Glowing on Easter Sunday

Here are some pictures from Easter Sunday. We had to be at Church an hour early to practice with choir, so I didn't have time to take pictures at home. These are taken outside the church after choir practice. It was a bright sunny day and consequently the girls look like glowy angels. Really - that's what they are, right?

I want to always remember Eve and Easter 2011. Here is a picture of her dancing. Her dress is yellow with purple polka dots - not that you can tell from this picture. You can't even really tell it is Eve - since you can't even see her face. It could be Jackie 2 years ago ( back when the dress was new). This is the best we could do considering she had eaten a lot of chocolate that morning and wasn't about to stand still. What was special about Eve this year is that she is three and an active sunbeam. This was the first year she got to sing in church with all the primary kids. For the past year, she has cried whenever the primary kids sing, wanting to be up there so badly. Do you think when this picture was taken before church that sh was excited about being a big girl and singing in church? The answer to that question is "NO - she wasn't" because I had completely forgotten it was her first time. You see in December I was called to be the primary chorister. I have never served in primary before so it feels really new for me. Easter was only the second time that the primary has sung in church with me conducting. I was a little nervous - and in my nervousness I completely forgot to prepare Eve for her debut.

I paid the price for that oversight. Eve cried when I went up to the stand to invite all the kids up to the stand. She didn't go up with all the other kids. When I realized this I went and got her (remember Andrew sits on the stand on Sunday). I did get her to go up and stand with the other kids. She was find during the first verse of Easter Hosanna. Things went downhill in the second verse when her friend Chelsa moved to stand beside her. I am not sure if she liked this or not, all I know is that she felt compelled to tell me about. All through the was trying to get may attention. Saying " Mom! Mommy!!! Mommy!!!" progressively louder. She doesn't like being ignored - I mean , who does, but what could I do? I couldn't answer her, I was conducting and singing ( and completely messing up the words because I was so flustered).

Many people came up to me and said the primary did a great job. They assured me that they didn't hear Eve at all - I am sure the Lord will overlook their dishonesty since it came from a nice place. (Yup - pretty sure they were lying - but I won't hold it against them). There were some honest people that admitted to hearing her but said, " Oh, the sunbeams always make the performance". I agree with them. I just like it better when it is someone else's sunbeam, but this Easter Sunday, mine was shining like the sun.


Here are Jackie, Jessica, and Alice on Easter Morning. We had an Easter egg hunt at Stephanies on Saturday and took Jessie home with us for a sleep over. We would gladly keep that girl forever. She is the greates. My girls were in heaven. To my surprise Alice ( 9) and Jessie ( almost 10) swore they heard the Easter bunny hopping around the house and that is what woke them up. The three girls slept in the guest bedroom downstairs and Jessie read them scary stories. I was grateful to have Jessie there to hold the poster with the words on it for the primary kids - since I was so distracted by Eve's antics that I totally messed up the words. When I took Jessie home that night, the kids had been together for 34 hours. They of course acted like they had hardly had any time to play. 34 hours is not long enough to play with your cousin.

It was a great Easter. Good family time and the opportunity to strenthen our testimony of the savior. Jackie especially got to strengthen her testamony. She gave her first unassisted talk in primary that she completly thought of and planned herself. She was so excited but freaked out during sacrament - sure she wouldn't be able to do it. She cried all the way through the primary song - but still sang, bless her heart. We said a prayer and asked the Lord to help her. By the time primary came around, she was a cool as a cucumber and did a great job. Andrew gave a talk too, even though he was ill, but to tell you the truth there was a little too much going on on our bench for me to really focus on it. Maybe next year I will hear the spoken parts of the Easter program!