He is Risen!

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whomsoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life." John 3:16

Easter is one of my favorite celebrations of the year. It's a wonderful time for reflection and a great celebration of new life. Also add in all the sweet family time, fun traditions, and springtime weather and there really is no downside.

As Braxton gets older I am trying to decide how I am going to teach him about the true meaning of Easter. The Easter bunny, the eggs, the candy, and hunts are all fun but it is very hard to connect Jesus with a huge bunny that delivers eggs and candy in the middle of the night. Ha If anyone has figured out a great story, pass it this way!!

One of our yearly traditions is taking Easter pictures with Braxton. When I was little we had the yearly token picture with the giant adult size bunny......who's idea was that!!! That costume is scary and super weird. We opted out of the creepy bunny pictures and luckily TEAMworks offers a fundraiser to take pictures with baby chicks and bunnies.....this is much more my style. Ha First I have to include a comparison from last year to this year!!! Love that we used the same wicker chair so you can see how much B has grown!! This year Braxton was much more cautious and could not be convinced that holding a bunny was a good idea. Finally at the very end Daddy swayed him to give the bunny a kiss and this Momma's heart melted!!

I love how sweet his heart is!!!

Dyeing Easter eggs is another fun family tradition that I remember from my childhood. We decided to take this extremely messy activity outside so Braxton could fully participate. He loved throwing the eggs into the cups of dye, yes I did say throwing. He also liked fishing them out with his hand...he was not a fan of the metal stick removal option. I think that 75% of our eggs were smashed by the end!

Side by side comparison from 2013 to 2014....Slow down time. My boy is getting too big

This guy loves giving kisses and he cannot leave anyone out!

We couldn't have eggs without Mickey!!

 Luke and I both have large families and this year we were lucky enough to have time to visit both on Easter weekend! We went to Gerkie's (my grandma) on Saturday and Luke's grandma and grandpa Kordsmeier's on Sunday. Braxton loved playing with bubbles with Aunt Alicia and cars with Uncle Nick. Braxton and Jules had an egg hunt at Gerkie's and I was super impressed with Braxton's hunting skills.....I guess he does have some of his daddy's genes:)

 Of course the Easter bunny came to visit these three cuties at Grandma and Pop's. Then it was off to church followed with another egg hunt!!