A Day of Praise

Happy Easter Everyone!

Growing up, Easter was always one of my most memorable holidays because my family made it a point to instill great traditions and lasting memories. The Saturday night before Easter Sunday, my parents would sit with my sister and I around our dining room table and we would spend hours coloring Easter eggs. Now, this process just seems like one big mess that really has no logical point (you can't really eat the eggs and must throw them away shortly after because they will spoil and rot) but at the time, we absolutely loved it, and now I appreciate the effort that my parents spent doing these things with us.

We would also have a pretty new outfit each year to wear to church, compliments of the Easter Bunny (aka, Mom). The Easter Bunny would of course, spoil us rotten, with HUGE baskets filled with the all of the traditional candy...peeps, jelly beans, cadbury eggs, massive chocolate bunnies...etc. What a delight!

After church, we would proceed home for the best part of the entire day....EASTER EGG HUNTS! Dozen of those great little plastic eggs would be scattered throughout the backyard, while my sister and I scurried like little bunnies to snatch up every last egg.

Oh what good memories.

Now that we are older and all adults, these childish traditions of course have ceased. Ha! Yeah Right!!! Okay, well we don't exactly play it out as we once did, but my mom still puts together our Easter Baskets filled with our favorite candies and other great little surprises. :) Even though we didn't do the egg hunt this year, it was still a great day with my family.

Toly and I met my family at church this morning. My dad is one of the pastors at our church and my brother in law is the worship leader, so as you can imagine, this is a very involved day for the two of them. We usually do the whole Big Easter dinner thing, but this year, we decided to take the easy way out and have Houlihan's cook for us instead. (My Dad being the chef in the family for all of our holiday dinners, was not able to provide his kitchen duties due to the overriding need of his pastor duties for the day) We were actually celebrating my b-day and my dad's this month, so it worked out that Easter fell into the mix as well.

After church (and before dinner) we went back to my parents and had a nice lite lunch followed by THE BEST BIRthdAY CAKE EVER made with love by my sister.

This is probably my favorite cake in the world. It's just a vanilla cake (made with applesauce so its super moist) and the icing is coolwhip and pudding! It's fantastic!!! My sis is so great for making this for me. :)

Sammy tries to sneak a piece while Jason isn't looking.

My mom even got Sammy an Easter Basket this year. This pup loves presents and loves to open them!

(Sorry this pic is so blurry)

Easter Bunny didn't forget the little guy!

My parents at Houlihans

Brooke and Jason (Sister and Bro-in-law)



Toly and I enjoying our 1st Easter as a married couple

I hope you all had a blessed Easter and were truly touched by the complete amazement of His love and mercy.

"Your grace has broken every chain

My sins are gone, my debt's been paid

You gave, You gave Your life away For me"

-PAUL BALOCHE, You Gave Your Life Away