Day 94/365 - April 4

Up from the grave he arose; with a mighty triumph o'er his foes; he arose a victor from the dark domain, and he lives forever, with his saints to reign. He arose! He arose! Hallelujah! Christ arose!

What a beautiful Easter Sunday. I am so blessed that the Lord sent His only son to die on the cross for MY sins. Just the thought brings tears to my eyes because it is something that I can not even imagine.

Today, we changed the cloth on our Easter cross to white which represents Christ's resurrection. What a beautiful sight!!

We have talked alot about the true meaning of Easter with Avery and she really seems to understand it (as much as an 8 year old can).  However, she is a kid and still gets excited about the Easter Bunny :)

Still, imagine our surprise when she popped into our room (bright eyed and bushy tailed) at 5:00 this morning - yep, WIDE awake - not "just woken up." Wes kindly sent her back to her room until 6:00. She didn't go to sleep, but was allowed to watch TV. Needless to say, she was back in our room at 6:00 on the dot. {sigh}

Of course, she had good reason to be excited. Take a look at this overflowing basket full of goodies!!

Don't ask about the weird face - she's at "that" age :) After snapping a few pictures of the individual items as she was taking them out, Avery kindly informed me that this was why she wanted the camcorder (ha ha). Our Easter Bunny likes to bring items that Avery needs like flip flops, bathing suits, spring clothes, books, and a little bit of candy thrown in too.

The question of the morning - how can we (and by we, I mean Avery and me) not be ready to leave at 9:30 after getting up so early??? We didn't leave until 10:00 which got us to the church in Opelika by the skin of our teeth (literally). It would be a slight understatement to say that Wes was a little irritated! Oh, did I mention that we didn't even take a single picture before leaving?!?

The service at First Baptist Opelika was wonderful - a traditional service, but full of amazing hymns and a perfect message. Bowman did great during his dedication too.

We headed over to the campus (Auburn University) to snap a few photos before going to Brian and Mollie's house. Luckily a nice family offered to take a group shot of us!

We had a wonderful lunch at Brian and Mollie's and the kids were chomping at the bit to get out and hunt eggs.

They had so much fun and Avery was determined she wasn't stopping for a picture either (as seen below). And take a look at the mambo jambo egg Avery managed to find, he he!

We were all pretty wiped out when we finally headed home around 3:00 and Avery even fell asleep in the backseet. It was an early bedtime for everyone - Avery was in bed asleep by 7:30 and Wes and I were asleep by 9:00 - WOW!!

We have our first softball game tomorrow night and it's against our biggest rival (well, rival coaches anyway)! We are always scheduled to play them the first game of the season (3rd year in a row) and they beat us every single time. Will this year be the turning point???