Easter {2011}

It was a big Easter for us this year! We had lots of family in town since my brothers just got home from their missions: Grandpa/Grandma Green; Uncle Brian/Aunt Lorie, Caroline & Annie; Chris & Jayda; Jeff, Rivka & Bray; Grandma McCombs; Tabby, Sophie & Isaac; Ryan & Chelsea; and Tara & Kayleigh.

On Saturday we helped the little kids dye Easter eggs.

Well some of us did. :) Others enjoyed Super Mario Bros on the patio!

Later the grown-ups hid candy-filled eggs for the kids & they had the ultimate egg hunt. Seriously ridiculous! Each of their baskets were completely full of eggs. Lorie, Rivka, my sisters & I had all got candy & plastic eggs. It took us quite a bit of time to fill them the night before!

In the afternoon Chelsea & I had snuck away so that I could go get the chicks I'd talked Jeremiah into! :) I kept them in my parents' garage until later that night so that I could surprise the kids with them in the morning. When I took them home I had to stop at the store so I left them with their little feed tray & their water in the truck while I was doing my shopping. When I got home 45 mins later & got the box out of the back seat of the truck I realized it was pretty wet & I knew immediately there was a problem.

I got the box into the garage & opened it up to see 4 basically dead chicks. 1 was pretty wet but moving around a little. The other 3 were soaked with what little down they had matted to their tiny bodies & they were not moving at all. They were barely breathing. I went in the house just about in tears & got Jeremiah. He came & looked at them said they were definitely not going to make it & that he was sorry. He told me to put them in the garbage. I felt terrible that I hadn't thought about their water sloshing around during the ride to the store & home, and it definitely had made matters worse that they'd stayed soaking wet in the cold truck while I went into the store. I was just sick about it! And I felt so guilty. But I wasn't giving up.

I was very anxious & feeling so terrible about what I'd done as I went & got some wash cloths and Jeremiah plugged in their heat lamp (at my request). I very gently tried to dry their bodies, then I'd hold them cupped in my hand 2 at a time up to the lamp. After a while their feathers began to get a little fluff in them and the chicks started to move a tiny bit, but they still took shallow breaths. That gave me encouragement though so I kept rubbing & heating. My sister Tara got my blow dryer for me & I put it on low & took turns blowing the down of each chick. After doing that for several minutes they were getting more fluffy & even started to peep a little bit. I sat on the garage floor tending my little chicks for an hour & a half. When I went to bed at 1:30 I knew I had done all I could do. I said a heartfelt prayer & pleaded with Heavenly Father to let those chicks live. Not because I wanted my kids to have chicks on Easter morning- saving the chicks was not about that. I kept thinking how could I have been so careless with God's creations?




When I got up in the morning the first thing I did was run out to the garage to check on my chicks. They were still alive! All four! It was a miracle! Jeremiah was completely shocked. I'm not exaggerating when I say they were practically dead the night before! He could not believe I'd brought them back to life & that they'd lived! My heart was filled with gratitude that Heavenly Father had spared these little insignificant creatures' lives. I don't even really like animals but I just hadn't wanted my stupid mistake to needlessly kill those chicks.

After the kids looked over their Easter baskets I took them out to the garage for their surprise. They weren't freak-out excited, but they did think the chicks were pretty cool. They each picked out a chick & named it. Jack named his chick Muffin, Callie named hers Buttercup, Ellie named hers Lola (I gave her suggestions but she made the decision :)), and Adelyn's chick is Dot.

Happy Easter!