Easter Sunday

We had a great Easter Sunday.   Dad stayed home resting after his pacemaker procedure and the rest of us headed to church.  I was emotional hearing the first line of the first hymn about the Savior and the Spirit stayed close all day.  The talks were excellent.  It was neat to teach the Beehive class about the Easter week.  We went through each day and talked about what happened leading up to and including the Atonement of Christ, the crucifixion and resurrection.  It was reverent and sacred and I was especially glad to have Megan in there with me.

At home, we changed and after traditional Sunday nachos, the kids looked around the house for their baskets and brought them back to the family room, where Chris was resting on the couch.  Matt was VERY excited about his Dobby POP figurine to add to the Harry Potter Collection.  He was also pretty excited about his COLLECTION of STINK books.  He got started reading right away!

Luke had a hard time finding his basket (under the bathroom sink on the main floor) but did NOT want help finding it so we just gave one hint of the general area.  He was pretty excited about both his Snape POP figurine and his WEIRD BUT TRUE Fact Book – which he began to read out loud immediately.  The perfect book for a 3rd grader.

Megan’s book was a  ‘Design by Me’ cute  coloring book that she had been wanting.  She also got a Mulan POP figurine – one of her favorite Disney characters.

Emily’s book was ‘Meet you in the Cosmos’ author of ‘Counting by 7’s’ which she had read the week before.  Boy, she’s a fast reader. And Pocahontas… so cute!

LOVE and GELATO for Katie’s book – which she really likes.  And Moana – the Disney movie.

After enjoying their baskets they searched high and low for Easter eggs.  Dad faded in and out on the couch as he recuperated from his procedure.  He still has a lot of chest pain so he hates to move. He came to the table for Easter dinner and then went straight back to the couch…

The Easter package we sent to Ryan…

After dinner we gathered together to have a Family Home Evening about Easter.  We watched the new Easter video put out by the church.  The PRINCE of PEACE and then talked about the 8 principles of PEACE, each of which had a video to go with it.  It was so well done and a great way to have the spirit in our home.  I found some cute booklets online that I printed out for the kids.  We also went through the week of Easter and had the kids take notes.  It was great to spend the time together.  In Megan’s letter to Ryan she said she had felt the spirit so strong.  I love that.

Dear Ryan!!  So Sorry I haven't been able to write in a while. I've been pretty busy with turning 12, PARCC testing at school, and soccer. My birthday was awesome. I got headphones and soccer pants. It was very exiting to finally be going to young Women's. I LOVE it already. Happy Easter! In my Easter basket I got the pop doll Mulan, a coloring book, Reese's, and a whole bag of skittles. After church we had a FHE about Easter and watched videos about it and took notes. It was amazing, I felt the spirit so strong. What did you do for easter? Also Mexico was amazing. I miss it so much. My favorite thing that we did was play kickball and go snorkeling, we saw a nurse shark. Ahhh. It's finally spring and we have had rain, snow, and hail. I had a soccer game on Saturday. We won 3-1. I scored one. It started hailing in the middle of the game. Does it hail in Albania? But it was fun. I really love my soccer team. The past week we had PARCC testing. It was not fun at all. :( I love you so much. I am grateful for your amazing testimony and example. Keep doing what your doing!! ;) Love ya.  -Megan