The Young and the Restless

Easter 2011

It was a good Easter.  Well except for "the fall". Church was wonderful, as it always is on Easter, but as we were getting ready to go Jayden is lost and when he finally finds me he is sobbing so I'm trying to console him as Maddox makes a beeline out the door and into the parking lot.  I took off after him and as soon as I got on the concrete I slipped and fell.  Not a graceful fall, but a 33 week pregnant, spread eagle, skinned up knees, slow motion, dress flying up, exposing my undergarments to the entire parking lot, indecent exposure kind of fall.  How do you recover from that, well, ya don't. There were no holes to climb into and cry, so instead I tried my best to hide behind a 5 inch tree trunk and pretend to scold Maddox while I waited for everyone to leave.  Of course there had to be the one decent man that stuck around long enough to make sure I was okay.  I apologized for the image that will forever be burned in his retnas and hope I never see him again. Anyways, back to Easter.....I always stress the whole week before any holiday about the food, the presents, traditions, ya know all the "creating memories to last a lifetime" stuff. This Easter was no different but looking back I feel like everything turned out just the way I wanted it to.  We tried some new techinques with the Easter Egg dying which the kids thought were great, it even kept Jayden engaged the entire time which is a miracle in itself.  Maddox managed to crack every single egg with his "snapper catcher" so our egg salad sandwiches afterwards had hues of blue and pink in it, compliments of Na Na. 

Last year we had 4 Easter egg hunts back to back to back to back. It was a bit much.  This year I was glad (but the kids felt like they got the shaft) when we only had our neighborhood egg hunt and BBQ.  We really have lucked out to have such great neighbors.  Maddox got really into it this year and exceeded his 15 eggs per kid limit.

After 8 Easters we still haven't found "our" tradition when it comes to the EB.  Sometimes he hides the baskets and we have a scavenger hunt, sometimes he throws candy around the room, sometimes he hides eggs.  He's a rather confused Easter Bunny.  This year I found this idea on family fun where you make a yarn maze throughout the house using a different color for each kid and they have to follow it until they find where their basket is hidden.  Jason was concerned one of the kids would wake up in the middle of the night, trip on the yarn and break an arm.  Sometimes traditions have to trump safety so I convinced him that there was no way the kids were going to wake up.  3 AM finds Jayden standing by the side of our bed. He was a little disoriented that he had to climb through a gigantic spider web to find us, but the good news is no casualties were reported.  The kids thought it was pretty fun, so maybe this will finally be the tradition we settle on.

I love Easter brunch outside.  Well I guess this would fall under the category of breakfast not brunch considering they woke up at like 6:00 so by 8:00 there was nothing left to do but eat.

Today I definately fit the "in the kitchen barefoot and pregnant" stereotype.  I spend way too long and way too much money planning big feasts on the holidays.  It's a good thing too since all Jayden ate was 5 rolls and 2 bites of roast while Kylie drank half the gravy out of the dish with a little roast and watermelon on the side. They didn't even touch the other 4 side dishes I slaved away making. Sigh.

I did like looking out the kitchen window while I was cooking and seeing them laughing and playing so good together.  Usually I get so upset because the unspoken (and sometimes loudly spoken) rule about no fighting on the holidays gets completely ignored.  This time I think they got the hang of it, there was hardly any fighting and they both pitched in and helped so much (the site of my swollen feet may have been enough to scare them straight and realize they better help before I explode). Kylie even begged to do laundry, she thought it was so fun.  I know, right?? I wonder how long it will take before she realizes laundry is of the devil.

We had a simple yet spiritual FHE, which is my favorite part of the holiday. We always do a little testimony meeting and I love hearing what's in their hearts. What a blessing it is to have each one of these kids in our family and I'm always grateful for the opportunity to reflect on the atonement. It was a good note to end the evening on (along with about 3 slices of carrot cake). Happy Easter!