Easter!

The morning started out with Easter Baskets.  My friend Stephanie gave me the idea to do bathing suits in their baskets.  They loved them and also got matching beach towels!

We told the girls that we gave them a gift because Easter represents God's greatest gift to us, Jesus dying on the cross so that we can have a relationship with Him and spend eternity in Heaven!

We were lucky enough to enjoy some of Elaine's gourmet cooking for lunch!

Trent and Graham tag teamed the leg of lamb.

Elaine the Chef

Reese and Selah enjoyed a delicious appetizer of goldfish and Reese thought it would be fun to eat like a puppy I guess.

After lunch, which I was obviously too busy devouring to take pictures of,

we did an Easter Egg Hunt outside.  The kids took off running so fast that this was the only picture I got with all four kids.  Selah forgot about the eggs as soon as she saw the "bike" (four wheeler) as she calls it, or as Sophie used to say, the "fell weeder."

I got one egg!

Make that two eggs!

Classic Reese.  I like how Elaine puts it.  She looks like Graham, but is quirky like Elaine.  If you know them, it makes perfect sense!

Best Buds - They really do love eachother so much!

Bud Bud even got in on the egg hunting.

Onto "Grandma and Grandpa Dye's" House we went.  Love this pic of Selah - this is when she looks like what her name means...to pause and reflect.  She'll grow into it I am thinking.

She is definitely the animal lover of the family.  Here she is with Toby, whom she LOVES!

This is a common occurrence in our house, but catching it on film at the exact moment was priceless.  Selah is a hair puller for sure, and Sophie is like her mommy with her sensitive head.  She practically cries every time I brush her hair, so you can imagine how mad she was after this.

The Post Incident Daddy Hug makes everything better.

I'm sure that I've never mentioned how hard my kids are to photograph.  Oh, wait.  Yes I think I have mentioned that about 1,000 times=)  Selah is hard to get to slow down enough to even look in the direction of a camera, and Sophie has trouble showing ANY enthusiasm (great example here) or she does the classic fake smile. 

So we (meaning I) was crazy enough to try to get them to sit down and smile at a camera after lunch and the egg hunt.  Shocker, this is the best it got.  Makes me laugh though.

The girls with their great grandparents.  Gotta love the tongue hanging out!

Family shot

I wanted to get some more of Sophie, but both girls were over the camera by this time!

What a great Easter!  Beautiful weather and lots of family and good food.

Hope that you had a great day celebrating Jesus too!

5th of July

Trey was on call on the 4th of July, so I decided that we would hold out and do fireworks on the 5th so he could celebrate a little.
Nana and Pop were super excited when we showed up at their house Sunday night after church to shoot off our fireworks. Selah wasn't too fond of the noise, so Nana held her away from the "danger. " Sophie was all about the roman candles and bottle rockets. But she got a little shy after an ember from a sparkler burned her arm, so trey and i had a little fun with the rest of her sparklers and my camera...

Easter Celebration! Fun with baby ducks!

We had a great Easter this year filled with lots of memories. The most meaningful thing to me was that Sophie for the first time could talk about (in simple terms) what Jesus did for us.

She learned how he died on the cross "Mommy, did you know that they put those things in His hands and they put Him on the cross?"

She learned how he rose from the dead "And then they rolled the stone away and there was an angel!"

She started to learn what it means to have Jesus come live in your heart "Mommy how does he get in there? Do they cut off your head? Does Jesus eat when he's in there? Does he live in your legs too?"


I loved hearing her little heart start to understand the beginnings of what I know will be a strong relationship with Him one day.

We also had fun at Mimi's as usual with all the cousins and the ducks! I do hope the ducks were not traumatized, but all in all, it was a great day! Here are some pictures in no particular order!

Sophie being the clean child she is was very content to watch and not touch.




Luke was all about the ducks, what a cute smile. Love my Lukey Boy!



I think Lillian loved them best of all. She almost got in the bucket with the ducks! She is fearless!

Towards the end of playtime, the ducks huddled. I think they were thinking "Stick together, safety in numbers!"

Selah in her bunny ears (at the end of the day)
She looked at us like, "Really, can we be done with pictures already?"


Sweet sisters!

Almost all the great grandkids! Wow there are a lot of them (ages range 6 years to 5 months)

Attempt at a family pic at the end of the day=)

Olivia and Sophie - both firstborn, both girls, both sweet big sisters, so much alike!