Church on Easter Sunday

After hunting Easter eggs in our yard this morning, we headed to church. We had an extremely difficult time attempting to get Josiah to look and smile at the camera. So, these are the best pictures that we got today. The four of us.
The four of us, plus Chris, Autumn, Egypt, Chris Jr., and Arrionna.

David and me.

Mackenzie and Josiah

Mackenzie and Josiah

Beautiful Girl

Our traditional Easter picture taken on the bench at church. Too bad Josiah refused to look at the camera. Ha!

Us girls, coordinating in our black and white dresses.

Zoomed in on us.

Josiah ran into the picture at the last minute, totally unexpectedly. Mackenzie blinked, but I had to post it anyways.

Handsome, busy little guy climbing the tree.

That concludes our Easter posts. Praise be to our Lord for a risen Savior. What a gorgeous day it is to celebrate the fact that our Lord has risen and reigns forever!

Easter Morning

Easter morning began early at our house. The kids just could not wait! Here is what they found at our door, from the Easter Bunny.
I loved watching the two kids sort through the contents of their baskets.

Josiah holding up his miniature Zhu-Zhu pet.

Mackenzie holding up her miniature Zhu-Zhu pet.

Not too long after sorting through the baskets, they were ready to head out the door in search of eggs!

Mackenzie was on to the bunny's trail. She quickly found several eggs!

Proudly displaying her eggs.

Josiah ran in a different direction and gathered lots of eggs, too.

Most of my pictures of him are a blur. He was moving fast!

Mackenzie found a huge purple egg in the mail box, and behind that one was a huge green egg. She removed the pink one and called to Josiah to come and see! He reached in and gathered the green one.

Inside Mackenzie's big egg was a set of Squinkies. She was delighted!

Inside Josiah's huge egg was a Lego Ninja set. Those were two excited kids to find a egg with a toy inside.

Josiah gathered eggs from the flower bed.

Woo Hoo!

What a loot!

These sure were hidden up high!

He found another one.

They discovered that the Easter Bunny had left dollar bills inside of four of the eggs. They were so cute trading eggs so that they each had their favorite color of eggs.

Inspecting the eggs while still in the yard.

Josiah opening an egg in the yard.

Holding up some prize eggs at the end of the egg hunt this morning.

Mackenzie and Josiah saying good morning to Tanner through the fence.

Our Bunny Cake

Yesterday, in keeping with our family tradition, we made an Easter bunny cake! I cooked the cake on Friday and let it cool overnight. Saturday morning, with pajamas still on, I iced the cake and Mackenzie decorated it. Josiah was not interested in helping, hence fewer pictures of him in this post. Mackenzie did a GREAT job of coming up with the idea for the bunny's face. She created it all by herself.
She even did the yellow icing decoration on the pink bow tie all by herself. She did a mighty fine job of creating a bunny! I was impressed with the candies she choose and the layout she created. It really was fun to work together on the bunny cake.

My attempt at getting Josiah to pose for a picture with the finished cake....silly boy!

Sweet girl, all dressed and ready for the day, posing by the finished cake.

Me and my girl.

Time to dive in! Yummy stuff. ;)

Got a picture of him smiling! Guess the cake was yummy enough that I got a good picture after all.

Sweet little guy. We all had fun eating the bunny cake!

Another post in the making of pictures from today's egg hunt and church pictures, too...to be continued. Happy Easter, Everyone!

Church Easter Egg Hunt

Yesterday was our church Easter egg hunt. The kids were so excited! Above is Josiah, Mackenzie, Lauren, and Allison. Josiah being silly with his basket on his head just before the egg hunt started.

We wore long sleeve clothing as it was cold! Maybe this coming Sunday, for Easter, we'll get to wear more traditional Easter clothing. ;)

Josiah hunting eggs on the playground.

What a basketful of eggs! We shared some of the ones he found with other children that did not find as many since there was a 12 egg limit per child.

He was very proud of all his eggs.

What a cutie!

Here goes Mackenzie! We were a little late to her egg hunt as we were finishing Josiah's hunt. They are divided per age group in different areas.

Mackenzie inspecting an egg.

My sweet girl.

I like this one of her on the hillside.

Josiah loves climbing this tree.

So I figured I'd snap a picture of him in the tree!

Precious girl. A bit disappointed as she found very few eggs (4 or 5, I think) and noticed LOTS of eggs in other children's baskets. She is a rule keeper and has trouble understanding why other people do not follow the rules...remember the 12 eggs per child. We tried to explain to her that it was okay. She would have a great Easter, and at least one of the other kids who did find a lot of eggs may not have as much for Easter due to his family circumstances. She was still disappointed. So, we pulled down eggs from the attic and let her count them out for an egg hunt at our house during H2H (Heart to Heart Bible Study Group). She enjoyed that and it seemed to make the day better for her!

I am so thankful for Easter. We love the celebrations, but the fact that our Lord Jesus died on the cross and has risen from the grave defeating death for us all is nothing short of AMAZING. For this I am eternally grateful. May you all have a blessed Easter!