Easter

All month we have been doing our best to drill the Easter story into our kids' heads. :) It has really been neat to see Cooper's little mind work, and I have seen his love for Jesus grow. He gave a talk in primary on Easter Sunday, and did such a great job. He really is growing up!

Our Easter celebrations were fun. Friday, we had a little Easter egg hunt at the church. We had some Easter stories and things inside, while moms hid the eggs. Cooper had fun, but wondered why the eggs weren't "hidden". "They were just laying out where we could see them mom!" he said. Gunner LOVED the hunt, but more importantly LOVED when he figured out the eggs were filled with CANDY! It was so cute to hear him say "Eater Egg" the rest of the weekend.

We also had some fun coloring Easter eggs. Both boys stayed interested a lot longer than I thought they would. They were pretty proud of their creations too. Gunner's favorite thing was using the crayons to color the eggs, and Cooper was insisting on getting the eggs in and out of the dye all by himself. It is hard to encourage independence when it involves dye!

The ward had a game night that night, and it was fun to get together and play board games you never have enough adults to play!


Saturday, we went downtown to St. Louis University to another hunt. It was a lot colder than the forecast, and I wasn't as prepared as I probably should have been, but the boys still did great. They got to sit on the Easter Bunnies lap, and get little stuffed frogs. They also had cake and cookies. Gunner did great, until he tried to continue his hunt on the older kids lawn...then he had a little breakdown. Once he discovered the fun things in his eggs, he was ok again. Cooper was so geared up and it was so fun to watch him dash around.

Saturday night, the Young Single Adults sponsored a Kids Carnival that Cooper and Gunner were both able to go to for 2 1/2 hours! It was great, cause we got to go to a movie for the first time in forever! They had such fun with the carnival games, and brought home a lot of prizes.

Cooper was cute to make sure the baskets were by the front door, because "the Easter Bunny is different from Santa, because he comes through the door instead of the chimney. But, we need to put the baskets a little far back from the door, so he doesn't step on them." Sunday morning, we had their baskets hidden. They had fun finding them, and then we had church. The spirit was so strong in our meetings, and it was really a neat Easter Sunday. The weather was crummy, so we didn't do anything outside, and the family we were going to have over for dinner, ended up with pneumonia. So we just exchanged portions of the meal. It was a really nice, relaxing, fun Easter.

I am so grateful for my Savior, and His sacrifice. I am also so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father, who was willing to let His son go through everything he did for our sake. I look at my children, and don't know how it would be possible to see them suffer so badly. I hope I can use the Atonement everyday to become a better person...and a better mother and wife. It sure is hard when you have young children, to keep you patience, and treat them as one of His children. But, that is the beauty of it all. I can try again each day. For that I am SOOO grateful!