A Blessed Easter

Hello friends,

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter week! We were blessed with lots of company for Easter . . . my in-laws were here along with Donnie's brother and his family. Add my family to the mix and we hosted Easter at our house with 21 people - 10 of which were kids 11 & under. Yes, it was another loud and crazy holiday at our house - but it was so great to have everyone together and just so much fun. I love big family holiday celebrations - the more the merrier! :)

Here's our week in pictures . . . starting with a few more of Allie in her Easter dress.

We took the kids to the Children's Museum one day and they all had such a great time.
They had lots of activities for the little ones so even Allie loved it!

Of course Kyle was loving the dinosaur exhibit.

And Allie loved watching the fish.

The kids could watch themselves on a big TV where it made the boat look like it was in the water - that's why there's a green screen behind them.

And then we colored eggs for Easter . . .

And had a big egg hunt Easter morning.
Our niece, Elizabeth.
She is 2 and is adorable!
Getting into their Easter baskets . . .

The "big-kid" table for Easter dinner.

Allie thought she was such a big girl sitting at the "little-kid" table.

After Easter dinner we all took a walk . . .

And Allie rode in the wagon for the first time with her cousin, Patrick.

Grandma bought the girls adorable matching dresses - so of course we had to take pictures of the cousins together.

Allie

Elizabeth

Beautiful cousins!
I just love this picture.

Don't they look thrilled with their bunny ears? :)

The boys with their cousin, Patrick who is 5.

All 6 grandchildren on Donnie's side of the family.

Oh, how I wish Jacob were in the picture, too.
He is ALWAYS painfully missing from each picture we take.

Do you know how hard it is to get a good picture of all the kids together?
We were clapping and singing and making funny faces - trying to get everyone to look and smile at the same time.


The grandparents with all the kids.

Everyone left yesterday and life is slowly getting back to normal! We sure do miss everyone, though, and wish we all lived closer. I love being an "aunt" and would love to be able to spend more time with Patrick & Elizabeth. They are both so precious!

Easter is a time of deep reflection of all that Jesus has done for us. How humbling to realize that Jesus loved us so much that he died for us! And as a mother who has watched her own son suffer and pass on from this life to Heaven, I can't help but to think of Mary, the mother of Jesus. I can only imagine her agony as she watched Jesus on that cross. It is so hard to watch our children suffer . . . and that in turn causes us great pain. But I always think of the following devotional . . .

"When we face struggles, we often wonder WHY? Years from now, though, we may realize that it was those struggles that taught us something we could not have otherwise learned - that there was a purpose in our pain. God's purpose is greater than your pain, and he has a greater purpose than your problems."

Max Lucado

God's purpose was so much greater than the suffering Jesus endured. HE IS RISEN - giving us all the promise of forgiveness and the hope of Heaven and eternal life with God. I can't tell you how thankful I am for that!

Ending with a scripture . . .

“Don’t be afraid! I am the First and the Last. I am the living one. I died, but look—I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and the grave."
Revelations 1:17-18

Thankful for Jesus,

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* Please join me in praying for Emily. I had the pleasure of meeting her and her family last year and she is such an amazing, beautiful, brave young woman. My heart just hurts for this family and all that they have been through.

* Also, many of you have asked how I knew all the stats on the blog in my last post. I have Sitemeter - which tells me a lot about who is visiting our site.