Easter 2012

Today we celebrated Easter! This is one of my favorite days, to celebrate our Savior who suffered all the wrath we should have met simply because he loves us. What an amazing truth. It's important to me that the boys grow up knowing that's the reason for Easter and that candy, the Easter bunny and egg hunts are simply some fun additions but never the focus. I hope we do well to balance it all and I hope as they get older we have less "balance" and more of the beautiful truth of salvation to focus on. There's nothing wrong with all the Easter "stuff", I just want them to know which is more important. 

We woke up to a few Easter treats and then headed off to church. We did our usual attending a service and then serving at the second service, so we made it home around lunch time. We had a small lunch and put Aaron down for his nap before we headed over to Grandma Mal's house for a quiet Easter meal with her, Aunt Laura and Uncle Drew. It was a nice, calm day with plenty of down time to keep us from being exhausted. We had a nice dinner with family and did an egg hunt before a quick thunderstorm hit this evening. We even skyped with Uncle Roger and family in Iowa before saying our goodbyes to head home. 

Easter Baskets! Each of the boys got a Lego/Duplo set, pajamas,
Annie's crackers, and an Easter book. They also got a coloring book to share.

Finally a descent family picture! 

Jonathan was in picture taking mode so he snapped a few good ones of me and the boys! 

Another great one! 

My sweet husband and I! 

I was in the mood to play some Easter songs...my turn didn't last long! 

I like the individual fingers playing instead of banging their hands...it's progress! 

Caleb did his first C scale completely on accident today! I'm a proud Momma!

Aunt Laura's Birds Nest dessert

Lucy watching us eat

Everyone at the dinner table (minus Aaron...I don't think he sat very long!)

Egg Hunt

Caleb is getting really good at this! 

Aaron looking for more

Lucy wanted to help

Aunt Laura and Uncle Drew watching...they'll get to have their own Easter hunting
fun next year! 

Aunt Laura helping Aaron reach

The best Grandma picture we've gotten in a while

Uncle Drew napping during the rain

Aaron found this doll upstairs and wanted to feed it

Carrying the baby

Feeding the baby. So cute, I've never seen him with a doll before...
and before anyone says it, NO, we're not having a baby! 

My sweet boy and I

Tired boy on the five minute drive home

I love how he sits in the car! He's just like his Momma

We had a great Easter Sunday today. I hope everyone else did too! I can't believe April starts tomorrow, March sure did fly by. Looking forward to more Spring fun!

Pre-Easter Celebration

Yesterday my family gathered together at our house to celebrate Papa and GG's 60th anniversary, Grandma and Pop's 40th anniversary, Thomas' 33rd birthday and Easter! We like to put together as many events as possible at a time apparently! 

Crazily enough, all of those events fell within a week or two of Easter and it seemed appropriate to celebrate them all while everyone could get together. As I've stated in many blogs lately, it was another beautiful spring day, so we enjoyed being outside. We put out some games, Jonathan grilled lots of chicken, we ate dinner outside on the deck and we had an egg hunt in the backyard. I know in a few weeks we'll be grumbling about how hot it is...so we're soaking in as much of spring as possible until then! 

Derrill and Caleb playing a lawn game (something with throwing bean bags)

T-ball time

The boys had a pretty good system, one would hit and the other would fetch! 

Sitting around before eating

Papa playing with Aaron

Pops checking on the Grill Master

Kristen and Hannah Joy

Derrill and Aaron checking on the chicken

Aaron thought this was a dance floor! Super cute

The boys were throwing balls at Derrill, sometimes he was lucky enough to hit them away

Eating a yummy dinner

The Ladies table (plus some kids and minus GG)

Getting ready for the egg hunt

Thomas cheating for Hannah Joy

The boys hunting

They don't play around when candy is on the line

Checking out their eggs

Hannah Joy checking on her eggs

Yummy candy

Aaron looking in his basket

Thomas blowing out his candle while Derrill showed me a picture
on his phone of the crazy  boy (that being Thomas!)

Katy and I... I think this is one of my all time favorites of us! 

Grandma showing Aaron how to use the toy chick she gave him

Two copy cats...see the next pic

Haha...totally copying each other! 

My love and I after a wonderful afternoon with family!

It was so nice to enjoy a relaxed afternoon with my family. The kids had a ton of fun playing outside and there was very little clean up after everyone left since we were outside most of the time. It wasn't our traditional Easter gathering, but a great time getting everyone together. Who says you have to do the same thing every year? I enjoyed mixing it up a bit this time around!