Silly Rabbit...

We put our Easter decorations up last minute before our hunt on Saturday but we plan on enjoying them for all of April. And yes! We know Easter is over!! ;) LOL

Even with all the fun Easter decor and eggs and bunnies and Peeps and candy- we do want to bear witness that we know that Easter is about the Savior. We know He is not dead but that He lives!! That He died and came back to life on the 3rd day! We are so very blessed to know Him! 

Egg Dye & Fights

After our guests from our Hunt left yesterday, we dyed our Easter Eggs. Quinn hung out and did them with us. I love colorful Easter eggs! So fun!

We spent the next day or two having Egg Fights! The kids really get into this! It's pretty silly! I laugh everytime I see the faces we make during the battles. We are sooo funny!!

 And to top it off- they all love to eat Deviled eggs- it's a Win/Win situation! Yummy Easter food!

Easter Egg Hunt & Magic Jelly Beans

Brett put together his usual Egg Hunt for the kids this morning. It's over in a matter of seconds but they love it!

Brett also had the kids plant "Magic Jelly Beans" again. Glory even watered hers last night. They magically transformed into the kids favorite treats. Even the dirt magically changed into crushed up Oreos. Glory is so amazed how that happens! LOL

Emily Lenora Easter Hunt

With Brett's encouragement, we decided to plan our annual Emily Lenora Crump Easter Hunt. We invited a few families. The Andersens (our awesome, stalwart Easter friends) and the Fifes were able to join us!

Once everyone was there, we sent the kids off to do the Hunt. It was actually really relaxing because everyone had a partner to hunt with so the adults (and the kids too cool to hunt ;) were able to just sit in the sun and watch.

The rest of the afternoon, we ate a light lunch, visited and enjoyed the sunshine. So glad we have such good friends to be with on Holidays! Luv you guys!

Mountainside Easter Hunt

The Andersons invited us again to their Church's Easter Hunt on the side of Mount Helena. Brett took the girls up this morning to hunt.

Holy Bucket o'Easter Candy!!

Brett always hides tons of Easter Eggs around the house for the kids to find on Easter morning. This year, he did NOT disappoint.

I forgot a picture of Brett with the kids and their Bucket o' Candy. Oops! So just imagine this bowl about 4 times fuller! ;) And us a lot less sick! LOL

Because He Lives

Even with the fun Easter traditions we do, we don't want the day to pass without acknowledging the true meaning of Easter. We know the Savior lives. We know He suffered and died for each of us. We know that on the 3rd day, He rose again. Because He lives... all things are possible!

For another really good video- http://www.mormon.org/easter

It was way special that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints had General Conference this Easter weekend. We got to listen/watch to most of the sessions. It's always uplifting to hear the words of the Prophet and Apostles and hear their testimonies of the Savior. What a perfect way to spend our Easter weekend.

Magic Jelly Beans

Brett brought home some "Magic Jelly Beans" yesterday. He told the kids that the instructions said to plant the jelly bean in some dirt and water it. The kids weren't sure what to think but they each grabbed an Easter cup and did what he said.

Here's the kids outside scooping up dirt in their cups.

Sometime in the night- the magic beans sprouted some pretty awesome stuff! {even the dirt transformed into cookie crumbs with a few worms}

Believers of Magic Beans---

Hail to the Easter Hunt

We threw our annual Easter Hunt Tradition (started by my Grandma Crump) today. We invited over several families. The Paynes, the Andersons, and the Seedalls were able to make it! {Fifes got sick and had to cancel last minute. But we set them up with some hunting gear for later. And at least Mikal was able to come so our Bday girl had a friend}
Our family spent the morning finishing our rock bed, cleaning the house, making food and hiding all the Easter Loot around our 2 acre yard.
Then just as everyone was arriving, the clouds rolled in and it started to SNOW! What the....!?!!
We decided we better be quick before it really started coming down so we hurried everyone out with their bucket, their list and their crayon. No sooner than the last of the kids made it outside- it started to HAIL! What the....!!!!!!?! Like real hail--- the kind that hurts when it pelts you in the face! We weren't sure if we should laugh or cry. LOL We also just did some excavating this past week so everyone's shoes were covered in MUD! Our driveway, back deck and garage floor are covered in muddy footprints. It was quite the adventure to say the least! Brett, Brian and I did a final sweep to collect all the remaining treasure since most of the crew gave up when they were soaked threw and bruised in the faces from the lovely Easter weather! So funny! That means we should be able to keep those eggs for ourselves, right? LOL

Here's what our backyard looked like as we searched for our Easter Treats. (You can see people trying to protect their faces from the frozen chunks of ice!) :

Back inside- all shoeless, and trying to decide if it was appropriate for us to have an underwear party so we could all throw our pants in the dryer-we enjoyed a yummy dinner together!I love it when everyone brings something and you have this amazing meal! Thanks everyone!

What fun memories! So glad our friends could join us for our special tradition. Love you guys!

Battle of the Eggs

Let the Egg Battles commence!!! 

Seamons' Family Egg fights are always one of the highlights of our Easter season. We decorate and name our eggs and then "battle" for the title of this year's Egg Winner. Our facial expressions crack me up! LOL Get it.... "CRACK" me up! Man- We are so funny!

Easter Bunny & her Eggs

The Easter Bunny delivered some eggs for our family to decorate!

We made many gorgeous, colorful eggs.

P.S. EGGstremely hilarious sidenote:

I bought some "fake" eggs this year to dye. I thought it'd be fun to have some we could keep. Justice picked one up and examined it. He wouldn't believe us that they were fake. He said- "It looks so real". Liberty explained that they were in fact, fake and even showed him how they bounce when you throw them on the ground. She threw hers hard and it sprang back at her. Justice decided to try his out. He lifted his arm high and threw his egg with quite a bit of force towards the ground. But instead of springing back- it splat & cracked on the floor. WHAT??? Instead of grabbing one of the "fake" eggs from the carton, he had grabbed one of the leftover eggs that no one had yet decorated. He felt badly but oh man was it funny to the rest of us!

Egg Fights 2014

One of our favorite Easter Traditions is our annual Egg Fights. It is so funny!

Here's a few closeups of my favorite reactions to the Egg Fight Extravaganza. Some are blurry cuz it's hard to capture funny moments.:

Ok. This one is too funny to not include. This is her SAD face!

Brett's Easter Egg Hunt

Brett always does an Egg Hunt for the kids on Sunday after Church. The night before he hides eggs and treats ALL over the family room. Then he makes the kid pretend NOT to see them until the Hunt begins. Everyone finds things quickly and puts them in a big bowl that we share until it's gone (or we throw up- LOL). He is ONE fun Dad!

Dyeing our Fingers

I could just post this picture and it would probably be a pretty accurate description of this afternoon events.

BUT....
Then what would I do with the other 37 pictures I took. LOL
So here's all the colorful details-

Somehow we miscommunicated and Brett made up ALL the dyes packets we had. He claims that he asked me and I said, "What else are we going to do with them?" Okie Dokie then. There was definitely LOTS of choices at our table this year. LOL

We had a great time decorating our eggs. Don't ask me how we are going to eat with all of them BUT letting everyone have several to decorate is more important! ;)

Here's all our EGG-rific creations:

{Explanation on the pic of Liberty in the collage- and she will deny it ALL if you ask her. LOL Lately she is a little drama queen. So when she starts acting like that I get my camera and start taking pictures of her fits. It's pretty funny! One of her other fits is documented on the collage at our Easter Hunt}

1st Montana Annual Easter Hunt

Due to sickness last year, we were unable to do our annual Easter Hunt. Then, this year being in a tiny apartment, we thought we would have to skip one more year. {Insert sad face here.} BUT- Brett decided that we would do one no matter what. And better yet, we decided to throw our Easter shin-dig out at our new place. Wahoo!

Liberty and I went out a little early to do some hiding. With having so much land, it felt like we hardly hid anything. Mostly because everything was so spread out and partly because I didn't collect anything after Easter last year on clearance and so the number of things to hide was lower than in years past. [Slacker-me!] Even with no house on the property, we found lots of places to hide our treasures. So fun!

This year, we kept our guests to our Work Family. We invited the Andersons who brought their step-dad, Scott. The Paynes had family come visit so we got double-Payne-d. It was awesome! When everyone got there, we gave each kid a crayon and their "list". Then "On your mark, get set, go!"-- Off they went. Everyone seemed to have a great time hunting for Easter Treasures. I was so glad that Brett talked me into it. It's our first official Faith Lane Partay! I'm so excited!

Besides the Hunt, we had a few other fun things to do with our guests. We brought some Carrot PingPong Throwers. It was fun to try to catch the ball. Bubbles for the kids was fun- perfect for lots of space and a slight breeze. We also provided some drinks and cookies for a treat to share. AND Brett got out the Go-Kart. Always a crowd pleaser!

What a fun 1st Montana Easter Hunt!

Easter Mountain

The Anderson's Church put on a huge Easter Hunt up on Mount Helena today. We decided to go support them. They divided the mountain up in sections by age- and hid 10,000 eggs up there. When the hunt began, my kids pretty much followed the crowd rather than look for eggs so they didn't get many but we still had a good time. It was a beautiful morning and fun to explore up the side of the hill. We also saw the Paynes, the Everetts, the Fifes and the Andersons. We love seeing friends!