Happy Easter 2016

Getting a shot of the fam in their Easter clothes is getting to be practically impossible. Cooperation levels are low. And there's always (at least) one kid who thinks funny faces or gestures are better than smiling. Oh well, I guess this is one for Ivan's wedding video. :) Aaron's head was getting cut off anyway.

We had a good Easter. I spent Friday while Aaron was at work, dyeing Ruby's sweater for her Easter dress from white to dark teal. I was in a hurry, and couldn't find my rubber gloves, so now my hands are a nice blueish color. :) Friday night we went to the ward egg hunt and pot luck dinner. I only took one picture, and it was of Ollie because he's the one I followed around. Aaron went with Rue, and the big kids were on their own.

Saturday we ran around the mall like crazy people, trying to find the big boys church pants and church shirts that actually fit, and some ties that were spring-ish. I'm happy with what we came home with. Later in the afternoon, I stopped by my friend Heather's house to learn how to dip chocolate covered strawberries. Then I ran to the grocery store to buy chocolate and strawberries to test our my new skills, and to get the asparagus we were assigned to bring to Easter dinner at Aaron's mom's.

Not a great picture, but see the cute sweater I dyed to go with Rue's dress?

In the evening, I went to the stake center to listen to the women's broadcast. It was wonderful. All of it. But I especially connected with Sister Neill F Marriott's talk. After many of the things she said, I thought, Oh I want to write that down and display it somewhere. And by the time I got to the end of the talk, I pretty much thought that i'd need to just print out the whole thing and tack it up, because it was all that good.  But I especially loved the story she shared about receiving a phone call from a woman who wanted to criticize her for having a large family. Sister Marriott responded to the woman (I'm paraphrasing) that she loved being a mother, and that she would do her best to see that all her children were raised the way God wanted her to raise them. It was pretty powerful. :) I can be a courageous defender of women, motherhood, and families, even when it's scary.

Sunday was a bit of a crazy day. Ollie got up super early. So he got his Easter basket way before everyone else. And the other kids got theirs as they woke up. We didn't do anything fancy for baskets this year. Each kid got a couple pieces of candy, a Book of Mormon Activity book to take to sacrament meeting, and a mini sketch book to take to sacrament meeting. The idea being that we are trying to promote more reverence in Sacrament meeting. The older kids did great in that regard today, but Ollie and Rue missed the memo.

Rue didn't get a nap, and she refused to eat lunch before church. When she started getting cranky, about 5 minutes into Sacrament meeting, I pulled out one of those squeezable apple sauce packets, and attempted to feed her. I kept a hand on it, until it was empty (or so I thought), but instead of letting me take it away from her, she still wanted to suck on the empty packet, so I let go of it, thinking it could entertain her for a minute. Pretty soon though, she started flapping it back and forth really fast. That's when we discovered that it wasn't as empty as we might have thought. Apple sauce went flinging through the air. All over Rue, all over Aaron and I, all over the hymn books, the seat, Ollie, and yes, all over the people sitting behind us. *sigh* Nothing for it but to apologize profusely, and start wiping everything up. Luckily, the people behind us were the parents of my good friend Brenda, and they thought it was funny.

That wasn't the end of it either. That apple sauce didn't help Rue's mood for very long. After taking her out in the hall several times, and then trying to come back in to the meeting only to have her fall apart again, and then having Ollie falling apart right on top of her, that was about enough for me. I wasn't feeling well anyway. So I packed the three of us up and took us home and we all had naps.

I still wasn't feeling well when Aaron got home from doing tithing, so he took all the kids to Easter dinner without me. :( I always have sinus issues when I'm pregnant, and sometimes they escalate to a point where I just have to stay in bed and sleep them off. I hate that it happened today on Easter.