Hoppy Easter!!

Hippity-hoppity... Easter's gone its way! Long ago... I know, and this post really should have come before Lexi's birthday post, but I just skimmed over it and didn't notice that it was still in "draft" format. Boo.

So... back to the grind. I really do love the blog. I just wish there was someone else to update it for me! Haha! Wouldn't that be nice!??!! (Sort of... I know if I wasn't doing it you WOULD MISS all the ...'s and the !!!'s. Am I right?? Say it isn't so!! I know that at least Damian would really miss it and feel a lack of excitement while reading!)

Here in this house the Easter Bunny is very polite to follow our family traditions.  We celebrate the gift, hunt... egg part on Saturday, and we go to church and celebrate THE REAL REASON on Sunday.  How grateful I am for the Savior, his ultimate sacrifice for all of us, the Atonement that lets us try again EVERY DAY to be better with repentance and a commitment to what we know is right, and especially for His resurrection that affords us the opportunity to live with Him again.  So grateful for my testimony of Him.  He lives!  What a wonderful blessing to all of us... whether we know it or not!

With that said... (and the reason for saying it is because I have promised myself that I will be better about sharing my testimony more often with my children... who READ THIS!!)... here we go!  

The Easter Bunny did find us!  And he left baskets, STUFF, and eggs in the back yard!  Our other rule is that each child gets the SAME amount of eggs as any other.  So he always leaves us a note as to how many there are total and how many they each get.  This also ties in to what we believe.  Heavenly Father doesn't love or favor any one person more than another.  He loves us all and wants what's best for each of us.

Ella got some of her favorites!  Puzzles, gum, and LIPGLOSS!!  Of course!

And bubbles and nail polish!  They got some dive toys and a Crayola sidewalk paint sprayer to SHARE.  Lexi got a sketch pad and a paint-by-number set, Braeden got a new football and basketball!  Also... of course.  Art for Lexi.  Balls for Braeden!

He's been begging for a new one for soooo long!  I guess the Easter Bunny took pity on him!

Ella's haul!  And yes, there are alphabet flashcards in the stack!  She's finally got most of them down!  Yay!

Daddy has to guard the door so that everyone can be let out at the same time!

The hunt is ON!

Notice the birdhouses that we painted while in Utah several months ago are STILL waiting for birds... but someone laid an egg right by one!

MINE, mine... MINE!!

Braeden forgets to count... this was more than his allotted number!

Counting and sorting... while Ella is STILL hunting!

Yep... he was 2 over!  So he's giving them to their rightful owner!

Lexi and Ella got the CUTEST baskets this year... ones that we will now be using for a LONG time!  And Lexi got MY favorite color!!

Wow... he's really excited!

Helping Ella count... once she gets to 14 she ends up skipping a couple of numbers!  Haha!

But she was still 2 shy of her 20.  So... Dad is helping her spy them.  Love his face!!

LOVE it!  She's totally amazed and excited!  There are lots of things about 3 yr. olds that are NOT fun, but they ARE sooo fun to watch in their discovery!

Yay!  And somehow... we really don't know how, but the number of dollar bills were evenly split.  Thank goodness!  (Well... almost, I should say.  Lexi and Braeden got 2 and Ella got 3!)

These are the moments I treasure!  When it was time for Ella to start opening her eggs she CAREFULLY tapped the first one on the table to CRACK IT!!!  Yes... all those days of making cookies IS paying off!  Damian and I giggled... a lot!

Um... though you may have the largest teeth imaginable for a 6 yr. old I'm SURE that this is NOT a good use for them.  ABSOLUTELY SURE!

I love it!  Even SHINY pennies are a wonderful and exiting thing!

What more is there to say??

We then did our traditional egg coloring!  Messy, but fun!  Just watch the progression of this activity!

Ever so carefully...

This is the product after 20 mins. of rolling it and dipping it.  Sigh.

Braeden is like me.  He has funny concentration faces!

And after a great amount of DRAMA we're finally finished with a SMILE!

And we had made these a couple of days prior... and had friends over to decorate... though I didn't get pix of that.  These are mine.  Ella ate her's as fast as she got them decorated with a pound of frosting and sprinkles each.  And Braeden... he just ate mine.  Lexi's are below!

She is getting pretty good at the cookie decor!

And... tada!  The final products!  In order:  Lexi's, then Braeden's, and last, but certainly not the least... Ella's!

Beautiful, aren't they?  Cracks and ALL!