Easter Sunday

This Easter was two special occasions. It was General Conference weekend and Easter. For Mormons, this is like, the ULTIMATE April weekend.  Basically it is Church all weekend with Easter festivities in the middle.  I love when the two events run into each other like this.

So Saturday morning we woke up with our kids and had a yummy breakfast and got cozy in our bedroom and set the laptop on the dresser.  We aren't that worried about Zach "paying attention" because...come on...he wasn't even two yet.  He is happy hanging out with us and that comfort that family provides is all that matters right now.

Zach lining up his cars for Boyd K. Packer

Aaron and Zach wrestling while Sister Linda K. Burton talks about the importance of men in the lives of their children (also note all the wound care supplies to the left of the computer).

Sydney sleeping through everything.

It was a fun day spent pretty much entirely in pj's.  All day snuggling and family time except when mom did some last minute shopping at night.  But before that, we opened up Easter presents from Nana and Papa.

Zach immediately put it over his body and it pretty much stayed there the rest of the night.

Sydney admiring her new blanket.

Once Zach went to sleep, I started getting his basket ready.  Markers, water balls, a little net, a book about Easter, a teddy bear, and some dress-up brown bunny ears made by me.

Sydney only received a pink bunny rabbit because...I mean...she's not even 4 months old.

When Zach woke up in the morning, we went and ate French toast as a family.  We listened to music and the spoken word, which plays before the Sunday session of General Conference starts.

Then took Zach into our room to find his Easter basket.  He was the most interested in the markers and pretty much didn't want to deal with anything besides the markers.

But I wrestled the ears onto him for some pictures.

Then we pulled out the markers to let him enjoy them.

Very important to read the box first.

He was such a big boy, taking notes on conference with his mommy.

Then we got down to watching conference at 9am.  The first speaker was President Thomas S. Monson and he gave a very special talk...one that I probably won't forget for a very very long time.  It was on temples.  Oh, and he announced THE BANGKOK THAILAND TEMPLE!!!

Immediately I started to scream and I woke up Sydney and she started crying and Zach started crying because I was screaming....and then I got a message from Clarise in South Carolina and she was like, "Please stop screaming, you are scaring your children."  And it was literally...not a joke.  It was exactly what was happening.

But I couldn't help it!!  It was so exciting!!  The Thai people have been waiting for a temple in their country for 15 years because that was when Gordon B. Hinckley promised them that they would receive a temple someday.  More than a few years ago, he even arranged for the purchase of the land that the temple will eventually sit on.  I remember when my dad came home and told us that he was pretty sure that the Church had purchased the land that the temple would eventually sit on.  He said,"That land is way more than they need for it currently.  I think that they have some big future plans for all of that space."  I missed the next couple talks because I was getting messages from family and friends from all over who shared my excitement and wanted to talk about how great this all was.  It was amazing.  My Facebook blew up.  My phone blew up.  Absolute best thing we could have received for Easter.

After conference, I knew that I had to get some pictures of Sydney in her Easter dress.  She was adorable.  At first, she wasn't interested in smiling.  She wanted to know why I was ruining her life by putting her in a dress.

Then she started to warm up a little bit.

Next I wanted to get her in a picture with my first Easter bunny.  We call her our "little bunny" and so I thought it would be perfect to get her with my first bunny.

I love her eyes in this picture.  Staring down the camera with a little smirk.

Then I wanted to take her picture with her own Easter bunny.  It turns out that I bought her an Easter bunny that was her own size.  To be honest, it was hard not to...she's....tiny.

After my mini photo shoot with all the bunnies, it was time for Zach to have an Easter egg hunt.  I went outside to hide the eggs and Zach died inside.  He thought that I was leaving and I was going outside without him and he started crying at the door.  Aaron tried to comfort him and I didn't know and a guy from the neighborhood started talking to me about Easter egg hunts and I felt so bad that Zach was in the apartment crying while I chatted with this guy.

But Zach's agony was quickly turned to delight (as it so often is with small children) when he went outside and we explained what was happening.  He didn't quite understand the purpose of the basket at first.

He got the hang of it.  And he was delighted.

Some eggs proved easier to find then others.  But I tried not to be too tricky with my hiding places.

I also tried to get some cute photos of him.  He looked so adorable in his Easter clothes.  Most of his faces turned out a little grumpy looking.  He was deep in thought searching for eggs.

When he had found all of the eggs, Aaron showed him how to open the eggs and get the treats.  I'm not big into candy and sweets so his egg had some cheddar cheese bunnies (thanks Ashley and Ray!  They were in the care package you sent Aaron and I didn't want to eat them since they were for Aaron but Aaron wasn't on food at the hospital so he shared with Zach for Easter...since they were on theme!).

We tried to get good family pictures but it was a little sunny and we were right by the parking lot.  BUT the kids are adorable so I can deal with it.

I'm an excellent empathetic parent.

Enjoy Aaron's bearded glory.  That's beard's days are numbered.

After this we had lunch, then nap time, then MORE conference.  The last session was at 1pm which was during nap time so most of the house looked like this:

Which is perfect.

After nap time, we went on our tradition family Easter hike.  I'll save that for another post.  I don't want to bog down people's computers with all these pictures.