Our Easter Weekend...

Here's a picture of Zac, David's brother, with his green egg. This picture was in a different order, but I accidentally backspaced and deleted it...so, here it is, in a totally random order now! Ha.

...was a lot of fun! Uncle Zac came down for a visit, which was tons of fun for all of us! As you can see, we all enjoyed dying Easter eggs yesterday. It was a beautiful day, but far too windy to dye them outside, so we put an old fitted sheet over the table and dyed them inside! I love this aerial picture David took of Mackenzie, Zac, and Josiah at the table together. Cool angle! Below is a picture of Josiah with the cracked shell of an egg in his hand...and lots of cracked egg parts on the table below! He completely enjoys destroying the eggs just after he finishes dying them. Notice all the blue and green color on the table in front of him, right along with the destroyed eggs. He is ALL boy!

The next picture is of David and his "radioactive egg." While this one is not actually radioactive, he does cook eggs with radiation in them for patients to eat during certain procedures at work. :)

And here is what the Easter Bunny brought to our house this year...

Mackenzie holding up a purple egg that she found from the Easter bunny this morning. (She has a couple of new dresses that would have been perfect for her "Easter Dress," but she insisted on wearing this one instead! Funny girl.)

Josiah was hardly still long enough for me to take a picture of him during the egg hunt. Here's a pic of him holding up his Easter basket to show me what he'd found so far.

I love this one of Mackenzie holding up her two big eggs!

And, Zac took some pictures of the four of us together at church this morning.

Thanks, Zac! I love how the new pic of us turned out. I had fun editing it, too. :)

And, here's one I snapped of Zac and both kids at church today. Obviously, we have all enjoyed our time with Zac this weekend. :)

Happy Easter, Everyone! Praise the Lord for His sacrifice for us. Stand in awe of Jesus as He conquered death for us. Kneel before Him, humbled, that He would do that for us. Now, get up and rejoice that HE HAS RISEN and IS ALIVE. We serve an Awesome Saviour and an Amazing Lord. May you all have a blessed Easter.

Our Easter Bunny Cake

Update: Yep, we all enjoyed the cake! :) Here's a pic I snapped of the kids and the cake just before we all dove in! Now the poor bunny is missing an ear, and Uncle Zac isn't even here yet! I bet he won't mind, though. ;)

Here it is! Our Easter Bunny Cake, 2010. :) As far back as I can remember, my momma made an Easter bunny cake every year. We loved it and looked forward to it. Now it's my turn, and I truly enjoy getting to carry this tradition on with my own two children. The kids played nearby while I iced the cake. When it was time to add the jelly beans, Mackenzie placed them while Josiah got to pick the color for the bow tie! Both kids really seemed to enjoy our time together making the cake...and licking icing off the beaters! After Uncle Zac gets here tonight, we'll enjoy some bunny cake!

I hope you all have a blessed Easter weekend.

4H Animals

Last Saturday the local 4H held a fundraiser where you could go pet the animals and even get a picture made with them! This was our first year to go to this event, and it was fun! Mackenzie loved getting to see and pet the animals; Josiah was quite timid and only wanted to pet the animals that were in cages. So, as you scroll through these pictures, please realize that Josiah refused to be in some of them...that's why there are some extras of just Mackenzie...he just did not want to be that close to those animals! :) Mackenzie and Josiah peering in at the Momma Sheep with her Baby.
Mackenzie petting the goat.

Mackenzie petting the Aricotta (sp?) chick.

Mackenzie in the "photo" area with the lamb, rabbit, and two chicks.

She LOVED getting her picture made with all the animals! She was really happy with the way it turned out. I am, too! Too bad Josiah wouldn't get in a picture, too!

Here's one of both kids looking at the sheep.

Josiah reaching into the pen to pet the sheep.

Both kids enjoying the sheep.

School Craft, Egg Dying... & Destroying!

To back track to a couple of weeks ago...Mackenzie had a craft day at school. I put another Mom in charge of this one and she did an amazing job of creating an idea and gathering all the supplies for the kids! The kids made flower pots with tissue paper flowers in them. They even got to paint the pots! Obviously, this was a fun day at school for all of us involved! Mackenzie's finished flower pot.
Mackenzie and Alison painting their pots.

One day last week, I surprised Mackenzie after school. She had been begging to dye Easter eggs, but we didn't have a kit yet. So, Josiah and I went to the store and bought a kit while Mackenzie was at school. Josiah didn't remember (from last year) what Easter egg dying was all about, so he was excited to try it out, too.

Up close of Mackenzie.

Both kids dying their eggs. I had boiled one dozen for each child. They had so much fun! (I did, too!) :)

Hard at work with their eggs.

Josiah checking out his blue egg.

A happy boy with blue hands and lots of blue eggs!

Mackenzie (artsy little girl!) busy dying an egg half one color and half the other color!

Josiah proudly displaying as many blue eggs as his hands could possibly hold at one time!

Mackenzie with her finished product.

Josiah with his finished product.

Up close of Josiah's sweet little face peering down at his eggs.

Josiah, shortly after displaying his finished carton of eggs, discovered you can crack them! (Mackenzie was cracking hers and eating them. Josiah was cracking them for the fun of it!) He took this yellow egg and cracked it on the side of the garden box, then he threw it on the paving stones until the round yolk came out of the middle of the egg! (Yolk in his left hand; Egg white and shell in his right hand.) He was so proud of his cracked egg. Then, he proceeded to crack (ahem, destroy) eggs until I had to remove his carton lest they all get cracked (mutilated) in the yard!

We all had a fun time together, that's for sure. :) I hope to dye eggs with them one more time before Easter...we'll see. :)

Church Easter Egg Hunt & Unnailing

We enjoyed an Easter Egg Hunt at our church yesterday. The kids were SO excited, and we all had a great time. The above picture is the best one I got of the two kids together.
Mackenzie holding up the green egg she found in the grass.

Josiah hunted eggs so fast that all my pictures are just blurs of him! So, here's one of him in his favorite climbing tree just outside the building.

Mackenzie proudly showing me her pink egg. (Isn't her dress adorable?! Granna got it for her, and it came with a matching dress for Bitty Baby, too! Thanks, Betty!)

Josiah enjoyed pilfering through his loot. :)

Last night, as I tucked Josiah into bed, he asked me, "Mom, can Dad unnail?" I told him that Dad can unnail. (I'm thinking he means to remove nails, like with the backside of the hammer.) Josiah did not miss a beat in saying, "Then I want Dad to unnail your side of the bed so you can move it in here and sleep with me!" Funny boy. I laughed out loud at his logic, as I have explained to him before that I sleep in the same bed with Daddy, not with him. Guess he figured if Daddy could "unnail" my side of the bed, we could just move it into Josiah's room! Ha. Sorry Kiddo. I love to cuddle with you as I tuck you into bed, but I'm not about to give up my current bed buddy. ;)

Seems like the kids have said some funny things lately, but that's the only one I am thinking of right now. SO...maybe there will be more funny stories coming later...if I remember the others! If not, at least I got one more recorded. :)

Aquarium

This week was Zearl and Betty's Spring Break, so we were blessed to have David's parents here to visit! Since it was not our Spring Break, we mostly stayed around here and continued with our usual routines. Above is a picture of Granna reading to the kids.
We spent the day Saturday doing some extra special activities. First, Granna and Z-pa took the kids to eat at Cracker Barrel while David and I went to the gym. Then we all went to the Aquarium in Gatlinburg! Most of the pictures I have are from the Aquarium.

Here's Mackenzie near the entrance.

Josiah enjoying the interactive areas.

Josiah in front of the large ocean aquarium.

Josiah and Mackenzie watching the fish go by.

Mackenzie "in with" the sea horses! :)

Josiah "in with" the sea horses. :)

We had a wonderful time and a great week. Thanks, Granna and Z-Pa, for coming to visit!

Dr. Seuss Day!

Today was Dr. Seuss day at school for both kiddos. That means they had super fun activities and got to dress up as any character from any Dr. Seuss book! Here's my Thing 1 and Thing 2!

A huge thank you to Mrs. Tina for making the kids shirts! Avery was Thing 1, so naturally, Mackenzie was Thing 2. They even made an extra shirt as Thing 1 so Josiah could have one, too. Whether Avery and Mackenzie were together, or whether Mackenzie and Josiah were together, we had a Thing 1 and Thing 2!! (In other words, there is no particular order to the 1 and 2.)
Thing 1

Thing 2

I absolutely could NOT get the two kids to stand still together for picture. The one of them jumping on the couch at the top is probably more appropriate for Thing 1 and Thing 2 than standing calmly and smiling anyways...right?! :)