Easter 2012

April 3rd-April 8th

David's little brother came into town from Florida and we were blessing baby Edison, so all of the Phipps came together to celebrate!

 

We played crochet a lot and David seriously wins every time. Kinda makes me proud and crazy at the same time. He even played with Edison in the wrap!

Sometimes Kevin and Vicki let the kids take a bath in their huge bathtub and they turn on the jets which make HUGE bubbles!

 

On Friday, the 6th, Edison smiled at me for the first time. I picked him up after a nap, he looked up at me, and smiled. I'm sold.

Kevin made an awesome seafood stew that had fresh calamari in it, which he tried to get the boys to help prepare...

That same day we took the older kids out shooting.

My handsome mountain man.

The next day we all went to the fish hatchery in North Ogden and caught some fish for lunch! This is one of the coolest things we ever done during a Phipps reunion. The kids loved being able to catch multiple fish so easily.

This is Eloise's fish face.

Hazel proudly holding her first catch of the day.

Then Lottie caught one.

This was one of the first times I had all four children out in public with me and David disappeared for a little while. Luckily for me, Amber helped me watch Ellie so that she didn't join the fish in the pond! When I finally spotted David, he was in front of one of the far ponds, pulling at his fishing pole until he caught the big one he's holding in this picture.

The Phipps' men.

The whole clan together. I love these reunions!

The wee ones. I love that Charlotte is holding two graham crackers.

 

 On Saturday, Vicki held her annual indoor Easter egg hunt. Every year, one of the littler cousins gets his/her feelings hurt because the big kids always find the egg with the next clue. Since we don't have any older kids, it's usually one of our girls that's getting her feelings hurt! This year it was Charlotte, so David got involved and helped her find one of the eggs. Hazel was a champ about it all (she was the whiner the year before).

 And in the end, they all got humongous chocolate bunny suckers! Holy sugar!

After the indoor hunt, we headed outside for the big outdoor hunt! I love that we do both. We really try to give these kids the opportunity to eat more sugar in one day than they do the rest of the year. 

 Since Ellie was just a baby this time last year, all of this was new to her. She loved that each egg had so many goodies for her, so she grabbed one and planted herself on a rock and ate every mini chocolate egg inside.

 Intense egg hunting going on here inside of the playhouse.

 This is her look of contentment.

 Hazel in motion, checking out her goodies while she runs.

I caught Tyson catching up on his sleep during the hunt. If you look closely, you can see that he's holding one of those chocolate bunny suckers.

Now if that is not an excited and happy face, I don't know what is!

 All the cousins checking out their loot.

On Sunday (Easter) morning we woke up and had a small scripture study together as a family. We talked about the resurrection and smiled at each other as Hazel answered our questions, seeming to understand perfectly what that lovely morning represented. She is growing up so fast.

We presented the girls with our special Easter surprise, three more little chicks to add to our family, since we just recently lost Diego, leaving us with just one lone chicken, Rapunzel.

Now each one of our kids has a chicken. We have Rapunzel, Gossie, Gertie, and Ollie.

Happy Easter. How grateful we are to know of this amazing part of our Savior's Atonement.