Happy Easter 2012!

I am playing catch up.

It's been a long time since I've had an opportunity to sit down and pen the memories that we've made over the last few months.

Easter.

It is my absolute favorite holiday.  This year, we went all out.  Every morning during the Lenten season, the boys opened up an easter egg and prayed to Jesus on their own, without being prompted.  On about Day 5, it became clear that their prayer would be the same for the rest of the 35 days, but it was so sweet and special and a really neat way to talk about the meaning of Easter with the boys.

Emmanuel's prayer was simply this, "Lord Jesus, thank you for fighting the bad guys for us!"  What a great reminder to me that Jesus does fight our battles for us...he takes care of our bad guys...he is the ultimate superhero...who is gracious and loving and kind.  He gives us hope.

About two weeks leading up to Easter, we started participating in Easter egg hunts, and I realized that I am a psycho mom.  We attended about 8-10 egg hunts.  At egg hunt #7, I started thinking that maybe this was too many.  Maybe I went a little overboard...maybe next year, we will only have our little family egg hunt and call it a day.  Maybe...I am trying to reel in my psycho mom tendencies, but that is really tough to do.

At one of the egg hunts (with the Bellevue MOMS Club), Emmanuel won the prize for collecting the most eggs.  He was so proud of himself, and I believe this is the first time he has "won" a prize for something that he did all by himself.  He was thrilled!

Silly boy!

And the winner is....

Mommy, I'm going to get to this candy by any means necessary!

Bellevue MOMS Club

I try to wake up early every morning (my kids are usually up by 5:45), but I make a special effort on Easter morning.  I stayed up late preparing their easter egg hunt and hiding their gifts.  I couldn't wait until they woke up and saw the trail of easter eggs.  We had so much fun looking for our special gifts, and Emmanuel is convinced that Easter is WAY BETTER than Christmas, but "mama, they are both about Jesus...not about presents" (his words, not mine!)

At worship, we managed to get a family picture (which is super rare)...

And, there would be no Easter celebration without loving on the cousins.

Thank you, Jesus, for fighting the bad guys.  Thank you, Jesus, for giving us a hope that does not disappoint.