Easter

The week before Easter Elizabeth came home from church and said, "Jesus was dead for 3 hours. That's a long time." She's so funny. Every week when I ask her what they learned about in nursery she says, "Jesus. Again." (in a somewhat exasperated tone). One time she said, "I don't know why we always learn about Jesus." :)

Anyway, we had a condensed version of Easter this year because everyone left that day. Nate's parents left in the morning and mine left after lunch.

Here are the baskets. A friend of mine gives her kids new swimsuits in their basket every year. We have two beach trips coming up, so I borrowed the idea this year. The big hit, however, was the cotton candy.

I had forgotten that my mom always made us bunny shaped pancakes on Easter morning until I saw her doing it for my kids. Traditions are fun!

We said goodbye to Obaachan and Ojiichan. Again. (This is our third time saying goodbye, because their mission keeps getting postponed. It gets easier each time because we feel like they aren't really going. But they finally have a date. Sad for us, happy for them. At least the sooner they go, the sooner they'll get back.)

We dyed eggs and made white chocolate lollipops with an Easter lollipop mold.

The only bites they took of the bunnies were in this picture. Nate and I polished them off later.

We went to Tibbitts to watch the morning session of conference and continue with the festivities. Julia and I hid the eggs. The kids enjoyed hunting for them despite the chill in the air.




One of the shirts I got Nate for his b-day. He looks pretty handsome in it if I do say so.


My mom and Cindy are the ultimate homemakers. Here they are in action.

One last picture before we leave for the airport.

We spent the rest of the afternoon in a little bit of funk that all of our loved ones were gone. I'm sure the massive amounts of sugar consumed didn't help.

But it was a lovely Easter. It's always wonderful to take extra time to reflect on the Savior and all He's done for us.

Blessed

Count your many blessings, name them one by one.

1. Harrison

2. Elizabeth

3. Jonathan

The list goes on and on.

We have been very blessed to have all four grandparents attend all of our childrens' baby blessings. We didn't think it would be the case this time, because Nate's parents were supposed to be on their mission. So we were trying to make it work with my parents' schedule. The best weekend for them was the weekend of Easter and General Conference. Since there was conference instead of normal church, we had to do it in our home. We decided to do it on Saturday, between conference sessions.

Nate's parents have had problems with his dad's paperwork and so they have not left for their mission to Japan yet. They called Friday to wish Nate a happy birthday and casually asked when we decided to do the blessing. Feeling horrible that we had never told them (because they were supposed to be in Japan) I said it's tomorrow at 1 o'clock. Nate's mom immediately started figuring out how they could arrange things to get here in time for it. We were touched that they were willing to drop everything and drive the 8 hours here for the blessing. They left at 4 AM Saturday morning and made it with an hour to spare.

My parents and Katy had been in town all week. They were a tremendous help getting everything ready for the blessing. They helped us clean and straighten the whole house and did a lot of baking for a delicious dessert spread for afterwords. We had some close friends over and it was indeed a special occasion. We are so thankful for friends and family, especially that both sets of grandparents were willing and able to make the effort to be here.

Jonathan's middle name, Masahisa, is after Nate's middle name, which is after his dad's name, which is a combo of his parents' (Nate's grandparents') names. Masao + Hisako = Masahisa. So it was extra special that Ojiichan could be in the circle to bless Jonathan Masahisa Watabe.

I also feel very blessed to have a righteous, priesthood-holding husband who did a wonderful job blessing our baby boy.

Nate's parents brought our nephew, Caleb, along. His middle name also happens to be Masahisa.

We borrowed this precious blessing outfit from our nephew Beau, who had just been blessed in it the weekend before. It looks almost identical to the outfit Harrison wore for his blessing that had also been worn by my brother, Andrew.

So many amazing blessings! Most of all the gospel of Jesus Christ, which makes it possible for these most precious family members to be together forever.

Some Things to Smile About

We had lots of things to smile about last week! My Mom, Dad and Katy came to visit for their Spring Break. It's fun to have them around and the kids love it when family visits! They were so helpful with everything from cooking, to cleaning to rearranging the living room. Katy and my mom put in some serious effort to get Johnny to smile.

And it paid off. He smiled more last week than ever. We even caught one on camera!

Everyone loved holding Johnny, especially when he was happy (which wasn't as often as we would have liked).

Friday night was always pizza night growing up, so my mom continued the tradition. Elizabeth loved helping roll out the dough.

She got really into it.

Friday was also Nate's 31st birthday. After a long day of snowboarding with friends, he came home to pizza, presents and cake. Johnny was napping, therefore not pictured.

Proof that my dad really was here too.

Unsolicited help blowing out the candles.

Somebody loves his daddy.

Remember my new traditional birthday kissing picture?

Harrison had his first soccer game of the Spring season. He was much more focused this time.

He even had a couple of breakaways all the way down the field and near goals. As you can see in this picture, he runs with his arms straight down by his sides. We need to work on a more athletic looking run.

Nate's parents, and our nephew Caleb ended up coming this weekend (more on that later), so Harrison had quite the cheering section.

Stayed tuned for two other things we had to smile about this weekend. They both deserve their own posts!