Easter afternoon

Easter Sunday was simply a delight this year. I loved everything about it! Although we did the same things this year that we always do, it just felt different. It was such a happy day for me all the way around! When morning session of conference was over at noon (or as I call it: "church on TV"), everyone started showing up for the annual Easter feast of ham, cheesy potatoes, salads, rolls,  BreAnne's jello eggs, and sparkling cider. This is what the house always looks like when everyone arrives and the food is almost done!

And here's a few close-ups I took while we were waiting of some of the people from the above group photo: 

Easter Bunny Tabbi

Dad & Cody with the same pose, and yet it's different:
Dad folds his arms with left arm on top, and Cody is a right-arm-on-top guy

Mick holding Sunny

Bryce always makes the strangest poses...
Is he highlighting the Nike sign on his shirt?
Is he holding an invisible goblet?
The world may never know! 

Josh was in charge of cooking the ham this year.
It was done perfectly, too: so delicious and moist! 

Micah liked playing with cousin Brendan

This jellybean holder has been in my house since my childhood.
My Grandma Perkins had an identical one. I sincerely love that
my mom still uses it, and I love seeing it full of colorful jellybeans!

When dinner was ready, everyone dished up their plates, and ate at their designated areas. The adults sat at the big dining table, which is just barely big enough for all the adults to sit at anymore! And the kids ate on tables outside this year because it was such nice weather (we really lucked out with the weather in Tremonton, because in Salmon it was snowy on Easter)!

After the yummy dinner, we congregated to the living room for the annual family reading of the events leading up to Christ's crucifixion. There are 12 numbered eggs with scriptures inside of them telling of a specific event prior to the crucifixion and a small token inside that correlates with the scripture. 

Next, mom gave instructions and stated the rules for this year's egg hunts. She always adds new things each year, so even though it's something we do every year, there's always little changes that need to be discussed! I like seeing her in charge! She's very organized and gives detailed information.

The kids' egg hunt was first in the front yard. Each kid could pick up 10 eggs and one foam egg toy.

Jonah got the gold egg! And Micah picked up the random/mystery silver egg.

Kanyon loved the toy that all the kids got to pick up on the lawn: it punched out a foam egg when the button was touched. In the photo, he's demonstrating for me just how high it can go into the sky light.

Bryce showing his excitement during the kids' hunt:

The adult egg hunt was next, in the back yard. Ammon and Aspen are both in the adult hunt now that they're 13. The adults could also each pick up 10 eggs, but the real excitement is in finding the gold or silver eggs because they're worth more money. Mom let Dan and Bryce go 2 minutes before the rest of us, because neither one of them has ever found the big ticket eggs before. The rest of us had to wait until the bunny song was done before we could start the search.

Unbelievably (and victoriously), Josh found both the gold AND the silver eggs this year! That's only happened one other time in the history of our egg hunts, and it happened to be the year that I found both, but I wasn't allowed to keep the money from both because my mom didn't think it would be fair for everyone else. So this time, my mom changed the rule and EVERYONE else got to increase their winnings by $5. What a win-win!!

The eggs are all numbered, and the tally sheets display all the the numbers and correlates with how much each egg is worth. There's always one or two eggs that don't get found, and through the process of elimination, we can find out what number it is and its monetary value. Here we all are, after the egg hunt is done, lazily looking for two missing eggs... one got crunched under someone's foot, and my mom said the lawn mower found the other one just last week!

Since it was such a nice day, and we were all in one spot, I told everyone to assemble for a group photo, and thankfully, Liz was there to take it for us!

We are a happy family!

Silly Easter poses!

Then the chaotic madness began...filling out the individual tally sheets! Mom was the cashier this year. 

See that beauty on the left in the above photo? I just couldn't get enough of her cuteness! Look how adorable she is! And she just turned 3! How is that possible that the youngest of all of us is growing up so quickly?!

The last activity for the day was the "Chubby Bunny" contest. The rules are: stuff marshmallows one at a time into our mouths and say "chubby bunny" without spitting them out, and the winner is the last one standing. My mom started this contest a few years ago, and she just loves it so much!!! Tabbi was the adult winner this year, and Ammon was the youth winner. The video shows the whole contest, and the hilariousness of it!

After that, everyone began leaving to return to their homes, including us. We had a FABULOUS (although short) Easter trip to Utah this year! We enjoyed dying eggs with Grandma, relaxing on Sunday morning while watching conference, and spending a fun-filled afternoon with the family! I'm so grateful for this awesome family tradition that my mom and dad graciously host every year. We look forward to it each year, and we always come away with memories that will last forever!

Easter morning

The Easter Bunny was a genius this year and simplified the delivery of Easter goodies; the new motto was: forget the baskets (it saved on items to pack for our stay at Grandma's house) and just get individualized bags of candy for each boy (thus ensuring that they would all get what they like best, instead of dividing up large bags of chocolate varieties between their baskets)! They were all pleased to receive their own bags of their favorite chocolate candy, and they all got new water balloon packages, too:

Also, I put in a little order with the Easter Bunny myself (I don't know why I haven't thought of this in previous years) to bring Josh and I's favorite Easter chocolates as well: 

After we woke up, ate breakfast, and the boys found (and began eating) their goody piles, they started the annual tradition of hiding their hard boiled eggs (that they'd decorated the night before) in the front room of Grandma's house. This is an activity they came up with all on their own, and one that they do every year on Easter morning! They took turns hiding each other's eggs in the room, and I can't believe how long this kept them happily occupied (who knew there were SO many places to hide an egg in this room!!!): they hid and found eggs for over an hour and a half!!

Easter was on General Conference weekend this year, and I am so glad! It was wonderful to relax at home that morning and take our time preparing for the Easter feast rather than hurrying that morning to get ready for church and then rushing home after church services to get the meal all ready. During the morning session, the boys played a couple rounds of Conference bingo with m&m's, while I listened to the speakers, Josh read a book, and Mom and Dad roamed in and out of the room between preparations. Trina and Dan came that morning and listened to conference with us, too.

I just love this photo!

It was the most relaxing, calm, peaceful Easter morning I remember having in quite some time. I absolutely loved it!

Dye-ing Devotion

In all my years of being a mother (15 to be exact), not once have I ever dyed eggs at my own home with my children! That's because every year they've done it with my mom at her house instead! I'm so blessed to have this fun tradition shared between my mom and my children! I am so grateful that my mom always has the eggs cooked, the dyes ready, and decorations prepared to make it a fun experience for the boys to create Easter eggs. And I just love watching them make their own special Easter eggs at Grandma's house! 

All the colorful containers make the annual project even more fun!

Thanks, mom, for the fun memories!

The boys worked on their eggs for nearly two hours! They really were devoted to the 6 eggs that they each had! I liked the variety of their finished products!

Micah's finished eggs

His favorite one showing school pride with our high school colors!

Jonah's decorated eggs

His favorite one with Nike & Under Armour symbols

Kanyon's completed Easter eggs

His favorite ones--he couldn't decide between the two.
He loved the green color, and I just love the dragon on the orange one!
That's one of his favorite drawings lately, so he aced it even though
he had to draw on the white egg with a white crayon prior to coloring it. 

Ammon's adorned eggs

He used a lot of sports stickers after all the multiple color dips!