We had a beautiful Easter weekend of family time, general conference addresses focused on Jesus Christ and plenty of soccer. 🙂
We have a tradition of conference breakfast with Steve’s brother’s family and we didn’t think we were going to make it happen this year, with it being Easter – but we pulled it off at the last minute and it was definitely one of the highlights of the day.
Hallie called just as we were starting the egg hunt and we were happy to include her in our picture this year.
Hallie’s first Easter on the mission last year was magical and I think she was hoping for something similar this year. Instead, she was met with disappointment when she had been sick a few days before Easter and her companion was sick today, which meant they cancelled all their plans, including their Easter brunch and Easter dinner. No ham and egg hunts for her this year!
We always have an egg hunt for the elementary aged kids, but Hunter and Bennett wanted in on the fun so Steve hid two eggs for both of them. I’m pretty sure those two eggs each took them longer than Briggs and Cannon’s 20 eggs. It was the hardest earned $4!
Since our kids were young, I enjoyed lining them up oldest to youngest to take pictures. They were perfectly stepped until Hunter outgrew Hallie a few years ago. With Hallie gone, the picture is perfectly stepped again – at least for now.
And I’m not sure I’ll ever outgrow laughing at Briggs sitting in his bucket just like he did when he was a newborn.
Easter is a special season and I’m grateful for the focus on my Savior Jesus Christ.
A couple of months ago, we were asked to increase our focus on Easter and the Atonement of Jesus Christ and celebrate it as a season rather than just Easter day. Steve and I talked through several ideas and implemented what we felt would work for our family, and today, we reflected on our experience.
Today has felt special—more so than other Easter Sundays—and I believe it’s due to the increased spirit in our home throughout this season.
One of our favorite ways to celebrate Easter is to attend the Easter pageant, and we are grateful to live so close to the Mesa Temple where it’s held. We also know so many cast members who participate, and it’s been beneficial to hear their experiences and testimonies.
Palm Sunday was our Stake Conference and a special youth morningside on the stage of the Easter Pageant – which our children shared was impactful.
We hosted friends that night for a special Palm Sunday dinner and a Holy Week walk around the neighborhood. (I had printed pictures and descriptions and posted them with flowers on a path around our neighborhood, and we walked and talked and learned together.)
Easter Sunday at church was a beautiful service of musical numbers, which is one of my very favorite ways to worship. We came home to a tasty crepe breakfast, an activity of studying the different accounts in the bible of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and gathered with family this evening. It was a beautiful day of hope and love.
We even got a surprise call from Hallie this evening (because it’s a holiday) while we were gathered with family for dinner and it only felt appropriate to have her join our annual Easter basket pictures.
We had a much smaller group this year, but the cousin picture with Steve’s parents never gets old.
The running joke at our house lately is that Halllie will soon be moving on and as such we’re having a lot of “Lasts” (Even though we all know better – kids always seem to make their way home ever after they’ve moved away!)
Yesterday, Easter, as we were taking our traditional Easter basket pictures, the boys were joking about next years picture with only four people. Hallie is looking to serve a mission for our church and it is likely she won’t be around next Easter. It made me start to think of all the years we’ve taken photos with these same baskets.
Hunter was just a baby when I started this tradition and our family continued to grow over the years – we’re now starting the decline of kids living at home and our picture will get smaller and smaller. 🙂
Bennett was born just two days after this picture of Hallie and Hunter – which is why the next year he wasn’t a very little baby!
Today was a cold and rainy Easter – not something we’ve seen since moving to Arizona years ago but I had flashbacks to our snowy Wisconsin Easter celebrations.
We had a fully loaded crepe breakfast before heading off to church. Our church services were full of beautiful testimony of our Savior Jesus Christ through song and word and it was lovely on all accounts. (Hallie, Hunter and Bennett even participated in one of the musical numbers!) In an effort to make this holiday a little more special, we spent the week focused on different aspects of Holy Week, watched inspiring videos and messages, attended the Easter Pageant at the Mesa Temple and listened to inspirational music. I am grateful for the additional focus and how it impacted my worship and gratitude for Jesus Christ as we celebrated Easter today.
I wanted to take our annual Easter pictures after church while we were all dressed in our Sunday best but it was rainy and miserable and not worth the struggle and I think all the kids were a little surprised I was willing to give it up so quickly. A casual picture will have to do this year!
Luckily, the rain cleared (although it was still rather cold for an Arizona spring) by the time we gathered with family for dinner and the egg hunt was able to continue as planned. The teenagers hid eggs for the younger kids in the backyard and the adults hid eggs for the teenagers in the front yard. I’m realizing you’re never too old to enjoy a challenging egg hunt – especially when some of the eggs contain money!
I’m grateful for friends who carry on traditions for us and that includes coloring eggs – something I gave up many years ago but we enjoy with friends each year. I’m not even sure many people still hide real eggs but they sure are fun to decorate.
It has been years since I put any Easter decorations out. It seems like we’re always gone for spring break and Easter sneaks up on me and I just haven’t been good about getting decorations out. But this year, I was cleaning out the garage when I came across the Easter boxes and decided this was the year to pull it all out.
Briggs didn’t even know we had Easter decorations and he was obsessed with the ceramic bunny. Steve and I were out one night while Hallie babysat and the next morning I noticed the ears sitting next to the bunny.
I sent Hallie a text while she was at school to try and get to the bottom of the broken ears. This was her response.
You’d think I would’ve tossed the broken decoration. But I didn’t. It stayed on our counter all the way through Easter. First, so I could question Briggs about what happened to it and watch him squirm. Second, is there any better holiday than Easter to have a broken decoration sit on the counter?! It was a gentle reminder the whole season that we’re all a little broken, which is why Easter is so important and why we need a Savior.
