Easter in pictures

As promised, here are a few pictures from our Easter celebrations.  For the first time Huston really enjoyed his Easter egg hunts.  Last year he refused to pick up a single egg.  I think it helped once he realized there was candy inside.  His first egg hunt was at Mimi and Grandpa’s house on Saturday and he kept opening each egg to see and/or eat the gummies inside before moving on to the next one.  We finally convinced him to put them all in his basket first and eat them later! 

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  Huston had such a great time playing with his cousins (well, first cousins once removed, to be exact).  He laughed at Blake and repeated everything he said, and bossed Valerie and Summer around while playing playdoh.  He had a great time watching Mickey Mouse “Clock Cleaners” and a new Thomas video from his Easter basket.  During brunch, he spied Granny’s plate of food first and decided to plop right down next to her on the couch and eat all of her food.  He said “You want more chicken.  You want break it.  You want more grapes.  You want more muffin.”  Granny was sweet enough to feed him until his belly was full.  Arden got passed around and enchanted everyone.  She took a nap in Grandpa’s arms and looked adorable in her bunny outfit.

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Arden even had an outfit change so she could model the cute little outfit she got in her Easter basket from Mimi and Grandpa.

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On Sunday we went to my parent’s house for lunch.  Huston had fun playing with his cousins, Cody and Bradley, and he enjoyed his second egg hunt.  As he wandered around with his bag to collect eggs, he kept saying “The Easter Bunny came.  The Easter Bunny came.”  His inflection suggested a mix of amazement and confusion, like he wasn’t quite sure who the Easter Bunny was, but he was sure glad he came.  At one point during the search for eggs, he looked at his bag and said “You have Easter bunnies in your box.” 

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Huston got some garden tools in his basket and immediately requested some dirt to dig in.  Luckily my parents had a big wheelbarrow full of it.

Arden borrowed her cousin Kierstyn’s jumperoo toy and had a blast.

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Great weather, great families, great reason to celebrate.  Happy Easter!

(Hi-fiving Uncle Ben after a successful egg hunt.)

Happy Easter!

I’ll be posting a few pictures from our Easter celebrations soon, but before I get to that, I have to say that by far my favorite part of this Easter has been teaching Huston about Jesus’ resurrection.  I bought him some “resurrection eggs” that tell the story of Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection.  He loves playing with those eggs even more than I could have hoped and calls them his “resin eggs.”  At first I thought it would all be way over his head, and I know that many parts of the story are pretty complex for him, but he can tell most of the story at least in a simple way.  For example, he loves opening the first egg (which has a donkey inside) and saying “Jesus rode in on a donkey.  They say ‘Hosanna to the King’.”  The fourth egg has praying hands for when Jesus prayed in the garden and Huston will say “Jesus prayed to God” and clasp his hands together and squeeze his eyes shut.  For the eggs that have a whip and a crown of thorns in them, Huston says “They hurt Jesus” and when we get to the egg with the cross in it, he says “Jesus died on the cross for he loves us.”

On Monday, the day after Easter, Huston was playing in the living room with the eggs and he called “Mommy!  Mommy! Mommy!”  I came into the living room to see him with the 12th egg cracked open (the empty one – signifying the empty tomb) and he exclaimed “Jesus is alive!”  My heart just leapt with joy at his proclamation.  It was one of my favorite moments in life ever.  So sweet – so true – so simple – so profound – coming from the mouth of my little boy.  Thank you, Jesus.