late to the Easter recap party!

So I am a week late with my Easter pics - sorry 'bout that!
Especially since Easter is by far my favorite holiday!

IT truly was a GLORIOUS Easter this year. 

I felt like I was really reminded of the real reason we celebrate - and what a great feeling to know that story and know that God's sacrifice of his only begotten Son is the reason I am forgiven of my many sins and will spend eternity in Heaven. 
It just makes me giddy, really!

Our church had a great Easter Cantata that they worked so hard on - and it showed - I'm pretty sure I was overtaken with emotion at least 3-4 times. (of course if you know me IRL, you know I get pretty emotional and am kind of a big crybaby).

Anyway, I was so very proud of my Mom who had a solo during one of the songs.  She was so nervous that she was mess up, but I'm telling you she was just awesome!

After church we had a typical Easter feast and did the whole Easter egg thing for Joe & Jake.  I think they enjoyed it...
Also included are pics from Saturday's egg dying.

These monster eggs are my favorite!!!

Don't they just make you smile!? :)

So, Happy Week-After Easter! :)
Maybe I'll post Alex's softball pics from this weekend in July.

It's all good

So after my little pity party about Easter, I find out that hopefully our Pastor will just take a temporary hiatus until his health improves.
Keep Praying people! Thanks!

Here is a shot of our Easter service yesterday - our choir did a sort of mini cantata and they were fantastic! They had really been practicing and working hard on this and it was quite evident.
Mom is the pretty lady on the back row, fourth from the right. :)
Also wanted to share a few shots from our first horseshow of the season.
Mind you the outfits are the same from last year.
Just no motivation to sew new ones and these will work for awhile.
Although poor Molly's sleeves are way short. Hopefully I can fix them.
Notice how many of us it takes to get her ready!

This was right before the lead in class.
Guess who came away with the blue!???
Yea Molly!!!! (and Alex & Taco of course!)We are ready for another big year....
over & out....

Happy -sort of - Easter

I've mentioned before that Easter is probably my favorite (or one of my favorite) holidays.
There are many reasons for my love of the holiday.
Mainly because it stands for my forgiven sins due to Christ's death and resurrection.
Also because of the resurrection of nature.
I also enjoy the Church services.
I love Easter meals.
I love Easter eggs.
I love Easter clothes....I could go on, but you get the idea....I love Easter!

Today was a little different however.
Don't get me wrong, the Easter message is still as amazing to me and our service was fantastic at church with a great message in music and message.
Our pastor, Brother Larry Weaver, who has been battling cancer and undergoing treatments returned after some time off for a radioactive treatment and he delivered a great message as he always does. He gave the invitation as usual and then announced his cancer has spread and his decision to resign.
Needless to say, I pretty much lost it with emotion...as did the majority of our congregation. We truly love our pastor and friend. He has been as solid as a rock for our growing little country church.

I am deeply saddened by this news, but understand his reasoning.
I will continue to pray for his health to improve and would ask anyone else who reads my blog to join me in that prayer.

Along with that news and the cold dreary weather, Easter just wasn't the normal Easter that I love. No Easter egg hunt, no photos of Easter dresses (even though I did wear pantyhose today people!) and no warm sunshine.

I AM however, truly thankful and blessed to be surrounded by wonderful family & friends.
Easter is a day that should be celebrated everyday...not just one Sunday out of the year.

Our color fun group did begin a new color today: Purple.
We did have our first horseshow yesterday and our girls did pretty well.
Molly Grace & Alex took the blue in lead-in!

Pictures to come... tonight I must sleep!

I'm lame

I know I have completely been MIA for several days and realize how lame I am.
Oh well.
Sometimes life takes over.
I really wish I could put more than 36 pictures in, cause there were some others that I had a hard time leaving out. If you have not looked at some of these beautiful photos over at the color fun flickr group, I urge you to give it a look-see.
I have some talented friends, I tell ya!
Here is the mosaic
(credits below)

1. orange earring, 2. IMG_0416, 3. IMG_0729, 4. P3290032, 5. Life Vests, 6. orange coffee cup, 7. IMG_0420, 8. Engine Crane, 9. orange goodness, 10. P3300003, 11. IMG_0414, 12. DSCN0381-1, 13. Color Reach, 14. P3200015, 15. Judy on orange, 16. unknown seed pod, 17. DSCN0586, 18. Tile, 19. orange monster, 20. DSCN0206-1, 21. Vision in Orange, 22. Tulip, 23. IMG_0443, 24. After Orange, 25. Scarf, 26. IMG_0484, 27. DSCN9027, 28. Back in 2002, 29. orange naval, 30. IMG_0584, 31. IMG_0178.JPG, 32. orange slice candy, 33. IMG_0187, 34. Tractor, 35. IMG_0301-1, 36. IMG_0435

This week's color has been royal blue.
I have not taken as many as I wanted.
I still have tomorrow though and since we have our first horseshow, I'm hoping I can spot some nice shots to add at the last minute!

Sunday we will begin purple.
Purple in honor of Easter.
Speaking of Easter.
I have completely failed in doing any eggs like I had planned.

We have had some crazy, tornado-ey, nasty weather and Mena, AR was hit hard.
I send prayers out to everyone there, and other places around who have been hit.

Happy Easter to all.
This is such a special holiday and I hope that people will remember why we celebrate Easter.
Signing off with the few royal blue photos I uploaded.

As promised last week

I took a bunch a pictures of this fun little guy a couple of weeks ago at Mom's
He is so cute & full of energy.
I used some of my favorite PW actions I do love taking animal pictures....about as much as I enjoy taking kids or random objects as odd angles real close up (that's for you Amy!) :P

They are a little challenging though because they don't fall for the old say "cheese" stand-by, and it's real hard to keep them still - especially high energy pups like our little friend 'Im' here.

On another note, Easter is right around the corner.
I love Easter - I love the fact that Easter is the story about my Salvation.
It's about ultimate sacrifice and the beautiful event of resurrection that took place after the darkness. Everytime I hear about that huge stone being rolled away I get chills - it is like the best love story ever written. And the coolest part is that it was written for each of us.

Read it for yourself in Matthew 27-28

The other part about Easter that I love is that it signifies Springtime and sunshine and colors and sandals. Painted toes and bonnets and eggs & chocolate.

I found this nifty technique to dye eggs that I am SOOOO going to try this year.
Dying Easter eggs with silk ties.
I think the possibilities are endless!
If you have done this and have any pointers -OR- good or bad experiences, please let me know.

More Red photos and the green mosaic coming tomorrow.

Easter, cakes, birthdays, oh my!

I don't know if I can possibly fit in everything from this weekend with a single post. First, it was Molly Grace's 3rd birthday on Friday and she had a big time at her party on Saturday. Gotta love Spongebob cake!

We had a little cookout last night at Cody & Amy's with Tony & Jennifer & kids, along with Alex, her friend Tia and Russell. The kids (yes, even the big kids) dyed Easter eggs.

And Walker had to make a volcano for school, so Tony & Cody helped him out.

Easter Sunday (today) was just fantastic! So glad the day was sunny...cold, yes, but the blue sky and sunshine was just what the doctor ordered! Church was so good today with the wonderful Easter message of our risen Jesus. A full house today with 75 in Sunday School and over 125 for preaching hour. The music was uplifting!

After church of course, food! Check out Mom's cake:

Lot's of other pics from the day...will post more tomorrow.