Happy Easter!

The greatest man in history had no servants, yet they called him Master. Had no degree, yet they called him Teacher. Had no medicine, yet they called him Healer. He had no army, yet kings feared Him. He won no military battles, yet he conquered the world. He committed no crime, yet they crucified Him. He was buried in a tomb, yet He lives today.

Happy Easter everyone!

This year included all the typical Easter traditions that I'm sure many families out there celebrate.   Coloring Easter eggs:

Easter Morning:
The kids raced out of their rooms this morning, looking for their baskets that the Easter Bunny had hidden.

Easter Bunny was pretty sneaky this year:
Aubrey's basket was in the oven:

Connor's was underneath the kitchen sink. Gotta love getting socks for Easter, right?

Rigdon's - Bunny tried to make it a little easier for him.

Ronin was the last one to find his:

(Um, don't mind the load of laundry that's been sitting in there for about two days now...I'll get to it, eventually.)

Later this morning, we went to our weekly Sunday church meetings.  The 3 oldest kids all participated by singing in the Easter program for Sacrament Meeting.Behind all the "normal, well-behaved" pictures...

are the ones you have to get through first.

It all starts so innocently with a simple funny face.
Then it's all down hill from there:

Then the silliness spreads like an infectious disease.

Showing off the new socks...the kids were actually pretty stoked about them.  They desperately needed some new ones.

Rigdon with his Stripling Warrior action figure. 
He's watched enough Living Scriptures videos to know exactly who this guy is.

Easter Egg Hunt @ the Grandparent's House
After church, I took the kids and headed over to my parent's house.  We ate dinner and then held the much anticipated Easter egg hunt.

My brother Cory and his family were there too, yay!  Of course, that means extra competition for those hidden eggs.  :)  Just kidden, there were plenty to go around.

Rigdon and Brooklyn had their own special egg hunt.  They scored well.

Gettin' a little extra sugar.

The older kids had their hunt out by the horse pasture - there were 53 eggs to find.

Just so happens my aunt, uncle, and cousin were out with the horses today.

My mom 'n nephew, Sterling.

With all these kids, it was quick work of finding all the eggs.  

One of those rare occasions where there's actually a picture with me in it.  :)

My Dad announcing a surprise bonus hunt - a single egg with $20 in it!  I'm so in.

Connor outsmarted us all and found the egg first. 

He was quite excited.  He already knew what he wanted to buy with it...a video game.

Enjoying the spoils of the hunt.

The kids had a little bit of tramp time.

Just like last year, Easter happened to be one of those few occasions where Rigdon was struggling breathing.  I stuck him on his nebulizer.

We had a beautiful, spiritual, fun-filled Easter.   Hope you had a great one too!


PS: Rigdon threw up tonight AFTER I gave him a bath.  I suspect it was from too much candy.  :/   Gave him another bath.  Ah, the joys of motherhood.

Remembering Him

I am always grateful for any occasion such as this to again be reminded what my brother and Savior did for me.  Knowing that I am riddled with imperfection and weakness, my Savior stood up and did what I could not do for myself.  What an incredible debt I owe to my Master, my Redeemer.






How does one fully appreciate and comprehend all that Christ went through for each and every one of us? I don't know that I will ever completely understand it, but I will always be grateful. He suffered for our sins and felt all our pain and sorrow. He was brutally crucified and then resurrected three days later.  It is Jesus Christ alone that has provided us a way back to our Heavenly Father's presence - back home.  Whether or not every human on this earth chooses to accept the atonement of Jesus Christ, it won't ever change the fact that he still did it anyway, for me, for you, for all mankind.





Alma 34:8-10:

...Behold, I say unto you, that I do know that Christ shall come among the children of men, to take upon him the transgressions of his people, and that he shall atone for the sins of the world; for the Lord God hath spoken it.
      For it is expedient that an atonement should be made; for according to the great plan of the Eternal God there must be an atonement made, or else all mankind must unavoidably perish; yea, all are hardened; yea, all are fallen and are lost, and must perish except it be through the atonement which it is expedient should be made.
      For it is expedient that there should be a great and last sacrifice; yea, not a sacrifice of man, neither of beast, neither any manner of fowl; for it shall not be a human sacrifice; but it must be an infinite and eternal sacrifice.

I accept his gift with a grateful heart.

Happy Easter everyone.

Easter

The Easter bunny made it once again to our house, although he likes to hide the baskets so the kids have to go look for them.

Ronin got a new baseball bat and mitt, which will come in handy since he'll be playing baseball for the first time this year.

Aubrey found her basket in one of the kitchen cabinets. It contained the newly released book from the Fablehaven book series that she loves to read. The Easter bunny also left a note saying that he left money with her parents so they can buy the next Bella Sara book that will be coming out later on this month.

Connor also got a book. It is from the book series "Eldest." He was really excited about that.

Connor also got a baseball bat from the Easter bunny - he too will be doing baseball this year and needed a bat that fits him so he can practice at home.

The Easter bunny didn't forget about the Bella Sara cards for Aubrey.

Even though Rigdon's already experienced an Easter, this was his first year to get his own basket. Inside was a little baseball glove and ball that was just the right size for his little hands. He loves throwing balls so he was pretty happy.

Daddy showed Rigdon how to put the mitt on and catch the ball. Rigdon would then try to throw the ball with the mitt instead of his other hand. I guess we'll have to work on that.

A happy face - he'd just thrown the ball with his mitt. He looks like he's pretty proud of himself in this photo.

Aubrey and Connor enjoying their books. They didn't waste any time getting started.

Easter was great with it being General Conference weekend. We listened to Conference and then my mom and dad came over for Easter dinner during the break. Jed cooked up some steaks on the BBQ grill. Later we played a game of Phase 10. My dad won, he seemed pretty happy about that.

We then had an Easter egg hunt in the yard, even though it snowed the day before. Most of it had melted by the time we went outside. Jed took the pictures for the Easter egg hunt but he still has them in his camera. I'll post those later when I get them.

My mom and dad also held an indoor egg hunt at their house for our kids. Their eggs were all filled with money - the kids loved that. Rigdon had his own special eggs that were filled with yummy goodies.

We had a really nice Easter.