Easter Weekend

It was so weird to me when we first moved to Canada and I learned that Spring break (or rather March break) didn't coincide with Easter.  However, I have learned to love the 4-day weekend just for Easter here.  I also love our new Easter decor!

We started our festivities on Friday with coloring 30 hard boiled eggs.  We didn't have access to Easter egg dye last year in India, so we used markers instead.  This year we could have got the egg dye, but we chose to decorate them with markers again.

Macy slept through our arts and crafts time, but I know one day she will create little beauties of her own.

Ta-da!  Everyone did a great job!  I love seeing the creativity!

Saturday morning the kids discovered that the Easter bunny had come!  He brought them new baskets with chocolate bunnies, Cheetos carrots, marshmallow peeps, sequin eggs, and new teddy bears!  He also filled more eggs with more candy for their hunt later.

I took individual pictures of the kids with their candy baskets, their baskets and bears, and with their eggs from the hunt.  I'm just sharing my favorite one of each though.

The Easter bunny even brought a basket for Grandpa!

The kids scored on their egg hunt finding inside Cadbury creme eggs, Reese's peanut butter eggs, Oreo eggs, M&Ms, Hershey's eggies, Reese's pieces eggs, and jelly beans!

(Teague arranged everyone to sit in rainbow order, so my son- ha ha!)

Macy got all the eggs!

I added bows to each bear so the kids can tell whose is whose.

(I know I have 7 kids and there are 8 bears, but you know I'm still dreaming of having one more little babe!)

On Saturday and Sunday we watched all the sessions of General Conference.  On Sunday morning we feasted on Palachinkas.  On Sunday evening we feasted on Easter dinner!  Since we had a ham for our Epiphany dinner, we did a turkey this time complete with cranberry sauce, stuffing, green bean casserole, funeral potatoes, deviled eggs, rolls, and sparkling cider. 

For dessert we had strawberry-rhubarb pie a la mode.

Our festivities also included watching It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown and HOP.

I am so grateful that my Savior, Jesus Christ atoned for my sins, died for me, and was resurrected!  Because of Him I can be forgiven, live again after death, and spend eternity with my loved ones.  There is no greater gift!

#17

It was so wonderful, humbling, and testimony-building to be a part of a world-wide Solemn Assembly to sustain Russell M. Nelson as the seventeenth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  We thank thee, O God, for a prophet!

Green Cupcakes and Jumanji

In honor of Grandpa Green-eyes visiting, we made green frosted ice cream cone cupcakes.

Poor Macy was sleeping so she missed out, ha ha!

Grandpa treated us with a trip to the movies.  We showed the kids trailers for 8 different movies and then had them do a secret vote.  Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle got the most votes, so off we went.  Thanks Grandpa it was fun!

Elder Cannon

Elder Cannon was on splits with Elder Halliday in our ward, so I finally got to see him!

Elder Halliday took our picture above, as well as this "behind the scenes" one of Len taking a "groupie" of us for facebook.  In Leonard's words:

The Long-Expected Meeting

Finally got together with Spencer Cannon, son of our good friends Lincoln and Dorothée.  He's currently serving a mission here in Ottawa (part of the Montreal mission).  I met his parents when we were all serving in the France Marseille mission and they were among Jen and my best friends when we lived in Utah.  We had hoped to surprise him back in November, and here it is in March.  Better late than never.

I will add that Spencer was raised bilingual speaking both French and English as his mother is from France and his father is American.  I remember seeing the video of him opening his mission call.  When he saw that he was going to the Canada Montreal mission he didn't seem too surprised, since they speak French there.  He was then ultimately surprised when he read the next line that said, "Mandarin speaking."  He is serving in another ward in our Stake, where the Chinese speaking Elders serve in Ottawa.  It was so great he was able to go on splits in our ward so we could see him.  However, since he and his companion are the only Chinese speaking Elders in the city, they can go to dinner appointments in any ward, so we'll be having him and his companion over for dinner soon too.  I think it's so cool that he and Leonard can speak to one another in THREE languages!

On Wednesday, we had Elders Purahui and Halliday over for dinner.

On Thursday, we did the same for Elders Cannon and Hsiung.

Now we need to have the Sister missionaries over.

A couple of weeks later we had Sister Johnson and Sister Austin over for dinner.

We love the missionaries!!

Blue Waves, Mohawks, and Spikes

The 3 Musketeers had crazy hair day at school.  We had some blue gel, so Leonard fixed them all up nice.  Teague's smile is the most genuine.  He LOVES having spiky hair, so he was game for his faux hawk.  Gavin likes flat hair and he was really out of his comfort zone sporting this wavy dippity do.  I'm proud of him for sticking with it (as soon as he came home it was straight to the shower for him to wash it out, ha ha!).  Hiram liked his little liberty spikes, but he was more concerned about the hole in his smile from his newly lost tooth.  I love these boys!

Little Sisters

Ali wanted to snuggle Macy one day.  They were being so cute together, I had to grab the camera.

What sweethearts!  I think they are going to be best friends forever!

Sleeping Cutie!

Macy was wiped out after her 2 month doctor's check-up and immunizations.

But I just had to take pictures of this little sleeping cutie!

Grandpa in town!

Grandpa with Green-eyes came to town to visit all of us and to meet his newest granddaughter (grandchild #19).  Macy's so excited to meet him too!

1st time at church

The last time I went to church was Christmas Eve.  I really wanted to go again on Easter Eve (what I'm calling the week before Easter as we had General Conference on Easter Sunday) as Noé would be speaking in Sacrament meeting (and I'm still sad that I missed hearing Kaleb speak back in January).  Macy had an appointment with her cardiologist  that week, so I asked her what she thought.  She gave us the green light, but reminded me not to let anyone sneeze on her ;). 

Macy has received so many lovely gifts from our dear friends and family.  This beautiful dress was one of those gifts.

She also got this sweater to go with it (which she'll probably wear for weeks to come still)...

... and these adorable bunny ears and bunny slippers.  Unfortunately, her feet are too little for the bunny shoes still.  You can tell Macy was not impressed that she couldn't wear them!

She was a little angel in church and she received so much love from everyone!

Macy @ 2 months

Macy's 2nd month of life flew by!  I don't know if it's because we spent another 8 days in the hospital, or because we're having so much fun!  This cute girl has been more awake this month and she has the sweetest disposition.  She can focus her eyes better and she just studies my face.  We're working on eye contact!  She smiles a lot in her sleep, but she's even shared a few of her smiles while awake.  Oh, I love her so!

Macy likes Teddy.

Blowing you a kiss!

She may have been my second biggest baby at birth, but she's just a tiny girl still.  She moved from the 50th percentile in weight down to the 15th.  However, when her numbers were charted on a Down syndrome chart, she's back up to the 70%.  People with Down syndrome usually have smaller statures.

Oh she makes me smile!

She wants to snuggle and run at the same time.

Pinky fingernails on babies are the tiniest things in the world...

...and they are so precious!

As are these shoes with the big pink bows.  Swoon!

Thank you Macy for coming to our family!  We love you so much!