Monday, April 25, 2011

He is Risen, He's Alive!!!











Matthew 28:6 Says "He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay."

Not only did Christ die a brutal death on the Cross, but He rose from the dead and He's alive!! This amazing event changed everything for us! It's so amazing that Christ loved us so much that He sent his only Son to die for you and for me so we can have eternal life!! Man is that cool or what!! We are so undeserving, but yet he loves us anyway!!

I teach a 4 and 5 year old class at church on Wednesday nights and this past week the theme was Easter. The director, Kathy, had set up several stations for us to go and look at. Some examples were Nails, linen cloths, an empty tomb and praying hands! It was so cool to explain the story to these sweet kids and see their expressions. Now, I know they didn't fully grasp the understanding of what took place on Easter and the days leading up to it, but I could tell that it really planted some seeds in their hearts!! I am so thankful for the opportunity to impact these sweet kids life!

This Easter was a little more active than last years since Ethan and Mallory are older now and running everywhere!! Saturday, we took Ethan and Mallory to a friends house for an Easter egg hunt.. it was fun, but John and I were worn out by the time we got home!

Sunday morning the Easter Bunny left Mallory a basket full of goodies! Now, my childhood memory of the Easter Bunny is actually pretty funny now, but at the time I was quite disappointed! As a child, I can remember waking up to see what the Easter Bunny had left at our house and to my disappointment year after year it was always a basket of fruit!! Now I know you are thinking seriously you got a basket of fruit?? Well, yes that is what he left every year - A big ole basket of Yummy Yummy Fruit!! It consisted of Apples, Bananas, Oranges, grapefruit to name a few. Now if you can imagine going back to school the following week and all your friends asking you what the Easter Bunny got you and my response was always "well at my house he left a big yummy basket full of fruit, but at my grandparents house he left some Candy!!" Needless to say my classmates were like wow you didn't get candy at your house?? So yes it was a little disappointing the first couple of years!! I can remember thinking maybe this will be the year we get candy instead of fruit... but to my disappointment it was fruit once again!! Now, don't feel to sorry for Katy and I, cause my Grandparents always had us a basket of candy, so we were not totally deprived of Easter candy!! The older we got, it eventually became a joke getting the basket full of wonderful yummy FRUIT!!

Now, since I am now on the side of being the Easter Bunny... I was determined not to give Mallory fruit!! Ha Ha! My mom even jokingly said ... "well I guess I will have to get Mallory something other than fruit for Easter, cause all she eats is Bananas!" At least we all know that the real meaning of Easter has nothing to do with Easter candy, or eggs, or even fruit, but has everything to do with a Risen Savior!

Sunday morning we had a wonderful service at Hardy Street Baptist Church. Katy and Craig drove down and came. It was really nice to have the whole family at church! We also had 100 more in attendance than we have been averaging which was awesome!! I saw people I had not seen in a long time there!! So thankful for all God is doing at Hardy Street Baptist!

After church, we had a yummy lunch, Mallory and Ethan took naps and then we headed out to my Grandparent's house to hunt some Easter eggs! It was so much fun to see Mallory putting the eggs in her basket!! Cousin Chris, did a great job hiding the eggs for her!

So thankful for yet another day to remember the amazing event that changed our life forever!!

Enjoy the pictures from this weekend!

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Weekend with Nana and Pops






Recently, my mom and dad took Mallory with them to Gulf Shores for the weekend. It was a really nice break for John and I! She got to see a real fish up close for the first time and wasn't to sure of it! We had planned to go and watch a movie, but the only movie I wanted to see was Grace Card and it was no longer playing in our theater. So instead we ended up watching Secretariat at home. It was actually really good and I would recommend it! Here are some pictures from Mallory's weekend with Pops and Nana!

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Another wedding in Texas!










Back in March, we got to travel to Dallas to attend another wedding. This is my 3rd time to go to Texas this year!! I am pretty sure that is a record!! My youngest cousin, Jon, on my mom's side of the family got married!! I still can't believe he is old enough to get married!! It always seemed like he was so much younger than me!!

The 10 hour drive was not much fun, but Mallory did pretty good considering! She didn't really start to fuss until we were right in Dallas traffic!! I was also really nervous about how she would do attending the rehearsal dinner and wedding, but she did great. She actually slept through most of the rehearsal dinner and speeches and then John kept her outside in the hall with the other kids for most of the wedding!!

While we were there my mom and I gave Heather, the bride, a bridal luncheon the day before the wedding. This was our second time to do this in Texas, which means we have to haul all the decorations with us. Well, this time we decided to order the flowers local and carry them in the car in a bucket of water. Now, normally when you special order flowers you tend to expect to get what you ordered... well... mom went to pick up the flowers the day before we were leaving to drive and expected to find some really pretty purple Gerber daisies.... but ended up finding FUSHA pink Gerber daisies!! Now I have nothing against Fusha pink Gerber daisies as I did use them in my wedding, but the wedding colors were purple! So as you can imagine we were in a panic as pink flowers with all purple and black decorations didn't really flow! So after picking up some pink fabric to coordinate with the purple, we made it work and it actually turned out pretty cute! I am definitely getting lots of practice making up flower arrangements, but would never want to do it for a living! When telling Heather about the flowers we told her they were the very special Mississippi Purple Gerber Daisies!! She laughed and loved them anyway!!

I was blessed with such wonderful cousins! I have many wonderful and funny memories of them during the holidays and at Gulf Shores! I just wish we could have lived closer to them through the years!! The wedding was so sweet and God honoring! It was just perfect and fit Jon and Heather to a tee!! So happy for the both of them and wish them many many years of blessings!

Here are some pictures from the trip!