Easter Festivities

 This year was the year of the Easter egg hunts! We went to three egg hunts (not including the ones the kids set up for each other :)  ).  

The Tuesday before Easter, our park day group put together a little egg hunt at the park. It was serious business for Emma and Matthew!

Ellie just enjoyed hanging out in the grass, looking cute

See, it was serious business! Lucky for Emma, most of the other kids there were 2 and under and didn't care how many eggs they got, though I did empty about half of her basket into some of the emptier looking ones.  :)  Matthew came away with a pretty full bucket that he was proud of. He told everyone he saw that he found thousands of eggs. It was pretty funny.

Most of the egg hunting group

On Friday, we went to Dreamworks egg hunt where Matthew came away with a FULL basket of eggs and Emma somehow only managed to get 5...she was pretty bummed. Then to top it all off, Matthew found the golden ticket egg and got a $50 Toys R Us gift card. Talk about having all the luck! I'm pretty sure he was more excited about getting the golden ticket than he was about the gift card. He carried that little ticket around everywhere for the next 3 days.

After the hunt was over, Emma and Matthew insisted we go straight to Toys R Us to pick out a new toy. Emma has a marble run in her classroom that Matthew plays with every time I go volunteer. He has wanted one of these forever, so thanks to an amazing sale, he spent his first $10 on this. He also picked out a yoyo and let Emma use some of the money to get some stickers that she wanted.

At this point, we felt like Easter should have been over already! But we decided to go to our city's Easter egg hunt Saturday morning....more for the free bouncy houses than the egg hunt. When we got home we found that the Easter Bunny had visited while we were gone. 

Emma loves her new hula hoop

And Matthew couldn't wait to try out his bubbles and football

But the new swing was by far the favorite gift

 

Ellie had to get in on the swinging action...she LOVES her swing too.

On Sunday we had Easter dinner with Jon's parents and his Uncle Troy and Aunt Mary who were visiting. We didn't get a single picture of people, but I did make sure to snap a picture of my contribution to dinner. They got a little smashed during transportation, but I think they're pretty cute.

We all really enjoyed the fun side of Easter, but I really feel like we were able to convey the true meaning and reason for Easter to the kids too. I am grateful for this Easter season. I am grateful for our Savior and His resurrection. And I am grateful to know that He lives!

Cousins!

 We spent last weekend with Jon's family and attempted some grandkid pictures while we were there. Someday I will get a decent picture of all of my kids together. Until then, this is what we have.

 And here are all 5 Farrell grandchildren....aren't they adorable? Too bad it's even harder to get a good picture of 5 kids than it is with 3.  :) 

Since Emma and Matthew had spring break this week, we decided to invite Owen over for a cousin sleepover. The kids were all SO excited.

We got home right around bedtime so we got beds made, pajamas on, and Jon read a few bedtime stories before we sent them off to bed. Emma fell asleep right away, but the two boys had other plans. It was after 10 before they finally gave in and went to sleep.

The next morning everyone woke up bright and early. We headed out to Safari Run to let the kids burn some energy. We were in such a hurry to get out the door that I forgot my camera though...bummer. 

When we got home, everyone begged to have a picnic in the backyard. So we did. Though admittedly there was a lot more playing than eating.

The boys got to work making "soup"

And pretty soon everyone was in a swimsuit and jumping in the water

After a little quiet time, we headed out once again, this time to the park. Kids + empty skate parks = a whole lotta fun!

We had such a fun time. We'll definitely have to have more cousin sleepovers!

Some Random Pictures

 This girl's got a major sweet tooth! Seriously, she has a sixth sense for knowing when there is candy anywhere near her and will go to any length to get her little hands on it. (And she makes some pretty funny faces too)

Emma loves being fancy with curled hair. These are her very own fancy poses too.  :)

Love these girls!

Emma loves Ellie. A lot. She just cannot keep her hands off her. She often tells me (as she's squeezing Ellie so tightly that she can't breathe) that "I just love her so much, I just want to hug her and squeeze her and kiss her". She's a good big sister.

And I just had to post these next two. It's so Matthew...poor kid is surrounded by girls all day. He really thinks that anything Emma and Ellie wear, he can wear too.

 

Ellie's new trick....well she has a few new ones- spitting, blowing, and peek-a-boo to name a few. She loves being silly and trying to make people laugh and standing like this is one of her favorite ways to accomplish that.

Signs

Luckily for me, Emma lets me know very clearly when I'm wanted

 Please come in please come in please come in

and when I'm not

Do! Not! Come! in! Please! leave! me! a! lone!!! mom! Mom is not be able to come in here again.

And luckily, she got over it pretty fast. She came up to me yesterday and said, "Mom, you know that sign on my door about not letting you in my room? I didn't really mean it all the time. You can still come in my room when I'm happy". So last night when it was time for bed, I stopped in her doorway and asked if I was allowed to come in. She thought for a minute and then went over to the sign and ripped it down. She then apologized for putting the sign up and told me she loved me.

 Oh, how I love this girl and all of her personality!

A Miracle

A month and a half ago, I lost my wedding ring at Chuck E Cheese. It flew into the Skeeball machine when I threw a ball, and after countless hours of searching for it and taking the machines apart, they couldn't find it. After a couple of days, Jon and I gave up hope of ever finding it and started making plans to get a new one someday.

Emma and Matthew were convinced though that because we prayed and asked Heavenly Father to find it, that we would find it. Every few days Emma would talk about it and often she reminded me that we would find it because we had prayed. After all, Heavenly Father helped us find the keys when we lost them, so he could find the ring too. Jon and I, not wanting to crush her faith, were trying to explain that sometimes Heavenly Father doesn't answer our prayers how we want because He has a different and better purpose or answer.

So, needless to say, when I got a call from a Chuck E Cheese employee this week, I was in shock. THEY FOUND MY WEDDING RING!!! After almost 6 weeks and completely disassembling the machines twice, they found my ring, just laying on the floor under the machine. I raced there as fast as I could, so I could get it before it got lost again.

This all happened 4 days ago, and I am still in shock. And I am in awe. I have learned a lot about having child-like faith. It was so easy to look at the facts and the amount of time that had passed and say that there was absolutely no way we were ever getting that ring back. But to our little children, none of that mattered. They really believed that Heavenly Father could do anything. And He can.

I was also humbled and touched that throughout this whole experience Emma and Matthew turned to prayer so often. They prayed that we would find it when it was first lost. They prayed throughout the 6 weeks that it was lost that we would find it. And when I told Emma that they had finally found the ring, she folded her arms right then and thanked Heavenly Father for helping us find it. What a sweet example!

I am grateful for this miracle....the miracle of them finding the ring, the miracle that the employee turned it in, and the miracle that they actually kept my name and phone number and called me. I know that Heavenly Father is aware of us and He does hear our prayers...even the ones about lost wedding rings and keys.

Another ABC Book

A couple years ago we made this ABC book for the kids. We thought it was a fun little book, but we never imagined just how much they would love it. Even after 2 years, it still gets read several times a week, and often it gets toted off to bed with one of them. So, when I got a free photo book offer in my email, we decided to make another one. I am SO excited for them to see it! Here is a little preview of our new ABC book.

I really love that we were able to incorporate so much of Emma's artwork and some of our favorite memories from this last year into this book. It really makes it such a fun things for the kids.