A Very Evie Easter

We had the great privelege and pleasure of having my amazing sister-in-law, Gina, and my adorable niece, Evelyn, at our house for Easter this year. The boys adored little Evie and always wanted to sit by her, play with her, read to her, etc. They all think she is super smart, which she is, but they might overestimate what she can do sometimes. Evelyn says "hello" but it sounds more like "hi-yo". David John heard this and exclaimed, "She said, 'Hi, yo!' That's a sentence!"

Aunt Gina took everyone out to Pizza Ranch one evening while they were here. Evie loved all the attention she got from her five big boy cousins.

Evie got to have her first experience dying eggs, hunting for eggs and getting an Easter basket from the Easter bunny. She even came to Easter service at church with us. I've got plenty of cute pictures of eggs and egg-hunters but before I post those I wanted to tell a quick story about the whole real meaning of Easter thing. Tobias was watching General Conference a few weeks ago and he kept watching between sessions when they show other churchy videos. Apparently, they showed a video about the crucifixion of Christ. Tobias came up from the basement crying because Jesus died. He was so distraught, just heartbroken. He climbed up on Marc's lap and Marc told him the rest of the story about Jesus coming alive again and how we can live again too. Marc found a video of the resurrection and the sheer joy that Tobias expressed helped me feel the awe for the miracle that is Easter all over again. That is the blessing of children. They help us re-experience things for the first time.

Evie's first time dying eggs. Two was enough for her she decided. There was too much of this waiting business involved.

Tobias

Benjamin

David John- you might have to zoom in to see the details on these. The middle two show a minion with an arm outstretched holding a banana.

Elijah

Gabriel

Gina- She was disappointed that her football didn't turn more brown. Now it just looks like a basketball. For someone with little egg dying experience though, I think they look amazing.

Sarah- These are my creations this year. I was actually super happy with them. I love dying eggs.

The Easter Bunny left books, t-shirts, kites, a chocolate egg and a couple of small toys for each kiddo. The guinea pigs also got some special Easter treats.

Evie is excited about the light-up ring she found in her basket.

Easter Sunday- we decided to take advantage of another grownup who could take pictures. The sun is in our eyes but I still think we're pretty cute.

Each kiddo had their own color of egg to find so that we could vary the difficulty of the hiding spots. Evie was very serious about finding her purple eggs.

Don't you love the church clothes with the camo boots?

Benjamin was pretty much a blur the whole time. I think he found all of his eggs the fastest. I guess we'll need to hide them better next year.

David John clearly has an evil scheme to get other people's eggs.

Look at that handsome guy. Man they are growing up fast.

Gabe had a little trouble with the last few. I confess I get a little satisfaction when they have to work really hard to find the egg I hid.

While the big boys were finishing up we tried to do a little photo shoot. We weren't entirely successful.

This is the miraculous picture in which they are all looking in the general vicinity of the camera. What a cute bunch. Happy Easter!