Easter Fun (aka. Ice, Ice Baby and a Major Egg Fight)

This year we hosted my extended family at our house for our annual Easter egg hunt! Lundyn and I had boiled a bunch of eggs, and combined them with a bunch that weren't boiled at all. The kids cracked them over each others heads and ended up having an all out messy egg war in the yard- they loved it! They boys were a yolky, slimy mess! I doubt my family agrees, but I think this might just need to be regular part of our annual get together :)

Because of Him

Happy Easter, friends!

If you follow on Instagram, you know I've been playing along with this last week's #BecauseofHim photo challenge. Today I wanted to make sure and share this video- I know it will uplift your day! I know that ALL things are Because of Him! :) He Lives!

Double Stuffed Lemon Garlic Chicken with Kraft Fresh Take

I am a member of the Collective Bias®  Social Fabric® Community. 

This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper amplification for Collective Bias and its advertiser.

#FreshTake #CollectiveBias

I've had the thought to share this recipe for quite awhile- it's a surprisingly easy favorite that's great for average nights or special occasions both. This time around I tried out a Kraft Fresh Take meal kit that honestly made it even more simple (I'll never complain about that)! 

Growing up, Sunday dinner was a pretty big deal around our house. It was the nicest meal of the week. I love the idea up continuing that tradition for my own family... but, in truth, Sunday seems to fall more toward smorgasbord for us. We get home from Church and gather around our kitchen island to a spread of leftovers, finger foods and easy options. I actually really like this way of things too :)

But for special Sundays like Easter, that simply won't do- it's a perfect time to prepare something more special to acknowledge the holiday. I love creating fun table spreads, but being surrounded by boys who really don't care at all about the centerpiece, and just want to mow down the food already, means I gotta take whatever opportunity I can get to make a meal special! :)

For Easter, we usually get together with my whole family- that's us above (a blast from Easter weekend past)! We have a great potluck meal and some fun Easter egg hunts around the yard. This was the first year my Mom and Dad starting hiding eggs for us adults- that's been a fun new tradition!

Anyhow... a Spring gathering of your favorite people, like Easter always is for us, would be a great time to concoct a yummy, seemingly involved but actually simple dish like this Double Stuffed Lemon Garlic Chicken. Like I mentioned, this time I tried Kraft Fresh Take that I picked up at Walmart:

I bought my chicken with a Fresh Take coupon that gave me a $1.00 off! Through April, or as long as the prints last, you can save when you buy the two together- perfect, since, ya know, you kinda need both :)

Easter Egg Kid Craft: Pom Pom Creatures

This week Cooper is home on Spring Break, and we're not really planning on anything too grand, just enjoying home. As long as I could get a little shopping in on occasion too, I'm pretty sure I could hang out at home indefinitely- ha!

It feels like Easter is sneaking up fast this year, so I wanted to try and do some Easter season sort of activities with them...

Spring Break and Easter Fun

This last week has been Spring Break for Taron and Keaton, and for Cooper!

It's been fun having it be the week right before Easter...

Last-Minute Easter Basket Personalization

I can remember what Easter was like growing up really well.

I remember my Dad trying to make our Easter baskets tough to find.

I remember lots of times one of us would find a basket that

didn't belong to us before we found our own!

And now I'm the one filling and hiding baskets for our boys-

and having to tell them that the basket they were so excited to have just found

is a different brother's and not theirs!

This year I thought maybe I'd try to personalize their baskets a little bit

so it was obvious at first glance who's was who's...

Easter Goodness

Even though our Easter Sunday was all too uneventful, the day before we had a great day together with my family at my sister's new house in Pocatello! With all four kids, spouses and kids together, it was a nice time to try and get a new family pic for my Mom and Dad's entryway... however, clearly these pics are proof that I should no longer be the family photographer! Nice try, but they just didn't turn out great. Photographers that can get kids to cooperate, while thinking about the light and the wind and the angle of every last body and, and and... I admire you!

After the photo attempt at a nearby park, we had a yummy lunch (is there such a thing as a bad potluck?!) and then chilled out for a bit before going roller skating! It was a nice addition to the day, though Cooper didn't enjoy it as much this time around for some reason. Taron did quite well, but Keaton didn't seem to be enjoying it too much- next time I daresay the extra $2 for in-line skates might be worth it! I gained a new most-embarrassing-moment out of the excursion by beautifully biffing it onto my tailbone! Yes, yes, I am one of those super coordinated types :P

My younger brothers and sisters, however... they make everything look easy! 

Then we went back and had a backyard egg hunt! The kids all got enough loot to last until Halloween :) My parents started a cool new tradition where they filled and hid eggs for their adult children! The eggs had little items like super glue, nail clippers, Lindt truffles, and dollar bills in them! Lundyn added a few trick ones that were full of funny things like cauliflower and pasta too! It was really a fun time :)

Grandpa and Grandma put a few dollar bills in the kids' eggs too and they were the highlight of the boys' treasures for sure! Cooper could have found that egg alone and been happy :)

Then later that night back at home, I got to have my fun filling the boys' Easter buckets! They got new sandals, a book, a fun little kite thing, silly putty, bubbles, a new shirt for Church, and I always add a Gospel picture. They were happy as happy with everything, simple and necessary as it was :) We have been loving the bubbles for sure! Cooper loved finding his hidden in the pantry...

One of my facebook friends' status on Sunday was that part of their family was sick also for Easter, so they would be doing faux Easter pics all gussied up next Sunday and I thought that sounded like a swell idea! So, next Sunday we'll pose instead! Our family pic from Easter last year is actually one of my favorites of us all :)

Thanks to my family for making our Easter memorable! We love you all!

Dying Over Here

Another fun little thing we squeezed in while the boys were here was dying Easter eggs! For the first time I used plain vinegar and food color and it worked great! I usually buy a kit with color capsules, but opted not to and now I likely never will again. I also recycled these little babies:

Yogurt cups! These particular cups struck me as being big enough to fit an egg and indeed they were- I actually don't have an abundance of cups or mugs in general, so this was a nice way to save on dishes!

We rolled the eggs in glitter before we dyed them and I decided it was a bit of a bust... glitter eggs definitely need to be fake! I also tried to get my glue dots to stick to the egg shell to roll them in glitter for polka dot eggs and they wouldn't stick! Guess we'll stick to plain jane around here! They are still pretty in my opinion :) It was interesting to watch Taron and Keaton try a few more unique things with the colors.

Ryder was just happy to be included and loved the green color!

Cooper tried using a white crayon and writing his name...

No doubt we'll do this again this week- Ryder and I both love hard boiled eggs!

Plus, I still have hope for making a polka dot one :)

Easter Printable: Death is Conquered

"He is Risen, He is Risen!

Tell it out with joyful voice.

He hath burst His three days prison,

Let the whole wide earth rejoice.

Death is conquered, Man is free.

Christ hath won the victory!"

LDS Hymns No. 199

Happy Easter time all and happy first day of Spring!

I've had these words from an Easter hymn milling around in my head for a printable.

Crazy, but I'll lie in bed at night when I should be asleep

and think of different typography designs or of pieces of songs

that would make interesting and useful prints- nuts, I know!

Quotes from movies or lyrics from songs always seem to be my fav :)

I love Easter time!

Filling the boys' Easter baskets is one of my favorite, favorite things all year!

I love getting them duded up for Easter Sunday,

love egg dying and hiding, love freshening things up with bright colors again.

And love that for us this holiday is esteemed, protected.

I'm pretty happy with how it looks on my mantle, which is certainly still a work in progress!
See that fun wreath?!? I'll have more to share on it before too long too :)

I hope these printables will be some you can enjoy during this special holiday!
I liked picking colors that were brighter and using fonts that were more pretty and swirly :)

Followers can click the link below to get to the color desired in Google Docs,

then download and print at 8 x 10- Enjoy!

Death is Conquered, Easter Print : daisy yellow

Death is Conquered, Easter Print : spring green

Death is Conquered, Easter Print : soft purple

Death is Conquered, Easter Print : sky blue

Death is Conquered, Easter Print : peachy keen 

147:2 (Easter 2011)

We had a really fun Easter weekend! It was nice to have Taron and Keaton with us for some fun filled days. I took 147 pictures in two days it was so grand! :) And now you've been warned :) ...

 We opted to skip swimming with relatives in favor of fishing and then catch up with everyone later in the day. We drove to Oster Lake in Hagerman and caught a total of three fish! Keaton was thrilled to get the first fish of the day and Stephen let Cooper help reel in the other two. I enjoy fishing as long as it involves catching, so this was  fun time! My family ended up not getting to even go swimming thanks to a power outage, so were glad we chose fishing instead!

Then we went to my Uncle Kirk and Aunt Kim's house in Jerome for a yummy lunch and egg hunt! I participated in this egg hunt at her house as a kid myself and it's awesome to stick to the tradition for my own kids! Grandpa Merlin hid some particularly hard ones for the older kids- Taron stuck pretty close to him for some help with the finding!

Back at home, the weather was still so nice that we couldn't resist eating outside. We're out of propane so grilling was out, but Taron started a fire in our fire ring and we roasted hot dogs! I love taking pictures on a calm, clear evening- love these boys!

 Once again, it probably goes without saying that I LOVE filling my kids' Easter baskets! I like adding a church picture and the pinwheels were so cute! Taron and Keaton got some new church shoes and the little boys got pajamas- both much needed around here! They also each got a can of silly string and went outside almost immediately to play with it! Pretty sure it's now Cooper's favorite thing ever :) Cooper had these window crayons in his and all the boys love them! Also pretty sure that my windows will never be the same again... :)

Confession: We didn't actually make it to Stake Conference (blush)... we had really good intentions but mis-used our time in the end. Sooooo, the boys all indulged me and dressed up in their church duds for a family picture! I LOVE how it turned out! The little guys were so stinkin' cute in their fun bow ties and suspenders! (More to come on that in itself!) Look at those handsome dudes I get to be surrounded by- I am one lucky lady!

 Tried also to get a nice shot of all four boys... this little gem above makes me laugh! :) They were pretty stoked to wrestle around on the tramp after all that posing! That's more like who we really are for sure! :)