Easter Weekend 2018

I hope everyone had the BEST Easter weekend! We crammed in so many fun things both days that I felt like I blinked and it was over. Those are always the best kind of weekends though because you know so many memories were made! As always, having little ones in our home makes holidays that much more magical and Easter was no exception! Earlier in the week we had something we call "Family Night or Family Home Evening" where we have a family prayer, song, scripture, lesson, activity, and a treat. This last week leading up to Easter we focused on the Savior's final days on the Earth and his resurrection. We showed Liam a short a little video about finding the tomb empty and learning that Jesus had been resurrected and lives with God again. The sweetest part about the whole thing is Liam loved it so much that randomly in the middle of the day last Wednesday he said, "Mom, can we do that family night again and watch that video of Jesus?" Of course we can. :)

Another way we kept the Savior at the forefront of our Easter weekend was listening to General Conference. Our church has a semi-annual broadcast where we get to listen to the leaders of our church share inspired messages with us and it happened to land on Easter weekend! So while listening to that on Saturday morning we died Easter eggs ... 

This is always a tradition that spikes my fear of huge messes. haha But besides a little splashing from accidentally dropping the eggs off the metal holder a couple of times, there was very little spilling! 

MANY jelly beans were consumed during the making of these eggs also ...

Lyla missed out on the fun because she was napping but it was nice for us to have some fun one on one time with Liam ... and I'm sure she'll be my spiller next year. ;)

Our rainbow which was later covered in stickers ... ;)

While in the crafty spirit, I saw this fun idea of gluing 3 toilet paper rolls together to make an Easter bunny stamp. I even got out googly eyes to decorate them afterwords. But all Liam really wanted to do was this ...

Cute idea haha but in hindsight I should have just stuck with a paint brush and a whole lot of googly eyes to glue on top because he could have cared less if it was festive. haha

Sweet Lyla girl woke up and joined in on the fun! Liam wore that "HOP" sweatshirt for his first Easter so it was giving me all the feels!

Saturday evening we left out carrots and lettuce in our garden for the Easter bunny to find. I think she'd rather have peanut m&m's but balance in all things right?! haha

We also planted magic jelly beans together in our garden and discovered that they grew into suckers by Easter morning. ;)  

Speaking of Easter ... can I just tell you the slew of valuable lessons that I learned on Easter morning this year. Number one ... warn the Easter bunny not to hide eggs in the front yard unless you plan to hunt for them shortly after they've been hid (neighbor kids tried to take them). Number two ... (and this one is a golden rule for hosting so I feel dumb even admitting it) but do not try a new recipe that you've never made before on a holiday morning (burnt bottoms on second rack of cinnamon rolls, didn't read the recipe directions ahead of time only the ingredient list and forgot an ingredient because of it, and missed so many steps on another recipe ... EPIC FAIL). Number three ... if you are hosting a holiday meal, keep it simple (or else you'll spend all of your time in the kitchen instead of with the people you want to be spending it with). 

With that said, there were still so many redeeming (sensing a theme with this holiday) moments from the day that I don't want to forget! We Nic's mom over for Easter brunch. I made homemade cinnamon rolls for the first time, this quiche, and a fruit medley in coordinating Easter egg colors. :) Truthfully it all tasted good and turned out okay in the end. 

Around noon, the yard had dried up a bit from the big rain storm the night before so we took Liam outside for an Easter egg hunt. 

Liam's commentary during the egg hunt just might have been one of the top moments from the whole day for me. Examples include ... sniffing around the yard and saying "Mommy, daddy, do you smell that?! IT'S CHOCOLATE!" haha and "Mom, Dad, you know what that's called?! AN EASTER EGG!". Also, "I see one up there (to an egg in a tree). I get it down all myself, I'M OLDER!" haha Love him so much! 

While Liam hunted for eggs, Lyla stayed inside where it was nice and warm with Grandma playing with her new Easter toys.

The Easter bunny hid 60 eggs in our yard and he found every single one. We had to empty his basket 3 different times. Just wait until next year when he has to share with his sister. ;) 

When we came inside, we had Liam empty out all of his eggs. He still struggles to open them himself but he became quite resourceful pushing them on their crack against the tile to pop them open. Then every time he'd scream out "JELLY BEANS or COINS!" and proceed to eat at least one from every egg (coins excluded of course). 

Right about the time the sugar crash hit, we put Liam down for a nap and Nic, Lyla, and I climbed in our bed and listened to a bit more conference until all three of us fell asleep. I was so thankful for the nap because the morning took it out of me. Without it, I didn't know how I was going to rally for the rest of the day's festivities.

When Liam woke up, he found that the Easter bunny had visited our house once again to leave Easter baskets! He got a new pair of rain boots that he hasn't taken off since. He also has had the best time over the next day and a half trying to excavated the fossil in that dinosaur egg. Lyla got an adorable new kitty towel because she had outgrown her baby towel (sad day!), an adorable new book called "Hello Lamb" and some bows/bunny ears.

Between cooking, the napping schedule, and everything else I didn't have a chance to take a picture of Lyla in her Easter dress (besides next to her Easter basket) so we had a little photo shoot later on to remember her first Easter! And because they all turned out SO adorable that I couldn't possibly narrow them down. Prepare yourself to be spammed ...

Aren't you DYING!?!? That dress, those bunny ears, and surrounded in Easter eggs! I could not contain myself!

Sadly I didn't take hardly any pictures on Easter evening but we spent it at Nic's dad and Dee's home! We had a yummy traditional ham dinner and Liam had a blast playing on their deck with the bubble guns he gave them! We were all rolling when Liam asked to wear a pair of these pear/flower flip flops that they gave Lyla all evening. haha Just adding them to the "show all of his future girlfriends" pile. ;)

Last but not least, I'll leave you with the cutest baby bunny I've ever seen right before we tucked her into bed for the night after her first Easter! 

Like I said, so many sweet redeeming moments that made the weekend so special!

And I can't end this without thanking all of Lyla and Liam's sweet grandparents both near and far who gave them Easter baskets and made the day so special for them! If you made it this far, you deserve a metal ... thank you for reading! Hope you had a Happy Easter! XO