Happy Easter

We hope that you all had a great Easter. We were able to celebrate Easter Sunday with my parents and, for the first time in many years, my older brother and his family.

It was a really fun weekend after a great spring break. Drew had baseball camp, the kids went fishing with Mark one day, we didn't do much for spring break, just kept busy. The biggest highlight for spring break was Jake's 12th birthday! We spent the day in Austin ... but I didn't think to take any pictures!

Easter Weekend

Abigail Morgan and Bethany had fun filling their baskets at the church's Hallalujah Egg Hunt.
As you can see from Bethany's bucket there were a ton of eggs for all the kids.
Our church traditionally tells the Easter story to the children after the egg hunt. They use the plastic eggs with Easter symbols to help tell the children. They aren't supposed to be eating candy at this point, but if you look at Bethany you will notice her hand hovering in her basket, ready to get the next piece! Once they got to the part of the Lord's Supper they gave the kids juice boxes and a piece of bread to allow them to participate. I thought that was a great way to teach younger children about communion.
My brother Rob, his wife and children traveled from Houston to join us for Easter this year. So on Saturday all the kids dyed eggs. Here is Rob, Jake, Wendi, Bethany, Katie & Drew.
Bethany really liked making PINK eggs, I think when we were done over half of the eggs were pink or purple.

Easter Outfits

All dressed up for Easter Sunday.
Our Family
What a cute kid...sorry, young man!
Okay, here's the cute kid!
Bethany's dress made her green eyes really stand out!

Easter Eggs

Bethany found an egg
My brother, Rob, Bethany, my niece, Katie, Drew, my nephew, Ryan & Jake - just double checking to make sure they got all of the eggs...they missed a few!
Jake, Ryan, Katie, Bethany & Drew - after the egg hunt and with full baskets - the leaves made it easy to hide the eggs this year.
Each of the kids found a money egg and mine were showing off their cash.
Our tradition for the eggs is a little different - instead of filling them all with candy or money, I type each child's name and a clue for them (each letter of their name and each word of the clue are put in separate eggs), they all have their own color of paper so it doesn't matter who finds which egg. Then after we empty and sort all the paper pieces it leads them to a surprise or their Easter basket.

The 69th Easter Pageant

This year we allowed Bethany to participate in the Easter Pageant at UMHB. She had a lot of fun as "one of the crowd". The college students were great and played with her the whole time. We had the extra blessing of having my Head RA, Josh Hobratsch, in the role of Jesus. Well, after the practices and three shows, Bethany now refers to the poor guy as "my Joshie". Attached are some pictures for you to see the pageant from her point of view.

I have seen the pageant for several years and am always amazed at how emotional I get. This year and last were different because Abigail Morgan played the role of the healed little dead girl - a child the same age as my own, I can't help but consider how I would feel begging Jesus to heal her. But the hardest part to watch is always the cruelty with which Jesus was treated, and I know that this is just a poor example of the reality he endured...was it worth it? Was I worth it Lord? I pray that as Easter approaches we can all rejoice and shout "HE IS RISEN"

Easter Pageant

The crowd in the city (look at my cute little girl)
The crowd and animals walk around
Watching as Jesus begins doing miracles (water to wine)

Easter Pageant

Mingling in the crowd watching the miracles.
Releasing the adulterous woman.
The faith of the bleeding woman.
Jesus heals the little girl (Abigail Morgan)
Hosanna! Hosanna!