Oodles of Easter Pictures!

Easter weekend was loads of fun for us this year. We headed down to the Provo area the day before to be at the baptism of our nephew, Ryan, who is the first grandchild on my side of the family to be baptized! We are so proud of him! That evening we all headed to Aria and Tommy's for a BBQ and egg hunt. It sure was a lot of fun to see all of the cousins race around for their loot, even if some caught the hang of it a little better than others. Thanks to my sister, Aria, we have all sorts of glorious pictures to document our fun!

L: Off to find the eggs! R: McCabe and one of the two eggs he found. He refused to put them in the basket and was sure that I was trying to pull the wool over his eyes in some way or another.

L: Mason found the winning golden egg! R: Charlie, filling up his basket

Charlie. He might not of found the most eggs but he might have been the last one to give up on the hunt.

Charlie and Mason. I love these boys.

L: Ben enjoying his spoils R: My dad/ the Easter Bunny

Catlyn, McCabe, and Max. Three of the five grandchildren that were born while Kathleen was away on her mission.

L: Some of the kids getting prizes from Grandma R: Valerie and Max. Isn't my sister a beaut!

 L: Aria and Sydney R: Ryan and his candy

 L: Tommy at the grill R: Sarah and Catlyn

On Easter morning we found notes from the Easter Bunny with picture clues to show us where he left our baskets! My dad would draw these up for us when we were little and I get a kick out of seeing the tradition continue on to the next generation. It is a big hit with my little men (minus McCabe who didn't quite catch the vision).

 Mason, in search for a clue

 L: Mason with his basket R: James finding his

 My parents finding theirs

 L: Charlie R: Aria

 Three of the little ones enjoying their loot. The breakfast of champions.

When it was time for church, I was thrilled to have the chance to have my talented sister take pictures of my men in their Easter wear. Aria's kids went first and took adorable and loving shots like this:

And then my boys wowed us by taking these:

 Rats! Yes, I was fuming. As you can imagine, I really was feeling the true meaning of Easter as we drove our screaming children to church. Even without my children giving me the Easter present I was hoping for, we had a wonderful time. Happy Easter!

Salutations from your Sand Bunny

 Have a wonderful Easter weekend!

Preparing for Easter!

Here are some of the better looking peeps/marshmallow blobs

Today we woke up to snow outside so we've spent and unexpected snuggly day indoors. To keep our hearts in Easter mode, we decided to make homemade peeps for this weekends festivities! What fun! 

On top of the usual pouring and mixing, each boy got to color their own sugar for their peeps:

add a couple drops of food coloring in a ziploc bag and shake the sugar around till you get the color you were hoping for

I put myself in charge of shaping the peeps so that they would look cute and chick-like:

I guess next year I'll let the boys do this part too since they really can't make them more blobby than I do. D'oh!

Along the way we were sure to do some taste testing to make sure that our product was up to snuff:

 Very yummy stuff!

 Once it was all done, I put the boys on clean-up duty:

 My boys are generally not this eager to help out

 McCabey and Char

 After a quick dip in the tub, we were all done! This is my kind of way to stay warm on a snowy day!

Easter 2011

Charlie and Mason finding Char's basket.

This year we were lucky enough to have my sister Kathleen, and James' brother Bryce, come to visit for the holiday! Everything is better with family. The Easter bunny surprised us by hiding our baskets (that Kathleen made with a paper bag and spray paint) around our front yard. Thankfully, with the help of some drawn clues, we were able to discover their hiding spots and start the holiday off right. Then after a nice slow morning, we headed off to church as a family for our last Sunday in this ward (we move this week!). It was a wonderful day. The highlight of the day was darting around our front lawn in my robe and Medusa hair while neighbors drove by on their way to early church meetings. Lowlight: Our ham dinner. Boo.

 Mason was so excited when he found his basket that he kept running back to it and collecting his loot one at a time. The first thing he got was a little spin helicopter-type toy and he excitedly shouted, "It's so I can cut down trees!" ????

 Bryce and Kathleen enjoying their spoils

McCabe and his basket.

 My dapper little men before church

 And another. They were so cute.

Charlie, enjoying a post-church swing....even with carrots on his chest.

Our Flopsy-mopsy

 This Easter season seems to be turning out a little colder than expected. Fortunately, this doesn't bother me because that means I get to see McCabe sporting his bunny hat. I have no doubt that McCabe is praying for sunshine but I figure he has the rest of his life to look manly. :)

My bow tie boys...

Just after Easter dinner, my sister was nice enough to pull my boys aside and take a couple pictures of them in their Easter best. She is SO good to me!!!!! I just love how dapper the little chaps look in the bow ties I made for them. Too bad I didn't make one for James! I was going to make them matching lemon yellow shorts but James insisted that they would be way too girly. Our boys should be grateful that they have their poppy to protect them from some of my hair-brained ideas.