Easter Day and Easter Egg Hunt #2

Sunday we went to Chris' parents house for lunch and the second Easter egg hunt!
Christa and Grace loved entertaining Colin and Colin loves being entertained!


Samuel and Sydney were interested for a few minutes...

After the diaper change-

The kids opened their presents from Mimi and Paps before hunting for eggs.

Samuel loved his new shoes and couldn't wait to try them on! He wasn't too happy when mom told him it was too cold to wear sandals!!

Ben eating some TicTacs he got in his Easter "basket."

Grace was really excited about her new clothes, I told her to hold it up and this is what she did! So cute!!

Sydney wouldn't show me anything she got, she can be a little stubborn sometimes!

Alexander got one too but he opened it and put it all back up before I even knew what they were doing!!

Josh and his girlfriend hid the last of the eggs while the kids were opening their gifts.




All five kids trying to squeeze out the door at one time...

I made Ben and Grace stop for a picture, mean Aunt!!

And the hunt begins-

Alexander had some good practice the day before, he was a pro!

I love this picture of Sydney, too cute!!

Brian attacked Ben!

Samuel was the epitome of "slow and steady wins the race."

Another cute one of Sydney!

The race was on for the last egg...

Alexander being silly with the bucket on his head!

Samuels turn--

Ben found one of the prize eggs with a one dollar bill in it, he kept saying he had ten dollars though!
Samuel found one too...

Sydney didn't want to open her eggs or have anyone else help her open her eggs, remember that stubborn thing :)

In the end I think bubbles will always be these kids' favorite!!!

We had a great day eating and spending time with our family!

Karate Tournament

Last weekend I went to my first karate tournament with some of the people in my karate class. I was too chicken to compete without knowing how things worked, but these were the people from our school that did compete.

There were a ton of people there, you can't even see them all here.

One of the guys competing in forms:

The end of a sparring match, our guy on the left won. This is the only picture I got of the match because I had gotten up to go to the bathroom and by the time I got back it was over :(

Another sparring match, our guy is on the right this time. He won first place too!

Both people in this match were from our school so it was win/win no matter who won. For the record though, the guy on the right won.



The lady pictured competed but I video taped her forms/sparring for her so I didn't get any pictures.

All (but one) of our trophy winners. For our first trip I'd say we did pretty well.

There is another tournament in May, I will most likely be competing in it (that's what I have been told by my classmates anyway!)

Happy Birthday Craig!

I'm pretty sure Craig wont look at this but I'm going to post it anyway.

Craig had a birthday at the beginning of this month; I remembered to tell him happy birthday but forgot to post it! Oops...

Chris and Craig talking about either religion or the Titans... always!!

Now I am pretty sure this is the last birthday for a little while!!

Snow!!!

... and a lot of it (for Tennessee at least)!

This is where Chris' car was, he left at about 6:30 and wanted me to take pictures.
Since it was Sunday and I was still planning on going to church (which starts at 8:00) I decided I should just take this one and start getting ready first!

After I finished getting ready with plenty of time to spare I went outside with camera in hand! I think this could be framed...
It has been so long since we've seen this much snow and it was just beautiful, not to mention the fact that it is now Wednesday and there is still some around!! That definitely never happens, it is usually gone within a couple of hours!
There were 5 inches on top of my car!!! It took a LONG time to clean off enough to be able to make it to church...
There were even 6 inches in some places on the ground! (click to enlarge if you can't see)The planters on our porch:
Our street, I think 3 cars had been down it at this point.
My grandfather made this and it hangs on our porch.
Out the back door...
This picture makes me think I live in the country, but then I remember hearing the kids next door screaming and running around as I was taking this picture! Oh well, at least I have the picture.
I cannot imagine living up north where they get WAY more snow than this!

After church I drove through campus to get home, I knew it would be beautiful since not many of the kids are up before 10:00!
These two are of "Walnut Grove."
This is a tree outside the building where I work.

I have definitely enjoyed seeing the snow these past few days, it is so beautiful walking in to work in the morning! With typical Tennessee style though it will be back in the 70s this weekend and due to the lovely weather changes I am sick!!

Happy Birthday Ben!

Saturday night we all got together to celebrate Ben's 7th Birthday!

Can you tell Transformers and Star Wars are his favorite...

Grace and Alexander patiently watched as Ben opened his presents.

Samuel watched too...

Sydney and Uncle Chris
He got some pretty cool things but I definitely think his favorite was this Transformer from Mimi and Paps, he opened it right up and started playing.

Baby Colin woke up from all the commotion.
The girls were very interested in him!

Ben was just ready for this:
Waiting to blow out his 7 candles...
Make a wish...
Bring on the cake and ice cream these kids are ready!
And it wasn't long before Colin was sleeping again!

I think the kids had a good time playing with each other as always and Ben had a great Birthday!