Easter Weekend 2014

It's no secret that Easter is my FAVORITE holiday of the entire year.  I love everything about it from the excitement of pretty new dresses and brightly colored eggs to the true meaning of Christ's resurrection and the gift of salvation offered to all.  This Easter was much different than years past.  

Each year my entire extended family gathers at my Grandparents' house in Two Egg, FL for our annual cook out and egg hunt.  I'm the oldest of five Grandchildren, all of which are adults now.  Many of us have children of our own, but that doesn't stop us from dying Easter eggs and hunting those cash filled prize eggs!  There's cold hard cash at stake and we don't mess around!  It's a lot of fun and something that everyone looks forward to all year long.  Obviously, with my strict orders for no travel I knew several months ago I wouldn't be able to participate this year and I was pretty disappointed about that.  However, with last week's events and my hospital stay things actually worked out in my favor, somewhat.  My parents and in-laws were here in Tennessee through Easter weekend so we celebrated the holiday together with them.  Though my heart was in Two Egg, I'm thankful that we were able to make my favorite holiday special, nonetheless.  Besides, I was just thankful to be out of the hospital and that alone made it an extra special day to remember!!

Kyndall actually opened her gifts from my parents and my sister and brother-in-law last week before all of the craziness happened, when they didn't think they would be here for Easter

She also received a sweet package full of goodies from our friend Ms. Angie

Saturday morning we went to "The Great Egg Drop" here in Medina.  It was a free event put on by a local church in which thousands of eggs were dropped from a helicopter for the kids to pick up.  Really, it was more like a rat race than a hunt, as mass exodus broke out just after the kids were released.  No joke, all of the eggs were completely GONE in less than 5 minutes!  It was definitely a free for all but a lot of fun!  

See the eggs falling??

I didn't actually get any pictures during the "hunt" because I was more worried about my own safety! Ha!

Sunday morning Kyndall awoke to more prizes from the Easter bunny!  Excuse the hair!

We put on our Easter best and took some pictures before heading to church.  My Mom graciously volunteered to stay home and prepare a WONDERFUL Easter lunch for us rather than joining us at church, which is why she doesn't show up in these first few pictures.  She was actually still in her PJs when we took these!  =)

After we returned from church my Mom jumped in for a few pictures!

The REAL Kyndall!

Excited about her goodies from the bunny!

Mom worked hard to prepare a most delicious traditional Easter dinner of honey ham and all the fixins!  It was so yummy and we were very thankful that Mom agreed to stay behind and have lunch ready when we walked in the door!

Playing with her new Easter goodies--The Easter bunny knew that this girl LOVES crafts!!

It was a gorgeous day so we took advantage by spending some time in the backyard......

Later that afternoon a few of us ventured out to a local park to hide some eggs and let Kyndall find them.  You HAVE to hunt eggs on Easter Sunday!

We always have to have one of these.....

Poppie surprised her by filling one of the eggs with some money

Picking flowers---Her favorite thing to do

By the end of the night we had one tired little girl on our hands!  She fell asleep in my Dad's lap and ended up sleeping in her clothes 

This morning my Dad and my in-laws headed back home and my Mom stayed behind.  She'll be here for at least a week, just in case I get the call.  If I haven't received it by the end of the month she will probably go back home for a while.  We all really thought I might get the call over Easter weekend, but obviously that didn't happen.  It certainly would have been perfect timing since all of my family was already here.  But what am I even saying?  GOD's timing is perfect---not mine!  It will come in HIS time and until then I will enjoy every minute I have here at home with my family.  I'm definitely not looking forward to being away for 6 weeks!

I hope that everyone had a blessed and happy Easter!  I don't know about you but I am EXTRA thankful for Christ's sacrifice on my behalf!  He took my place even though I don't deserve it!  So thankful for grace and mercy!