Easter Chaos

We had a great weekend.  Not that I have any good pictures to prove it...I failed there miserably.  I have a picture of the girls from Jared's phone when we braved the rain to do the city Egg hunt last weekend, but no documentation of the couple they participated in this weekend.  We dyed Easter eggs, had a generous visit from the Easter Bunny and a traditional Easter Dinner on Sunday, but no pictures of any of these things :(

Girls at Egg Hunt

Or any pictures of them in their Easter Dresses on Sunday (Because Jonas stayed home sick and the rest of us barely made it there).  This is the closest I came with Jonas and an Easter basket. When he was putting his sister's basket on his head as a "hat."

 The highlights of the weekend included a visit from Nate (my brother) and his wife, Tausha as well as a visit from Jared's sister, Kristina, and her family.  Here's an email I sent to my family when the weekend first started...
Poor Nate & Tausha have been such good sports, but we've had a crazy 24 hrs. with them so far including:

•  a birthday party that the girls attended
• a trip to In-N-Out (lucky for Nate we squeezed that in within 2 hours of his arrival)
• a 3 hour outing to the doctor's and pharmacy for Jonas including a nebulizer treatment since he could hardly breathe and a lengthy trip to the pharmacy to get the medicine that would help him,
  
• 10 times of throwing up since Jonas would cough so hard he would gag and never keep any food down (which he needed to do in order to take said medicine)
• Lilly getting a sliver and pooping her pants in her disorientation of waking up from an ill-timed nap followed by an "I want Daddy melt down"
• me taking Jocelyn to a promised at-night Easter egg hunt with friends, flashlights, glow-sticks, etc.
• Jared being able to get an earlier flight home after working out of town all week, only to be bombarded with our craziness here
  
• A very crazy night with Jonas who was very very difficult and couldn't be calmed until he and Jared went for a drive to Gilroy and back at 2 am followed by "sleeping" on the couch
• The kids and Tausha doing play-doh and a trip to the park where Nate treated the girls to a treat from the "ice cream man"
• Nate & Tausha having to cook and clean up after dinner for all of us while I mostly attended to above matters
  

They were witnessing all sorts of bodily functions, melt downs, and sickness from our 3 kids in a matter of hours and were probably really wondering if they ever want kids!  I was so glad I had them as back-up and clean-up since Jared has been working out of town all week and I'm a little exhausted.

The kids have a primary Easter BBQ and hunt today and then we are having Grant & Jody and family over for dinner tonight and hopefully a calm Easter day followed by a traditional dinner at the Bedell's with friends.  (After I teach the Relief Society lesson in the morning).

Jody & Grant crew come for dinner

Carter Otter Kids

Nate Tausha & Otter Kids

Jonas on Nebulizer

Jared's sister and her family arrived Sunday night and the kids had so much fun playing with cousins. I think I won the worst hostess award ever because I wasn't feeling well and was attending to Jonas who had to have continual medication and nebulizer treatments throughout the weekend, but thank goodness for Jared taking good care of us and all of our family being helpful and understanding!

It was so good to see everyone and we are enjoying our spring break this week spending time at home, catching up on laundry and cleaning, and letting the kids play to their heart's content (inside, of course because it has rained every day so far!)

My Grampy also passed away on Easter morning and I had a good cry on Saturday in anticipation of that.  He had a pretty serious stroke more than a month ago and has had a very rough and slow recovery and it was pretty clear this was coming.  He lived a full life and couldn't have been a better example of hard work and righteousness.  He was the only Grandpa I knew growing up since both my great-grandpas and my maternal grandpa had passed away before I was born and when I was really young.  He has always had a special place in my heart.  Jonas has a middle name of Nathan to be named after him (and my brother who was named after grandpa as well).  I wish I could make it to the funeral next weekend but finances won't allow that and I find comfort in the knowledge that I will be able to see him again thanks to our Heavenly Father's plan.  My parents were able to be there to say goodbye for all of us and they will also be at the funeral with my brothers.  Thanks, Grampy, for being such a wonderful example to all of us!