Easter Weekend

We had a fabulous Easter weekend full of fun activities and family time.  We were lucky enough to have Curtis home for 3 days straight and we soaked up all the time we could with him. We kicked off our festivities with our annual Easter egg hunt.  I looked back at the past 2 years and can not believe how many kids we now have in our neighborhood!  There is always someone to play with around here and we love being apart of a close group of families.

Apparently, I only got the silly face picture...

Our contribution to the sea of neighborhood kids...

This was Maddox's first year participating in the hunt and with a little coaching he caught on quick...then realized it was more fun to throw the eggs around like a ball.

Saturday morning we headed over the the Beehive house where they were putting on Easter activities and a hunt for the kids.  They got to color, do a cake walk, pin the tail on the bunny, and have another egg hunt. Maddox best enjoyed his cupcake and wondering in and out the elderly rooms.

We were able to have dinner and spend the evening with some friends that were passing through on their way home from Disneyland.  We had a nice time catching up and enjoying the wonderful evening weather.  The kids begged to dye eggs that night and poor Maddox was beat and was put to bed before the tradition started...poor kid is always missing out on the messy fun.

The kids left their dyed eggs in the baskets for the Easter bunny to hide for them which meant yet another egg hunt early Sunday morning.  I always loved this part growing up because my parents would get really creative with where they hid the eggs and sometimes it would take us hours to find them all! I made sure to prepare the night before so that everything was ready for church so we could be on time....we have a problem. We were running short on time, as usual, and I scrambled to get the kids' picture in their Easter clothes.

Almost...but Bos was staring and people headed to church, on time, and Maddox really was trying to be cooperative, but I caught him mid-blink!

This was only try number 2 and since they were all looking and somewhat smiling, I called it success. And really, I had no more time to take any more! I can't believe how fast they are all growing up.  I have just sat and stared at this picture so many times in awe of how blessed I am to have them call me mom. 

A quick after church shot of me and my favorite person. 

I feel lucky to have a testimony of the Resurrection and the knowledge that He is risen. I'm most grateful that the Spirit spoke loud enough during Sacrament to touch my heart over the noise of my 3 antsy kiddos. A new member to our ward concluded his talk on the resurrection with his testimony by singing, "Oh Lord, My Redeemer". Seeing his emotion and testimony in the words he sang, touched my heart and brought tears to my eyes. My Savior has done so much for me and it was a quiet reminder of the blessings of being upon this Earth. Our day was perfect, and I felt so proud and blessed to listen to Taylor tell me the story of Jesus being resurrected and Boston telling me he learned in his class that "Jesus had nails put in him and he got hung up and died for us so we could be a family."  How truly blessed this day has made me feel.