An Easter Sunday

We had a quiet, cozy little Easter celebration at our house this year. Pete was on call delivering wee Easter babies all day. I woke shortly after he left for the hospital in the hopes of joining my sister at the earliest church service. Alas, 7:30 proved to be too early for my snail pace. I had good intentions. I had planned about a week before that Ella would wear an adorable daisy dress my mom had given her and Sam would wear a little button-up and khakis. They were dressed with hair brushed, looking bright-eyed for the big day when I realized I hadn't given a moment's thought to what I would wear. Good heavens, why must we even make such decisions?! I was so successful getting them ready that I had no remaining creative energy to figure out what I would wear. I quickly vetoed jeans due to the nice occasion. I briefly considered dress pants until I realized I didn't have any pressed shirts. Then I flipped through hangers of dresses until I came across one that actually fits at the moment. It was a winner. I tossed my hair up in a messy bun, got the kids in the car, and did my makeup in the church parking lot. By this time it was a few minutes after 8, so I jokingly told the nursery attendants I thought the service started at 8. Oh well, we all ended up at church and that was the goal. Go team.

The entire service was beautiful. I discovered this when I decided to stay for the 9 o'clock service with Eli & Krista. Easter is probably my favorite time to be at church. There is a joyfulness that can be felt through kind smiles, big families, and bright new dresses. It Christmas things feel a bit more rushed and stressful. On top of that, the promise we are reminded of at Easter is incredible. I am completely humbled by God's goodness to us.

After church, I took the kids home for naps and to prepare an Easter meal. Eli, Krista, and Caleb joined us for a very relaxed afternoon of eating, naps, and an indoor egg hunt. There was just way too much snow to have it outside. Although, it may have been fun to throw the eggs out in the yard and watch Ella tromp through the thigh-high snow to get each of them. She probably would have loved it!

She was pretty hilarious looking for the two dozen eggs I hid in the living and dining rooms. There was a high-pitch squeal and a little dance with every discovered egg. Envision that doubled each time she found two hidden side-by-side. Seriously, the girl has some good egg discovering moves.

The plan yesterday had included dying eggs, but we didn't quite make it that far, so this afternoon Ella and I worked together to color a basket of them.

She was quite focused while working and only cracked one egg. I think it may have been a bit intentional, though.

 At one point I had the idea to get out the glue and googley eyes, so we made a little family. I was really impressed with Ella's drawing skills! She made two of the three!

Little Man had a good time next to the table while we worked.  Currently, this is his favorite thing to do. He's kind of a pro.

We hope your family had a very happy Easter.

**********

Last Wednesday, Sam had a very quick procedure to put tubes in each of his ears. We were at the hospital at 7am and were home by 10:30am. He was a champ. Most kids have multiple ear infections before considering tubes, but Sam didn't have a single one that we're aware of. Instead, we were hoping that his very low hearing skills would improve by clearing out fluid that had built up in his ear. In the end, the doctor was able to remove a lot of gunk, and boy oh boy, have we seen a change. He's now responding when we talk to him and even turns to see us when we make noise. Those are things that very rarely happened before getting his tubes. He seems happier and more engaged. We are thrilled! His hearing will be tested again in a few weeks and then we'll do an ABR (auditory brainstem response) test to see if there are more ways we can continue to improve his hearing. We want to do as much as possible so that he can hear well during his early stages of speech development. This has been the only health challenge we've encountered so far, aside from a few bouts of croup. We know that we are very blessed.

**********

Of course, we cannot forget that today is the day a winner of the paper bead necklace is being announced. There were 22 responses between the blog and two places on Facebook, so I compiled the list and let random.org select the winner.

As you can see, the winner is number 22... Ellen K! Yay, Ellen! I'll get your info and have the necklace in the mail in the next couple days. Enjoy!