Poor guy! I agree with everyone else that whoever told you to start in "M" mode was just plain mean!
I got my k-x about 9 months ago, and for the first few months I thought I'd made a big mistake not to just buy another good point-and-shoot camera. I was very overwhelmed, mostly because I wanted to use all those new dslr buttons and have my pictures come out like the ones I saw everyone else here taking. Yeah. Most of my pictures were terrible. So I ended up putting my camera on the green "Auto Pict" setting when I really needed to have my photos come out decently (like the Easter photos), then when I had more relaxed time to play and not to worry if I failed, I started experimenting with the other settings. The running man setting would be good for active kid shots, and if your grandkids will stand still for portraits, try setting it to the icon of the head/shoulders.
If you've never used a dslr before, I think the manual was very difficult to really understand. i.e. "If [green button] is assigned to the (green) button in [green button] of Rec Mode 4 ..." WHA?? (Actually, even that starts to make sense after time.
This forum, particularly the Beginners Q&A threads, have been of the most help and encouragement to me. I have read through the manual once and then gone back to re-read many of the sections as I have been working on understanding specific operations of the camera. And I finally broke down and got a copy of "Understanding Exposure," and it IS everything everyone has cracked it up to be.
It has been most helpful. The other thing I have found comforting from threads here is that even some of the seasoned pros say they have gone out for hours of shooting and have come away with "a handful of keepers." I assume that means that they have taken lots of pictures that just didn't come out so great. So I guess I shouldn't be discouraged if not all my pictures are perfect either.
So, don't sweat it for Easter... turn your k-x to Auto Pict or one of preset modes and let it do its thing. Then start really playing with it so you can find out what it is capable of! Enjoy your great camera... I keep reminding myself of the same thing.