Pictures from Easter

Just got around to downloading some pics we took at the Easter festivities!!

Easter Basket Photoshoot

We decided to have a little fun with Mckenna's first Easter basket. We are certainly not professional photographers, but we figured we could set up a white sheet, put her on it with her first Easter Basket, point, and shoot. Here are some of our favorites:

Easter Fun 2011 (Pictures included)

Yesterday we headed down to Tucson to hang out with the family for Easter. Before heading down we would usually go to the Easter service at our church, but the pastor asked for some of the "regular attenders" to go to one of the Saturday services instead. We knocked out the Easter service on 3pm Saturday afternoon. This gave us time to relax Sunday morning and enjoy a nice sit down breakfast together before heading down to Tucson.

As many of you know, when my family get together to celebrate any occasion it's usually a big deal. By big deal I mean that there are a ton of people around. I'm guessing for Easter 2011 we had about 30 peeps there. We do the normal stuff, chit-chat, devotional, chow down, hunt for eggs, dessert and then chat some more. As always, it was a good time and we definitely enjoyed ourselves.

We tried to take as many pictures as we could, but as usual, we suck at taking pictures. Here's what we got though.

Like I said, when we get together, we get together. This was the crowd to my right and doesn't include at least 10 family members who were to my left. It looks like the bulk of family members in this picture are cousins, but I do see some aunts and uncles sprinkled in there. Notice the fresh flower centerpieces in the middle of the table - good work Aunt Janna!!

here's my mom and my aunt Mary hiding some eggs before a handful of younger cousins come looking for them. If you're wondering, yes, I did have a putting competition earlier in the day, and yes, I eeked out a victory over my step-dad Mark.

Somehow I didn't manage to get a picture of the Easter egg hunters, but I did snap a picture of the crowd watching them search for eggs. This year, the oldest searcher was about 5, so we couldn't make the eggs too hard to find. Hiding eggs for kids no taller than 4 feet is quite a challenge and really limits your options.

Dessert table. Three families, including Mandi and I, were in charge of bringing desserts. Mandi and I brought the blonde brownies in the far left hand corner of the table and the trifle looking thing on the right side of the table. Our trifle consisted of chocolate cake, cool whip, crushed peanut butter cups, crushed butterfinger, chocolate pudding, another chocolate cake and topped with more crushed butterfinger and some cool whip. Yummy yummy for my tummy tummy...followed by a slight sick feeling :)

Then of course I tried to play with the "big boys" and I got hurt. A ball unexpectedly made it too my hands and I wasn't quite ready for it - can you guess which pinkie got the raw end of the deal?

Fun-Filled Saturday

I've been charged with writing a blog today, and by charged I mean I told Ronnie I'd write one to give him a "day off", then totally forgot that I told him that, and then remembered again at about 10PM last night. So here I am - getting ready to throw up some thoughts on a page. I sat staring blankly for around 5 minutes. Deciding I needed to put an end to procrastinating, I began looking through pictures, hoping that would get my juices flowing and I'd magically have something awesome to say. Unfortunately for you, no juices are flowing and so I have nothing awesome to say.

So my go to when I'm blanking? Random update blogs. Who's ready for a random update blog giving a little look into our lives, totally unrelated to CF and totally unrelated to baby (I'll try at least)?

First things first, I'm really excited for today. This week we decided to participate in Bountiful Baskets, a co-op type deal for food. "Huh?" you're thinking. Yeah, that didn't make much sense, I'm certain that is not their catch phase: "Bountiful Baskets: your co-op for food." I'll do my best to explain what it is, but I have a feeling visiting their website will be much easier. You sign up and pay $15 on a Monday or Tuesday online, then Saturday morning (between 6AM and 6:20AM, I'm not joking) you go pick up a huge laundry basket of fruits and veggies, all grown in state or in neighboring states. Apparently it's a great way to get a lot of fruits and veggies at a great price. The downside is that you don't get to pick exactly what you want, the upside is you're forced to eat tons of fruits and veggies before it all goes bad! I'm really excited to see what we get in our basket today, and see how the whole process goes. We'll take pictures to show you our haul!

I'm also excited for today for a different reason. And that reason is RUNNING. I haven't been able to run since we started my stim meds back at the very beginning of February. But at our last ultrasound (dangit, I said ultrasound, does that count as baby talk?) my ovaries were checked out and the nurse said she didn't see any more cysts. I didn't specifically ask if that meant I could run, but considering that was the reason I was told not to, I decided that was the clearance I needed to start pounding the pavement again. It's been awhile, so I'll have to work back into it with a nice and easy run/walk for the first few days, but regardless, I'm thrilled. My goal is to get back to a point where I'm able to run around 3 miles, 3-4 times a week. We'll see what my body has in mind though.

Today is also a good day (man, this blog is turning into the theme "today rocks my socks"...I'll go with it) because we get to bake. Ronnie and I LOVE making desserts. My guess is it's eating them rather than actually the act of making them, but what's the difference, right? Anyways, for our Easter family get together, Ronnie and I are in charge of bringing the desserts, so we'll be making two different desserts today to bring with us to our Aunt Janna's easter shin dig on Sunday. I haven't finished pinpointing the recipes yet, but we'll post pictures of the process once we find the recipes and make the goods. My guess? One chocolatey, one fruity - can't go wrong with a little bit from both ends of the spectrum, right?

Annnnd that's about it. I hope you all have a fabulous Saturday as well. Leave us a comment and let us know what fun things you have going on today!

Happy Easter!!!!

7:30am: Today is definitely going to be a little different due to the Easter holiday. This morning, Mandi and I took J Bell for a quick walk just so she could do her business...Jezzabel, not Mandi. We wanted to run to Dunkin Donuts and enjoy the morning together, so we weren't able to go for a long walk. I'm hoping to take plenty of pictures during the day and post them for you guys later on. I love any holiday cause it means mucho family time and usually a board game or three.

As far as the lungs go...I was more crappy this morning than most. I didn't sleep very well and I found myself coughing a little bit throughout the night. I moved a ton of stuff up and out when I first woke up and also during the short walk this morning. It was clear for the most part or that kind of milky white color...fat free milk color to be exact. Hopefully I'll be able to get in a good long walk later on today and move more of this garbage out.

8:30pm: Well, I never did get a run/walk in today. I was too busy chasing around my little cousins and the 300 dogs that were at my aunts house. We played kick the can, freeze tag, duck duck goose, and a catch a ball falling off of the roof game. I was winded most of the time to say the least. I wasn't on my normal routine today, but I definitely got to breathing hard and expanding my lungs. Tomorrow is the big day! I have my PFT's at 10am....keep those fingers crossed.

Pictures from the day...

This is the family getting ready to eat Easter lunch.

Top: This is a bird's eye view of our dessert that we brought. It's called a dirt cup. Ground up oreos with chocolate pudding and gummy worms. We added the flowers to really spice it up!

Right: You can see the "worms" crawling out some of the "pots"

Pictures: Noah, Levi, and Ella all enjoying their dirt cups!

Left: No Easter would be complete without the Easter Egg hunt.

Bottom: Took them a little while to find the orange egg right in front of them

Side Note: What a great day with family this was!!!! I am exhausted and ready to hit the sack. I thank God for my wonderful family and of course His Resurrection on this joyous day!