Easter weekend

Although we celebrated Easter with our little family a few weeks earlier, we still had lots of fun traditions to participate in for actual Easter Weekend. The ward put on an egg hunt. It was CRAZY windy and I almost didn't dare go with the babe, but we did. The kids had a blast with their buddy, Hudson. 

Saturday morning we had Hudson and Aly to die eggs. First time for all of them! They loved it. Jack even at two of them in the process haha.

 They wanted to play dress up after and ended up playing the beautiful morning away outside in their dress ups. I LOVE this fun stage with them. 

 Joelle's cute easter romper got soaked in drool and only lasted the morning. 

She woke up so cute from her morning nap after the fun. Just staring and going at her arms she always gets out of her swaddle. As soon as she saw me she was all smiles. 

 Saturday afternoon we met the Johnsons at Old Main to roll Easter eggs down the hill. First time for the boys with this as well! Eli immediately started running down the huge hill and fell flat on his face so started off the event really sad. But it ended up a fun time. 

 Then we had dinner and the cousin hunt and Nana and Papa Johnsons house. I love when my kids get cousin time! We sure missed Zach though. 

Sunday was very low key. We went to church and it was a beautiful service with wonderful talks. 

 I didn't buy Joelle a new dress and ended up receiving hand me downs the night before from my Aunt Julie. That morning I went through them and picked this little red dress for her to wear and later found out that this dress was bought for Julie's daughter to wear at Grandma Jo's funeral. For real. When I got that message I was instantly in tears. That my baby Jo got to wear a dress in honor of her namesake Grandma Jo on the day we celebrate that we will see her again and will be resurrected as families again. Such a beautiful tender mercy of the day. 

 I wasn't about to make an Easter feast for myself because I didn't have confidence my kids would eat anything I made...and trying to make a big meal while the kids run a muck on their own is just more stressful than fun :) So I made a delicious broccoli salad that I ate the entire thing of! The boys wouldn't even try it and we had sandwiches. This part was a bit sad to me. I missed being surrounded by all our families eating a nice warm tradition easter meal. But I also couldn't help but feel so happy and blessed to be surrounded by my beautiful babies. They bring me so much joy. After relaxing a bit  we had Zach's parents over for dessert. 

We made "resurrection rolls" and it was a fun lesson with the boys. When asking where the marshmallow went, Eli said "It was rected!" (resurrected haha). The boys loved watching videos of Christ this week and we watched more of them on Sunday. They really took in the story of the atonement, crucifixion, and resurrection this year. I love being at this point in parenthood where they can begin to learn and try to understand such important lessons in their life. "He died because He loves me."