easter 2009

on friday abe told ken, "jesus died so we don't have to go to school today." easter is a great holiday...as a mom i like the minimal amount of work that goes into the holiday. we only have to spend one night of fun prep work and hide eggs for the kids to find the next day. and then there's the good ham meal and the beautiful new spring clothes and the family togetherness.

but more importantly, we get to celebrate the most important moment in all of history: the atonement of jesus christ. i feel blessed to have the knowledge of my savior and his atonement. i know that he lived, that he suffered for my many sins, and i know that jesus made it possible that we can live with those we love forever. i know that he loves me. i have felt that love directly in my life, and i see his hand in all that i do as a mother, wife, and member of this great earth.

for anyone more interested in learning about the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints, you can find more information at mormon.org

and now, here are some of the cutest kids in the whole wide world. warning, there are more pictures of riley than anyone...she was just so cute and irresistible.


holy cow these girls are beautiful! grandma lynn found the most beautiful pink dresses. they look like princesses.


ellie and riley love each other so stinking much. they play so well together.


funny faces!


it rained on saturday, so the easter bunny was nice enough to hide our eggs in the living room. no one could go in there until they were ready for church (we should do this every sunday, by the way, because by some miracle, we were all dressed and ready for church by 8:00, which never, ever happens). it drove the kids crazy not to eat all that yummy goodness right away.


riley, of course, was the first to go. it is her first easter, by the way, and she does rule this house. so she crawled her way to the bright eggs on the floor, and the kids jumped up and down, with too much energy to hold their excitement.


abe, can you tell, was so excited. he got the mother load of candy today, and if we didn't stop him, he probably would have eaten all of it before bed.


otho stopping for a moment to pose for the camera. what a sweet boy.


ellie was facinated with finding candy eggs. this is really the first easter where she understands what is going on with the eggs and the candy and the searching and finding and eating.


while we weren't looking, riley stuffed a giant blue malt ball in her mouth and drueled all over her pretty pink dress. she didn't want to give that sucker up!


for dinner we went over to grandma and grandpa johnson's house for another easter egg hunt and the yummiest dinner this side of the mississippi. we were lucky to have steve and kelly taylor and kids join us.


even marc came in town to join us for easter. the kids sure love uncle marc (who, by the way, will finish his undergrad before ken gets his masters. marc was a junior in high school when ken started his graduate work...time to finish soon, babe).


ellie looking for eggs.


otho found lots in the trees and bushes.


abe ran so fast i could barely catch him in a picture.


we even tried the impossible...a family photo. what good looking people we are...and boy do ken and i produce the best looking kids ever. no question about that.


and another attempt at a family photo. sure, they aren't perfect, but we still try (mostly for grandma's, i think).


ken with beautiful ri-ri.


mom with riley.


and to top of the riley-fest of pictures...cousin crystal holding riley. we sure had a wonderful easter, and i can't wait until next year to do this again.