Easter 2014

Have I mentioned before that I LOVE Easter??

I'll say it again,

I LOVE EASTER!

It is such a wonderful, happy time of year, and such a beautiful holiday!  Our Easter festivities actually ended up being just a little bit lacking.  My "plan ahead" brain got mixed up in a few "lazy do-nothing, spring time" kind of days.  The Easter Bunny did find us though and left a few goodies.  Brinlee woke up to a toddler-friendly basket complete with a toddler-friendly egg hunt in the backyard (read: eggs scattered in plain site all over the lawn).  The eggs were filled with stickers, "woop nacks" (fruit snacks), and goldfish crackers, and she had a ball!  She got really frustrated trying to carry them all before she would let us show her how to put them in the basket.  But she was sure cute!

It was quite a chilly evening so after the hunting was done, grandpa Borup built a fire so she could enjoy her loot (and a stick... weird) with not so frozen hands.

The next evening we went over to MawMaw's house and enjoyed family home evening with Aunt Amy and the cousins.  She had been primed the day before so with egg hunt #2 she hit the ground running. Literally. 

I debated somehow sneaking that sucker away somewhere and hoping she would forget about it, it's so huge!  But instead I let Brinlee have her Easter Bunny treat in the only place where a small child really should ever have sticky things.  She could not have been happier.

And yes, here's my Easter treat, poised perfectly in the window sill.  Peeps are perfect when they've gotten a little more hard and chewy.  They're almost there.

It was a fun, cute couple of days for sure.
Traditions aside though, this year more than most our family has really been grateful for the enabling power of the Atonement.  We have seen more than our fair share of tender mercies lately.  What a gift it is that our Savior and older brother lived and died and now lives again, for us!  It's easy to forget about or take for granted sometimes, but how truly sweet it is.  He does know us and is pulling for us.  His gospel changes lives.  What a beautiful blessing!

PS: I fully recognize the lack of egg dying pictures in this montage.  It may be way late, but I am determined that that is still to come.  It's too much fun.