Easter 2012

Easter Sunday was a busy, but fun day for the Tyler family. We had church, an early nap, and Easter dinner with the Tyler side of the family all on the 'to do list.' Jake was in a great mood all day and we had lots of un times!

Jake's basket from the Easter Bunny waiting for him on the kitchen table. The funy thing is, he didn't really notice it until Stephen and I pointed it out to him. He's just not a morning person (like his mom and dad!)

I made pancakes for breakfast and Jake insisted on helping, he was put in charge of putting butter on the pancakes.

We didn't have any Bisquick in the pantry, so I actually made the pancakes from scratch after I 'googled' a recipe. They turned out pretty good.

Stephen showing Jake, "hey, there is a basket of goodies over here!"

Jake's immediate reaction: "I didn't get to tell the Easter Bunny thank you!" And then he started crying...poor kid. So, we went in the backyard and yelled "THANK YOU!" because we knew he still had to be close by and would hear us. After that he was all better. Then, Jake kept 'seeing' and talking about the Easter Bunny,luckily I had the camera close by, because he was coming up with some fun stories about him!

Then, he FINALLY dug into his basket! He got lots of Curious George books

A bubble wand

A new game for his Leap pad

A dvd about firetrucks, trains, trucks, and planes...all his favorites!

and a Thomas shirt. The Easter Bunny also left him some eggs outside. However, good ol' Easter Bunny wasn't thinking that the grass was still wet with dew, and Jake wanted nothing to do with picking up eggs that were "dirty!" I think he was a little egg hunted out too, we had already had 2 at church. Oh well.

Next, we got ready for church. My boys were looking very handsome, but Jake just wasn't in the mood for pictures, so I didn't get any 'church pics.' We came home from church and crossed our fingers for an early nap for Jake. We were supposed to be at Stephen's dad and stepmom's house at 3, which meant waking Jake up at 2:15...the same time he usually goes down for a nap on Sunday. Thankfully, he went down somewhat easily and we were on the road with a happy and rested boy when we needed to be.

Granna cooked a yummy dinner and then it was time for all the cousins to hunt eggs. Since it was raining here in Texas on Easter Sunday, the kids got to hunt eggs inside and on the covered patio.

Jake had a pretty good strategy, all the older cousins ran to the patio, which left Jake in the living room by himself, so he had most of those eggs!

He finally made it outside, but the eggs were all claimed.

Then it was time for everyone to open the eggs.

Jake's Easter basket from Papaw and Granna

Granna made all the grandkids visors, they were too cute! He got a book, a new shirt, gummies, goldfish, and a puppy.

Jake with Uncle Dave and Mia

Jake with Uncle Dave, Mia, and Daddy. Jake was making a fun fashion statement with his visor!

All of the kids were then full of sugar and stuck inside, so a nice game of soccer began.

here is a video of the game :)

The sun finally started peeking out so Tanner took Jake outside to race.

Jake and Madi, finding 'matches' in the books.

Jake and Granna...Papaw was actually away on a fishing trip :( They had booked the trip last year, not realizing it was Easter weekend.

2 egg hunts and 4 Easter baskets later, I would say Jake is set on candy for the next year :) We had a wonderful Easter week full of family and fun memories.

Flashlight Egg Hunt

Tonight we went up to a church for an extra fun night, a flashlight easter egg hunt! We had our big churchwide lunch and egg hunt last Sunday, but our church also does 2 flashlight egg hunts...one for the grade school age kids, and one for the pre-school age. It's called a flashlight hunt because they do it right at dark and the kids use their flashlights to find the eggs. Jake was SO excited to get up to church and hunt more eggs!

Before the hunt, all the kids gathered in the sanctuary so that Ms. Ami could read a story about the real meaning of Easter. Jake was not happy! He loves Ms. Ami, but all he kept telling Stephen was "I want to hunt eggs now!" After a few minutes, he got over it and listened to the story.

I love that between school and church, Jake has really picked up on the true meaning of Easter this year. He can tell you that Jesus died on the cross, but he is alive. And also, that Jesus rode a donkey :) Now, I know that he doesn't grasp the true significance of the story, but I love that these little seeds are being planted in his heart!

After the story, the kids lined up at the door...

...and he was off!

We actually had to do a little coaxing to get him to pick up eggs! He ran out picked up about 5 and said, "that's enough." There were TONS of eggs, but he was happy with just a few. He eventually picked up a few here and there. Other kids ran up with big baskets full and put some in his bucket, thinking he hadn't gotten a lot, but nope, he just wanted a few :)

The kids didn't really need their flashlights to see, but he was loving it anyways.

The big field of eggs, that Jake never ventured out into. But what I do LOVE so much about our church is that there was no drama at any of the hunts with parents being greedy getting eggs for their kids. Most of the kids were actually going around sharing eggs with each other. It was so sweet!

Looking around to see if he wanted any more eggs.

He found one he wanted :)

This was as close to a 'smiling picture' as I got. And for the record, he dressed himself. I'm just lucky he kind of sort of matched this time...you should have seen what he wore to the yogurt shop a few nights ago, oh my!

Then it was time to check out what goodies were inside.

Daddy and Jake sharing jellybeans

Ms. Ami came over to see what kind of good stuff Jake got.

Here is a video I took during the egg hunt.

Time to Plant the Garden

Today we spent a lot of time in the backyard doing yardwork and getting our garden planted for the year. Jake spent last night at Grandma and Grandpa's house so that Stephen and I could get a good bit of work done without Jake 'helping' us :) I picked Jake up just before lunch and after he ate, he was very ready to get outside and help plant the garden!

We planted a garden last year and it seemed to be doing great, all the seeds produced seedlings and I was so excited...until rabbits ate almost all of them. I saved as much as I could and it was doing great again...until we had a record of almost 40 straight days over 100 degrees. I am hoping for much better luck this year!

Jake and I are mixing up the soil in the big planters

We planted 2 planters of tomatoes and 1 planter of herbs (oregano, basil, and rosemary)
I have the cutest helper :)

Then we moved on to our garden boxes. I dug the holes and Jake go to help sprinkle in seeds.

We planted a bell pepper plant, a jalepeno pepper plant, a row of carrot seeds, a row of green onion seeds, zuchinni seeds, 2 rows of green beans, and a row of cucumbers.

Next, it was time to water everything we had planted. This was definitely Jake's favorite part!

After Jake went down for his nap, Stephen and I put up chicken wire around the perimeter of the boxes, hoping this will keep the rabbits out this year! Once the seeds start sprouting I'll take a picture, it's not very impressive right now, just a big box of dirt.