Easter

I have been really homesick for Utah these days.  I didn't feel homesick during Halloween, Thanksgiving, or even Christmas.  However, lately, everything seems to remind me of Utah and the fact that I haven't been there in 15 months!  This time, it was our family egg hunt that I longed to attend.  The good news is that some friends from the ward got together for an egg hunt of our own.

 (Raquel guarded her loot well by keeping an eye on the sketchy babies nearby.)

At home, daddy helped Raquel draw her first Easter bunny.  Growing up, we Ferguson children never had a real Easter basket.  During egg hunts, we used sacks.  For Easter morning, we made our "bunny baskets" out of paper grocery bags.  Call us ghetto, but it was one of my favorite traditions...and now it's Raquel's turn.

Sadly, as our Saturday before Easter progressed, Raquel became more and more sick.  On Sunday, she had a fever, runny nose, and the saddest eyes I've ever seen.  She ended up staying home from church.  (I can't help but wonder if she did all that to get out of wearing the outfit I made for her.  I didn't think it was THAT bad.)

 Thankfully, she rallied and had enough energy to open her gifts.

A few days later, once her soggy nose dried up, Raquel was forced to wear her Easter outfit anyways.

Hippity Hoppity

It's a universal fact of life, holidays are unvelievably more cute and magical with kids...even miniature ones.

On Saturday, Raquel and I woke up early to surprise daddy with some Pinterest Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins.  Find the scrumptious recipe here: http://www.thibeaultstable.com/2010/05/glazed-lemon-poppy-seed-muffins.html

As always, Raquel was thrilled to help mommy.

 There was an egg run planned in our neighborhood, but since Raquel had such a HARD day on Friday, we decided she needed to stay home and rest.  So, we once again had our egg hunt inside.  First, I hid eggs for Luis and Raquel.  Then he hid eggs for Raquel and I.  Since Missy was sleeping, Luis and I started hunting first.

The BEST part of our hunt, was when we had both found 4/5 eggs.  Luis gave me clues and I finally found my last egg.

Then I gave Luis hints and he found his last egg IN THE SAME SPOT.  (I'm not sure how he didn't see his egg there when he put mine right in front of it, but it gave us some good laughs.)

 

 Finally Raquel woke up happy and anxious to start her hunt.

 She found all her eggs AND the special presents Grandma Ferguson sent down.

On Sunday, Raquel was happy to finally get to wear her Easter dress (a "happy birth" present from Grandma Ferguson that was perfect for Easter) and flower that Mommy made.  Have I said how much I L.O.V.E making flowers for her hair?

Church was fabulous, as I always love the messages shared on Easter Sunday.  I especially love being in Primary where I get to hear the beautiful stories of Christ and the simple testimonies of the kiddos.

After church, Raquel got to see her Easter loot.

She got some hand puppets, though I'm not sure what she thought about them.

 She got some clothes.  Baby rompers...CUTE!

AND she got Goodnight Moon (en espanol) and a Spanish Songs CD.

Aren't these so precious?  They melt my heart.

 For Sunday dinner we had the most YUMMY potatoes I have ever tasted.  And yes, we did have to stick forks in the potatoes.  And YES, I took them out before putting the papas in the oven.  (Side note:  did you know that the word "papa" in Spanish means potato, food, and the Pope?  Now you know.)

Happy Easter!

Hoppy Easter

Another holiday away from family means another holiday I've got to "up my game" to create fun memories.  This weekend turned out to be a very Hoppy Easter
(get it...hoppy?  Clever right?) 

We started out our weekend with the WesternU LDSSA barbeque.  There are tons of western students in our ward, but they are all in the Dental or Doctor programs.  It seems like there are many families involved in those programs.  The pharmacy program is mostly single, Asian women.  That's fine, but it means Lu doesn't have many school buddies he can relate to.  So the BBQ was a great way for us to get to know some other students at western who have more in common with us.

There's my Lu!  Am I a great photographer or what?

As a still fairly newlywed couple, we have a few hand-me-downs that we've wanted to update.  Every week we get ads from furniture stores.  Since I always find something I want, I leave the ad on the counter for a few days to tease myself.  After a week I remember that we can't buy new stuff right now and throw it away until the next ad arrives.  As a part Easter gift, part spring cleaning revamp, we decided to buy a few new items: bedding and a couch slipcover.

This is what we used to have.

(Okay, so we did have a slipcover on this couch before, so it wasn't quite this tragic...but still.)

Ta-da!

What do you think?  The red couch was a bit shocking, but I must say, I really like it!

On with the festivities.

Every Easter season since birth, I have participated in an Easter Egg Hunt.  I knew that there was no way I could NOT be in one this year, so I informed Luis that he and I would have one just for the two of us.  Since we already have candy that we rarely touch, I came up with the idea to fill our eggs with IOU's.  I cut some cutesy scrapbook paper into small strips and then we each took 10 and wrote out our IOU's.

We held our egg hunt in our apartment and found that it was really hard to find some of the eggs.  I played the classic primary singing game to help Luis.  You know the one.  You sing louder or softer to help the seeker find the hidden item.  I sang "Peter Cottontail" for Luis and he really liked it.

I really stink at egg hunts and ended up needed lots of clues with eggs 4-10.

Luis came up with some great IOU's like:

• washing my car
• dinner and dishes
• grocery shopping
• a night out dancing

Some of mine were pretty good too.  My favorite went a little something like this:

• IOU one walk to Krispy Kreme (doughnuts not included...okay fine, they are) and back.

We ended our fun with fondue.



Of course, Easter means much more than just fun activities.  I know I am rarely serious on my blog, but I do want to say how much I love our Savior.  He lived an incredible life here on Earth and is such an example to me of how I should live.  Being around kids and cranky people can be so exhausting.  It is sometimes quite easy for me to loose my patience.  But, I try to remember how Christ treated people in the scriptures and hope that someday I can learn to have more of His love.  I know His Atonement brings healing in our lives and have felt it so much this past year.  I also have great hope because of the Resurrection.  Recently, a family in my ward lost a 14 month old daughter to illness.  As sad as it is, I have been amazed to hear the young parents speak about how blessed they are to have had 14 months with their sweet daughter here on earth and eternity with her later on.  What a blessing it is to know that our families can be together forever because of our loving Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.