Easter Celebration

What an awesome day yesterday, celebrating Christ's resurrection, all the hope and joy that day has brought to our lives!

This year, as a family, we participated in some of the Holy Week traditions as we anticipated Easter. Each evening we read the stories of Christ's final days and moments before his death on the cross. 

We participated in the Passover with our good friends Kyle and Lahela. Thank you guys for leading us through such a neat meal and remembrance of God's deliverance for his people.

 Friday Sophi and I made a mountain out of clay, and fashioned three crosses on top. We also made a small tomb and found a stone to cover the entrance. 

We made Jesus out of pipe cleaner and reenacted the story of his death on the cross and burial in the tomb, rolling our stone over the entrance to seal Jesus inside.

Sunday morning Sophi woke up to find the stone rolled away from the tomb and Jesus alive! 

 At breakfast we read the story of God bringing Jesus back to life. We went to church to celebrate with our CA community and came home to find an Easter basket full of goodies for Sophi.

 We had a yummy meal of baked zitit (thanks Rachel for the recipe).

  We had lamb cake for dessert to remind us of Jesus as the Lamb of God who took away our sins. This was Josh and I's first attempt Saturday night at making lamb cupcakes...not so great! 

Fortunately we put our heads together and came up with this...

 much better!!

 We then, of course, had to have an Easter Egg hunt!

Sophi couldn't wait to get to the candy inside each egg and was beside herself as she checked out her stash afterward!

 It was so neat to watch Sophi come to learn the story of Christ's death and resurrection over the course of the week. She still tells us that "Jesus is Alive!" We had so much fun making some neat family traditions and reliving the greatest miracle of all time!

So Blessed

The weather here has been really mild the last few days and we have enjoyed some much needed play time at the park. Josh has been able to join us on several occasions which has been wonderful! Sophi is truly becoming a daddy's girl! She missed him so much while we were gone and just can't seem to get enough of him now that we are back. They are so cute together!

I feel so blessed to have them in my life! Thank you Lord for these two precious gifts!

We spent our days during the past two weeks back home in the south visiting friends and family. It was such a nice change of pace from our normal daily routine. Sophi LOVED getting to spend time with her Grammy, Poppy, Lolly and Pops, Great Grandparents and all her cousins.

We spent our first week away at Grammy and Poppy's house. Christmas was the last time we had seen them and we so enjoyed being with them again! Josh and I even got to spend a night away, leaving Sophi with Grammy, and it was heavenly! Not that we don't love our little Sophi, we just don't get that kind of opportunity very often. Grammy and Sophi had a blast together and although Grammy was worn out, they probably both wished we had stayed away just a little longer!

While we were there Sophi also got to spend some quality time with her cousins, Bella and Julian. Bella has grown into such a good friend for Sophi and Julian is like a sweet big brother. 

It was so cute watching them all play together!

Josh went back to California while Sophi and I stayed behind to visit Lolly and Pops in Atlanta the following week. We were able to see lots of family and get lots of play time in with cousin Evie before heading down to the beach for a few days.

Sophi LOVES Evie. They are becoming quite the cute pair.

 Although it rained a good bit while we were in Florida, the sun would poke it's head out just enough during the day for us to get out and play. Sophi still LOVES the beach. She has so much fun playing in the sand and the water and I can almost guarantee she will be a beach bum like her Lolly for many years to come.

 

 We were sad to leave our family, not quite knowing when we will see them again. We are excited about the possibilities God may have in store for us of being closer to our family in the future. 

On the other hand it has been nice to be home, sleeping in our own beds and back into our daily routine. Sophi missed her daddy and her Shiloh this last week and has been clinging to both of the the past couple of days. 

While we look forward God's plan for us in the future, the life He has made for us where we are right now is good and we are learning to simply enjoy it!