He is Risen!

John 20:1-18

New International Version (NIV)

The Empty Tomb

20 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”

3 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4 Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. 8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed.

What a joyous day celebrating the life of our savior and how he lives!  The morning began with Daddy singing "He Lives" very loudly.  The kids laughed and it reminded us of Grumps.  That was one of his favorite songs.  Then, the kids were surprised to see the Easter bunny had dropped by with goodies!  We enjoyed breakfast while the kids played with Easter toys and then we headed off to pick up Uncle Corey for church.  After church, we all met at our house for sandwiches, egg dying and homemade ice cream.  It didn't take long after playing outside to realize everyone needed a little rest, so nap time came and the house was very quiet.  Then, our second wind came around 5:45pm and we headed over to Gamee/Grampee's to have dinner, hunt eggs, get more Easter treasures from Gamee/Grampee, and visit with Uncle Christopher, Aunt Heather, and Andrew.  What a blessed day it was with family!  Thank you Jesus for loving us so much and fulfilling your word to us.  Hope everyone had a blessed Easter!

Relaxing Saturday as a Fam

Today was a blessing.  Everyone slept in late (well 9am), and then we made omelets to get our day started.  We did our Easter egg advent that told the story of Jesus from the last supper to the resurrection.  The kids always enjoy opening up each numbered egg and seeing what is inside.  Cade's favorite was the rock one as he always says he has to "work out with the egg first".  This is followed by him lifting the egg up and down and flexing his muscles.  Caelin loves the egg with the purple cloth in it.  Mainly cause she says "I love purple" and then claps when she opens it.  Regardless of the jokes and kid stories along the way, I take great joy in knowing our kids know that Easter is about Jesus and his resurrection and not so much the Easter bunny, eggs, candy, etc.  To hear Cade retell the story and watch him act it out, just makes me one proud Mommy!  Then we decided to play outside for a bit which involved hunting plastic eggs (again), slip and slide, and water games with the hose.  This is where I pause to say our sweet little Caelin can have a very strong attitude.  Cade and Caelin have grown to be best friends most of the time, but even best friends have their spats.  At one point Caelin ran up to Cade, screamed, "No you get wet", and shoved the water in his face.  But don't worry, Cade fought back by launching a plastic egg at her head as soon as the water cleared his eyes.  I even caught Caelin pointing and laughing at Cade when he attempted the slip and slide and wound up doing a belly flop.  Oh how I love these two little ones.  Of course Baylor was in the midst of it all.  He ran around trying to protect them (from each other I guess), and loved getting wet in the process.  Once we had enough water play, we came inside for dinner and to make homemade ice cream from leftover strawberries.  Daddy also enjoyed microwaving peeps and showing the kids how big they grow.  Sometimes I think I have 3 kids!  We finished up our evening with reading the Easter story from the children's Bible and then watched the Veggie Tales Easter movie.  It was a fun filled day and needless to say our house is extremely quiet now (except for the occasional snoring).  Can't wait to have more fun tomorrow and spend family time with everyone on the Hall side.  Happy Easter!