Happy Easter

This Easter has been full of fun! Although we've missed Johnny so much, I've enjoyed this long weekend with the kids :) Poor Johnny has been gone since early Thursday morning til tonight doing clinicals in Longview. We're so appreciative to President and Sister Conlin for letting him stay with them and keeping him safe! I'm so grateful he wasn't on the road so much thanks to them.

Thursday, Katherine and Travis had their school egg hunts at the city park. I took the girls, with sack lunches for a picnic, and they had so much fun playing. The weather was cloudy and cool and it was pretty windy. Because of state regulations, the eggs did not have candy in them. Katherine's grade had either empty eggs or the eggs had a piece of paper in them that said "Play-doh" or something. Either way, the eggs meant prizes back in their classrooms- things like pencils, erasers, stickers, etc. Travis's class had prizes in the eggs- plastic rings, stickers, erasers, etc. He was NOT pleased. He wanted toys or candy. But he got over it. In both hunts, they had a certain number of eggs they could find which made it all fair.

Later that afternoon, Katherine had piano lessons. When we got home from that, we jumped into pajamas, popped a pizza in the oven and watched American Idol- I had recorded 4 of them! Bryn had a blast dancing to it... maybe she should be on Dancing With the Stars...?? (We don't really watch that show. lol)

Friday we spent the morning doing chores, then the fun started! We hunted empty eggs (they knew they'd get plenty of candy later) in our backyard. Then Bryn took a nap and we did some Easter crafts. We covered some Pringles containers to be Easter decoration/candy jars. After that we decorated our eggs. We do our Easter baskets on Friday night, so the kids have Saturday to eat and play and enjoy their treats. Also, we don't say the Easter Bunny is coming. They know we are putting treats in their baskets. I stayed up late stuffing easter eggs and getting the food ready for the next day- the Ratcliff family Easter party. I made a Strawberry Spinach salad, with homemade dressing and chocolate Rice Crispy treats.

Saturday morning they were excited about their treats/toys. I took lots of pictures so Johnny won't feel like he missed out too much. We got ready and headed to Jasper. We had so much fun visiting with family and eating way too much yummy food! It was a super fun day and the weather was perfect!

Easter Sunday has been nice and calm. We did have a bad storm during church, but it stopped in time for us to come home. I really enjoyed the talks today. One of my Young Women spoke, Amanda Sparks and she did so well- it was her first time to give a talk. Sister Watts, our Relief Society President also spoke- about Easter. As she talked about each moment leading up to the Resurrection, I thought about how Christ was mocked and tortured and how He could have endured it all. I believe that because He had an eternal perspective and was the Son of God, that He remembered all that hurt Him from the pre-existence and that's partly why it was okay and why He said, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't that seem right? It helped me think of things and of people with a more eternal perspective. Our new missionary, Elder Durrant played I Know That My Redeemer Lives and the congregation sang the 4th verse. It was really good. Then Elder Hagge spoke- always good to hear from him. After church, lunch and a nap, I watched The Testaments with the kids. We really loved it- we're so thankful for Christ's Resurrection and that we have the ability and freedom to celebrate and remember it.

All in all, it was great weekend! Enjoy the pictures!