Easter Weekending!

Easter did so good this weekend. So good, that it almost made me forget that I still have three finals I need to do this week. Almost...

On Saturday we went and watched our nieces and nephews do an Easter egg hunt around my uncle Tom's mortuary. I'm pretty sure I had more fun than the kids watching them hunt for their eggs. It didn't hurt that they were all willing to share their candy with me, either. 

Today was a noteworthy Easter Sunday for two reasons: 1) We made it to church early and 2) I said the closing prayer in sacrament meeting--I'm still shaking. It was a good reminder for me that I need to grow a pair of "eggs" (since we have an Easter theme goin' here) and not be so afraid to bear my testimony in front of others. Baby steps... ;)

Chris and Joelle had some deep bonding moments this year...

After church we had a party with my mom's side of the family, which I love because you know there's always going to be so much delicious food and even more laughs. Every year when we get together for Easter, my aunt Joelle puts on an adult Easter egg hunt. These ain't your average hunts though--there's always some crazy, borderline dangerous, twist. This year, we had a three-legged race (thanks to me, since I got the idea from our Gourley Easter party the week previously!) that involved Hoola Hoops, Oreos, bubbles, and lots of running/swearing. Sidenote: If you want to evaluate your own/someone else's marriage, just do a three-legged race together--it's a great assessment tool. The egg hunt lived up to it's standard though and was so much fun! We ended up scoring two gift cards to Subway and Taco Amigo, because we haven't eaten enough this weekend already. 

I loved this Easter. Even without all the fun activities we did this weekend. Maybe it was all the #becauseofHim messages I was seeing on Instagram, but I felt like I was able to keep the true meaning of Easter in the back of my mind a lot more easily this year, and I think that made all the difference today. 

I love this holiday and all that it stands for. 

Spring cleaning myself.

I have been full this Easter weekend. Full of....thoughts, tears, cadbury eggs, fresca, and um...cadbury eggs.

Me and Chris went to the BYU Easter Conference for date night (yeah, you read that right--gettin' spiritual over here!), and I actually was really glad we went. It was the perfect way to get ready for Easter. One of the speakers, Brad Wilcox, said some things I think I really needed to hear. It would be a joke for me to try and summarize all the great things he said, so I'm just going to quote the one thing he said that has been stuck in my head all weekend. 

"Turning to the Lord is not another thing to do, it is the only thing to do."

As soon as he said that, my eyes were full of tears, and my heart was full of guilt. You see, lately, I feel like I've had so much to do with school, nursing applications, and on top of those, trying to be the perfect wifey, with a perfectly clean house, and perfect homemade meals (curse you, pinterest!), that I really have felt like turning to the Lord is just another thing I need to check off of my to-do list. That simple sentence from Brad Wilcox made me realize that it's time to start worrying about things that matter, and keep an eternal perspective in mind.

So along with spring cleaning my house, I am going to try and start spring cleaning my attitude! Starting with keeping an eternal perspective. I also realized that I need to work on not getting so bugged about things I can't control. Actually, Chris is the one who pointed that out to me after I got really upset thinking that fast Sunday might be the same day as Easter this year. Who in their right mind would do that?! In my defense, I had just packed a bag of cadbury eggs into my purse. I should really consider spring cleaning my diet as well... SHOULD being the keyword. We'll see.

This Easter was a fabulous one for me and Chris! We got to spend time with both of our families. We celebrated Easter on Saturday with the Gourleys. We ate pizza, fed the ducks at the pond, had an Easter egg hunt for the little ones, and played red rover and steal the flag!

We celebrated with my family on Sunday at my grandma's. We had a weenie roast (weenie? weeny?- too afraid to Google that word), and an Easter egg hunt for the older kids. It wasn't an ordinary Easter egg hunt, though. Each egg had a number on it, which represented points. Whoever collected the most eggs with the most points won. It's a good thing Chris was on my team, because I only found two eggs which totaled to a whopping 23 points. So I combined my eggs with Chris', and we ended up taking fourth place! Fourth place got a $10 gift card to Subway. High-five for five dollar footlongs! 

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter, too!