Easter 2016 and picture overload

 Easter this year was very different in many ways, but it was seriously SUCH a great day. For the few weeks leading up to Easter, the kids and I spent time reading stories about Jesus's life, the miracles performed, and details about the resurrection. We read scriptures, watched videos and talked about it. My mom also helped them make "Resurrection rolls" to help demonstrate the idea of an empty tomb. I feel like going into it Christian had a way better understanding of what Easter meant, and Leila was starting to catch on too!

The kids woke up to individual Easter baskets and new outfits. I tried to keep it more simple this year. Each kid got an outfit, a pair of shoes, a movie they have asked for (Christian has been begging for two so JoJo very selflessly let her movie pick be one of the ones he wanted! lol), and a little candy. Much to my surprise Christian didn't throw a fit about wearing his vest or bow tie at all!

After they looked through their baskets, we all got showered and dressed and headed over to my parent's house for an Easter egg hunt and brunch. This year my mom had the brilliant idea to dye eggs four different colors. 8 orange, 8 pink, 8 purple and 4 blue. Christian's were orange, Leila's pink, Elaine's purple, and JoJo's blue. That way, each kid got to look for only their color to ensure that Leila got to play along! And the blue eggs were fair game! All of the kids "helped" JoJo find hers and put them in her basket. It was WAY too cute. Afterward we celebrated with our traditional creamed eggs brunch and then headed home to get ready for church.

Cousin love

Those two are seriously hilarious together

Showing off her egg

Christian was SUPER good at finding other people's eggs, but...not so much his own!

Proud of his "golden" eggs

I am not sure what face she is making here!

Before I go much further I should explain that the Tuesday before Easter Leila fell running on the sidewalk and completely busted open her lip and scratched up her nose! She is still cute, but it definitely made for some memorable Easter pictures.

Church was wonderful, and even though we only had one YW there and 5 leaders, it was still a very beautiful and spiritual meeting.

My dapper man

I love his genuine smile!

Be still my heart!!!

Big Brother and Big Sister loving on JoJo

I LOVE this picture!

I was making funny faces at them so, of course, they stuck out their tongues too

So close - stop scrunching your face CJ!

Look up, Leila!

Come on guys! Smile! Look at me!

JoJooooooooooooo stop eating your dress!

Another funny face by mom, gone wrong

Such a nerdy face

I am sure she was directing me to do something

Who can photoshop the scabs out of this one???

I get this a lot. Stop acting coy you cute little manipulator!

She puts EVERYTHING in her mouth right now. Trying to get a picture without her hand or dress in her mouth was basically impossible.

Is she licking her dress??? I think she may be!

Those shoes were way too big for her

Love her crooked smile

Daddy trying to get her to smile

She's thinking about it....

These pictures are blurry, but so cute! He was holding her in the air.

A true, genuine, JoJo smile.

She loves her Daddy

Leila wanted to hold the camera

She actually took this picture. Girl has a definite eye

Still trying to figure out what her true eye color will be.

After church, while dinner was cooking, Leila fell asleep with little cereal dribbles on her dress and her hand IN the bag!! lol

 Usually, we go to Jared's mom's house for Easter dinner, but this year we decided that we would attempt to make our own Easter dinner the way we wanted to do it! After talking at length, Jared and I both decided that we didn't really like ham all that much, and so we broke tradition and bought STEAK! We wanted to do something fancier...and an item that we didn't have regularly, but that we both enjoyed. So when we got home from church, we got to work! We ended up with funeral potatoes, rib eye and new york strips on the grill, grilled asparagus, orange jello salad, and King's Hawaiian rolls. We even brought out some Martinelli's and used the champagne flutes that Jared got from my parents (amongst other things!) for his birthday. Oh! And lemon poke cake for dessert, but I didn't get a picture of that. Suffice to say that it was delicious!

It was such a wonderful meal and a perfect day spent together as family. I am grateful for my Savior Jesus Christ and the sacrifice He made so that we may all live with our Father in Heaven again. Happy Easter!