Easter

I've always loved Easter. While I love the meaning of Easter, this post is about all the superficial things that come along with the holiday: a new Sunday dresses, egg hunts for candy no one eats, and a delicious Sunday supper. 

Every year I have high expectations of my day turning out picture perfect and well, it just never does. 

For example, April 8, 2012: 

On Saturday night, I made my typical 9pm dreaded trip to Wal-Mart. Why I can't seem to shop the other 5-days a week when all the residents of Provo and Orem aren't also shopping is an absolute mystery to me. I had spent hours preparing a menu for the upcoming week, taking into consideration my diet, Hank's skin and bones, and Kellen's dietary restrictions--not an easy task. Once I got to Wal-Mart and glanced at the produce, I knew my hard work was shot to hell. I somehow managed to forget that they get wiped out of many groceries on Saturday night, including all my key ingredients. Lovely.

Forget creamy chive chicken with mashed potatoes, green beans and homemade rolls. (Instead, we had chicken piccatta, angel hair pasta, green beans and Sister Schubert's frozen rolls. Not my best effort!)

I contemplated running to another store on the way home but just as I was having such wild thoughts, Kellen stopped screaming through his pacifier, looked at me with a fury in his eyes, plucked it out with vigor and thew it on the floor as hard as he could. He had had enough...he didn't even need to "use his words." I couldn't really blame him, as it was an hour past his bed time. 

The next morning we had until 1 pm to get ready for church. You'd think we could make it on time but we have proven that physically impossible. I searched my closet high and low for an Easter dress but once again, Hank forgot to get me one as jokingly promised last year. :) Next year, I'm going to go ahead and just take that matter into my own hands...

Once we were at church, Kellen sat like a doll in my lap for the first 15 minutes but quickly grew tired of that and began screaming. He spent sacrament in the hall...followed by Sunday school...until we had had enough of gracing the halls and decided to call it quits for the day. On the way home, I tried to take some Easter pictures of our little family, but in typical Easter day fashion, Kellen wasn't having any of that. 

We did manage to get 4 good ones (out of hundreds!)

It seemed like nothing was going according to my picture perfect plan. I didn't have a new dress; I certainly didn't grasp one concept from the surely beautiful messages shared at church; and my meal was lackluster. But I must say, the day took a bright turn when we had a little Easter egg hunt with my baby boy. 

He LOVED the basket I got for him. He didn't even care that I decided we couldn't afford a real basket and went the cheapest option available. He swung it around like it was the most amazing thing he'd ever seen. He sported the sweetest little grin the whole time, like it was so magical. He got a little possessive about his eggs and quickly dropped them in his basket. After further investigation of each egg, he was delighted to find nerds in some and squished peeps in others. He stuffed the entire peep in his mouth and swallowed without chewing. Yuck!

After the hunt, he kept opening and closing his eggs and putting them back in the basket. I don't even know how to put into words why this little egg hunt was so sweet, but it was perfect. Naturally, it overshadowed all my failures throughout the day :) I sure love holidays with little people around.