easter 2015

Have I already mentioned how magical holidays are with kids?  I love re-experiencing the magic of each holiday with Ellie.

We'd been talking up Easter for about a week prior so she'd kind of know what to expect when the time came.  It made me smile how serious she got when she realized it was go time.  She was a girl on a mission, hunting for those eggs.

It melted my heart when she found her very first Easter egg.  Instead of hurriedly searching for more eggs, she opened it to find two pieces of chocolate.  Immediately, she tried to share one with her daddy.  I love her instinctual sweetness.

The Easter Bunny left Ellie a basket with a few goodies and hid eggs all around the front room.

We watched General Conference while we ate Easter candy and (finally) boiled some eggs to decorate.

During one of the talks, Ellie informed us that Jesus likes Peeps, too.  She probably knows him better than I do, so I took her word for it.

Ellie got a big kick out of dyeing eggs.

There may have been a few cracked shells by the time she was done, but they were worth it to see her excitement.

After both sessions of General Conference were over, we drove up to Jeremy and Ali's house for Easter Dinner and another Easter egg hunt.  I was nervous I wouldn't be able to make it, because I had been experiencing pretty bad morning sickness for a lot of the day.  (And Tim's family didn't know I was expecting yet!)  But I ended up going, and I think I was able to hide it pretty well - after I ate some food, that is. :)

I can't express enough how much Ellie loves having cousins around.  Like, she cries when we have to leave them more often than she doesn't.

She has some hero-worship going on with pretty much all of her older cousins.  She thrives on all of their attention.

I am so grateful I married into a family with so many cousins for Ellie.  It's been a huge blessing!

We loved Easter this year, and Ellie is already talking about next year!