Easter Celebration

Happy Holy Week!

I loved unwrapping some of my spoils from our Israel trip

 to use for decorations for our celebration!

 This newspaper that was wrapped around my

crown of thorns sensed unhappiness  and war without even

being able to read it.

Sadly, times over there are way worse right now.
Praying that peace and light will over come the hard times

Israel is facing right now.

This happened before Holy Week, but we went to the
Easter pageant during dress rehearsals to see the Evans!

It makes it more exciting to watch it when you know people who are in it!

Travis, Stephanie and Olive got special roles in the pageant.
Travis was Jairus, Olive was his daughter who died, and Stephanie was her mother.

This is probably one of my favorite bible miracle stories.
Especially after being able to visit Capernaum last year, where this
story takes place.

Boy was it emotional to watch, I can't imagine acting it 
night after night!

They were the perfect choice and did such a good job!

The night we returned from Disneyland, with a sore mouth Della,
we mustered up the energy to do our first lesson.

There, I admitted it.

Not every Holy Week night is rainbows and butterflies.

I was beyond exhausted and gave it a valiant effort.
But the kids caught their second wind and  my patience was very short.

We survived, with some fighting and yelling.

The next night went a little better.

We were down Lane almost every night because baseball started up.

The kids crafted beautiful sugar cube temples.

I was excited to light our authentic

oil lamp that the Jergensen's gave us while

shopping in Jerusalem!

 

I loved its ambiance while we made our own oil lamps!

 

For Judas betraying Jesus, I always do out of the ordinary activities.

I grabbed our 5 gallon glass jar full of coins and told them whoever

comes up with the most different ways to make $1, wins!

Good activity for the brain!

Only it backfired when the jar cracked and broke when putting it away.

Sorting that many coins through broken glass takes a very long time!

Passover meal!

Our favorite night. 

 Once again this week didn't allow a ton of time

to plan a Passover party.

We didn't invite anyone over, and

had a nice dinner with just us.

Minus Lane, once again.

Time for the story of Moses and Pharoah, and the 

escape of the Jews from Egypt.

 We all got a kick out of Casey looking like his
 brother, Travis (who likes to adorn long beards that is mostly gray in color),
 instead of Moses!

I think making Garden Tombs is becoming another favorite for these girls.
Lily said her mom just made her throw away the one from last year, haha.

Della's I love Jesus on the tomb rock is my favorite.

It was more of a stressful Easter Sunday as I was asked to speak in church!

Being bishops wife doesn't get you out of everything like you think it would.

I was more than happy to speak as Easter is a bright place in my heart.

The only problem was trying to dwindle down what avenue of Easter to talk about!

There are so many different topics of Easter

you can branch off on.

I focused on the celebration aspect. 
Easter is a joyous celebration of what's possible because of Jesus Christ.
Because of Him, we can have a fresh start as we repent and are forgiven for our sins.

We all need Jesus in our lives!
 

My dad was sweet to come.
I did not invite him, ha!

Casey likes to share of moments like this without my knowledge. 

My mom was supporting Travis who also was speaking in his ward

at the same time.

 

Off to Grammy's for Easter dinner and egg hunt!

The rain that day kept things interesting.
It all worked out and everybody was happy!