Celebrating Easter

On Easter Sunday we attended our old church, now known to Kylie as "Dahma's church." It was a beautiful service and we enjoyed being with our church family of so many years to celebrate the Resurrection of Christ. Now that I'm a mother the sacrifice that our Heavenly Father made out of His love for a fallen world means even more!

We sang praises and left church in a joyful mood. Once back at Mama's we took a few minutes to snap some pictures of the kids (we skipped the whole family portrait for some reason ~ maybe the fact that I was wearing the same dress I've worn the past three years, but my sweet girl was sporting a cute new frock...) before we got to work fixing the meal. Neither of my sweet children were much in the mood for a photo shoot, so I got very little to work with. This one doesn't have both kids smiling sweetly, but perhaps it is even better as it seems to get both personalities in one image. My little imp preparing to jump off the step and my princess showing off a flower petal ~ at least their outfits are cute...

It wasn't a total waste of time though, Caleb's real personality came through as I was snapping away. If you haven't met him yet, trust me that this picture shows what he's like about 95% of the time. He even wakes up this way most mornings!



Lunch was a delicious effort by everyone except Mama (the birthday girl) and when it came time for cake, Kylie got a little too excited and came away with an arm full of icing. (By the way, I totally recommend Paula Dean's Simply Delicious Strawberry Cake ~ and apparently so does Kylie).


We enjoyed some relaxed time with our family and after naps (for most everyone, including some of the grown-ups) it was time for the final egg hunt of 2009. Kylie took searching very seriously. She carefully scanned the area around each location she found an egg using the logic that the bunny probably would have dropped several eggs together. Yes, she's changed clothing again in this picture (happens frequently around here). She started the day in her Easter dress, dug through the bag of clothes Tricia brought for us and wore the dress Abby wore on her first day of kindergarten for meal and nap time, and then went candy searching in an outfit she put together herself. My little girl is getting so tall!

Caleb on the other hand was all about the candy this time. After the "empty egg" hunt the day before, he was celebrating the fact that these eggs were loaded. For the most part he was operating on the "find and egg and sample the contents" method of egg gathering.




Kylie and Caleb got a few minute head start and then the Triple A's joined in. With the competitive nature of Adam and Andrew, the rest of the eggs were found within minutes and then there was a communal candy discussion.
What a glorious day!