Easter

This is James writing this post. I know that I don't get on here very often, but I wanted to give Lauri a break with the blogging at least this once so that she can have some more time to herself. We're getting closer and closer to having this baby. The due date is about 2 months away, but Lauri keeps telling me that 2 months is too long and that we should just get him out NOW! Ok, it's not that dramatic, but every pregnant woman or previously pregnant woman knows that the end of the pregnancy can be the worst part because you just want to be done and have the baby come out.

This is a late post about Easter because we didn't really do our Family Easter Egg hunt until this last Thursday, but they did get their Easter baskets on Easter at least. (Lauri and I have noticed how we haven't really been celebrating holidays as much this year and that when we do, we tend to celebrate them on a different day, which is what happened to Easter.) The Stewart Family tradition (as inherited from my side of the family) is to find your baskets by looking for a series of clues written by dad. And to keep with the tradition, the clues are written and hidden about 20 minutes before the Easter Egg Hunt (can't break from tradition right?). We kept the clues simple enough that Lucy was able to find most of the clues without much help. Some of the clues even had the answers within them like Where do we play music on the piano? So here are the pictures from our Easter Egg Hunt that was not performed on Easter day itself (I wonder what the neighbors thought when we had our Easter Egg baskets outside looking for eggs on the wrong day):

The clue for this egg was where do we get the mail? Each place we went to had an egg for each of them with a candy inside as well as the clue for the next place to go to. We let Molly open all the eggs as she found them. That way she knew that she had to get to the next place in order to get more candy.

This clue was Where do we jump outside?

My favorite, Where do we play music on the piano?

Where do we clean our clothes?

Where do we watch TV downstairs?

Where do we read books at night before bed?

Lastly, Where do mom and dad sleep? We wanted to make our Easter more spiritual and Christ-centered. So we got each of the girls a picture of Christ to hang up in their room. We also started the Easter Egg Hunt by telling the girls that we would learn who Easter was about by the end. Lucy's picture is a picture of Christ hugging a little child. She's been waking up at night with nightmares and we wanted the picture to remind that Christ can help her through the night when she gets scared.

This was just a picture that we took today while walking to church.

So, we want to tell everyone that we've had a good Easter. We love Jesus Christ and know that He is our Savior and He is who Easter is all about. We know that He lived for us on the Earth and showed us the example of how we should live our lives. He gave his life for us on the cross and paid for our sins in the Garden of Gethsemane. He was resurrected on the third day so that all may live again. We can repent of our mistakes and be helped through the difficult times that life presents to us because Christ has gone through all of our experiences and knows what we need to help us get through them. Most importantly, He has made it possible for us to be together forever as a family. We have the assurance of knowing that we can be together forever because we have been sealed together for time and all eternity and Christ has made that possible for us because of all that He has done. We love our Savior 

Having fun in St George

We are enjoying our time so far here in St. George. James loves his work and I enjoy taking care of the girls in a larger living space. We also enjoy being able to see family on occasion and attending community events. We've already got memberships to the Rosenbruch Wildlife Museum and The St George Children's Museum. I guess we aren't planning on going anywhere for a year. We've also enjoyed having company come visit. It's been nice to have a place to house them and entertain. James loves his 2 minute commute and we love it too. We love that he only works four days a week instead of five. They are long hours on those days but we've gotten used to the schedule and prefer it. The brand new basement is wonderful. It stays cool and we pretty much keep to the basement except for meal time. We make frequent trips to visit and help Grandma Sullivan. We enjoy her company. We attended our ward for the frist time this Sunday and think we will enjoy it. Overall, life is good. It's so nice to be near the temple and have taken advantage of the shorter distance already. We are so happy to be here and may never leave, or we might. We'll see.

 Lucy would wear this bowl on her head everyday, if I'd let her. She calls herself "bowl head." The zebra thing she is holding is also attached to her about every minute of the day. His name is "Kippy." 

 I used to work at this museum and have enjoyed taking Lucy here. She loves to explore and use the binoculars. 

 It is an easy place for me to take the two of them on my own, because Molly loves to stay in her stroller the entire time. 

 It's the cutest thing to watch her look at every animal, near and far with her binoculars. 

 The Popes visited over General Conference weekend. It was fun to have them here. 

 They are not watching general conference, if only it kept them this captivated. They are watching Frozen, and from the look on Lucy's face you'd think it was her first time, but in fact she has watched it over a dozen times. 

 The kids spent a lot of time on the tramp. 

 Desmond loved the tramp. 

 We were here for the Arts Festival but didn't make it til the late afternoon on Saturday, so it was pretty warm. We found some italian ice to keep the girls cool. 

 James' parents visited over Easter weekend. It was so fun to have them. We enjoyed their company at the Arts festival and on Easter Sunday. 

 Molly looks so old in her cute pigtails. 

 Cuddling with grandma before bedtime. 

 This is how we listened to Stake conference. We had the primary room to ourselves and got to listen to every word. 

 We love the Carousel. 

 If you can zoom into these pictures, compare Lucy's face here to the picture below. 

 So glad she has cousins that will take her on these fair rides. 

 We enjoyed the Dweek carnival with Kyle's clan and the rest the Dixie University Student body. 

Grandma's house

 Since we are back in St George, we get to participate in the weekly congregating at Grandma's for Cake and Ice-cream. Lucy mostly enjoys the cousin time and Molly enjoys all the candy and goodies that her cousins will give her if she is in the room. Lucy calls her cousins her "friends" and pretty much expects them to be there every time we visit Grandma Sullivan. Which we visit her a lot during the week so she is often disappointed. All of the kids are older than Lucy but they love and adore her, (or at least tolerate her) as she follows them around like she's one of the crew. She loves to get involved in whatever game they are playing and learns a lot of fun "new" words from them as well. It's kind of awesome. Molly is learning to enjoy the chaos as well. She had a hard time in the beginning being around so many strangers that wanted to pay her attention and even hold her, but now she loves it and even goes to many of her Aunt's Uncles and cousins willingly. We usually end up going home overtired and over stimulated but we enjoy the family time and the activity on the long Sunday afternoons. I'm not sure how much longer my grandma can tolerate us all, but I'm glad that we can still come and meet there, just as we did growing up. 

 By the way, today was Molly's first day of Nursery. She had a hard time in the beginning but it helped to have her sister there with her. She made it through like a champ. It's been a long time since I've been able to listen well in Sunday School. I didn't miss her. 

 

 This was a different Sunday. Molly thinks she's a big girl now, because she can swing on the big kid swings. She's here with Kix, my cousins son.