Easter Weekend

 I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter weekend, we did!  I think Easter is becoming one of my favorite holidays.  I mean, I always loved the chocolate and all, but this year (and in years past), I truly felt the beginning of the magnitude of what our Savior did for us.  It seems to be settling in my soul.  I am so grateful for the gift of the Son and that because of Him, I can progress eternally and have my monkeys forever.  Among these deep feelings, I'm still happy to have the chocolate.

But before Easter, we began demo on our master bath.  This will be a LONG project, I'm sure of it, but maybe by this time next year I'll be able to shower in my own bathroom again!  Everett was so thrilled to have permission to use a hammer and destroy something:

 Such a boy, he's got to check out what's going on behind that wall.  I'm so glad he's ours!

And, it was a good week for the kid.  He lost his first tooth!

 That thing had to fall out on it's own, he was so freaked out about the whole thing.  Actually, it had help from Dad, who pretty much brushed it out of his mouth during our nightly routine.

The boy with one of his creations:

 That one is a lizard.

Ok, NOW Easter.  We went to my mom's 25th annual Easter party.  I'm not even making that number up (surprised?).  My sister counted back the years, and according to her calculations, it really has been 25 years since mom started doing egg hunts for the grandkids.  How cool is Grandma!?  My kids love it and have been counting down days.  I love being with my family, so I was too.

Post-edit.  I came across a family Easter party photo from 1991, that moves this year's party to the 26th.

We arrived to a few inches of SNOW!  Thankfully, though, the sun was shining, so we waited while it did it's work to melt it all for the hunt.  In the meantime, we ate delicious food, of course!  The kids made cute cupcakes:

They dyed eggs:

And by then, it was about perfect egg hunting weather!  Hurray!  This year's line up:

 And, GO!

Daisy is perfect egg-picking age:

Discovering the goods:

I then sent the adults on a treasure hunt.  I don't think they liked me very much by the end of it.  I tried to stump them, and I sure did!  Maybe I got myself fired for next year.  I could hope.

Cousins, sharing:

That evening was the Women's Conference, which was so wonderful!  I enjoyed watching it with family.  Ellie did too:

Look at that face!  Her facial expressions are just like her momma's.

It really was a perfect day for me.  I was with my people.  I got to spend time in the sun.  My kids were so content with cousins, they happily disappeared.  I got fed yummy food.  Plus a spiritual boost to end it with.  Thanks mom, for another great family get-together!

Ellie had made plans for Sunday morning.  She gathered the kids in her room when they woke up, and then they all came into our room together.  She turned on the Easter videos on the Mormon channel and we enjoyed them as a family.  What a perfect way to start the day right!  We love our Ellie Belle.  After that, they went on the search for baskets.

 It was a delightfully lazy Sunday morning.

I didn't make cute skirts or dresses for the girls this year.  Not feeling it.  I didn't even get a cute photo of the kids lined up by the front door.  Wasn't feeling that either.  I did get a sweet pic of this sweet girl, just because she looked so pretty: