Weekend full of Family...

Easter weekend is always full of lots of family, easter egg hunts, and good food. I'm sure it's about like that for everyone. We had a very, very busy weekend but it was a great one. I am especially exhausted because of my 3rd shift job. Usually I am able to go home and take a nap to rejuvenate for the day...but there was no nap until everything was over on Sunday for me. I was wiped out by the end of it all. 

I FINALLY pulled my camera out of the closet. It's been quite a while since I've used it. I think we needed a little break. I'm glad I remembered it though. I got some great pictures of everyone and everything. I hope you enjoy! 

Saturday began with a LOT of baking. I had to bake goodies for the kiddos easter baskets because the one that I ordered for them made it here in pieces. :(

I baked them chocolate peanut butter eggs, rice crispie treats and some cute easter cookies. My mom also made pineapple cupcakes and I decorated them with "Robin Eggs". There were supposed to have cute little faces...but that didn't end up happening because I ran out of time. Oh well, they were still cute (and yummy!) 

My mom made a huge meal for everyone. It was quite delicious. Thanks Mom...I know that was a lot of hard work and we appreciate it! 

After lunch, the grandparents headed out to hide the easter eggs. My parents have such a beautiful yard. I'm envious! 

Rita enjoying her cupcake. :)

...and they're off...

My brother Jody was solo parenting all weekend. My sister in law Chrissy had surgery on her hip about a week and a half ago...and was unable to attend our events.

 I can't wait until you're feeling back to normal CC. We miss you!  :(

...but I took some cute pictures of your family while you were gone...

Jai...making his normal silly faces. :)

My mom and stepdad. 

Poor Larry came home for about an hour or so...from work, then had to head back out. Working is lame, haha. 

My brother Bryan and his wife Angela. 

Trying not to drop them...

This is a RARE opportunity. To have them all there, and smiling. Wow! What an accomplishment! I took 2 shots...and my memory card was full. What are the odds?!

...so I deleted some and went back to shooting.

Easter Basket Time

The Grandparents got them so much that when they opened the "real" Easter Bunny Basket, it looked pitiful. :-/

Between the 3 sets of Grandparents though...they got A LOT. So maybe the kids will forget that their Grandparents outdid the bunny. Poor guy. 

Things get a little loud and crazy when you have 6 grandkids under one roof. Paul is trying to mime that craziness for you. haha

My sweet and handsome hubby. 

...and his favorite...the yoyo. 

YES!!! I finally got him to smile, and it only took about an hour. Focused and on point. Sweet victory!

Jai and his "mee-maw"

If you haven't gotten your little boy/girl an airplane from the Dollar Store...do it! It's CHEAP and the most fun. They spent most of the afternoon playing with these. They were a hit last year also. 

My mom and I.

So we ran home to get the baskets ready for the kiddos, before we headed to work. This one was full of the baked goods that I whipped up for them. 

This was a custom made hairband that I had done for Gracie. Isn't it adorable?! It was from Dunlap Love. She does AWESOME things! We found her at the flea that we were doing and she is just amazing. 

This is upside down (oops) but this is a superhero cape that she made for Jai. He loves it. I forgot to order the mask, and of course that was the 1st thing he asked for when he saw it..."where is the mask?". 

Ugh...guess I'll have to order that now...

...and the owl! Eeek. SO cute! Check her out on Facebook or Google her. Dunlap Love. :)

I have more pictures to come from Part 2 - My dad's House. Hopefully I can scramble up enough energy to post it tonight...if not, stay tuned. :)

Busy, busy...

It's so weird how you tell yourself that next week will be calmer, and you will have time to catch up on things that have been neglected including the blog, taking pictures of the kids, some orders for friends, etc...but nothing slows down. I guess this is a good thing, and a bad thing. If it were calm, I would probably just be complaining that I felt lazy. Oh well!

 Speaking of lazy...we have been enjoying the spring weather on our new hammock. Well, I have anyways. I think I pretty much steal it away from everyone when we do go out. It is quite lovely and we are happy to FINALLY have one. 

I still have to do some pictures of Gracie for her 9 year old shots. She's growing up so fast. We were bored in the car one day waiting on daddy, so we took a couple of us...

Silly girl! 

Then comes the sickness...both of my kiddos are on antibiotics. I really don't like for them to have to take antibiotics, but sometimes it's necessary I suppose. I think this is Jai's 2nd or 3rd time being on them. He had a sinus infection...and Miss Gracie had a TERRIBLE ear infection. She was completely miserable for about 3 good days. We had planned a trip to the zoo last week, and she wanted to still go so bad. I had the make the decision (stinks making mommy decisions sometimes) to skip out since she was so bad off. I knew that she really wanted to go, but it was a good thing we skipped out. Ear infections are so bad! ;(

I had to share my sweet note with you. She wrote me this on my first night back to work (since she had been sick). She made me put it in my pocket and not peek until she sent me a text (haha) that I could read  it. That made my night! :)

On Saturday, everyone was feeling much better and we went to the Earth Day Fair in WS. We go every year and it's always so much fun. They had to move it inside this year due to the weather, and it was quite crowded. I didn't get hardly any pictures and the ones that I did get were with my cell phone...bummer. Here is Jai trying to hula hoop. 

Showing off his recycling tattoo. 

On Sunday, there was a festival at the temple celebrating Lord Ramachandra's Appearance Day. 

Lord Ramachandra is an incarnation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead as the ideal king. He appeared in the Treta-yuga, more than two million years ago. Under the order of His father, Maharaja Dasaratha, Lord Ramachandra lived in the Dandakaranya forest for fourteen years, along with His wife, Sita Devi, and His younger brother, Lakshmana. After the demon Ravana kidnapped His wife, Lord Ramachandra, with the help of His faithful servant Hanuman, killed Ravana and rescued her. 

The Youth put on an EXCELLENT drama! Here is some of the Cast... 

...going over the lines...

Hanuman...

Wow...what a big crowd there was. 

Here are a few more pictures of the youth getting ready. They all did such a wonderful performance. I will do my best to post video up of it soon! Gracie gets so nervous before each play...but she does a great job and improves each time. I hope that she will continue to be a part of the drama group. 

Stay tuned for more adventures. Hopefully things will be better documented from now on! :)