Five on Friday

There are so many wonderful things about this Friday...here I go!

1. Good Friday

As a Christian, Good Friday is a monumental event in history. My Savior was crucified to pay the debt that my sin renders. He took the burdens of this world to the cross so that I may freely live and someday enter the Kingdom. I praise God for the sacrifice and yet mourn the tourcherous events that had to occur to make this possible. Without His sacrifice there would be no reason to hope.

Good Friday is arguably the saddest day in the life of Christ, but hold on, Sunday is coming! 

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2. Momma is coming to town...to stay!

For several years I have been certain that my mom was meant to move near us. The Lord has honored my requests and I'm thrilled to say that she will be here today! My hubby and his friend have been in GA since Wednesday getting her ready to go. By this time tonight, she'll be here to stay! No more 500 mile road trips. No more goodbyes with months in between them.

3. Easter

I love this time of year. It's filled with so many wonderful things. We celebrate oodles of birthdays and of course, Easter. We focus our energies primarily on recognizing the death and resurrection of our Savior, but we do enjoy other festivities. The kids will have an egg hunt and we'll have Easter lunch as a family. It will be N's first Easter...I hope it's warm enough to put him in his cute outfit.

4. Low Carb

I'm finishing up my third week of low carb eating. I'm not super strict but I've found a way to make it work for me. I can't wait to share my monthly update!

This is one of my favorite low carb meals to date!

5. SPRING BREAK!

Praise the Lord! The time has come for me to be able to enjoy my family, forget about grading papers, get rehydrated and use the bathroom whenever I want!

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Happy Friday everyone!

Linking up for Oh Hey Friday and Five on Friday 

What's In My Bitty's Basket?

I love the Springtime and I love Easter. Easter is very important in our home as we grieve the sacrifice our Savior made and rejoice in His coming again. We share the Resurrection story with our daughter and stress the importance of what it means for all of us who know Christ as our Savior. While we do not promote the Easter Bunny as a living and breathing, true to life guy, we do share him as a fun character that can be seen in her books and at the mall.

We also enjoy putting together a small Easter basket with goodies for our sweet girl. I love the look of excitement on her face as she pulls each item from her basket. I'm joining Darci for this year's Easter Basket Blog Hop. It's always so fun to see what creative things people put in their baskets. Here is what G will discover in her basket this year...

3 Easter Eggs: 2 containing a pair of socks and one containing a plastic Frozen ring.
Plastic bracelets
Peeps
Egg shaped sidewalk chalk
Sophia the First bubbles
Doughnut Tee

I picked up the Peeps bubbles and the sidewalk chalk at the local Dollar store. The remaining items came from Target.

You can check out G's basket from last year here.

Also linking up for Thoughts on Thursday

Easter 2014

 

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Easter has always been one of my favorite holidays. I love the sights and sounds of Spring! Easter has always been filled with fun family gatherings and sweet treats. However, before any baskets are opened or eggs are gathered, we've always reflected on the Heart of Easter...the death and resurrection of my Jesus.

 

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While I celebrate my salvation all throughout the year as I live to serve my Savior, I do enjoy the festivities of the holiday. This year was G's first Easter. You can catch a glimpse of her first egg hunt here.

 

My family came in on Thursday but had to leave really early on Easter morning. My husband also had to go into work. I was blessed to have my best friend come in for G's birthday. She made plans to stay through Monday, which worked out really well. She celebrated G's first Easter with us and her extended stay allowed for some much needed catch up time. We typically go to the "Sonrise" service but with everything we had going on that morning, we opted to go to the main church service instead.

 

G with Aunt LaLa

We went to church and then enjoyed a nice lunch out afterwards. We came home and relaxed for the remainder of the day. It's nice to have someone you can sit in a room with and be okay with the silence. Love her!!!

 

Here are a few pictures from G's first Easter. While I know I'm biased, I must say she is one beautiful little girl. I am forever in awe of how lovely she is and just how much of a blessing she continues to be in our lives.

 



Hello One-derland! Part 1

G is 1!!!

 

 

In May 2011 we began our TTC journey. After battling PCOS induced infertility, we finally welcomed two pink lines. We were ecstatic! At 37 1/2 weeks our little girl made her way into the world. Our lives were transformed in an instant. Her first cry was the most beautiful sound in the world. She had her father's face and the most perfect little fingers and toes. Our sleepy little platinum blond has since grown into a spunky, independent red-head. She may look like her daddy but she has her mommy's personality. As we mourn reflect on the passing of her first year, we look forward to what is to come. God has been so good to us. He remained faithful even when we felt like we were not. He listened to our silent prayers at the moments we could not utter them or did not know what to pray for. Through it all, He continued to prove His love for us and gave us more than we could ever ask for.

 

2013

2014

 

Plans for her party began a few weeks ago. I slowly began gathering items. I fell in love with several bunny themed items, although I was determined not to have her party look "Eastery". I wanted to avoid an Easter egg overload. I instead just went with a Spring theme that incorporated fun colors and of course, a bunny or two.

Although the timing wasn't prime for many due to Easter being the next day, we decided to have her party on the day of her actual birthday. Her day began with hugs and kisses from her aunt and Granna who came from Georgia to celebrate with us.

 

 

 

We then gathered her things and her Easter basket and headed out to our pastor's house for our church's annual Easter Egg Hunt and the telling of the Easter Story. Here are a few pictures from that morning.

G with her daddy...ready to hunt eggs!

She could not decide if she liked her eggs in or out of the basket better...

Our little birthday bunny!

Our pastor always shares the Easter Story prior to the Egg Hunt

 

 I then left G and my hubby to head to the church fellowship hall to begin decorating for G's party...I'll be posting party prep and birthday celebration pictures soon!!! Keep an eye out for Hello One-derland Part 2!

An Egg-stra Special Easter

Easter is always a very special holiday for us and this year will be no exception. This will be G's first Easter...you may be thinking, "but she'll be one and hasn't celebrated her first Easter?" Last year she was born after Easter and this year she will be turning one the day before. We have a full and fun weekend ahead. To get things started, I'm joining Darci from The Good Life and Sarah from Our Journey for their Easter Basket Blog Hop! Feel free to join in!



 

 

With everything we have going on this week in preparation for G's first birthday, I wanted to make sure that I had her basket complete. I've tried not to place too much pressure on myself. While this will be her first Easter and thus, her first Easter basket, I know that she will not likely remember it other than what she sees in pictures. I did however, enjoy putting it together. As she grows we want her to enjoy the holiday but we want the real focus to be on Christ's death and resurrection. Soon I'll be posting some of the traditions that we'll be incorporating into her childhood for Easter.

 

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I hope you enjoy taking a peek into her Easter basket.

 

I don't know what I love more...her initial tag that I purchased at Michael's or her Easter basket that I scored at the Dollar Tree.

Growing up, mom always made or bought us a new Easter dress. I plan to keep this tradition for G, but I also like the idea of getting her a new Spring outfit. My hubby actually picked this one out and I think he did a great job! So cute!

 



 

I try to instill the love of reading into our daughter any chance I get...so of course, that means a book for Easter! I love this little story and I can see it easily becoming a family favorite. I also have a weakness when it comes to hair bows. While G doesn't always want to keep them in her hair these days, I enjoy putting one in her hair every chance I get, thus a few made their way into her basket.

 





I found this funny chicken at a local card store. He was on clearance and his silly dancing and clucking made me laugh out loud in the store. I know G will love it! The egg is an egg shaker that I bought a few weeks ago when my friend and I visited a specialty toy store. I bought two, giving her one early just to see her response. I know she'll love it. While she may be a little young for crayons, we discovered that she enjoys making scribbles at one of our favorite restaurants the other day. They have the brown paper on the tables and upon putting a crayon in her hand and showing her what to do, she had a ball!

When you put it all together...what do you have? An adorable Easter basket for our precious little girl.

Isn't that little bunny face to die for?!