Happy Easter

During Uncle Dan's visit, he bought a cowboy hat. He let Claire borrow it for some cute pics before he left. Claire is going through a serious princess phase right now. Anyone who has had a conversation with her lately knows. I wonder if she will go through a cowgirl phase?

Mommy and Noel pre-hunt and butt-shot pic #1 - random stranger)

My mom and dad came to visit for Easter week-end. Saturday morning we went to a local Easter egg hunt put on by the city. It wasn't as crowded as I thought it was going to be, but pretty busy. Claire had a great time. Noel was happy to be along but didn't really care for the hunt. Most of the pictures we ended up with had someone bending over - either strangers or one of us - hello!- it is an Easter egg hunt - but we'll try to spare you as many butt-shot pics as we can.

Getting ready - in line

The Hunt! and butt-shot #2 - the helpful hubby

The results - Noel

The results - Claire


Playing at the park after the hunt

Down to see the ducks

We really love how Easter-time is warm enough to have outdoor Easter-egg hunts in Texas. In Michigan the weather is way too unpredictable to be able to have a clear day - well I guess it's predictable enough to say that it will either snow or rain... So, I never remember going to outdoor Easter-egg hunts growing up. It was kind of a chilly day on this occasion, but warm enough to be comfortable with a light sweatshirt.

This week-end was a busy one. Saturday especially. But very nice. After the hunt we made a trip to Rock Rock Donuts for the first time. Very good, but so busy! They either need to expand- or I hate to say this - raise their prices. Ridiculously busy! This nice lady gave us a tip about the bread. It was really good and only $1 a loaf. We made a trip to the library since it was across the street and then headed home to make an early Easter ham dinner since my parents couldn't stay on Sunday. Later, I sang in the Easter program put on by our Stake. We performed 'He is Jesus Christ' the cantata by Rob Gardner. We had rehearsals Wednesday and Thursday and performed on Friday and Saturday evening this week.

We had been practicing since the end of January. Aaron was so great to help get the kids to bed without me (especially Noel w/o being able to nurse him) on the evenings we had practices. It will be nice to have Sunday nights (that's when the majority of rehearsals were) back to spend with my family, but I will miss it too. I'll especially miss the people I came to know and the spirit I felt while performing this music. When I auditioned I had no idea what to expect. I was worried that it would be cheesy churchy music - and I guess some people could classify it as that. But I really enjoyed it and I thought it was beautiful. I can't count how many times I have sung it now - but that doesn't stop me from still popping in the CD - especially when I feel my temperature rising. Listening to it really helps to calm me. Sometimes we even catch Claire singing - 'come and see the empty tomb'!

Our conducter is a wonderful sister in my ward who I have gotten to know through the pratices and by serving with in primary. She lost her leg to cancer last year and her experience has had quite an impact on me and our family. We really didn't know her well at the time she went though this, but prayed for her constantly and thought about her all the time. I really felt my love for her grow. Every time I think about her experience or when she relates her story I never think - how could the Lord let this happen to her - I just feel that the Lord really loves her so much! She is so precious to Him! Having her as the conducter for our musical really brought out the meaning of the resurrection and the Savior's love for us even more. Thank you Anna for being so inspiring to so many!

Happy Easter to Everyone!