He is Risen

Easter really is such a glorious time for me. I love holidays. But I love what this holiday represents the most. I'm not sure if this painting is in print yet, but I like it and I think it really expresses a lot. I love LDS artwork. Del Parson is one of my favorites. When I first saw it, I wondered about the whole, "Touch Me Not," part of the story. I believe this site talks about it a little. But I wonder what others' opinions are on the matter. In any case, I feel this might have been what Mary felt regardless of whether she actually touched him or not. In my opinion, it is a rather insignificant detail.

http://summalogica.com/blog/marys-elation-painting-and-description-del-parson/

In any case, I don't want my children to ever think that my main focus on Easter Day was the Easter Bunny and eggs. I want them to know of my testimony of the atonement. I know he is our older brother and that his sacrifice was made out of sincere love for all of us. That said, I do enjoy the symbolism of Easter Bunnies and eggs. A new birth. A new life. Spring time. The Savior as a risen being is just that. A new opportunity.

So here are our eggs for the year. A few weeks back, we threw a little Easter Egg "Tie" dying party. It sure was fun. I first made these a couple years back. But it is a fun and easy project that turns out beautiful eggs that look as though they've taken hours to create. The other plus side is that you don't have to deal with messy dyes. Which I love. Because I hate messy dyes. I still use them though.

Here are some of the different patterns that turned out. It's true though that the uglier the tie the prettier the egg. Oh, and if anyone tries to make these in the future, make sure the ties are made of 100% silk. Polyester does not work.

Then yesterday was our ward Easter egg hunt. Trying to explain to my dad that we were going on an Easter Egg Hunt was rather comical. He couldn't figure out why we were all getting ready so early to go and buy eggs. Both my sister and I explained to him a bunch of different times that it was FOR EASTER. Anyways, I know it's every mother's dream to fill up her children with candy. Not. So I'm glad I didn't buy big easter egg baskets for this event because my kids could have easily picked up more eggs than you see here. But it is also hard to take away these sweet treats from them when their little eyes light up. So as part of one of the three or four times a year that we eat candy, I let them have some. I don't know why I get so paranoid about this. Maybe it's because Orion has been having some rash breakouts on his bum lately and the doctor told us to try and stay away from yeast products and sugar because he may have candida overgrowth. Go figure. And now we're eating candy. After today, I'm seriously cutting back on the sugar.

Chrysalis was funny. She didn't know what to think of seeing so many eggs. So after collecting two, she was done. When she realized there were "treats" in each egg, she then wanted to collect more eggs.

Poor little Hinckley hangs out in the stroller and/or carseat a lot. He'll be up and about soon enough though. He's already crawling and pulling up. This kid just grows too fast.

Me and my silly babes.

Every time I tried to capture a cute pic of this girl, she turned around. So these are as good as it gets with her.

Just too occupied with the candy.

To top it off, if you happened to collect the special gold or silver eggs of which there were only a few, you got this special treat. A giant chocolatey sugary bunny.

Leave it up to my kids to each get one. But once I explained to Orion that they had "milk" chocolate and that he shouldn't have any, I asked him if he would be willing to give it to another little kid who really wanted one. He said, "Okay." Pointed out some cute little girl and walked up to her and said, "Hey girl, do you want this? I don't like it because it has milk and makes me itchy." Who's kid is this? I'm not sure. But if it had been me, I don't think I would have done this so easily. Orion is truly unique. And I love him for it.

And here are their Easter outfits from today. I had such a nice idea for a photo shoot, but after a few minutes, these kiddos were done. Why do photo shoots with kid always turn out to be the hardest things to put together? Maybe it's the timing. I suppose the upside to trying to do it after church is that they're all already dressed up. The downside: They just came home from church.

Oh well. Cute enough I guess. Hinckley was running a mild fever too. So he is a little out of it in these photos.

Can you tell?

Me and my kiddos.

And these last five pictures are what Orion decided to take. He'd been begging me to use the camera. So I figured what's the point in fighting him. He took some interesting ones. I think he might be a better photographer than I am.

Here's one of Grand Papito Pepe.

Here is one of my keys on the sidewalk.

Chrysalis blowing raspberries in the air.

And one of us with all of our heads chopped off. At least mine wasn't. Ha ha! Well, Happy Easter to all! And remember: He is Risen!