Crazy Hats!

 

Hugging Sophie and watching softball with Tyler.

 

Hanging out and brushing teeth with Mommy.

 

   

 

Hope you enjoy our Easter story… I’ve mixed some traditions in with the captions so that you get a little glimpse into some of the fun things we do as a family to celebrate Easter in the piney woods of East Texas.

 

 

  

Get the yellow memo?  These three did.  Actually, though, Mike has for the past 7 years, at least.  This is his annual Easter shirt!  The 2nd year he wore it, it was an accident and the picture found him out, so the 3rd year we told him he had to wear it because we all got such a laugh!  Easter day is the only day of the year he wears it, and it’s now tradition!  Don’t have to wonder what Mike will have on next year!

  

Giving Poppa and Rara their sweet kisses!

Don’t hoard the eggs or anything, Noelle…

Finding lots and lots of Easter eggs!  Drew boy had to miss the egg hunt, so there were way too many eggs for Noelle and her cousin Avery – Linda is so good to us!

 

Drew and Noelle right before the Eberts had to head back to Oklahoma.  Michele emailed these pics to me today!

 

Aunt Polly and Aunt Elsie with Noelle.

I love this picture of John and Nancy!

 

Silly Noelle getting into Linda’s Easter scene – I guess that’s what it’s there for!

 

This is dear Aunt Polly.  She is my Granny’s sister and very very close to my heart.  It hurts so badly that my Granny didn’t get to meet Noelle, but Aunt Polly makes it so much better.  She’s my angel!  The second picture is my Mom, cousin Linda, Aunt Joe, Aunt Polly, and Aunt Elsie.  I admire these women more than you can know – they are women of love, faith, beauty, and gentle strength, and I hope to be just like each of them!

 

Our family!

  

Noelle wanted in the doll house so bad.  In the second pic, she is saying, "OPEN!"  This was my mother’s doll house her father build for her and her sisters when they were little girls.  It matches my grandmother’s house, but has been relocated out to the family center, for generations yet to come to enjoy!

Picture of Granny’s house taken in June of ’06.  Wanted you guys to see how cute the doll house was with the matching real house.

 

  

This is a pic of my mom and her two sisters, Aunt Joe, and Aunt Elsie, along with their husbands (Poppa), Uncle Fred, and Uncle Jim. 

 

Uncle Fred doing dishes – what a team player! 

 

Funny photo (we do one serious and one funny)!  Every year since I was born, I have never missed an Easter Sunday at the family center.  We have family albums of years past to prove it – all of them, dating back to when my mother was a teenager (I need to research the exact year we started).  It’s cool to compare each year’s picture to the picture taken when my mother was my age.  It’s tradition, it’s special, and I love it! 

We enjoy nature, reflect on the resurrection of Jesus, and celebrate family members, past and present, on Easter Sunday!

 

The Easter bunny hopped on over and left Noelle lots of goodies and Rara lots of pretty new flowers!

  

Kaleidoscope!

 

Play-doh with Poppa

 

I told you our girl is a big kisser – she kisses everything!

 

Counting teddy bears…

Noelle is a great counter!

Saturday night we had our 1st annual hot dog supper.  All the family got into town, and we headed out to the party barn for lots of fun and games!

Noelle loves to "squeeze shoulders," so that’s what’s going on in the first pic.  Noelle also loves to love on Drew, but he needed a little bit of time to warm up.  I love Noelle’s car seat hair (this is why I usually curl her hair)!

Noelle and "Butter Man" always know how to have a good time!

Yay!  Aunt Elsie arrives on the scene…

 

Noelle loves her quacking duck and by the end of the weekend, Aunt E was a new found friend!  We loved having our aunts and uncles here!

 

Spitting out deviled eggs – good try, Rara!

Linda’s special eggs are so tasty!

…meeting Mckinley! (via pictures)

 

Beautiful day!

 

Noelle and Daddy having fun before supper.

Cute cousins – Ashley, Regan, and Brittany.

"Corn dogs!" Sure, Noelle, they can be corn dogs if you really want them to be!

 

Checking out Michael’s cool games – speaking of games…

Let the games begin, starting with the egg roll!

On your mark…

 

Hum… that didn’t work out so well for this mommy/daughter team!

Hot potato game.

 

Now this is much better than rolling that little ol’ egg!

The gang cheering on those remaining in the competition.

Dad and Fred are about to get the boot.

Oh, Dr. Ebert, seriously!?!  Michele didn’t have a shot in the world, but all’s fair in love and games!

 

Mike and I were singing the Wiggles "Hot Potato" song the entire game… that song once again popped in my head when I saw this pic of the Eberts.

 

PEEP FLUSH!

And the winner of the peep flush is… Uncle Fred!!! 

Sweet Nancy and Brother John

 

Aunt Elsie and Uncle Fred enjoying the beautiful East Texas sunset.

 

Running around the camp fire (before it was lit of course)!

 

Cousin Olen and Regan getting ready for some high class smores – we even had strawberry flavored marshmallows!

Ahh… some alone time! 

After much discussion over the past year or so, Mike and I have decided to make our blog password-protected.  We want to share this blog with our family and friends, and friends we have made through blogging.  We’ll be sending out an email before our next post with our password.  If we miss someone, please email us if you would like the password. 

With that being said, if you are even a friend of a friend, you are most certainly welcome.  We feel like we’ve gotten to know so many of you out there through your blogs that we’ve never even met, and that is so much fun for us!  We hope that you understand that we just want this to be a safe place to share our journey with you. 

Lots of weekend pics to come!

Maggie singing "Happy Birthday!"  We went to Maggie’s birthday party Friday night.     I can’t believe Maggie is already 3 years old!

Miss Maggie opening all of her presents.

Meredith is such a fun party coordinator.  The kids made super cute foam sticker crowns and visors!  Noelle loved this "Craft!"

The birthday girl taking the first swing at the pinata!

   

Noelle loved picking up everything… fallen paper from the pinata, wrappers, you name it, she got it!  As soon as we got inside, she immediately started going through her findings. 

                       

Maggie has a fun play house in their back yard.  We are going to have to wish for one of those.  When we got home, Noelle went to our back door and said, "House… play…" Mike and I looked at each other and said "Aww…" 

We have had such a great weekend of celebrating with friends and family.  We just got home and are unpacking and getting ready for Mops in the morning, but I can’t wait to come home tomorrow and post Easter pics!

 

We went to Dallas last night to go see the Rakes.  Matt and Courtney are both doing really well, and Beckett is doing so great as well.  Please pray for strength for the parents and that Beckett will keep breathing strongly.  We didn’t get to see him in person, but we did see some pictures.  He is totally adorable!

P.S.  I agree, Noelle had some crazy hair last night – that would be my fault, LOL…    we were in a hurry!

 

Afterward, we met up with a group of friends at a book signing at Barnes and Noble.  Brother Man came up to say hey and read a little to Noelle.  She had a blast seeing him!

Once upon a time, I may have tried to take my shoe off this way!

After Noelle got her bath tonight, she got her "then" and "now" sparkly shoes and her baby and decided she wanted to take another bath.  This is what I found!

 

Zane and Noelle were so happy to see each other!  So, if you haven’t noticed, our girl is a big kisser.  It’s not exclusive to boys though – she kisses Mommy and Daddy and all her babies and teddy bears several times a day, and it is the sweetest thing!

Zane teaching Noelle how to make a Play-doh worm!

  

Zane’s lifted eye brow face and his thinking face.  He is so animated and super funny!

The kids loved making Easter cupcakes!

 

Noelle was much more interested in eating the sprinkles!

Thanks for coming over for dinner Sheffield family!  We loved hanging out!