Easter 2015

Today was a wonderful Easter.  I mean, at its core, Easter is always wonderful.  A day set aside for reflecting on the powerful act that makes everything we believe make sense and be worth believing.  He is Risen, He is Risen indeed!  Today was also wonderful because we were blessed with sunshine and warming temperatures.  Because I got to bring all 4 boys to church to worship with me (and I got there early for the 9am!).  Because we got to worship with our church community in our new building for the first Sunday and it was so full of energy, excitement and praise for our Savior, the Risen One.  And finally, because we got to celebrate with friends that are like family to us here in the evening, a lovely finish to a great day.  Here's the review of the day in pictures...

The brood of boys at church.  We were there for the 9am service, but we also stayed for worship at the 11am.  We caught our annual family photo in between the two services.

I took a few pictures of Jansen to showcase his first Easter outfit.  Dapper little dude.

After our full morning of church, I headed home with the boys.  Jansen slept soundly until 1pm and in that time the boys and I made a chocolate pecan pie for our evening dinner plans at Uncle Nate and Aunt Megan's and then we all had lunch.  Doug got home around 1:30pm and we enjoyed being together as a family on a Sunday afternoon (a luxury for us).  The boys and I had made chocolate cupcakes and cocoa frosting the day before (another dessert, more kid-friendly, for our evening), so we enjoyed decorating them as a little Easter afternoon activity.  

While we were decorating, Daddy got some Easter snuggles from Jansen (Penn was already napping).  Check out his second Easter outfit of the day...thanks, Nana!

After Janse was down for a nap and the cupcake project was over, I got to go outside with Koen and Tavin and enjoy the glorious Spring weather for a little while and then Doug took over and I got to quietly nurse Jansen without the big boys around.  Then we all loaded up and headed to the Troxells.  Uncle Nate had a big surprise for the boys...an Easter egg hunt!!  Here he is seriously explaining the rules.

Then it was out to the backyard...on your mark, get set, go!!!

Thanks, Uncle Nate.  It was a huge hit!  The whole evening was fantastic.  Megan planned a beautiful and delicious meal that we all thoroughly enjoyed (I think our boys ate half the ham themselves).  The boys really enjoyed playing together which is always so nice to see the friendships growing from one generation to the next.  Check out Alex and Tavin (our chocolatey calamity) at their little table.  

Here's a shot of Penn Rye, just because. =)

We loved the interesting and fun conversation around the table as adults.  Nate and Megan's friends, Saket and Rachel, were there.  Such interesting folks.  We all got along great.  They both love kids and Saket was happy to hold Jansen which was a nice break for me.  

Thanks Nate and Megan for all your hard work to pull off a lovely Easter dinner.  We love this tradition of getting our families together and we appreciate you hosting this particular holiday since it's a long day for Doug.  We are so thankful for your friendship and the opportunity to mature as individuals, married couples and parents alongside of you.

Now, the end of Easter was a little rough.  Jansen didn't love his routine getting messed with.  He didn't have a good nap all day because of our different schedule with church and the evening out, etc.  So, he was quite the fuss-bucket after I tried laying him down around 8pm until his 10pm feeding.  Doug snuggled with him so I could have a break.  I caught this adorable conversation between them.  You can't see much, but listen, Jansen is answering Doug most every time he asks him something (it was happening for about two minutes straight before I took the video, I caught the end).  Precious!

Thankfully after all that wake time, he finally hit the hay hard after I fed him at 10pm and he never woke up for a middle of the night feeding!  He slept the whole night and made it til 7am to start the day.  That was a nice Easter treat!