Easter

Easter was fun. I am a sucker for how excited Sadie gets about holidays. We went to UVU's Easter party, just like last year, but UVU scaled way back this year so there weren't many activities. We did the egg hunt and went home. Sadie picked up purple and pink eggs exclusively. She is such a girl. I told her there was candy in all the eggs, no matter what color, but she didn't care. She handed Elise a few blue and green eggs.

Elise was very excited for the egg hunt

The day before Easter we had a mini egg hunt in our square of concrete behind our townhouse. Sadie insisted on wearing her nightgown. 

By the way, if it seems to you that Sadie is wearing nightgowns in all the pictures we put on the blog, it's because she is. If it was her choice she would never wear clothes. The line we have drawn is that she can't go outside in her 'jamas', but she can wear them at home. I gave in this time for special and she has mentioned several times recently that she got to go outside to find eggs in her Tinkerbell 'jamas.

Hillary helped Sadie dye eggs. I realized that I don't care much about dying eggs. It's just messy and hard for Sadie to do. I think we'll skip that in the future. Daniel and Sadie do really enjoy hard boiled eggs so maybe we'll just decorate eggs with crayons and stickers?

I spoiled the girls with their Easter baskets and I am somewhat embarrassed about it.  I am only putting this picture up to remind myself in the future that a $25 limit per kid gives them way too much stuff, especially when Elise's birthday is a few weeks later. Next year the limit will be $10.

Now for some not so materialistic Easter thoughts...

I spent a lot of time on Easter thinking about the reality of the Resurrection and what it means for me. How much the meaning of it has probably shifted for some of my loved ones. In high school and early college Christ and the Atonement mostly meant forgiveness of sins to me. How grateful I was my mistakes were overcome by Him. Not to downplay that, because that is a big deal, but in the past year extraordinarily difficult things have happened in the lives of people I love and that is all I could think about. Jesus Christ's act covers all of those things, despite how different each of the situations are. All of us will be resurrected and we will all see our families again. I often take for granted the hope that that brings me. Christ's Atonement covers those who have been hurt in the worst way by other people. His Atonement heals those whose mortal bodies fail them. I don't understand how Christ could have survived feeling all of the worst pain, frustration and sorrow anyone in the world would ever experience, but I do believe that He did. One of the hardest things about it all is that we, as humans, still have to go through the pain of these things- it won't be completely taken away during our lives just because of a belief in Him. And I don't understand why some have to go through these incredibly heart-wrenching trials, while others just plain don't have to, except that difficult things are a part of God's plan for what life on Earth would be.