Easter

I love Easter. The cute clothes, the spring decorations, and the Easter Candy.  Of course, I love it for the biggest reason, the Resurrection of my Savior. It is my favorite holiday and I am really enjoying now that I have children. I have so much fun putting together their Easter baskets (we don't really do the whole Easter Bunny thing, but do give them baskets) This year was no exception. I shopped for all kinds of little things to fill the baskets and make my little ones smile.  Shopping for Bennett is hard only because I have to make myself stop. Anything that I think he will like, I want to buy. But, as a family on a budget, I have to control myself.  Levi was easy to buy for because he has no idea what Easter is about. We were a little more unorgainized this year, and boy could I feel it!

When Bennett and Levi woke up, we gave them their Easter baskets. It was so much fun watching Bennett get excited about what was in his and helping Levi get his goodies out.  Mistake number one on my part was not waiting until after church for the basket.  It took us forever to get Bennett to put away his bubbles and stamps so we could head to church.

 Church was packed!! Quinn had to drop me and the kids off at the door to find somewhere to park.  After getting the boys settled into their rooms, I found Quinn who had been recruited to usher. So, in I went. The worship was amazing.  The service was great, as usual. It took us a while to get out of the building because of the crowd. This is when the chaos really began. My shoe broke while I ran into the house to get everything we needed to take to Quinn's parents.  (I forgot the eggs and had to run back in later) Bennett forgot his bunny at church so we had to go back by there- I went in barefoot while Quinn fixed my shoe. Then we had to make a quick Wal-Mart trip for some last minute items.  I fed Levi while Quinn and Bennett went in.  Finally, we had everything we needed to go to our parents house.

Every year, for as long as I can remember, my daddy and I have shared a very special Easter tradition. When I was younger, he and I would go and pick Easter lillies on the side of the road to put on his parent's grave. Mama stayed home and cooked so it was just our time. I never knew my grandparents, so I loved him telling me stories about them.  Last year, Bennett started joining us. It was so special for me to be able to pass this along to my son, as I know one day we will be doing the same tradtion.  Well, because I didn't have it together this year, we didn't have time to go by there before we needed to be at the Hadsock's for lunch.  I was so sad, but my dad understood. We went over there later in the week and were able to continue our tradition-bringing Quinn and Levi along with us.

We went to Quinn's parents for lunch and egg hunting. Bennett just loves his cousin Jaxon, so we couldn't get him to eat anything!   They ran around playing the whole time. Deaven and Stewart  (and Deaven's baby bump, Tal) were home from Canton, so it was great getting to spend time with them and talk "baby."  Nicole, Dustin's girlfriend, joined in on the baby convo, even though she doesn't know what baby H is yet. I don't know what it is about women, get us together and all we can talk about is pregnancy, babies to come, and and the babies we have. I also got to meet baby Talmadge, Quinn's cousin Paul's 4th child, but first son.  Man how quickly you forget how small they are.

Anyway, onto the good stuff. Bennett could not wait to hunt Easter Eggs.  He is just learning to play hide and seek and thinks it's the best game ever (he usually hides and then comes out of hiding to scare me) The guys went and hid tons of eggs while we kept the kids occupied inside.  Once all the eggs were hidden, we took the kids to the porch for the traditional picture and rules of the hunt.  And then it was ON!! Bennett is such a sweetie that he found eggs and put them in other people's baskets. He liked finding them, but he wanted all the leaves off them, and had to put them in his basket just so.  He also, didn't get the urgency of finding an egg, and then running to find another. He wanted to savor the egg he just found, not worried to much about finding another.  I took that as a lesson for me.  Why on earth do we have to rush through something good just to do something else? Who care how many eggs you have at the end of the hunt? As long as you enjoyed finding the ones you have, the amount shouldn't matter.

After the hunt, it was time to wrap the day up.  We cleaned up, packed up, and headed home. Both boys were asleep before we got out of the driveway. What a fun day!