Easter 2013

Easter has always been one of my favorite holidays.  First of all, it is a celebration of the most important thing that has ever happened--Jesus died, then rose from the dead, allowing us to have our sins washed away and have eternal salvation!  I love the events leading up to Easter--Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Passover Celebration, Good Friday--and how they all come together into this day of celebration!  I also love spring, and the new life and warmer weather that comes with it.  

This year for Easter we went to my parent's house for a delicious meal of ham...every "family unit" on my side of the family just purchased and took home 1/2 a pig from the meat locker the week before Easter, so we all were ready and able to provide a ham!  

I found a cute dress in one of the boxes of clothing from my sister, and Laurel wore it for Easter Sunday.  

She looked cute, but dresses like this just aren't practical for a child who can't quite walk yet...she can't crawl in a dress, so has to do a monkey-crawl on her hands and toes.

Our friend Jacob joined us for lunch.  He is not necessarily comfortable around small babies, so we have a family tradition of handing him a baby and seeing how he does!  I think holding Laurel has given him good practice...he is doing a great job holding my nephew Oren!

 I wanted to have some sort of game to distract the kids, and also wanted to spend a little time as a family reflecting on Easter and what we were celebrating.  So I put together "Resurrection Eggs."  You choose verses and objects that represent parts of the story of the resurrection--oyster crackers for the communion bread, a cross, thorns, spices for the burial, and of course, and empty egg to represent the empty tomb--and put them into plastic Easter eggs.  I also filled a bunch of eggs with chocolate, numbered the outside of the Resurrection eggs, and hid them all over my parent's yard.  We never did find one of the eggs filled with chocolate...

Garion "finding" an egg.  He had trouble finding them on his own, and needed help.

The nieces counting the eggs to make sure we got them all.

 After we found all the eggs, we opened the Resurrection eggs, read the verses, and looked at the items.  Then we ate chocolate!  :)

My nieces really love Jake, and tend to want to sit on his lap and play with him all day long.  We tried to give him a break, but at one point he ended up reading books to the nieces.  I guess we're preparing him for fatherhood!

And now we are in April.  I have been dreading this month for a long time.  I am still working part time, and during the month of April, we have 4 High Performance tryouts that I have to work at (plus one in May), as well as three weekends of Regionals.  This means extra trips to Des Moines for work during the week, as well as spending Friday through Sunday in Des Moines for work during Regionals.  This time of year is always tough--and at least I'm not 9 months pregnant like I was last year during Regionals!!--but this year will be especially hard.  I have been working to wean Laurel off of nursing for a while, but she is just not real interested in eating real food and really, really likes nursing.  I have left her with babysitters for the day while I go to work a few times, and she does fine.  She even naps without nursing (which she never does for me!).  

However, the nights are going to be tough.  Not so much for me--I'll be in a hotel with no baby and will get uninterrupted sleep for the first time in a year!  Scott will be at home with Laurel, though, and that might be rough.  She does not sleep well, and lately cries unless she is with Mommy.  And she still wakes up in the early morning and cries until I nurse her.  While I'm sleeping well in the hotel, Scott will be at home with a potentially crying baby and getting little sleep.  We are praying that since I'm not even there, she will simply adjust and be happy with Daddy.  And maybe she'll be fine not nursing, since the lady with the milk isn't around!  In all events, I'm guessing she'll be weaned by the end of April!

The last week of April, Scott will be out of town for work.  He will be staying at Honey Creek Resort in southern Iowa, and I'm hoping Laurel and I will be able to spend a couple nights there as well.  Regionals will be over, so I'll just have one more HP tryout to prepare for. 

So, I may not be doing much updating for the next 5 weeks.  We'll see you in May!