THE HAYS FAMILY: Easter 2012

I'm always behind on my Easter post...or at least I was last year and I only started this blog last year, therefore, that makes me always behind. Anyway, I guess it just takes a lot out of me plus as soon as Easter was over I was in 2 year old Bishop mode and we have been on the go constantly. Plus, I do work full time. I will warn you, this one is kinda long as well. I promise the next posts will not be as bad!

I love Easter. It is possibly my favorite holiday. Christmas is important too, don't get me wrong. Although I do get overwhelmed with gifts, parties, and all the hustle and bustle, without Christmas there would be no Easter. However, Easter is the holiday that celebrates everything that my faith is based on. I actually love Holy Week in general starting with the celebration of Palm Sunday. My pastor has said.."If you go from the celebration of Palm Sunday to the celebration of Easter without going to the cross, then you miss the point." So true. Jesus died on a cross and it was not pretty. He was tortured, beaten, and suffered like no human should ever have to. And, He did it for all of us. But, the best part of the story is that He is Risen....just as he said! He fulfilled his promise to us then and is still fulfilling his promise today! Every. Single. Day.

John 11:25-26 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

Aside from the true celebration of Easter, I also enjoy the commercialized version of Easter. The Easter bunny (as scary as the mall versions are), chicks, Peeps, egg hunts, etc are all just fun to me. I can remember egg hunts from when I was a child and it brought me such happiness. So, it is so fun to see my child enjoying some of the simple pleasures in life that I enjoyed.

And, Easter is yet another good excuse to spend with my family!

And, finally, I love Easter because I love any excuse to eat candy. Period.

Dyeing eggs

For any of you that think I might think to have it together, I'd just like to reassure you that I do not. If you know me, then you already know this is true. Always has been. Always will be. It is just who I am...NOT TOGETHER. Anyway, the Saturday before Easter was a little extra crazy and at one point my mom even said "maybe you should just go back to bed and start over". You know it is bad when your own mother says it. It all started when Bishop and I started making Easter sugar cookies. I thought I had enough flour, but I didn't. So, I put Bishop in bed for a nap, ran to Walmart to get flour only to realize I left my debit card at home (after I was in the checkout line and had my stuff rang up). SO, I drive back home and back to Walmart to get flour AGAIN. I finished the cookies, stuck them in the oven, and then grabbed an egg to make a cake. The egg wouldn't crack. I guess I should back up the story and say that before the flour incident, Bishop and I dyed eggs. Leon had boiled us 2 out of 3 dozen eggs for us to color the night before (he did this because while I may be able to make an entire wedding cake...I can't boil an egg!) and put them in the refrigerator. Back to the egg for the cake...it wouldn't crack because it was a hard boiled egg! So, yeah, at this point I realized that half of the colored eggs were raw. And, I had no idea which ones. I did the "spin on the counter" trick which worked pretty well, but still my sister found a "prize egg" that one of her boys brought home. Yes, that was me. I dyed raw eggs. To top that off, during the egg fiasco, I burned the cookies to a crisp and had to start all over. On a positive note, I had plenty of flour and nice pretty pink and green eggs to make them with! And, I think they turned out cute at least.

Cookies for Bishop's Sunday school class

Cookies for family

Bunny Bark

I also made THIS cake and it was really good...or so I thought.

After a baking and egg dying day, it was time for the big day. We started off with our Easter basket before church. He was so excited about everything. Funny how a $3 fishing pole and a $1 butterfly net can be the best present. Oh, and a $3 frog. He was one happy camper with his basket...I can't say that he was a happy camper the WHOLE day though :)