Happy Easter!

We very much enjoyed our Easter weekend as a family. We love watching the kids through all of their excitement, fun, and learning, even though both Jeremy and I think holidays are a lot harder now than they used to be. Just this morning I said to Jeremy: "When I was younger, I just remember holidays being fun and relaxing. I guess that's because my parents were doing all the work."

I guess so.

But really, the work is worth it to see our little charmers full of life and fun. They were both quite excited about the impending visit from the Easter Bunny. Clara fell asleep right away, as she is wont to do, but Jonathan was just too full of anticipation to fall asleep easily. At one point he came out and said, all nervous-like, "Where's Clara?" We went in and found Clara hidden in her bed. She was lying on her back and had the covers tucked up to her chin, and she had put her pillow so it was almost entirely covering her face. I told Jonathan she was there, readjusted her so she was on top of her pillow, and left.


This morning, we asked her why she fell asleep like that. Her response? "I was trying to look like a bed so the Easter Bunny wouldn't see me and she'd be surprised." That's right: she was trying to pull a fast one on the Easter Bunny. Clever Clara.


The EB was pretty light on the candy this year, since one of our children (I won't say who it is, but it isn't Clara) is an absolute fiend for candy. Seriously. He's like an unstoppable rebel force out to conquer all the candy in the universe. Or, perhaps more accurately, he's like one of those truffle-sniffing pigs who can find truffles hidden anywhere in the dank of the forest. The boy can find candy, and then he will eat it all, so we thought we might as well limit his options. Neither of them seemed to think the offerings were light, though, so all said it was a good time.


We also truly enjoyed our time at church today. Both of the kids had meaningful lessons on the Resurrection of Christ in their little classes, and Jeremy and I were able to teach an Easter lesson to our Gospel Principles Sunday School class. We were both touched deeply by the Holy Spirit both as we prepared the lesson and as we shared it with the class. I'm grateful for this special day where we can take time to reflect on the miracle of Christ's life, death, Atonement and Resurrection. I know the Savior lives, and that he loves us. Everything I have in my life that has brought me goodness, peace, and joy stems from my faith in Christ. I'm grateful for that knowledge.

In addition to these realizations and memorable moments, I will say that we also very much enjoyed this year's Easter dinner. Jeremy and I worked hard to make a ham steak (buying a whole ham seemed silly for our little family, particularly since we only ate about a third of the ham steak), monkey bread, deviled eggs, asparagus, fluffy strawberry salad, and creamed new potatoes and peas. Hard work makes food tastes even better, I think, and we enjoyed sitting down to the fruits of our labors. Clara was also gratifyingly hungry and appreciative. Jonathan was also there. I think he was full of candy.




And I will admit that one of my favorite things about the day was wearing matching Easter dresses with Clara. I matched us last year for Mother's Day and this year for Easter, and I figure I'll keep having us be twins once a year until she thinks I'm too dorky. I might only have one more year left! I am pretty dorky--something that will no doubt be easily discernible by our discriminating girl!



Also, you may notice that I look a bit, well, large-ish in these pictures. Though this may be a surprise to some of my dedicated readers, we are having another baby in September! We have a lot to celebrate these days...


Happy Easter!