Easter 2013

 Here are the haps for Easter this year.

Here are our sad little Easter eggs. This is what happens when you don't have red food coloring. You end up neglecting an entire section of the color wheel. Oh well. 

I took the kids to the Annual Easter Egg hunt. I wasn't fast enough to get pictures of the eggs on the ground. They were gone in about 30 seconds. 

 

 This is Tyler with his little friend, Jack.  

Easter morning

 

 

 The annual Easter Picture with Mom. This year I got Tyler to get in the picture with me! Yay, success!

 

 I recently introduced "Nacho Libre" to my kids, so now Zach walks around giving everybody an "Anaconda Squeeeeeze". It's pretty funny.

Anyway, I really love this holiday. I'm not a fan of the Easter Bunny and have toyed with the idea of just telling the kids he's not real- not like Santa Clause, anyway. Whitney said to me today "Mom, I want to ask you a question and I want you to give me an honest answer: (she's totally her father's daughter) Are you the Easter Bunny?" I said "What would you do if I told you I was?" She said she'd go and tell all her friends that the Easter bunny wasn't real. So, since I didn't want to be the one responsible for a bunch of 7 year old  tears, I said "Let's have this conversation later" (Yes, I know. I should do a parenting seminar).  She knows what that means...and I'm okay with it. I will not sell out Santa Clause, but I can live with her not buying in to the Easter Bunny. Sorry, Easter Bunny.

But, on a serious note, I want to share what I've learned about the Atonement lately. For a few months I've been praying to "feel" the atonement in my life- really appreciate it and strengthen my testimony of it. For me, I have learned to "feel" the atonement when I pray for my fear, disappointment, hurt, anxiety, stress or sadness to go away. For so long I felt like these feelings could not go away unless the cause of these feelings went away. I was praying for my circumstances to change. Miraculously, even if  the Lord does not/has not taken away the reason for these feelings, he can calm our hearts and make us able to live or cope with the circumstances that cause these feelings and make us truly OK with our situations even if they never change and are a burden to us. So, for me, this Easter has been even more special since I'm finally understanding what I've been taught all my life: The Atonement really can heal you...