Happy Easter!!!

HE IS RISEN!!!

HE IS RISEN INDEED!!!

We have had a wonderful week. It was a light school week because so many people were on spring break and we had good friends in town from TN, staying at Disney's Ft. Wilderness camp ground... I had planned on doing school, but you know how that goes;) We enjoyed hanging out with them out there for an afternoon & evening and Alex stayed with them for night.

Friday morning we spent some time as a family, having the Lord's Supper and reading from the gospels. We had a great time of confession as a family. It was a very healing day for us as a family. God is so good. I asked Ashlyn if she understood about Jesus and the cross and she said yes. She understands that we are followers of Christ, and so I asked her if she wanted to be a follower of Christ... and she said, "yes". She did not make a profession of faith or anything, but I am so thankful that her heart is open to learning the things of the Lord. He is doing a great work in her life. It's inspiring to watch and humbling all at the same time.

Friday night we went to church for the cross raising service. As always, it was so meaningful and serene. It's a beautiful time as a church family to observe what Jesus did for us. We all went up and wrote our names on the cross and then we went outside to blot it out with the "blood" of Jesus...

By Saturday morning, the weather had finally warmed up and we all got ready to head out to some good family friend's home for our annual Easter party. But first we prepared our traditional cheesie potato casserole to take and dyed Easter eggs!

Cheesie Potatoes... YUM!

Even big boys like to dye Easter eggs:)

Precious Girl...

I asked Ashlyn to write her name in Chinese:)

This little guy is growing up way too fast!

My precious liitle girls... So sweet!!!

On to the party that has been the highlight of our kids lives since they were old enough to remember... It's something we've done every Easter since Alex was a baby and I was sad as I pondered the thought that my babies are all growing up and won't be interested in Easter egg hunts and bounce houses forever...

Dave & Val's backyard... It's beautiful. To the right of that huge bounce thingy they have a gorgeous garden where the 20+ children hunt for Easter eggs.

Averleigh & her favorite cousin Jacob

Precious Friends...

Abby went up and down this slide no less than 50 times!

Anz...

Ashlyn & Av, having a BLAST!

This picture says it all:)

The Easter egg hunt is always a huge hit. Uncle Dave & Aunt Val buy more gifts at Easter than they does at Christmas. The kids get to go out and search for 3 eggs and then he gives them all a huge pile of gifts in exchange for them:)

After the eggs are all found, the gifts come out...

Arts & Crafts... Hoorah!

Alex & his cousin Daniel... They are starting to get a bit old for this!

Abby isn't crying, it's just one of her many changing facial expressions.

Aidan and Alex both got remote control helicopters that have taken over my family room:)



The little girl to the left of Ashlyn is 11 years old and was adopted from China 6 years ago:)

The sign of any good party? A sleeping child:)

As we pulled in the driveway last night I had a feeling that Averleigh was down a notch. Sure thing, she woke up at 3:00 in the morning with a scorching fever and sore throat;( I hate missing Easter Sunday more than any other Sunday of the year. But I stayed behind with the 2 littles while Matt took the older 4 to service. So, no great family pictures all decked out in our Easter best, but I'll leave you with these:)

One sleeping little sister...

...makes for a very bored big sister

Abby was so proud of her pig tails. She kept going to the mirror and kissing herself:)

Praising our awesome God for His Son and for the Holy Spirit He has left with us...

I hope you had a wonderful day!

Blessings,
Rebecca