Easter

We have been talking about Christ's atonement and resurrection more throughout the last few weeks during our scripture study with Dallin.  These topics can be so difficult for a four year old boy to understand.  His comments give you some glimpse into what he is picking up:

After a discussion about death and going to heaven, Dallin asked, "Mom, can you kill me so that I can go to heaven and see Heavenly Father, Jesus, your grandma, and Kelsie (his birthmom)?"

I was a little shocked by the statement until I realized he was very innocently expressing a desire to be with God again.  We then had a bigger discussion about how we don't die and go to heaven and then come back to earth the next day to live our life.  We also discussed all the wonderful things he will get to do in his long (hopefully very long) life here on earth before returning to Heavenly Father someday.

The above conversation gets confusing when talking about what Christ's resurrection means.  You can see where Dallin gets confused about going to heaven and coming back.

Whenever we are reading about Christ's crucifixion (while looking at pictures), Dallin focuses on looking for nails in Jesus' hands and any blood.  Reading scriptures with Dallin is pretty fun because he really gets into the stories especially action packed ones like David and Goliath, Jonah and the Whale, and his new favorite, Teancum from the Book of Mormon (although Ammon is right up there).  The story of Christ's death keeps Dallin very entertained and he is full of questions, mostly about the violent parts though. 

On a positive note, Dallin says really sweet prayers and can be heard telling Gavin, "Don't worry, Jesus loves you and I love you."  His understanding is coming little by little, and I love his interest and excitement about the scriptures.

We have early church, so we started our Easter morning with a quick Easter basket hunt with a few eggs to find before getting on our way to church.  Dallin was very excited about his new scooter (he has perfected his three wheel scooter and has been ready for a two wheel for a month now.)  Gavin was just excited about candy, seeing a new Finn McMissile car, and candy.  (Ignore all the insect decorations.  The Easter bunny came to the preschool room.)

Finding a few eggs

That evening, we had family come over for an Easter dinner and Easter egg hunt.  Gavin picked up his first egg, opened it up and ate the candy. That candy consumed his attention for awhile and I had to keep refocusing him on finding more eggs.  Needless to say, he found very few eggs, but he was as happy as can be.

Dallin was also a very happy boy with his finds!  He looks forward to the Easter egg hunt all year and asks periodically throughout the year if we can put some candy in eggs and have another hunt.

Caught red handed sneaking candy!