He is Risen INDEED!!!

Happy Easter!!! Ahhhh...I'm just SO SO thankful that Christ ROSE and we are free!!! WOOHOOOO!!! I alway love the Easter service at church at this was no exception. The worship is always my favorite and every year I wish I would have gone to both services. This year our church had the Arkansas Symphony up there with them and the music was just so beautiful! All the songs were such wonderful songs about Christ rising again. And there was a huge wooden cross on the stage that was so beautiful. I, of course, had to take a picture but the picture doesn't quite do it justice. It was just so beautiful.  
 Brandon preached the sermon and it was so good, too. After the sermon, we sung an old hymn that I love.....Because He Lives. Easter was even more special today because Kevin and Macy were with us. This was their one year dating anniversary and they have now been married 15 days! This weekend was their first time here since they have been married. We got to see them last weekend, too, because we had to run up to Branson and get something from them to return to Shanny that ended up in their car. That was a fun trip. We got to see Hannah and the kids, too! I remember last Easter, Kevin came to town and I took a picture of him and Macy together at church. SO fun that now they are MARRIED!!
So, here they are last year at the Easter service. We went on Saturday. I always like to go on Sunday better because it is actually Easter.
And here they are this morning as we were about to leave for church. I love Macy's cute dress. And Kevin looks great with his longer hair. Macy told him she wanted him to grow it out where she could play with it. :) 
And here are the 4 of us after church. 
It was so great because we got to see so many family members at church today. We saw Hodge (cousin) and Beth and their kids, Lawson (cousin) and Christi and their kids, Zach and Kelsey, all of Sheldon's family sat with Dad, and Molly sat with the 4 of us. Mom stayed home because she was getting the house ready for 22 people to come eat. After church, we ran home and got my potato casserole out of the oven. It was the first time we set the timer to turn on and off! I was a little scared but the casserole turned out great! Before we headed back over to mom's, Kevin gave us a card from him and Macy. 
I mean, how sweet is this?! SO special and thoughtful! It meant so much!!! 

So, then we headed to mom and dad's to eat and it was so great to fellowship with family! We got to catch up with Pug and Jilly, Zach and Kelsey, and Jason (cousin) and his new girlfriend. Also, Molly and Logan were there with their kids and Evy was so cute!! I said, "Hi Evy!" and she gave me the biggest hug and said, "Do you have chocolate?!" HAAAA!! I was the first one ever to give her chocolate and every time I see her I give her chocolate. She was SOOOO cute!! Samuel was adorable, too! I gave him some chocolate, too! Shanny wasn't there today because her and Phil are at the beach! SO fun! Of course, we always miss the Nowlins and Epps. I am in a group text with my mom and sisters and I love how mom described lunch today. 

"We had a fun day! 22 for lunch, including the kids. Ham, green beans, roasted broccoli, mashed potatos, hash brown potatos, sweet potato casserole, Granny's strawberry salad, cranberry chutney, buttered Challah bread slices, sliced tomatoes, lemon cream cake, chocolate mocha cake and sour cream cake.

  Jason Abernathy brought his new squeeze, and we liked her a lot.  Dawson got to leave work early and join us. Samuel and I picked flowers in the yard, and he helped me put them in a vase.

  Everyone sat around the table and laughed at Sheldon and Heather, like always.

 Everyone ( including Jason and his girlfriend) went to church this morning ( except for me) and said it was good.  Judge Reinhold gave dad a huge hug when he saw him.  

  The weather was gorgeous!  We missed Shanny and Phil and the Epps and Nowlin's, but it turned out to be a great day!!!!
 SO thankful for the love and laughter in our family!"

I loved what she wrote because she told about all the food! It was A LOT and it was so good! Also, I REALLY love the she put me in the same category with Sheldon as funny!! Sheldon is the one of the funniest people I know so this made my day!! Funny is my fave!! We stayed at mom and dad's for a couple of hours and then had to get Macy and Kevin back so they could start back to OKC. When we got home, Kevin helped Lamar move Macy's chest-of-drawers down to storage and then they were on their way. I always have to let Reggie and Moses see them drive away so Reggie won't wait on Macy to come back. He is always sad when Macy leaves. He is the happiest when he is with both Macy and me together. It is like all is right in his world again. Sweet Reg. Moses ADORES Macy, too, but Moses is happy with just me. Reg gets a spring in his step when Macy is around. He even plays!! After Kevin and Macy left, Lamar and I went walking because today has been the most gorgeous day! I am taking Sudafed, Zyrtec, and Nasacort for my allergies. Well, I didn't take the Zyrtec last night because it makes it so hard for me to wake up AND it makes me grumpy. I hate to be grumpy! Lamar says he loves me no matter what but I don't like me AT ALL being grumpy. SO, I tried to not take it to see how my allergies did. BIG mistake! After the walk, even after getting all the pollen off of me and washing my hair, my eyes started their whole itching thing again so I had to take a Zyrtec again. Thankfully, my eyes quit itching. I just have to keep taking it until the pollen is gone and then I will get off of it. I just have to continue to ask the Lord to help me not be grumpy. 

Yesterday, we headed over to mom and dad's to tackle thank you notes!! It took a few hours but we conquered it! It takes a village!! I just have to say that Lamar helped write a few and his notes were so funny! I just LOVE my husband!! I mean, if I wasn't already in love with him, I would fall right back in love with him all over again. I am so proud of my man! He is so talented at everything he touches AND he has a great personality!! I am the luckiest girl alive to have him for my husband. I am SO thankful God gave him to me!! 
HAHAAHAA!!
And here we are. Taylor came over to hang out some and she licked the envelopes for us. I have said it before and I'll say it again..Taylor is AMAZING!! I love that girl! She helped me SO much with the wedding and she is such a precious friend to Macy! I just LOVE her!! Mom helped, too, but Kevin was with her helping her hang all her frames in her bedroom. Mom and Dad rearranged their bedroom where the vent wouldn't blow right on them. Mom was so thankful to Kevin for all he did that she ordered him SeƱor Tequila (a great Mexican eating place in town).  We had fun sitting around the table talking and writing. Dad was with us, too. I'm so thankful for my parents. They pray for us every single night! After we wrote thank you notes, we decided to go see My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2. When I am describing my family to people who don't know them, I always ask tell them we are the family from My Big Fat Greek Wedding. LOL! And we totally are...except without the alcohol. Gosh, we don't need it in our family....I feel like adding alcohol to our family would be adding fuel to the fire! HAHA! We have TONS of fun without it! I remember one time a lot of the girls in our family were shopping at Kohl's and we were just being our normal selves. Well, Julie Barnard (a PRECIOUS woman who we adore..she is also one of the pastor's wives and on occasion does hygiene at the office) was walking in as we were walking out. She told us later that the lady checking us out looked at her after we left and said, "I think those people are drunk." HAHA! Julie said, "Oh no! They don't drink...that's just how they are!" LOL!  
Here we are at the movie. Lamar stayed home and read his book (which is what he's doing now as I write this). He has been waiting for the 3rd book to come out in this Christian fiction series he's been reading. It came out in February but we were so busy with wedding stuff and he was building the deck that there was no time to read. He asked me to order that book from Amazon on Thursday.  I got a notification on my phone that Amazon has delivered the package while we were writing thank you notes so he stayed home from the movie and read his book. He was SO excited! When we were driving off to go to the movie he was singing, Celebrate Good Times!! HAHA! When he gets a book, all he does is read until it is finished. He LOVES to read so much. It's not my favorite thing to do at all. I know it sounds bad because everyone is supposed to love to read but for me to enjoy a book, it has to be AMAZING!! There are just so many other things I would love to do more than reading, like go walking or play with my dogs or eat or be with friends or well...just about anything!! BUT, I do have to say that I am reading this book by John Burke called Imagine Heaven. It came in with Lamar's fiction book and they gave me a free sample of it on my Kindle app. I started reading it and read the whole entire sample and LOVED it! I am actually going to read that book. It's about heaven and I am ALL about reading about my future home!! 

Oh, I have to add one more picture. This cracks me up! 
When Macy started liking Kevin she would always say that Kevin wasn't a dog person and that was the only thing that she wasn't sure about. HAHA! Well, my goodness, just look at this! He let the dogs sleep with them and Reggie IN the bed with them. LOL! What a sweetie! Moses felt left out because he was too big to fit in the bed so he came back to our room and slept with us (on his bed)! 

Okay, well this was WAY longer than I planned but I am just so glad that I blogged twice in a week! Now I will remember this weekend! And I'm so glad because this was a weekend to remember! Happy Happy Easter!! Thank you, God, for sacrificing your Son so we could live forever! Thank you, Jesus, for dying and rising again so we could be forgiven and free! His love for us is more than we can ever imagine and I am forever grateful!! One day we will get to see Him in person!! Oh what a day that will be!! HALLELUJAH!! 

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