He is Risen - Easter 2016

Happy Easter! Despite rainy, overcast weather, Easter day proved to be a sweet and joyful day again this year. It's really amazing when you think of the significance of such a day and what it means for the world. Awesome. Just awesome.

The Peerys on Easter Sunday!

The Peerys on Easter Sunday!
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The Easter bunny came with some treats for the boys!  We had their Easter baskets set on the stairs for them to see right after they got up. Their baskets had swim trunks, sunglasses, toothbrushes, Hot Wheels cars, Peeps and some jelly beans.

Stokes came down first and was excited
to see his treats!

Pump the breaks there, little fella!

William checking out his Easter basket

The Hot Wheels cars were the first things
they went for.

Ryan liked his egg!

After a little Easter basket unveiling, we had breakfast with these cute little bunnies.

Wearing the bunny sunglasses his MaSha gave him.

I thought it would be fun to do a mini Easter egg hunt around the yard before church, but it was raining (as you can see through the window) so we just hid eggs around the downstairs and tried to get the boys to hunt for them. William was kinda sorta into it this time.

Discovering that the eggs had
jelly beans inside!

We were very sneaky and tried to hide
them really well so the boys would really
have to search for them...NOT.

Jelly beans - YUMMMY!

William found a few eggs and emptied them into his bucket. Stokes quickly came over to try the jelly beans as well! They both loved the jelly beans. After collecting about 4 eggs or so though, the game was over. Then he started dumping out the Easter basket - jelly beans and all. Not cool. Thomas and I ended up just picking up the rest of the eggs. Haha! And we still have a lot of jelly beans and Easter candy at our house. We don't let the boys have too much at a time.

Loving those jelly beans!

We got the boys ready for church and I had to take some pictures before we left the house. In case you think these outfits look familiar, you'd be right. They're the same jon jons the boys wore last year. Last year we had to have the buttons at the shoulders taken in and this year we just let the buttons back out. Two for the price of one - I'm all about it!

Stokes

Ryan

William

Happy boys!
Stokes, Ryan and William

Since it was raining, we put them in rain boots to go to church. It was a win/win. First of all, they love their rain boots. Second, I didn't want to get their socks and shoes wet and dirty.

Ready for church!

 Seersucker dudes. Thomas was wearing a seersucker suit so I had to get a picture of all of them.

I wanted to get a picture on the front porch, but as soon as we got the little guys outside, they went running! Of course, Stokes ended up sitting down on the wet, yucky mulch and got a big spot on the bottom of his jon jons - oh well! It did come out in the wash, though!

So cute with the azaleas!

On the porch with my little guys!

We actually made it to church early (gasp!) so I knew I wanted to get a family picture in front of this beautiful cross with fresh flowers and we had time to do it before our service began. We had some sweet girls behind us in the line that took this picture and even were making noises and faces to get the boys to look. I wish I had thought to take the diaper bag off my arm, but oh well! Don't you love the rain boots look for Easter?!?! LOL.

Happy Easter!

We put Stokes and William in the nursery and took Ryan with us into the service. He did great! And he looked so handsome. I kept feeling like people were looking over at him and thinking how beautiful he is. Proud mama! As usual, the service at our church was phenomenal. I love how the choir goes all out on special Sundays and the message that our pastor delivered was once again on point and so relevant. I just love our church. There's something really magical about church on Easter Sunday.

After church we ate a quick lunch and got the boys down for their naps. During naps, Thomas and I watched The Passion of the Christ. Wow - that one was....tough. I had never seen it before. It was, quite honestly, hard to watch. It really tore me up. I think I will take a break from that one for a while. I'm glad that I saw it, and it definitely made me think and feel, but just wow.

To get back on a happier note, once the boys woke up, we popped popcorn and watched Toy Story!

William and Stokes with Dada
& popcorn!

After a lazy afternoon watching movies, we had a nice Easter dinner with ham, hashbrown casserole, asparagus, watergate salad and rolls. Yum! Then before starting the bedtime routine, it was time to carry on an Easter tradition and pip eggs.

All of our dyed Easter eggs - ready to be pipped

Stokes and William got in on the fun. William actually took his egg a little too far. After it would crack, he would continue to squeeze it and squeeze it some more until it would completely fall apart, leaving quite a mess on the floor for Mama to clean up! Little rascal!

Thomas's egg lost our 1:1 battle

Who's first?!?!

I was helping them learn the "art of the egg pip"

Ready.....go!

The champion egg!!!

It only took a few minutes to finish pipping both ends of all of our eggs. The boys were still in goofy, playful moods and had some fun with Dada.

Although the rain and dreary weather kept us indoors most of the day, a day spent with family is wonderful, especially when you add in the overwhelming joyful significance of such a day! It was emotional (watching the Passion movie), it was lazy (watching Toy Story), it was fun (pipping eggs), it was inspirational (church), it was silly (running around in the yard and playing with brothers), it was sweet (eating Easter candy) and it was beautiful (for all of those reasons and more). Our main takeaway from Easter Sunday is this: Nothing Is Impossible. Believe it.