Easter....Part Two (THE HUNT)

We usually have a HUGE Easter lunch at my parents' house. This year, since we are pretty much hogging every square inch of their house, we moved our Easter celebration to my brother's house.

We always have so much awesome food! I am blessed with a family full of great cooks!!! We had everything from homemade chicken and noodles to Italian beef/deer. (Did I mention that my family is also full of hunters?) And the desserts...oh my! I think we had more dessert than anything else!

It is so much fun to sit around and visit with all the family members! I think we had around 40 people there this time. We had 19 of the 20 grandchildren present. They are all between the ages of 2 and 14. So the annual Easter Egg hunt was very anticipated this year! I really enjoy watching all of the kids search for the eggs! It's especially challenging to get pictures of their little faces while finding the eggs! I definitely did not get everybody! Here's a few of the pics....

Taelyn... sporting a smile for the camera.

Mariya found one!!!

Ashton found a stash on the trampoline.

Nevin has a dog buddy for the egg hunt.... Josie!

Bryson was hard to catch! I have about 15 pictures of the back of his head. He kept running off before I could get a picture. Here he is with his cousin, Chloe.

Sweet Nolan. He had a hard time refraining from immediately opening the eggs and eating the candy.

My little nephew, Chance, spots an egg and takes off running!

My big nephew, Chance, up in the tree... getting eggs down for the little ones. (How he grew up so fast, I will NEVER know!!!)

Our little cousin, Macey, showing off her loot!


Our cousin, Jenna... one egg in each hand and running for another one!


My nephew, Coy, checkin' his eggs for goodies.


My nephew, Ty (Coy's twin brother)... with a mouthful of chocolate already!

I wish this picture would have turned out better. We don't get very many pictures with MOST of the grandchildren all in one shot. Here they are pictured with my Grandpa Beanie and Grandma Betty, my maternal grandparents and the sweetest, most awesome people on the face of this earth!

Easter...Part One

We had such a great Easter this year! The kids woke up at 6:00 to see what was in their baskets. We definitely don't go all out on gifts for Easter. They got some candy and a couple games to share. We didn't make it to the Sunrise Service. Hopefully we will be able to do that next year! We did have a wonderful church service with a packed auditorium!

My pictures didn't turn out real great this year! We were in a rush and I just snapped a few shots as we ran out the door!

Ashton...cheesin' (he doesn't like to have his picture taken!)

Mariya and Taelyn.... my little sweethearts!


Bryson.... don't think for a minute that he has nice dress shoes on... he was sportin' his "broke-in" cowboy boots!



Nolan and Nevin. This is the only picture that I have of them from Easter!!! What goofballs! Nolan looks like a pirate... Arrg! Nevin looks like a space cadet! Oh well.... they're still my cuties!




And of course, we HAD to get a family shot! Not great, but serves the purpose!




Easter Part two coming up next! Including pictures from our annual Easter egg hunt!!!

Pleasing God at ALL times....

Tonight as we finished up praying, I was chatting with the kids about some of the things that we have been talking about in our adult Sunday School class. We have been doing a 13-week study and it has been great! Last week, we talked about "Pleasing God". The main part of the lesson was basically if we are NOT pleasing GOD, we are pleasing OURSELF! It was a great reminder for me!!!

As I talked with the kids, I brought up the old saying, "There's just TWO choices on the shelf, pleasing God OR pleasing self!". The kids were very receptive and we talked about a lot of things. I asked them for examples and they came up with some great ones:

Ashton said ..... "If someone at school calls us a name, we should ignore them or tell the teacher...that would be pleasing God. If we called them a name back... that would be pleasing self."

(Good job Ash.... right on the money!)

Mariya said ... "If we are told to put on our jammies, we should obey and put on our jammies... that would be pleasing God. If we went and played around instead of putting on jammies... that would be pleasing self."

(Good job Riya... what a good listener!)

They said a few other examples that let me know they were right on target. THEN... my four year old, Bryson, chimes in .....

He says in a very serious tone... "If someone is mountain climbing, and there is an avalanche, then we tell them to RUUUUUNNNNN!!!!!!!"

Mountain climbing? Avalanche? Where does he come up with this stuff???

I'm thinkin' maybe he wasn't listening quite like the other kids! =)

Our lil Getaway....

Last week we took a spontaneous trip to Lafayette, IN. When the weather is nice, we try to take mini-trips about once every month or two. Usually not very far, within 2 hours from home. This time, we went for two days and had an awesome time! The kids enjoyed swimming in the hotel pool and most of all, Chuck E. Cheese! Other than that, we just ate (at Texas Roadhouse on Friday night, Chick-Fil-A on Saturday) and hit up a Target! I figured I would post a few pics....

Mama, Nolan, and Bryson hanging out in the hot tub.

Most of the time Ashton was in the pool with the goggles, but I snapped a pic of him while he was sitting still for a minute!

My Bry Guy

Chuck E. Cheese...the next day!


Taelyn and Mariya...tryin' out the dancing game. They obviously get their mother's coordination skills!




The boys loved the water gun game.



My Riya...cheesin' for the camera! Whatta sweetie!



Nolan riding tandem with one of the girls. I THINK it's Mariya.


Nevin....Daddy's boy.

Oh my word....I can see it already! 14 years from now.....

Chocolate?? What Chocolate????

Grandpa seemed to have left his box of chocolates

sitting on the table next to his Lazy Boy.

A few minutes after he left, the boys found them.

Of course, my "MISS MOM" volunteered to give them baths.

What would I do without my Sweet Tae and her helpful hands!?!?

And by the way.... you think the boys look messy???

You should've seen the recliner!!!