Elder Franklin D Richards stated: "Easter time is indeed a forceful reminder that the human spirit cannot be confined. It does not deny the reality of death, but it offers us an assurance that God has preserved life beyond the grave."
Life beyond the grave is possible by the act of the resurrection. For many, the idea of the resurrection is difficult to explain and even harder to believe. Even those that were taught about the resurrection by the Savior himself didn’t fully comprehend the scope and magnitude of the resurrection and blessings associated with it. In Mark we read about the Savior teaching his disciples, Chapter 9 v. 31, “The Son of man is delivered into the hands of men, and they shall kill him; and after that he is killed, he shall rise the third day. But they understood not that saying and were afraid to ask him.” I think of his disciples and followers and how hard it must have been to see the Savior crucified without a sure knowledge that he would rise again. That made for a very dark Friday. Elder Wirthlin stated, “I think that of all the days since the beginning of this world’s history, that Friday was the darkest.”
On that Friday, Jesus Christ was mocked, ridiculed and humiliated and found himself at the mercy of wicked men.
He was spit upon and was whipped.
He was crucified.
The earth shook, the veil of the temple was rent in twain, the graves were opened.
Evil felt victorious as the righteous mourned the loss of their king.
It was a Friday consumed with sorrow, and aching pain for those that worshipped the Son of God. It was indeed a very dark Friday. A Friday that would never be duplicated again in the world’s history.
And although that particular Friday has come and gone, each of us will have our own dark Fridays – Elder Wirthlin describes these Fridays that each of us will have. “Those days when the universe itself seems shattered and the shards of our world lie littered about us in pieces. We all will experience those broken times when it seems we can never be put together again. We will all have our Fridays.”
I’m sure many here today have experienced such Fridays and can relate to the description that Elder Wirthlin offered.
I want to share with you an experience of one such Friday. We were living in Milwaukee and we had just had our second child Hunter. My friend Angie from our ward found out she was expecting their first child, and as most of you can imagine they were overjoyed with their news. At her 20-week appointment, it was discovered that their firstborn child had a rare chromosomal defect and would most likely die prior to delivery. This was devastating news and I couldn’t help but feel sorry for her as I held my own healthy baby in my arms.
Weeks passed and weekly checkups showed the baby healthy as can be for the circumstances and the anticipation of their baby’s death loomed over them. They had the option to terminate the pregnancy early. But something inside of this young mother knew better and she opted to carry it longer as she quite enjoyed the moments of movement she could feel within her.
As Angie’s due date drew closer, they scheduled an early induction in hopes of delivering the child alive. They arranged for a photography service to come in and take what would be the baby’s only photos. Being as prepared as possible, she approached me and asked me to be the back-up photographer, on the crazy chance that the others didn’t show up. I thought it to be a very slim chance and agreed. You can imagine my surprise when I received a phone call from her one afternoon. There was a slight panic in her voice that made my heart race fast. Their special baby boy Bennett indeed had been delivered alive and try as she may she could not get a hold of the photographers. I worked quickly to find a babysitter for my two little ones and raced off to the hospital. I knew his time was short and I half expected for him to pass before I would arrive. To my surprise I walked into their hospital room greeted by the most peaceful music and smiles all around. Both sets of grandparents had made the trip from Utah to be there and the parents were beaming. The spirit in that room was so strong and it testified to me that this child had just come from his father above, so tender and pure and absolutely perfect despite his deformed mortal body. I started to shoot the photos. I took some family photos and several baby close-ups – the mother never let go of him. I knew these were intimate moments for this family and after shooting for 30 minutes I thought to excuse myself so they could have their time. But she asked for me to stay longer and continue to shoot. So I did. Just minutes later, enveloped in his mothers arms, his dad’s hand on his chest, tears started rolling down his face as he quietly proclaimed that Bennett had stopped breathing.
The emotions in the room shifted immediately and I was overcome with grief for Angie and tears rolled down my face as I hid behind the camera. I knew it was time for me to leave, so again I approached Angie to say my goodbyes, but she was not ready to let this moment pass and asked me to keep shooting. I could not decline her request for I knew I was capturing the brief existence of their angel child.
I shot for another 30 minutes, numb and unaware of what my camera was capturing overcome with emotion. Bennett had returned to live with his father in heaven after a very short journey on earth. And I could see the pain in his mother’s eyes. I had unexpectedly witnessed a family’s dark Friday and it was what I can only describe as gut-wrenching.
I walked out of that hospital room different than when I walked in. This experience changed me and at the time I felt guilty for witnessing such raw emotion in someone else’s Friday. But I thank the Lord for granting me such a faith building experience. It strengthened my testimony of the plan of salvation and there was no doubt by anyone in that room that he would be resurrected in a perfect state and live again just as the Savior did.
There was a lot of sadness in that room, but there was also hope. Their testimony of the Saviors resurrection made their temporary mortal separation manageable as they held on to their belief of eternal families. Their Friday was extremely painful, but the most reassuring part of Fridays is that they end.
Elder Wirthlin said, “In the darkness of our sorrow, Sunday will come. No matter our desperation, no matter our grief, Sunday will come. In this life or the next, Sunday will come.”
This young family had faith and knew with surety that Sunday would come for them just as it had for the Savior.
With permission, I share with you Angie’s thoughts:
I definitely felt the presence of angels in that hospital room and believe that at least part of the reason they were there was to strengthen him and me during the final hours of his mortal journey. It was extremely difficult to hold and watch my baby boy take his last breath, to die in my arms but I realized very quickly what a great opportunity and blessing that experience was and always would be for me. I would give anything to be able to experience that feeling of love and peace again. I've experienced the births of three of my children and each have been an amazing emotional and spiritual high. Yet, at no time in my life have I had what I can only describe as the total peace and love of God that filled that small hospital room as Bennett struggled to stay with us. I'm so thankful for a glimpse of what it will be like to be resurrected and in our Father's presence again. I now understand the last verse of Come, Come Ye Saints where we sing; And should we die before our journey's through, Happy Day, All is Well!
Our belief and conviction that Sunday will come gives us hope in our darkest hours. The people of Ammon in the Book of Mormon understood this well. In Alma 27:28 we read, “they never did look upon death with any degree of terror, for their hope and views of Christ and the resurrection; therefore death was swallowed up to them by the victory of Christ over it.”
We have “lively hope” that death is not the end of our identity. Instead it is a necessary step as we transition to immortality and eternal life. What a difference in perspective this hope gives us towards our mortal life and mortal losses as death comes as an intruder and leaves a sting. But the sting of death can be swallowed up in Christ. Mormon 7:5, “Jesus Christ…is the son of God, …and by the power of the Father he hath risen again, whereby he hath gained victory over the grave; and also in him is the sting of death swallowed up.”
Our Savior Jesus Christ was resurrected which gives each and every one of us power over the grave.
I testify that Sunday has come and will come for every single one of us. In this life we will all experience those difficult moments of mortal loss, may we find strength in knowing that all of our losses will be made up to us in the resurrection provided we continue faithful as taught by Joseph Smith. May we find peace and hope in the phrase, “He is risen.”
I found 2 1/2" wooden eggs on amazon (
Stain your eggs your desired color and let dry completely. Using the paint markers, go to town making all sorts of fun designs. I found that on some areas of the egg, the paint really seeped into the egg and I had to go over it a couple times to make it pop. I'm assuming if you sealed the eggs after staining you wouldn't run into this problem. 
Between the kids salt dough eggs and my wooden eggs - we've officially painted the obligatory Easter eggs for the year!
We made our favorite salt dough recipe: 
Once the dough is cooked and cooled - start painting. You can paint with a brush or go the easy route and spray paint them like we did. 
Then using a paint pen (we used an oil based paint marker made by Sharpie - found at Home Depot and also at Joanns) make all sorts of fun designs. What I love about this is it is kid-friendly and age appropriate for young and old. 
In no time we had a wide variety of designs ready to go. I originally planned on hanging them on our Easter tree - but I like them just as much hung as a garland above our piano. We'll have to make some more to go on the tree! 
Jumpstreet trampoline with our pogo pass. Yes we have a trampoline in the backyard but these trampolines are so much better! We snatched a few cousins to join us which made it a doable activity without the help of another adult. Bennett isn't much of a park kid so he stayed pretty close to me despite all the fun that was going on around him.
Riverview park - the new park next to the new cubs spring training fields. It is awesome - and fun for all ages. They have a large rope climbing section that the kids loved. I joke that everyone needs to hurry and enjoy it because it's pretty dangerous and the minute someone gets hurt they'll be ripping it out! We came fairly unprepared and didn't realize there was a splash pad - we also went on game day which wasn't our best idea. But it didn't stop the kids from having fun.
One of the favorite activities was Tuesday morning heading to Target to buy Frozen and watching it multiple times throughout the week. I can't remember the last time a disney movie made my kids that happy. Props Disney - my kids are constantly singing your songs and quoting your movie. Having it come out over our spring break was amazing timing.
Just a few short days later I'm ready to send them back to school. I love them all dearly but it is exhausting having four young kids around the house all day. (props to all the moms that home school - if I ever thought I could tackle that, I would be second guessing myself after this week.)
There were class valentine's day parties - conversation heart bingo, exchanging of cards, heart shaped sugar cookies and a whole lot of red and pink.
I sent Steve photos every hour that looked just like this (and other cheesy conversation heart sayings!):
Finding a babysitter is near impossible so we had family dinner at Panda Express and ice cream at McDonalds per the kid's request.
And once all the kids were finally tucked away in bed, Steve and I could finally enjoy an adult conversation. That man shows me he loves me every single day and is constantly serving me whether it's Valentine's day or not. I'm a lucky lady.
It really was quite easy and took very little time. We started with an oatmeal canister and a plastic 1 gallon fish bowl from petsmart (I was able to use Steve's employee discount for the first time in over three years).
We cut a hole in the canister and spray painted it, as well as a 6" terra cotta pot base, a nice cherry red.
We hot glued a bolt on top and on the side and cut some tin foil to act as the opening of the gumball machine. I knew we had a tube of 1 inch gumballs (from World Market) stashed away in the office from Christmas two years ago that we could fill the fish bowl with. And wouldn't you know, I brought the tube out of hiding and the majority of the gumballs were gone...we have some sneaky kids and I was reminded I need to have better hiding places! Luckily my niece came to the rescue with some old gumballs from a machine in her room. She warned us not to eat them because they were really stale - which made them perfect for our application!
We didn't attach the bowl to the canister or even the flower pot base to the fish bowl. They all just sit on top of each other. That's the only way she was going to be able to transport it to and from school without my help. She was one excited girl walking out the door this morning with this in her hands - love her excitement for projects and love that in her mind anything is possible.
I made Hallie and Hunter matching gifts this year, I knew they'd both enjoy it: bean bag chairs for their rooms. I found a great pattern for the "rollie pollie" on-line from danamadeit.com (found 
Steve and I decided our homemade gift for each other would be combined and we chose a room in the house to work on over the break. The guest bathroom is receiving a complete overhaul and I'll share pictures soon, we're still a ways from finishing. 