Happy Easter!

Yesterday was Easter Sunday.  Wow!  What an awesome Easter it was for our brood!  It started with a sunrise service at church.  Y'all it was dim, dreary, and rainy when we left for church.  We had service, followed by breakfast, and then went to Sunday School.  In the smack-dab middle of Sunday School, the sun burst through the windows.  It was amazing - just an awesome reminder that Jesus died for us and when all hope seemed to be lost, He rose up out of that grave and made us a place in Heaven!  That little burst of sunlight was God's way of saying "He's Alive!" I hope everyone was able to take a moment to remember Jesus' sacrifice during this Easter season!
We enjoyed lunch with my in-laws - the hubby grilled burgers and hot dogs and we enjoyed Grandma's cherry cheesecake yum-yum and strawberry shortcakes for dessert.  I am one of those people who thinks dessert is the most important part of a meal!  Later on, we went to eat with my side of the family. Okay.  Let me paint the picture for you - My parents, my grandparents (the ones who began and live at Sunnybrook Farm), my Uncle Steve, my 3 sisters and their hubbies, 7 grandchildren (plus 1 on the way - YAY!), one cousin (his parents are out of town, so he's hanging with us), one cousin's husband (she was at home with their sleepy little one) and their other 2 daughters.  Of course we're all watching basketball - omyword, that Lousiville player that broke his leg - PRAYERS for that fella!!!  Geez!  Anyway, ALLLL of these folks gathered around a few big farm-style tables, kitchen counters covered with homemade goodies of all kinds, and kids running around everywhere.  Do all of the kids in your family seem to finish eating their food within like 7.8325 seconds of you fixing their plates???  We finished up the night with a glow-in-the-dark Easter egg hunt - lots of fun even though the eggs didn't really glow very well.  The kids loved it - my sister Laura thinks of everything and she is always great to organize fun stuff for the kids.  As we were cleaning up, we all got to watch the crucifixion scenes from The Bible mini-series on the History channel.  My favorite part of this wonderful day was when my 6-year old niece crawled up in my lap (y'all she never sits still) and watched this with me.  She asked a bazillion questions about it.  It was precious!!!  God is so great!  This was a perfect Easter in my book!

Another reason this was a perfect Easter is because I made cheesecake.  I told you dessert is the most important part of a meal for me!  I made a turtle cheesecake - which is probably my all-time favorite type of cheesecake.

You can find this AH-MAZ-ING turtle cheesecake recipe here.

One other thing... my youngest wild child is just like his Mama.  All he could think about was making dessert for his cousins.  Ain't he just the cutest thing??  (Don't be fooled - he is a MESS!!)  Love him!  Happy Easter everyone!!!