Easter Weekend

Wow!  I think this was my favorite Easter to date.  I entitled this post Easter weekend instead of just Easter because Easter really did last all weekend for us.... it was wonderful.  It all started on Good Friday when Kory and I spent the day at home hanging out with the boys.  It has rained so much so most of the day was spent indoors but Crider and Kory managed to go to Lowes and pick out some new flowers for the pots by the front door.

Next we went to Story Hour at church.  It was so much fun and there were tons of familys there.  We ate, had an Easter egg hunt, did a craft, and finally saw a puppet show.  The puppet show was great and taught the real meaning of Easter with an emphasis on how Easter isn't about a bunny.

That night we went to Marion and spent Saturday celebrating Easter with my family.  Saturday morning we went to an Easter egg hunt at the Methodist Church.  I can remember growing up and going to Easter Egg hunts here so it was special for my son to get to experience that too.

 That afternoon Crider got to plant more flowers with his Pappy so Im thinking he will be able to plant flowers all by himself next year.

During naptime I got to just relax on the big sectional couch at the Stout house.  There is just something about that couch that makes you never want to leave.  That night my mom and dad cooked a big dinner for us and my cousin Kristi and her husband Drew from Oklahoma came.  It was great getting to catch up with them and the meal was amazing!  

On Sunday we got up and let the boys open their Easter baskets.  We pretty much got them all outside toys which was sad considering it has rained so much and they haven't really been able to play with them but Crider has managed to use his golf set a lot in the house and is loving it.  I think Kory is enjoying playing golf in the house as well.

Church was amazing and the worship team sang a version of the old hymn Hallelujah Christ Arose which was great and considering I had been singing that song all week I was pleasantly surprised to hear it on Easter Sunday.  Bro. Ricky brought a great message from Phillipians 3:10-14.  These verses especially mean something to me because the summer I spent on Beach Project these verses were the theme of the summer.  "to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his suffering" wow as believers we can know the power of His resurrection!  The power that death could not hold Him and it can't hold me either!

After Church we attempted to get some posed Easter portraits and I think they turned out pretty good considering we had a 2 year old and a 5 month old to work with.

We ate lunch at Mammies and Crider was so happy to get to play with Jack and Jaye!

We finished out the day by relaxing at the Cunningham house.  We started a new tradition of taking communion as a family.  This tradition has a very special meaning to us as the Cunningham family.  In a nutshell The Cunninghams are originally from Scotland and in 1556 John Knox served the first protestant communion in Scotland to the Cunningham Family on their farm, Finlay Stone (this is where we got Finley's name Finley Knox Cunningham). This first communion took place on Easter.  So we are starting the tradition of taking communion as a family in order to first remember all that Christ did for us on the cross but also to remember where our family came from.  It was a very special moment for us.  Rick and Celisa were able to show us pictures from their trip to Scotland and we were able to see the actual place that this first communion occurred.  Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter.  Any traditions you started this year or are continuing?   I would love to hear about them.