that was sacrificed for our sins. But He is also the Good Shepard whom we follow like obedient, trusting sheep...... And then we eat the lamb. Maybe one day it will make sense to them. 

This is her sign for water but she also says "wawa." Her Jersey daddy should be proud. :) 

I'll never be able to say Thank you Lord enough for His making the sacrifice for me and for the whole world. A sacrifice that not only do I not want to suffer through, but that is not even possible for me to offer. He gave to us what we could never have given ourselves. He deserves at least this one week a year to honor His sacrifice and His resurrection. 

Happy belated Easter everyone!

What family traditions do you observe for Easter? I'm always open to new ideas to help us celebrate!

Relief Society temple trip

Our Relief Society presidency has begun a tradition: a quarterly temple trip. It started as just the presidency, but then we thought it would be a great strength to invite others to join us. And it was. 

 It was a beautiful day to be at the House of the Lord. 

 There were only 5 of us at the temple that day, but just the planning of it helped many women prepare to go to the temple. Two of the five went to the temple to perform baptisms for the first time and many others received recommends for their first time, even though they were unavailable to come that morning. 

I know temples are essential to God's eternal work for the salvation of His children. Having one close to my home and being able to visit often have blessed me with strength, comfort, and power to do God's work both at home and away. Thank you friends for going with me! I love you. 

Thank you God

I love my view. A beautiful sight for any mom. Two little kids sitting quietly, looking at a variety of books. 

I love my job immensely. 

I thank God that He planted in my heart a desire to be a mother, that He then planted in my body the capacity to give life, and then has nurtured in my life two immaculate babies. 

I'm extremely thankful to be a mother, especially to my mister and milady. Thank you God. 

double date night

My Christmas present to my brother and sister-in-law was a double date night to a painting class. It is the more the kind of gift that I would like to receive, but they said they like our company, so it all worked out. I had a lot of fun. 

Jared was a really good sport, and supportive of my interests. He did hate his painting in the end. I liked it, though! It represents patience and love for ME!

I loved J's spin on the scene. She changed her monument at the Tidal Basin and it looks fabulous. 

I love these people. 

My final product. Happy Cherry Blossom festival this week! 

I certainly had fun, but I am kind of scared of painting with acrylic, oil or water color. I really just wanted to take my hands and blend the colors the way I use charcoal and oil pastels. I like getting my hands dirty. It was challenging. But not too bad for my first try. Thanks to my mister, bro and sis for making it an fun night! And to the lady next to us for moving so we could all sit together. Ahh, there are kind and helpful people in the world still. <Sigh of relief> Just in case we forgot...

SPRING! Happy Easter!

Finally it feels like Spring!! My tulip bulbs from last Fall make me smile every time I walk out the front door. The hostas planted last year are coming back much stronger and fuller this year. I finally feel like a successful gardener. I planted something and it is alive and beautiful!!! Success.

 M'lady loves playing peek-a-boo in these holes. This is her "smile for the camera" face. 

I only paint her nails because she wants me to. She found the nail polish and kindly brought it to me. How could I resist?!?

Could his eyes be any more gorgeous!? I wish I could inherit them from him.  

This is one of his many "bad guy" faces. He's coming to get me. 

"What out, son! There's a dinosaur behind you!"

I'm in love with this lady.

Thank goodness the weather has improved, the sun is shining, and we can all play outside in comfort again.

I love Spring. It's perfect how rebirth, warmth and light follow Winter's death, coldness, and darkness. A perfect circle of life reminding us of the seasons of Life, and the rebirth we are offered through Christ's life and resurrection. Happy Easter this week!

Who's your hero? Ammon.

A couple weeks ago, the kids and I made puppets of characters from the Book of Mormon scripture story of Ammon. In the account, this loving and loyal missionary goes to a new land to serve the king there. He is tasked to guard and protect the king's sheep. The king's sheep have been shattered and stolen repeatedly by troublemakers. Ammon protects the sheep and defends the kings lands to the point that he has to fight the troublemakers and cut off their arms. Jared joined the fun by recreating the scene with our Lego guys. Dads are so much cooler with this kind of stuff than moms. At least in our house. 

The king's servants presenting the cut-off arms to the king, while recounting what they saw Ammon do to protect the King's possessions

The arms in a white basket

The white sheep

The trouble-making thieves without their arms

We didn't reenact this part, but because Ammon showed power and loyalty to the King, without expecting much in return, King Lamoni trusted Ammon, much like the relationship between Joseph of Egypt and Potipher. Ammon taught the gospel of Jesus Christ to King Lamoni and he was reborn. He caused that the truth and light be taught to all his people. Many were converted and found happiness and success.

It's important we share success stories with our kids, so they can find patterns and models to follow in their lives. Hopefully our kids won't get in a fight over something and chose to cut off arms though. ;)