Easter Weekend

As parents, Chip and I are really trying to instill in our children the real reasons for the holidays. For example, Christmas is about Christ, not about Santa bringing presents to the masses. Easter is about our Savior. The Atonement and Resurrection of Christ. Not about a cute little Bunny hopping around bringing baskets. To help our kids remember the sacredness of the Easter holiday, Chip and I decided that the Bunny comes to visit us the day before Easter.
Saturday for us was all about the Bunny man. The girls came downstairs on Saturday morning and found some fun baskets (the stuff was only bought and put together about 5 hours previous to them waking up....... no wonder I get no sleep... sheesh).

They were so excited. Peeps, Chocolate, Coloring books, Polly Pocket's, etc....
Anything to put a small child into a diabetic shock was right there for them. In fact, Maggie at 8 of her peeps within just an hour. (She snuck them while Chip wasn't looking!)

After I got home from work, we met up with some friends of ours who are also 'family-less' out here. We had a yummy BBQ and the kids got to play at the park for a bit, while the adults played bunny and hid the eggs! Way fun.
It was the perfect weather. A bit of a wind, but a nice amount of warm sun. I love spring :)

Maggie wasn't in a photogenic mood. She really wasn't in an egg hunting mood either.... silly child.
Alli was all set to go! So was sweet Claire.

Maggie is a bit Manic. She goes from highs to lows really quickly (in the case of these photos, about 2 seconds) It makes for great pictures, but I'm sure it's going to make for an interesting teenager. Heaven help me!

The next few pictures are on Easter Sunday. I wanted to get pictures of the girls in Easter dresses. Chip's Mommy made the cutest dresses for the kids! They were actually pre-made dresses (just the polka-dot part) in sizes way to small. Maggie's dress is a 2T, and Alli's is a 4T. She altered them by making cute shrugs, adding fluff and ribbons to the bottom, and moving some buttons around and magically they fit the girls perfectly! I wish I had some mad skills like that awesome lady! They turned out adorable.

Maggie fell asleep in the car on the way home from church. One minute she was eating a chocolate cupcake from her nursery class... the next minute she was like this.

So the picture of Alli in her dress will just have so suffice. Good thing she is cute enough to pull it off :) I don't think I can get a single picture of that girl without a pose, and a head tilted to the side. She's so adorable though... I guess I can learn to deal.

Let me explain these two photos.
On my side of the family, mashed potatoes are king. They are at every holiday. I do mean every holiday (4Th of July not excluded). We have to make a huge heaping bowl of them, because they get eaten up so quickly. You'll often find a plate with nothing on it but mashed potatoes, gravy, and a roll to dip it in. We have a tradition that whoever doesn't show up at family functions gets pictures sent to them of the family eating their potatoes. (weird tradition, yes.... but it works for us... we're a weird family). This year I sent these pictures to my parents. Just letting them know that we ate mashed potatoes on a holiday without them.

Some wonderful people in our ward invited us to join their family for Easter dinner. The Smith's cooked an awesome huge dinner and we were so grateful to be invited to spend it with them!
Our tummies were nice and full, we had wonderful company, and when dinner was over Bro. Smith (who doesn't have grand kids yet) just got down and played with the girls. They played Polly Pockets and colored beautiful pictures. Brother Smith even got great directions from Alli on how to stay in the lines and share nicely with the Pollies. He'll make an awesome grandpa some day! While he was entertaining the kids, Julie and I talked 'shop talk' and she taught me how to do a stitch that I've wanted to learn how to do for a while... and we've even made plans for Tuesday afternoon, for us to sew a cute little purse together! I can't wait!
(Don't worry... I'll do a post about it for sure!)

Happy Easter Everyone.