Christ is Risen!

He is risen indeed! Saturday after a long day of work (which included an incredibly joyous visit from my husband and daughter) I met up with my hubby and younger brother at CTK for Easter vigil. I knew it would be rough working 12 hours, staying up until 2:00am and then going to work again at 6:00am. But it was so worth it. Even in the midst of what could've been a weekend devoid of Easter-the Lord shone through.

God really blessed my Easter Sunday. Work was smooth and everyone there was in the "Easter spirit". The greatest part was that I got put on call the last four hours of work and made it home just in time to see all of my extended family and participate in the festivities! It was such a gift. God is so good. I got to snap these shots of my beautiful girl and of our family on her first Easter.

Palm Sunday

Yesterday was our family "Easter Day" but today we will be celebrating Easter with my parents! I have such a loving family for everyone to have put in such effort for me! We took Colette for her first Palm Sunday mass to CTK. She loved holding the palm and processing around the church with the congregation!

We went from there to my parents where we did all of our Easter baking. With our family, traditions as crucial as baked goods cannot be given up, despite one's work schedule. I made coconut cluster bird's nests while my dad made his Easter Cross cake.I even tried a new recipe-bird's nest brownies!

We then headed over to St. Albert's for their annual Easter Egg Hunt! I had expected a small gathering with a few hidden eggs but it turned out to be such a special treat for our family. It almost brought me to tears with all of its Easter glory that it brought to my family, especially since I wouldn't get to be at Colette's first Easter. Colette got to meet the Easter bunny-which she was pretty indifferent about honestly! Then we went through the Easter Egg Forest to gather our eggs...

Lastly, Colette got to meet a REAL bunny! This thing was so cute-and Colette was so scared!

Once we had moved on from the scary animal all was well and we proceeded on to have lunch with all her cousins! It was such a fun and special day to spend with my "favorite baby out of the belly" as I call her!

Family Easter Day!

Oh Easter-We welcome you! It is two weeks since Easter Sunday but the Easter season has just begun. Our lives are renewed in hope at His rising from the dead. As the spring slowly seeps into our days, we look with open eyes to the glory to come.

This Easter was my first away from my family. Due to my lovely work schedule I worked Saturday and Sunday all day and will work my first Mother's Day as a mom the same. Knowing this ahead of time though, my family all pulled together to make the time for an early Easter.

Adam and I proclaimed the day before Palm Sunday our "Family Easter Day". We had brunch,

Colette helped make a beautiful Easter banner-

We dyed Easter eggs-

And had made a delicious dinner over a bonfire outside.

It was such a blessed beginning to a beautiful holy week. This Lent was a difficult one, but I feel that the greater difficulty it is, the greater the rejoicing on Easter.