Happy Easters!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter Sunday!  It was a beautiful day and it was fun to spend time all together and at church.  We kept the Easter festivities pretty low-key, which was really nice because I didn't feel stressed about it all.  We bought a couple bags of our favorite candies (Starburst Jelly Beans and Cadbury Eggs... don't mind me while I drool all over the keyboard) and picked out a new movie for our family collection.  We let Jane "pick" the movie, which meant we held up the three options in front of her and which ever one she grabbed first was the winner.  She picked Frozen :)  The other two options were Catching Fire and The Desolation of Smaug, and I think Andrew and I were a tiny bit disappointed Jane didn't choose one of "our" movies, but Frozen is definitely one she can enjoy sooner than those other two. haha.  And I may enjoy singing along.  Just a little bit.  Ok a lot.  Put on a Disney movie and I'll sing my heart out like I don't know I'm off-key and making strange faces while I do it.

The Brandt's have an Easter tradition that includes the parents hiding the baskets and the children searching for them.  Maybe this is really common but I had never heard of it.  So we gave it a go, starting last year.  We separated our candy into plastic eggs and our baskets and took turns hiding them.  Last year I hid Andrew's basket SO good. hehe.  This year he found it pretty quick, and I thought I hid it so good, too! 

 So the only problem with this fun little activity is that I'm kind of a sore loser sometimes... especially when candy is on the line.  It doesn't make for much of a Christ-like atmosphere in our home when I'm wandering around the house whining and saying "Andrew!  Give me a better hint!  This isn't fair!  I made yours easy to find! (not really, I just did a bad job hiding it)".  

So Andrew hid my basket really well,  I'll just have to do a better job next year- insert evil grin.  The gloves are coming off, mister!

My parents gave Jane a couple of books and we got her some of those squeezy snack pouch things in a flavor that she really loves, Squash, Peas, and Pear... yummy...  And she just enjoyed throwing the plastic eggs around.  Easter success!

^Here's Jane in her little Easter dress.  She had a pretty rough nap and was not in a very good mood.  So she just sat in her little rocker and ate some Veggie Straws until she felt a little better.  She kills me.

^Look at that sass.  Sassy little miss.

The public library had a really fun Easter activity the weekend before Easter that we signed Jane up for.  They read an Easter story and made a craft, and had an egg hunt.  Jane mostly loved watching all the kids that were there run around like maniacs.  She had a blast!  She obviously didn't really know what the egg hunt was all about, but we showed her where an egg was hiding and she reached out for it pretty fast.  It was so cute.   

^Daddy and Jane with the little craft they made.

^I just love these two.

So that was the extent of our Easter celebrations!  Andrew and I also really enjoyed the Easter videos that the Church put up on the website, especially the "Because of Him" video.  I have the opportunity to teach the 14 to 15 year old girls in my ward every other Sunday, and this week our lesson was about why the Book of Mormon is the keystone of our religion.  Even though this video isn't about the Book of Mormon, it helped me realize that because of Him we have the Book of Mormon to testify of His life, sacrifice and doctrines, so that we can read it, along with the Bible, and pray to know the truth of these things.  Because of Him we have so many blessings to work towards, we just have to try.

I hope you were all able to feel the spirit of Christ through the Easter weekend :)