Julia's Many Easter Dresses

Barbie took Easter photos of Julia and Clara with so many details including the perfect green grass and background, bunny ears, baskets, colorful eggs, hair bows, and she let Julia use one of Clara's dresses too! But that's not all...

Julia started standing by herself! And I don't mean standing by letting go of a table to stand for a second or 15 like she had the night before once, she can get herself from sitting to standing! Oh my goodness! 

Barbie sent me a text with a baby in a pink dress and bunny ears standing and I assumed it was Clara. I was at work so didn't have a chance to really look at my phone. Then I saw it was Julia! Wow! Then, after work, when I looked again, I saw it was a video! What a happy surprise. 

Still standing. Loving her Aunt Barbie. 

On Saturday, Daddy, Darren, Andre, and their friend Danielle won a volleyball tournament! We stopped at Martin's Farm right by there for some photos with baby chicks. Julia wasn't afraid at all. 

 They held a duckling too.

 The night before, it was already getting late/dark, but I wanted some photos in my mom's pretty back yard of Julia for Easter. So I had this dress.

 On Friday, I decided we should have our own Easter Egg hunt w/ church and other friends. It was a hit! AND Martin and Katy drove from Charlotte, NC to come too! They surprised our parents by walking in the front door at 6:30am that morning. (We had so much fun with them, running, egg hunting, playing at the beach, and hanging out with them at Mom's.)

But her real Easter dress is this one from my friend from work, Jessica. She gave it to me for Julia's baby shower. She doesn't work there any more, but I knew this was going to be Julia's Easter dress when I first saw it. It's perfect! In fact, this morning, I saw another like 7 year old wearing the exact dress for Easter! Her mom said it was a hammy down too. We went to the Botanical Gardens to take photos after the 2nd session of conference on Saturday evening. We got to stay after close b/c there was a wedding going on there.

And today, the actual Easter, I was out of ideas and we were just hanging at the park and inside watching Conference, and having dinner at my mom's, so she wore this. 

Easter Baskets

My parents always got us a book in our baskets. This year, since conference is on Easter, I got the kids activity books from Usborne. I was going to trade taking maternity photos then stay for that person's baby shower, but my friend said that the girl's husband had already scheduled some maternity photos for her. BUT they would still like if I could stay for the baby shower to take photos. She said she'd give me a big book credit since she sells books. Woo hoo! Easter is completed! (I had already found the David and Goliath book on clearance.) 

We usually do "Easter Saturday," and keep the bunny and the resurrection separate, but Steven worked today, so we are doing it on Sunday. Since we had church today (and will tomorrow), the two days are blended anyway already. 

Steven got the kids some extra things. Tyler's little lawn mower broke and he uses it so much, we were itching for a reason to replace it. Steven wants to see Tyler's face squished into that shark mask, bought the kids big eggs, and got Julia some new pacifiers since we keep loosing them and honestly love that she's a paci baby and aren't going to wean her from them any time soon. 

AND if you want to celebrate this high holiday by going to church but do not regularly attend one OR even if you do, you can "go" to mine too! It is streaming live! (2x/yr we have a world wide weekend conference.) The last two sessions are at noon and 4pm (2 hrs each) on BYUtv on cable (I have Brighthouse), online at www.LDS.org and on youtube right after. It is translated to lotsa languages too. It is relaxing, motivating, uplifting, clarifying, and even if you catch a part of one speaker or listen to one song by the #mormonTabernacleChoir, it will be worth your time. #iKnowThatMySaviorLives #easterbaskets#usbornebooks #ldsconf

Because of Him

If you haven't seen this trending video, watch it real quickly. It's under 3 minutes. Puts Easter in perspective again for you. Or look up #becauseofHim on social media of your choice.

Easter Sunday

Easter 2014

We were a little late to church. So we sat in the back. Lots of people came!! The parking lot was overflowing and people had to park by the curb. 

We changed then went to my mom's, where Isaac read his new book to us again. 

We ate frittata, italian tomatoes, salad, and not-hot crossed buns. 

We watched the #becauseofHim church video with the sister missionaries then sang to Grandma Rebeck and ate her ice cream cake. Her birthday is Thursday the 24th. 

We played in the back yard after nap time then ate a small ham that Steven cooked. Delicious. Not for tradition, but because it would not be Easter without it. :)

Easter Sunday 2013

We wanted to have our family together for Easter. Steven decided that we could host! He bought the "nice" paper plates, but at about 3am, I decided to climb up high in the garage to wash my grandma Gille's china. I loved having matching dishes for everybody, the food, and even desert plates! 

Barbie and Andre brought over baked stuffed blueberry french toast. Oh my goodness, what a perfect surprise! Dylan had asked if we could make the resurrection rolls on Easter Sunday and I told him no that we would be too rushed but it was a good idea. Barbie saved the day!

Here's our traditional Easter Morning family photo.
I tried setting up a tripod but I couldn't find the self timer feature on the camera so handed the camera to somebody walking by, perfect timing!

 Here're my toes, I didn't get myself a new Easter dress (or shoes as you can tell) but I got some stickers for my toes and a headband that matched the boys' ties. That made me happy:)

 

 The kids got cookies for their Nursery treat, lucky kiddos!

 My mom took the kids for the afternoon which was perfect b/c I needed a little nap after staying up so late prepping some of the food. And they didn't have a chance to re-clutter the house.
Steven basted the hams every 15 minutes for hours (yes two, Antonio and his two sisters were going to come so we bought another ham). He also cooked sweet potatoes on the grill, and baked his cornbread casserole - his best yet if you ask me. I made potato salad, green beans with roasted almonds, and the strawberry salad. We also had a lot of deviled eggs by my mom, fruit, rolls and spinach dip, candies, deserts and more deserts!

Selene announced her engagement and her wedding date of July 13th! 

Then Andre passed his ultrasound photo to Juliane, they're going to have a baby in October!!

 Juliane and I hid eggs in the back yard then the kids stormed out! Dylan went for the high up ones first.

Bailey came over with her friend's live Easter Bunny!! It's the softest calmest bunny, so cool! She came over last night at 9 something and asked if the kids were in bed yet. I said we should wake them up for a real bunny!!! Dylan woke up, Isaac opened his eyes but wouldn't wake up. Dylan looked at it and was sort of awake, but then he must have seen the bunny move b/c his eyes got wide and he asked, "Is it alive?!" 

Tyler didn't want to touch it, but he did want to be next to it. 

 That night, Tyler gave me a real kiss! He has given open mouth kisses before, but usually leans his head into receive a kiss and rarely gives them. The other day he started liking Eskimo kisses and he will say "kisses." But today he did the fish lips pucker kiss!

He's so cute:)