Easter Morning - He Has Risen

"But on the first day of the week at early dawn, they came to the tomb, bringing the spices which they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. Then one of the men said to them, why do you seek the living One among the dead? He is not here, but He has risen." Luke 24: 1-3 & 5b-6.

It gives Mommy "no greater joy than to know that my children are walking in the truth" 3 John 4. My prayer for all three of you, my children, is that you will discover the wonderful mystery of the living, breathing, active Word of God and that you will apply it to your lives and use it as the primary source of counsel throughout your lives. Without the truth of the resurrection, we have no basis for hope, however because of the resurrection we have nothing but hope. How blessed we are that we live in a country where we are free to celebrate the empty tomb and worship Jesus Christ in a public way today!!

Here are a few pictures of our Easter morning.

Holy cow - when did she turn in to a beautiful young lady? I know just yesterday she was a toddler!

Handsome dude and funny too!

Joyful soul, always talking and singing - full of personality!

Easter baskets...

McKinney, you informed me this year that the Easter Bunny isn't a real giant bunny that comes to our house, but you think it is a person dressed up - hmmmm....

Super excited about getting two packs of monkey silly bands - you have been asking for these for a long time.

The Easter bunny even surprised Rebekah. She thought Felicity's Holiday gown was sold out for good - but the bunny found it!!

Family Pictures with the Crozier's

Today was a beautiful day to have family pictures made with the Crozier's. For Christmas we gave Mrs. Crozier a photo shoot with Tammy Maglovsky and she couldn't have been happier. The photos turned out gorgeous. I am so blessed to have a mother-in-law and father-in-law that love my husband, love me and most of all shower you sweet children with tons of love and wisdom!

Egg Decorating

You guys had a super fun time coloring your Easter eggs this year. Your creativity is great and you really enjoy doing something "crafty". Some of my favorite memories as a child are of holiday traditions and coloring eggs is certainly one of my favorites. I hope you guys will have equally sweet memories of this Easter tradition!

Gifts From China

Of course, Pop & Gaga brought you guys some cool gifts from China. You guys loved the hats and swords.

Rebekah, you loved the beautiful fan and purse.

Nini is Home

Well little Miss Nini, after a very long two weeks we finally got to meet you tonight! We were so excited to see you come off the escalator in your Daddy's arms. I am sure we all overwhelmed you, but you were a good sport. We love you little one and are so glad you are part of our family!

First time big sister Amelia got to hold here baby sister!!

After we left the airport we all went with Nini on her first real Atlanta experience - The Varsity!!

Here is a great video of our first glimpses of Nini as she got off the escalator. It was so exciting!!

They Have Nini!!

Today Bobby & Claire got to hold their new baby girl for the first time. After over four years of praying, waiting, more praying and more waiting they finally got their precious Nini. This is one of the first pictures they emailed to us. I was drinking her in and trying so hard to imagine what they all must be feeling. We are so anxious to meet her and to get to know this sweet, valued child of God. What a blessing she is to our entire family!

This picture was literally the first day they got her. She was already smiling despite the transition and probably scary circumstances. What a joy!

The famous "red couch" photo at the White Swan hotel on the last leg of the trip.

Squeaky shoes - she loves them!

Spring Break Safari

While in Virginia over Spring Break we went to a really cool animal safari park. The animals came right up to your car and stuck their heads in our windows trying to get food. At first we were all a little taken aback by how aggressive they were, but we soon got used to it - and you kids had a blast feeding all the animals. What a memorable trip!

The ostrich was probably the craziest of all the animals. It would come up and peck at the bucket very hard and then run away with a mouth full of food. Strange creature for sure.

This picture is for Pop. Not too hard to spot an elk here! Hee Hee!!

The camels were pretty crazy too. There was a sign up that said they would eat the food and the bucket. They weren't lying - those crazy camels took the bucket right our of my hand and chewed it up. One of them then picked up an empty bucket off the ground and tried to hand it back to us.

These were spider monkey's. Rebekah you were especially interested in these guys.

They would use their tails to reach grass that was way outside of their cage and pull it back in to eat it. I suppose even monkey's think the grass is greener on the other side of the fence - LOL!

McKinney, you were only concerned about two animals. The tigers and the cheetahs. This is the first of your favorites.

Happy boy!

The very last habitat we came to was what McKinney had been waiting for all day long. You love the cheetahs buddy. You think it is cool that they are the fastest land animal and you want to be as fast as they are.

After leaving the safari park, we stopped at this beautiful spot on the side of the road. We followed the James River the entire drive to the safari park and it was absolutely beautiful.