Easter 2013

We have had the BEST Easter weekend.  We started the weekend off Friday night with a quick early dinner and then Next Level had a Good Friday service.  It was awesome!!  It just set the tone of the weekend for me.  It is also incredibly exciting this year with Clare being a little older and somewhat understanding the reason we celebrate Easter.  We were able to have a lot of fun conversations with her about how much Jesus loves her!

Saturday we went to the Stallings Egg Hunt and spent the afternoon playing at home and getting ready for Easter.  Saturday night LD and I watched The Passion of the Christ and I had not seen the movie since it came out in the theater.  I really felt like I needed a gut wrenching reminder of how much Jesus sacrificed for me.  I feel like its always hard and uncomfortable to watch...you just want to turn your head because the gore and mockery is so bad.  But there comes a day when I need to remember, I need to feel uncomfortable about how much was paid for my sins so that it is not taken for granted.  It is so much easier to read it in the Bible than to imagine him as a human being feeling the thorns on his head, and the hammering of the nails into his hands and feet.  But sometimes...I need to remember.

Sunday I could not have been more ready to head to church and celebrate that He had risen!  But, not before the Easter bunny came and left some goodies :)

 

Then everyone got on their Sunday best to head to church!  

 

A coworker for LD's came with us to church and also took us out to a delicious brunch afterwards!

This is our first holiday as a family of 5!!

Then after naps we had our friends the Monza's over for an Easter egg hunt and dinner.

 

 

The girls loved finding their eggs and we have a great yard for hiding them.

Elle and Maddy are best little buddies and we just love them!  Thankful to have such sweet friends!

 

More fun adventures to come as we have family coming in tonight!!