Because of Him

Everything good that I have in my life is because of Him. Because of Him, I get to be with my family forever. Because of Him, I can be forgiven for all of the stupid choices I make. Because He lives, death is not the end. Because He lives, I can live.

I've always enjoyed Easter, though perhaps not quite for the right reason. Many of my Easters growing up we were spent 4-wheeling at the Sand Dunes. And while that is always fun, it was nice to stay home and think about why we really celebrate Easter.

On Saturday morning, we enjoyed going to an Easter egg hunt at our Bishops house. There was a good turn out and they had to limit the number of eggs each kid could get so it was a little more fair. Will didn't quite get the concept about hurrying to get as many as you can. Once he had one egg, he wanted to see what was inside and eat that candy before grabbing the next one. Guess it's lucky they had the limit so there were still some left for us.

Cindy and her family came up that afternoon to hang out. It was a beautiful day so we spend the majority of it outside just watching the kids play. We went to the park and the kids had fun trying to find treasures and also getting buried.

Since our church is at 9a, we were up bright and early Sunday trying to get ready and be on time. I was singing with the choir so I had to be ready extra early for practice before church. The choir sat on stage the entire meeting so Lance was busy trying to keep both kids somewhat reverent.

From the stage I witnessed -

- Blake was frequently saying mommy...mommy and looking around for me.
- Lance discovering that he didn't fill up her bottle, dropping Blake off to a neighbor in the pew next to him, and heading out the door. Blake didn't like that and started screaming like she was being tortured and had to be walked around the back and Will took off after Lance. Someone a few rows back grabbed Will and kept him occupied. Meanwhile when Lance gets back, he gets a look of panic on his face when he can't find either of his kids and starts looking around a bit frantically.

And I'm sitting on stage enjoying every second of it.

The entire sacrament meeting program was music. The congregation sang some hymns, the choir did several numbers, the primary did a number, and the ym/yw did a number. I loved hearing all the songs about Christ and being part of it.

Lance received several good jobs and slaps on the back for handling two crazy kids alone.

In primary, Raegan (the primary president) focused her sharing time on the life of Christ and things that he did throughout his life and after. I thought it was a very appropriate lesson and helped me appreciate all that Christ has done for us. We were also told that every time we open an Easter egg,  to remember the empty tomb and what that signifies. Think of how much our lives our affected because of that empty tomb.

After church, Bishop asked everyone to meet outside for their annual ward picture. Of course we also had to get a family shot.

 When we got home, I snapped a few pictures of the kids in the Easter outfits I made them and we spent the remainder of the day sleeping and relaxing.

Pictures from Will's photo shoot at target.

I am so grateful for all that Christ has done for me. He lived life perfectly. The thought of that floors me. I don't think I've lived a single day perfectly (probably not a single hour), yet alone my entire life. He is such a great example to all of us and how we should constantly be striving to be more. I can be so much better and he has shown me how. Our lives aren't easy, and it is hard to be good. But Christ's life wasn't easy either. He endured so much pain, ridicule, betrayal, EVERYTHING, yet he remained perfect through it all.

It's difficult to think of all of the pain and suffering that Christ put himself through. He is the Son of God. He worked miracles, walked on water, raised the dead. Surely he could have stopped what has happening. But he didn't. He willingly suffered for us. For me.

Because of Him, I will be better.