Easter Stories and Pics

We had a fun day on Easter- church in the morning, then the afternoon was spent at my Aunt Sue and Uncle Randy's house for eating, hanging out, volleyball, and fun. It was great. Here's a few pics from the day. Hope you all had a wonderful Easter too!

Oh, and the day before Easter, the kids and I made some sugar cookies in cool Easter shapes. Baking with my kids is one of the most patience testing things I have ever done! I start out thinking this will be fun, and it's not about the end result, etc. And by the end, I'm so stressed that I think why did I do this again? And Jett is so sweet and wants to help too, but he is into everything. So the older two understand more now than Jett does, but he will with time. So I don't do the baking with them thing often, but they love it. So I want to do it more, and just make it be a way that I learn how to be a patient and kind mommy. :) Then when Zach got home from work that night, he helped me frost them. I think they turned out so great! I used Royal Icing on them, so the icing hardened, and that made them look even better. It's quite a process, so I don't think I'll do them again for a while. But I love how they turned out.

Then on Easter morning, I had the idea to bring some of the cookies to the kids' Sunday School teachers. So we got out the little green and pink baggies I had left over from Teda's party, and Teda wrote Happy Easter on hers, and I finished the boys. They picked out cookies to go in them, and I put them in a plastic bowl to carry with us to church.

When we got there, there began to be a bit of quarreling about who would carry the bowl. Teda carried it about half way, then passed it to Dane. Then when I was putting Dane in his class, apparently Jett got a hold of the cookies, and Teda got very concerned and upset. I'm putting Dane in his class, and I turn around to hear this screaming coming from Teda, saying to Jett "GIVE IT TO ME!!!!" And Jett holding on for his dear life to this cookie that is in many many pieces now. I felt a little panicked too, bummed that the cookie was broken (I know, how silly is that), and pretty embarrased. I'm thinking, we're totally THAT family now. We look all put together, but we're totally not! So as quickly as I could, I told Teda that she didn't look or sound like a lady when she screamed like that at her brother, and to sit down in the stroller and don't worry about the broken cookie. She did, and I think she was a bit embarrased when she realized what had happened too (or she sensed that I was pretty serious when I told her to sit down... why do I react in anger like that? Someday I hope to just stay calm when stuff like that happens and only use a loving tone of voice). One of the volunteers who I see all the time at church, and his wife is on staff saw the whole thing happen. As I walked by him, I said "oh, well that's reality right? We can't always have our church faces on..." He said, "You should see my girls (referring to when they fight)" I was still pretty flustered, and embarrased. Which is silly. It's true- my kids do fight, and yes, they do scream at each other. And yes, I do scream too sometimes. Not my proudest moments, but it's true. But I want to look like the perfect family at church and really to be honest, when we're out in public anywhere. So having that happen was good for me, I think. It brought me back to realize that life is just life, and things happen. Cookies get broken, kids scream at each other, I get annoyed and frustrated and don't always handle it the right way. But we keep at it, we keep on trying to be better, and know that God has grace for us right where we're at. And that is so comforting. Because I NEED His grace so badly! Anyways, just had to share that fun little Easter story. Good times with the Shepherds! :)

So if you're reading this, you probably think wow, she has a lot of bad days. I think lately I've been pretty realistic in my posts. We do have good days, I promise! The rest of the morning didn't go like that. Our days are all good, just woven in with the good is reality and those types of incidents I just wrote about! I wish I could just write all the happy fluff that happens around here, but then I feel like I wouldn't be doing my family any justice. My dream is that my kids will read these blogs down the road and see that there were hard times, and how did we handle them. You know? So that's what I'm thinking when I post about this kind of thing. I want Teda to feel validated in her hard work as a mommy and wife, and see that her mom had hard times too. But she kept on getting back up when she fell, and God always honored that. Anyways, I'm just keepin it real I guess you could say! :)

All ready in their new Easter outfits. :)

Group Hug!



Here's the kids with their grandma and papa after church