Just Want To Give An Easter Thank You!

This morning we did or at least tried to do a lot of our easter plans... Needless to say much of it fell through and flopped, but it had enough of those cute memorable moments to make it all worth how tired and worn out it made both Kirk and I.

We are so extremely grateful for the gifts from our extended family.  With you guys so far away the kids need the extra reminders from getting something (anything really) that lets them know that you care.  They get beyond excited for every package, every letter, and every little or big celebration be it just designated family time or a big holiday.

Papa Jack, Grandma Jean, and Uncle Matt - We love you guys!  Those bunnies are sooooo cute!  The kids are pretending that they are their new pets and are carrying them around the house with them.  The box has a site to get an official pet adoption certificate for them too.  I think thats silly a lot of the time, but when I told Eeva that, she got this look in her eye of pure childhood bliss.  Finally she gets her own pet!  Its not the poodle she drew for me that she wanted, but a bunny is a good pet.  The best part about these bunnies is they don't need to be potty trained!  Daisy Loved her gift too... this was such a fun new experience for her and fun to watch her expressions.

Aunt Dez - Your baskets were such a hit!  So cute... Daisy likes the carrot shakers (even though they were for the other kids - she liked her present a lot too though).  The kids loved the bubbles and other activities in it too.  Once the baskets were empty, they used them for our easter egg hunt and other games in our back yard.  It was such a fun holiday and we wish we could be spending it with all of you.

The easter egg hunt that we were gonna go to completely fell through, it ended early (like so early that we were on time but it was already over), and then Tye was wanting to be Mr. Independent and walk in the busy street by himself ending in a huge temper tantrum and us leaving with very upset kids and very empty-handed.  The kids were really excited to do a candy throw away party but we didn't get to that.  I think we are still gonna do that maybe next week.  It is such a cool thing to do because it is a very psychologically empowering thing to do.  It helps kids and adults to internalize that they have control over putting good things rather than bad things into their bodies.  We've had them throw out stuff before and they love it, but we were gonna let them "play with their food" and experiment with it in different ways for the throw away party.  Since we're still gonna do it and aren't going to buy candy all the candy for it is coming directly from "Mommy's secret candy stash"... so I guess I'm not gonna be able to snitch it when I get my terrible cravings anymore.  Since we threw away over half my stash 3 months ago I've lost 50 pounds so maybe it'll be better this way.  We discussed it though and have decided that none of the candy given to us for this easter holiday is going to be thrown away in our party though.  Its not something I like to have around much because it brings such a strong temptation to eat sweets along with a lot of grumpy frustrating behaviors in our family, but it is nice to have the rare treat around.  So for our specially selected family moments we are going to eat what was given even though it breaks the rules.  :)

P.S.  We love all those around us and would never want our decisions to hurt the feelings of anyone.  We have gotten a lot of flak lately for trying to cut out sugar and do our family diet to improve our health and fix those temper tantrum issues.  We love to be super social and find yummy healthier alternatives to the things that aren't healthy.  Some people have voiced their assumption that we and the kids are missing out, but we have seen such huge differences in our families health along with finding ways to do what we used to in a healthier way.  So we don't feel like we are missing too much.  Instead of missing out, we've actually gained a lot by changing our lifestyle a bit.  We're healthier, happier, more patient, loving, thoughtful, etc.  When we deviate and eat junk we are noticeably less healthy, happy, patient, & thoughtful.   We just want everyone to know that we feel like our family needs these healthier guideliness.  They may not be the choice every family will or should make but none of these choices is meant to hurt anyones feelings.