Happy Easter!!

Ellie got her hair rolled this morning for Easter. It was a special day! We all laughed at how very much she looks like my grandmother when her hair is rolled and curly.

It was a fantastic morning and we actually got everything done and got to church on time. What a great reason to thank God! The weather was also sunny and warm and another reason to give thanks. But, of course, the biggest reason to celebrate is the hope we have in eternal life through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

So... on with the [tons and tons of] photos from today!

Look - same eyes! :-) [yeah, I know, groan ...]


After we got ready for church, we discovered that Peter Cottontail had INDEED stopped at our house last night and left some goodies for Ellie and Josh!







"COOL, baseball cards!"


"WOW, Doa, doa, doa"


Curls galore!


Traditional Easter photos by the [dead] tree in the front yard.


Criminies, we ALL have the same eyes!


We had a great time at church today and really enjoyed teaching our class. We had 21 sixth graders today -- a full house, literally -- and even though it's hard for them to stop socializing long enough to learn a lot, I think they did manage to learn some interesting facts that maybe they didn't know about Easter and were reminded of the true meaning of Easter. I LOVE teaching our class and our kids!!

After church, MeeMee and DeeDee came over for lunch. Nana was at her sister's daughter's house and we missed having her today.



Josh and Ellie got kites and bubbles in their baskets and wanted to try them out while I prepared lunch.



DeeDee had to help Ellie fly her kite.




But Josh did great on his own with his kite.


After a lunch where we all ate so much we couldn't move well, DeeDee and Josh hid eggs for Ellie's Easter egg hunt.



Ellie was SO not interested in the eggs. She would find them, get the candy and throw the egg on the ground.


I was honstly glad (for once) that we had not mowed our grass yet as it made for some great pictures and great hiding places for eggs!




MeeMee helped Ellie hunt eggs and taught her how to use her dress as a basket. Sweet time!






Ellie decided she'd rather use MeeMee's dress as the basket!


I managed to talk Josh into sitting in the grass to get a few snaps too! (yay!!)






After Ellie's egg hunt, we did the "super hide" for Josh who had trouble finding a few. Hey, mom can seriously HIDE some eggs if the grass is high enough to put them down into!





Ellie was SO tired and we tried SO hard to skip the nap this afternoon. Finally at 4:00 we gave up and I went up and napped with her. She was up at 6:00. I managed to eake out another hour. Granted, it's now after midnight and I'm still awake. She and Josh ate WAY WAY too much candy today. We've had to hide both the candy and sodas because they were eating and drinking them like they were going out of style. I see a LOT of candy going into the freezer tomorrow.

Favorite photos of the day: there are two. One is of a petulant little girl. I'm not sure if she was just exhausted at this point or tired of the camera, but it was so cute I couldn't resist!


The other so captures the dedication Ellie has for Josh. Notice how she's following behind him "helping" him look for eggs. So, so sweet!


Tomorrow, we are off to Ellie's two year check up. I suspect she will have quickly moved from the 3% she normally is, into a more mid-range number on her height and maybe her weight as well. She has come SUCH a long, long way in the last six months. It's amazing to watch her develop into her own little person.

Josh and Kevin are going to crank up the mower and get started on that summer chore of mowing the yard. Kevin gets one more vacation day tomorrow and then we are all back to our normal routines -- such as they are -- of work, baseball practice/games, daycare (aka "e-nana's"), school and all the other things that go into our week.

We hope you had as blessed a day as we did. As we were putting Ellie to sleep, Kevin and I remarked on what a wonderful day it had been, and it was. Thank you Jesus for your sacrifice so I do not have to fear death and eternity!