Our Easter Blessings!

Easter at Church

Saturday morning, Zayde and I went to an EGGstravaganza at our church. We hunted Easter Eggs, and then listened to a great Easter story message from our Children's Pastor, Randy Graham. He had special eggs with little trinkets inside to represent different parts of the story (ex: a little cross represented the cross that Jesus died on, a little stone represented the stone that covered His tomb, etc.) Zayde had such a fun time and Mommy got a little bit of candy out of the deal. :)

I only had to show him with two eggs how to pick up an egg and put it in his basket. He caught on so fast and filled up his basket all by himself! I figured he would try to take the eggs out of his basket to play with them, but he loved filling up his basket.

Easter at MeMaw's...

Zayde and MeMaw

Once again, Zayde was so excited about filling his Easter basket!

We tried getting a descent family photo, but to no prevail. I could not get my husband to cooperate and not squint so much!

Easter at Papa and Nana's...

Zayde hunting eggs with his cousin's, Addye and Mia...


My nephew's, Paxton and Cayden, hid the eggs for us and helped Zayde find them.


Mia, Zayde and Addye checking out their eggs...

Zayde and Kynzie are the two youngest cousins, being only 4 weeks apart. It is so much fun watching them together!

The women played Clue, while the men watched basketball and the kids played. After a few minutes of no interruptions, my sister and I said to each other, "Where are the babies?" We looked around the house and found them in the play room just playing away with the kitchenette. They were having the time of their lives with no adults to bother them! I'm sure they were playing 'Mommy' and 'Daddy' :)

And we tried again to get a good family photo- it just wasn't our day...

I hope your family had a blessed Easter as well!

The Word on Wednesday...

"...he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed." Isaiah 53:5

Easter is one of my favorite holidays. It brings the first signs of Spring, adorable outfits and a time of fun with your kids, family and friends. However, most importantly, it reminds us of God's unconditional love for us. It reminds us of the hope, peace, love and promises we have in Him. Easter is the reminder of how the Lord allowed His son to be mocked, beaten, crucified and left for dead on an old rugged cross. He made this incredible sacrifice because of His unimaginable love for sinful, wretched, undeserving sinners like you and me. Can you fathom giving up your only child for those who are not even born yet?! Can you imagine letting your only child be ridiculed, mangled, and killed for people who may or may not accept and appreciate your sacrifice or who may or may not love you in return?! I will admit that I cannot imagine it, but that's the beauty of it all- we are not expected to! He gave His one and only Son as a free gift to us. "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life." (John 3:16) There is a happy ending to this true story. After Jesus was killed and placed in a tomb that was sealed with a huge stone, he was raised from the dead. Once again, it was a free gift: "... He was raised from the dead to make us right with God." (Romans 4:25) His loved ones went to the tomb, only to find it empty. The angel said, "He is not here; for He has risen!" (Luke 24:6) Let's remember today and everyday His free gift to us: this incredible sacrifice of love and miracle of the Resurrection. Have you given Him praise, thanked Him and told Him how much you love Him, too?

Lord, I praise your name right now. I want to glorify you, honor you, and lift you up! I thank you so much for loving my imperfect, sinning, undeserving self so much that you gave the greatest sacrifice in the whole world just for me. Thank you for giving your Son so that I don't have to give mine, and so that I can have eternal life with you! Forgive me of all my failures and especially when I forget and am not appreciative of what you have done for me. I love you so much, Jesus. You are such an incredible, amazing, awesome God! Thank you... Amen.


My Easter Baby...

Random Pics...

During centers on this day, Zayde wanted to be part of the big boys soooo bad. I gave him his own paper and crayon to color with, and then decided to pull up a chair for him too. He was so excited to sit there with the older boys. He actually sat in the chair and colored for quite a while. (Notice that he is coloring with his left hand. Zack is left handed and we are so excited that Zayde probably is, too. He writes, eats and throws with his left hand about 90% of the time.)




Zayde and I enjoyed playing outside during Spring Break. He was too cool for school! He actually left the sunglasses on for the whole 2 hours we were outside without touching them!


He is becoming quite the little explorer, climbing on everything and getting into everything. This was a pretty comical mountain that he decided to climb.



When my mom came to pick up my sick computer 4 weeks ago, she brought "my boys" McDonald's Happy Meals. They were so thrilled; it just made their day. Thanks mom!



When I, Mommy, put Zayde to bed he knows that I'll sing a couple of songs and then lay him down (it usually takes about 5 to 10 minutes.) When Daddy puts Zayde to bed, it is a 20 or 30 minute ordeal. Playing, singing, rocking... After nearly 45 minutes on this night, I peeked in Zayde's room to see what was taking so long. I found both of my favorite guys asleep in the rocking chair. So sweet!! (It was actually pitch black in the room, but my flash was so bright that it looks like the lights were on.)

I'm Baaaaaack!!

Wow! I can't believe it has been a month since I have posted! After my computer got sick, my mom came down with bronchitis (border-line pneumonia,) Zayde went to the doctor again and was refered to the ENT, and we had Spring Break. I have desperately missed my computer, which has had a complete makeover, and I'm so glad to be back! I lost all of the websites that I had saved in "My Favorites," so I'm unable to go to all of the blogs that I looked at daily. To all of my bloggy friends, leave me a comment so I can save you in my new favs and start checking my favorite blogs again. :) I have about 10 posts I've been wanting to do, but I'll just post a few specific posts and a random one with lots of pics. I just wanted everyone to know that I'm back and to start checking in on us again. Thanks!