Easter 2014

Easter is one of my favorite holidays and this year we had a beautiful one. I started a few weeks ago trying to prep Chase for Easter by doing a few simple Easter crafts. Then last Monday I did a family home evening lesson with him all about Easter and the resurrection. He acted like he got it during the lesson, but clearly most of it went over his head. It's hard to explain Easter to a little guy who has no concept of death anyway. (Comments from him during said lesson were: "Oh yeah, my daddy died last week. But then he comes home from work." and "Oh, and the Easter bunny can visit Jesus!") My mom gave him a cute little book about the story behind the Easter bunny- which we read about 10 times this last week. With all this, he was very excited for Easter Sunday- including being able to wear his Easter shirt and tie. 

Since we have early church and getting all 4 of us ready and there on time is always a little crazy, we told Chase that daddy had called the Easter bunny and arranged for him to visit while we were at church and his basket would we waiting for him when we got home. We stopped at my parents house before church to get a family picture. As is always the case with my little ones, after about 20 pictures these were the best we could do! I'm glad we got some, because for me this is what Easter is all about. Our Savior suffered, died and overcame all so that we could have real happiness and live with our families forever. I am so glad that we were able to spend the whole day with family!

 Church was wonderful. Beautiful music and talks on the Savior- and Hudson even lasted through about 20 minutes of sacrament meeting which is probably a new record for him. We had a double farewell/homecoming so our chapel and cultural hall were packed- which made the beautiful Easter hymns sound so powerful and incredible. Once we got home from church we let Chase go hunt down his Easter basket. He was pretty excited about it- mostly about the chocolate inside the eggs. Then he helped Hudson find his basket. After finding baskets and some lunch, we put the boys down for naps. All the excitement from the morning and church must have worn them out, because Chase took a record 3 hour nap! He always naps longer when he's cuddled up with his daddy! I had to wake up all 3 boys to go up to my parents house!

When we got to my parents house Chase was super excited to see that Nana had put together another Easter basket for him and his brother! New clothes for both boys, each one got an animal shaped ice pack for owies, and Chase got a Dusty(from planes) flashlight and Dusty book and Huds got a cute plush bowling set. Our boys were very, very spoiled! Then they got to go on their Easter egg hunt! Chase was thrilled about hunting eggs, and Hudson grasped the concept, but feels completely immobilized in grass. He can't walk or crawl. So I carried him from egg to egg and let him put them in his basket. 

 Then we headed inside for a beautiful meal. I don't know how my mom does it- every thing she makes is delicious and the table looked so beautiful and fancy (you know, until we rolled up Hudson's high chair and Chase spilled crumbs everywhere). My only contribution was in making dessert- a bunny cake. My mom always made these for us on Easter when I was little and we loved it, so I was excited to carry on the tradition with my little ones. After Chase saw it he told me a few different times, "Thanks for making my cake look like a bunny Mom!"

By the time we got home, Hudson (who wasn't feeling well) was ornery and tired and Chase was bouncing off the walls- full of chocolate and excitement! We finally got the kids in bed and Ben and I got to reflect on the holiday. It was perfect. Even the weather was perfect. We are so grateful for our Savior. All the bunnies and chocolate are fun of course, but mostly we feel so truly blessed to have the gospel in our lives and for our knowledge that He lives!