Happy Easter!

After telling people I would blog about Easter for several weeks now, I'm finally sitting down at my computer.

I have to say that Easter is not one of my favorite holidays. I don't know why...I'm just not really into the whole Easter Bunny, baskets and stuff. So I usually focus more on the spiritual reasons for celebrating Easter. We have an annual tradition of seeing the Easter Pageant at the Mesa LDS Temple. We make it a family affair--we arrive early, eat dinner (like pizza or something), play games and then enjoy the pageant. It helps to bring the Spirit into the Easter season.

This year we tried something new. During the week before Easter, we opened an Easter egg each day. In the egg was a scripture about the Easter story and a token or symbol like a nail or a piece of bread (for the sacrament). Then the last egg is opened on Easter and it is empty to represent the Resurrected Savior. The kids enjoyed it and reminded me to open the egg.

 Here are the Easter Baskets. This year Hanna and Alyssa found out (or realized) who the Easter Bunny truly is. They handled it pretty well. I think they've known for some time. My kids really are growing up.

Each Easter I try to make new dresses for church. Here are my kids sporting their new Easter outfits for the year.

This year I even made myself a skirt.

After church, Jason's sister and her family joined us for an egg hunt and dinner.

  

We had the teenagers hide the eggs for the littlies.

Hunting for eggs in our "desert" backyard. Pathetic grass, I know.

Kohler with his stash.

Going through the loot after the hunt.

Hanna enjoyed spending time with Aunt Char making jewelry.

For Easter we painted our kitchen yellow (not really for Easter but we like to say that).

Brynlie really enjoyed her chocolate.

Uncle Von with Minnie. I love this picture.

Then we hid eggs for the older kids and they had their hunt.

Kamary found an "extra special" egg.

Sweet Alyssa

I think Brynlie went both rounds and loaded up.

Hanna with her basket.

Kamary and her "special egg". Poor pooch. Sometimes it's hard being so small and so cute.

Jason hid eggs for Sam and Wesley. He made it really hard for them. He even buried some.

Poor Brynlie was playing and smacked her lip on the entertainment center. She had quite a fat lip!

For dinner we had ham, funeral potatoes, asparagus and yummy pies. It was a great dinner and fun to spend it with family.

Of course Easter would not be the same without coloring hard boiled eggs. This time we did 3 dozen. I'm sure my kids still felt this wasn't enough. I think they could color eggs all day!

Brynlie and her egg. I think all of her eggs were orange. Her lip looks a lot better here. The swelling went down a lot faster than I thought it would.

Here are some more pics of coloring eggs.

We had a nice Easter and what made it the best was the time we spent with our family and reflecting on the sacrifice and atonement of our Savior. It truly is the reason that we can enjoy our life and family, knowing that we can be together for eternity.