Easter and all it's pictures

I think we all know how important Easter is.  I mean, it is all about Jesus giving birth to the meaning of Grace.  We celebrate the death and resurrection of our Christ and stand amazed by His sacrifice.  Aside from the Easter story, the second most important thing is the Easter outfits (I'm kidding, but just go with me).  We spend countless hours perusing the stores to find the perfect dresses, outfits and accessories for us and our children.  Mother's always have it in the back of their mind of how beautiful their kids will look and what great pictures they will have from these "Easter outfits".

Our church has 5 services on Easter so most of the time we pick to go to the Friday night service.  By making this decision I know that I will have to dress my kids up on Easter just to get the pictures I have envisioned.  There is no way that I have spent all this time finding coordinating outfits and not get a picture...it is just not happening, so come rain or shine, crying or no smiling.....we are getting a picture!

So yesterday (Easter), I dress my lovely children up in their precious outfits.  We march outside and start snapping away.  We have to take a lot of pictures because with 3 kids you never have them all looking in the same direction or smiling at the same time.  We wrap up with the boys (who know by now not to even question the process) and send them on their way.  Now it is time to take baby girls photos!  Oh, there is nothing that makes a mom more proud than dressing up their daughter in her Easter dress.  I mean, we have shoes, tights, dress, cardigan, and the bow.......anticipation builds of the photos we will have of this beautiful girl.

We take a few outside, but Payton decides she is not digging the whole photo session so I decide to give her an egg.  I had given her the egg during the photos of all the kids just to keep her still so I decide that this is the best solution again.  I really wanted a photo of her standing up but she has to be holding onto something still to accomplish this.  So we go inside and I am going to take some of her in there.  I put her down in the office and go to grab something in the kitchen.  This is when I hear Jesse exclaim "OH NO", and I come running.  You see, that egg I gave Payton still had the candy inside.  Not just any candy....foil wrapped chocolate.  She not only got the egg opened, but she also squished the melted chocolate through the wrapper and was eating it.  Don't forget she is still in her beautiful dress and she is now covered in melted chocolate!  I felt a sharp pang in my gut.....oh my!  To make matters worse, when I removed the dress and I'm reading how to clean it, I see the words I dread most "DRY CLEAN ONLY"!  Better luck next year!