For the past 21 years of my life, Easter had been spent with family.
My own family obviously for the first 19 years.
Our first year married we went to Hunter's grandma's house.
While it was lovely getting to know his side better and the food was great, I just couldn't help but feel a little homesick.
Our second Easter married happened to fall on conference weekend while most of his family would be in town so we decided to make it the weekend of our little Oaklyn girl's blessing as well.
It has been so fun being with family and having the meal made for us ;)
This year, was the very first year we planned for, shopped for, and prepared all of Easter dinner!
I made sure to document most of it because I felt like it was a big deal haha!
For years and years I watched my parents make Easter dinner and it was finally my turn!
I'll admit that it was a bit stressful... and ya know, expensive haha... but it was SO fun!
I made Hunter promise that he'd get me a triple oven when we one day have our own home (okay maybe just a double haha) because it was so hard to keep everything warm when they all needed to cook at different temperatures.
That being said, it still tasted pretty good if I do say so myself ;)
We woke up bright and early (8 is bright and early in this house) and headed to church at nine.
I wish I could say the messages were great, but Oaks was not very happy about us waking her up before she was ready so I didn't get to listen to much.
However, I did feel the wonderful Easter spirit in the building :)
We got home and prepped for dinner.
We then finally let Oaklyn see what was in her Easter basket!
She was still pretty grumpy at first, but once she found the Easter eggs filled with jelly beans... she was so happy!
Seriously, the kid loves jelly beans!
After getting her fill of sugar, we headed outside to spend time in the sunshine and play on the grass/take lots of pictures ;)
Before we knew it, it was time for Oaklyn to go take a nap and buckle down to get dinner ready!
While Hunter set up the table and chairs, I got the centerpiece ready and it seriously only took like 7 minutes!
I got the little foam Easter eggs from the dollar store and did layers of them according to color.
I then put the yellow bunny peeps on top so you could see them on the outside of the glass.
I then added the flowers and arranged them how I liked.
The flowers were from the dollar store too!
After that, was more layers of eggs and ta-da! Complete! So Easy!
I just used leftover plastic tablecloths from Oaklyn's party, our yellow dishes, and dollar store paper napkins to complete it!
As for the menu, we had honey glazed ham, kale poppy seed salad, funeral potatoes, oven roasted veggies, and rolls!
We actually hardly had any leftovers and I was shocked! But so happy everyone liked dinner!
For dessert we had homemade strawberry shortcake.
We had 7 adults eating and little Oaksie as well.
It was definitely a whole lot of work but it was so much fun to put together!
It felt like a step in adulthood to plan and make my first holiday meal completely on my own ;)
Once everyone had left and Oaklyn was in bed, Hunter and I had a mountain of dishes to do, leftovers to put away, and floors to sweep.
As we were cleaning up we got time to chat with each other and decided that we loved hosting, clean up and all!
It was so fulfilling and exciting.
Throughout the day I was reflecting upon my Savior, Jesus Christ, and the atoning sacrifice he made for the world.
I felt so much happiness and such a wonderful spirit throughout the day as I thought of Him.
I cannot wait to teach our little Oaklyn all about Jesus Christ and the amazing example he set for all of us.
I can't wait to tell her about the great plan of salvation and that we can one day live with Him again.
And I am so very excited to teach her that He lives! That He is risen and made eternity possible!
This song was on repeat in my head all day long and the amazing message behind the words.
"Through the years and ‘cross the deep blue sea comes this mystery.
Why would the King of heaven and earth bow down to free me.Footsteps in the sand are drawing nigh.And raging voices echo in the sky.Angry eyes can't see that the man they sent to die offers life."
I hope you all had a wonderful Easter filled with friends and family!
All my love,
Aleigh Joy