Happy Easter!

This Easter I have reached a landmark in my life. I now know how to boil an egg. Yep, before this Easter season I have enjoyed hard-boiled eggs made by other people; I have used eggs for baking; I am a master at making the "right" kind of scrambled eggs for my kids; I've even poached an egg before (before I knew I didn't like them like that). But a week ago Bekah wanted to decorate eggs, and the gauntlet was raised. So I had my sister in law DeAnn over to show me how to do it. Then I realized that I was stuck with 10 hard-boiled eggs, so now I have also discovered how to make egg salad sandwiches. I think I'm feeling exhausted from all of these milestones...
Now for some pictures. I'll put the captions above each picture.
This is Bekah in her "Angelina Ballerina" Easter dress. She was so proud of it and could twirl the heck out of it. Doesn't she look so big? Here's Jacob in his handsome bollo tie (is that how you spell that?) He didn't want to wear it until Rus was wearing one too, so there they were at church, two shortly-sheared, handsome rednecks with their bollo ties.
We, momma and poppa easter bunnies, got Jacob and Bekah umbrellas for Easter. They were a big hit. Jacob kept saying "Pider. Man. Pider. Man." I'm glad that we don't fear the superstition that an open umbrella indoors brings bad luck. I'm also glad that my children don't see the connection between umbrellas and rain.
This is how Jacob looked all day Sunday. Cheeks full of candy with just a little bit drooling out all of the time. Don't be deceived by the picture. He really enjoyed the candy, it just takes a lot of concentration to keep it all from falling out.This is why Jacob (and the rest of the kids) had candy in their mouths all day. Grandpa Payne wiped out all the Walmarts between his house and ours (at least 10 of them, I'm sure) and took all of their Easter candy and brought it to my house and distributed it freely to everyone.Peeps were also freely distributed, and Rus's brother Jacob took it upon himself to follow through with the time-honored tradition of microwaving one lucky Peep. After ballooning to twice its size, it turned into a puddle of radioactive goo. This peep could pass for a fried egg any day of the week.
Grandma Windham was able to enjoy Easter with us, and the great-grandkids got to enjoy the legendary "Windham handshake". Younger kids like Jacob still haven't fully grasped the concept of it, but Bekah knows that if she shakes Grandma's hand she'll get a dollar, so she's all over it.I had an elaborate plan of doing a treasure hunt with the kids, all of it ending with pots and flowers to plant for each of them. For some unknown reason my husband and his brother took it upon themselves to sabotage my plan, first by not helping, and then by turning on the sprinklers when I was standing right next to them. Grrr. No good deed goes unpunished. So I decided to just plant the flowers with the kids, and then they decided to let me plant them for them. Now I have five potted flowers sitting on my counter because they didn't make it to their rightful homes. It makes me wonder why I thought it'd be cool in the first place.
Well, I hope you all had a wonderful Easter. It's important that I mention how grateful I am for my Savior and his sacrifice for me. I am thankful for his life and example, for the person that he was and is. I hope to be like him one day. I know that he lived for us, died willingly for us, and that he lives now, arms outstretched, inviting you and me to come to him. I know that through the miracle of Jesus' atonement and resurrection, I can be like him and return to him and live with him and Heavenly Father forever.