Brace Yourself...It Was A Big Weekend....

Wow. What a weekend. We had such a great time, let's dive right in.

We started on Saturday with an Easter gathering at Steven's parents house in Spokane. We had planned on having an Easter Egg Hunt, but since the weather didn't quite cooperate, we ended up helping Cooper "gather" eggs for his bucket. It was still a blast, and we loved being with our family.

Also yesterday, Harley Elizabeth Shaver decided to finally grace us with her presence! (With some not so gentle coaxing from her mother and petocin) This little lady weighed in at 9 pounds 5 ounces, and I'm sure tons of spunk. Her brave mother made it through hours of labor without any medication, and I'm so proud of her. Congratulations Shaver's!

This morning we blessed our little Abby. We felt so lucky and loved to have so much family with us. We wanted to send a huge thank you out to everyone who came, and also to those who sent warm thoughts our way today. We feel so grateful to have our little girl in our home. I am always overwhelmed when I attend blessings in our family. I love watching the priesthood holders surround something so vulnerable and precious. Watching a baby blessing always strengthens my testimony of family. On a side note, Cooper wasn't about to be outdone and peed all over my lap during Abby's blessing...it was awesome.

We of course had our Easter baskets this morning as well. It was so fun to put them together, and also to have kids that would actually appreciate them this year. (Thanks again for the flowers Mom, they smell amazing!)

After church, we had a family egg hunt. It was raining again, so we had it inside. It was a blast. One of the best Easter gifts this year was having Dad back from Afghanistan and safe. We love our Grandpa!

Our last activity of the evening was the egg crack. We take a dozen hard boiled eggs, and a dozen raw eggs, and everyone gets to pick an egg and a person, and smack the egg on their head. Unfortunately, someone in our house (Matt...) figured out which eggs were which, and almost every egg that was smacked was raw. We had planned on doing it outside, but since it was raining, we ended up in the kitchen. (Thanks for the clean up help Kami!)

Happy Easter!