The real meaning of Easter....2018

 We had a wonderful Christ centered Easter week this year.  It seems like every year we get a little busier in the evenings than the past year and so it is harder to keep up with the nightly devotionals. 

As usual, we kicked off Easter week with our fancy Palm Sunday dinner. 

Note the palm leaves on the table.

I taught Alysee how to form the bunny bread this year.  She did a great job!  We made two this year and took the other one to a friend that is going through a tough time.

We dined on twice baked potatoes, bbq spareribs, homemade bunny bread, and a green salad.

Chloe made these cute carrot cake truffles for dessert.

This year for our nightly devotionals we did the resurrection eggs.  I've always wanted to make a set for our family but never have.  This year I did it!  It was really simple but provided a short devotional for each night.

I had to get pretty creative with the egg fillers. This is the crown of thorns and whip.

Last sacrament

One night the kids and Birch made resurrection rolls (I had a presidency meeting)

Chloe, Sage, and Mila made cute little bird nests out of rice krispies, chocolate, jelly beans, and marshmallow chicks.

It's hard to keep up with Chloe's crafting and baking desires.  Sadly, I feel like I am getting less fun and energized and she is getting more and more involved in her creations. 

 L.O.A. wall (Love One Another wall) - this is certainly one of our favorite traditions!!!  We write notes of love to our family members throughout the week.

Everyone's VERY favorite activity is going EGGING!!  This year our nights were so full that we ended up doing it Friday night before Birch and I went on a date.  We "egged" three people's homes will candy-filled Easter eggs.  We have several friends that are really hurting right now and so it was fun to think of something little that could brighten their days.

 General Conference!!!

This year General Conference fell on Easter Week.  I made the most delicious monkey bread this year with homemade caramel!

Conference as a family!

Nate and Tyler worked really hard on this OSU puzzle this year for their conference activity.

 Passover Meal - aka What did Jesus eat? aka Yucky Meal

After general conference we were lucky enough to have the Andersens and the missionaries join us for our annual passover meal.  The Andersens call it the "Yucky Meal" because it really did start out as not very tasty but over the years has warped into something much more palatable. 

As usual we dressed in our "Jesus attire."  This year we had marinated and grilled salmon, grilled chicken (cause I was worried the salman wasn't good), naan bread, pistachio,  orzo, olives, green salad, goat cheese and crackers, beef jerky, acai/pomegranate juice, grapes, chocolate covered pomegranates, figs, jicama, and dried apricots.

Truman wasn't digging anything Jesus ate so he had a dairy-free yogurt.

Coop's outfit....it was interesting.  Kind of a mix of pioneer, Laminate, and Jesus-period.

And Easter also happened to land on April Fool's Day...

We stole this idea from my sister, Leah.  We told the kids the eggs were all hidden and to come on our for the Easter egg hunt.  Check out the Elders laughing in the background.

And there were no eggs...

Love this picture that Birch captured of Emily -- all of us adults thought it was hilarious.  The kids...not so much.  Alysee said, "Is this to remind us that Jesus's tomb was empty?"

 The the REAL hunt!!!

We threw in a new fun thing this year - I found confetti filled REAL eggs at Walmart.  When the kids found one of these eggs they were supposed to chase after someone and crack it on their head.  

The kids LOVED it!!!!

But honestly I think Ryan loved it the most.  It was little a devil uncle out their chasing after kids.

Truman was hilarious.  He thought he had to hit each egg he found on his head in order for it to open.  So he would find an egg and smash it super hard on his head until it would open (each time being filled with candy not confetti) 

Uncle Ryan was out to get everyone!  Everyone decided that next year they want way more confetti filled eggs.

Enjoying their loot!

 It was a really wonderful Easter week!  We were missing Elder Ditto but having the missionaries in our home for Easter made me smile to think we were providing a memorable Easter for a set of Elders.  I'm so thankful that even though our lives are running in high speed we take a moment to think about the real reason we celebrate Easter.

Love At Home

Each Fast Sunday we try to talk about some ideas as a family that we each might want to fast about.  Birch and I have been noticing that the tolerance level and love between the kids has been lacking.  Really we could all use an extra dose of patience with each other and be a little faster to forgive and a little slower to be sharp with one another.  How many times do we say, "would you treat a friend or teacher that way?"  Of course, we all need to work on the love level at home and so Birch suggested that we fast as a family with this in mind.

In April 1998, Lynn G. Robbins gave a talk at General Conference called "Agency and Anger." Birch shared at our family council meeting today a quote from the talk that I love, "[Satan] damages and often destroys families within the walls of their own homes. His strategy is to stir up anger between family members. Satan is the “father of contention, and he stirreth up the hearts of men to contend with anger, one with another” (3 Ne. 11:29). The verb stir sounds like a recipe for disaster: Put tempers on medium heat, stir in a few choice words, and bring to a boil; continue stirring until thick; cool off; let feelings chill for several days; serve cold; lots of leftovers."

And so I now present to you the children that are working on an extra sprinkle of thinking of others more than themselves, a dash of forgiveness, a teaspoon of ignoring annoying things, and several cups of love for each other!

Ditto kids (minus Alex) on a sunny Sabbath morning

General Conference...good for the soul

What a WONDERFUL weekend we have had listening to uplifting words and being reminded of things to improve in our lives!  Yesterday we had to multi-task while listening to conference with a soccer game and cross country meet.  Today was wonderful to just sit back and soak in the goodness.

We had our traditional monkey bread, breakfast casserole, fruit, and juice for breakfast.

I'm so thankful we can sit in our jammies and listen to conference.

The last session of conference we worked Vision Boards.  The purpose of a Vision Board is to give each person a visual of goals they want to attain in their life.  What you want to become, places you want to go, attributes you want to work toward, a bucket list of desires, etc...  There is no wrong or right way to make a vision board.  We each labored away quietly (well, pretty quiet) on our creations for the last two hours of conference.

Birch designing away.

Coop sketching out his ideas.

Chloe painting her vision board.

Birch adding the details to his vision board.

 THE FINAL PRODUCTS!!!!

Alysee's vision board

Chloe's vision board

Tyler's vision board

Birch's vision board 

Momma's vision board

Coop's vision board

Nate's vision board

We couldn't leave Elder Ditto out so I made him a vision board of his current life.

I'm looking forward to re-reading and listening to the conference talks again the next six months.  It was different to not hear the prophet speak to us today as he was at home due to age.  We are going to hang our Vision Boards in the mud room so we'll see them each day!  Here's to attaining our dreams!!!!