Gammie's ashes

Gammie chose to be cremated and placed in the memorial garden where my Papa was laid to rest.  The brothers chose to spread her ashes on April 17th, which would have been Gammie & Papa's 63rd wedding anniversary.  We all gathered together and it was a lovely ceremony.  I snapped a few photos of the kids since they were all about posing for the camera.  This one below is my favorite.

Where my gills?

Ryder is such a chatter box and is talking non-stop.  He is obsessed with his sisters and his older cousins.  It's fun to be the baby because everyone is always watching out for you and making sure your every need is met.  Ryder walks around looking for his sisters, always asking,' Where my gills?"  I love it.  It's my favorite phrase.  A couple other Ryder-isms are: "Are you kidding me?!"  but it sounds like, "Are you tidding me?"; "Wouldn't that be fun", sounds like "Woon't dat be fun?" or sometimes he'll shorten it and say, "Dat be fun!"  We crack up every time.  He's currently the comic relief for our family.

Easter Sunday

We had such a fun Easter this year.  The kids are at a great age for hunting eggs and the annual scavenger hunt turned out awesome.  Haley & Romelo spent the night on Saturday so they all woke up and did the hunt together.  Romelo and Haley took turns reading the clues that led them to their Easter baskets.  Then we headed outside to find the plastic eggs filled with treats and money.

Here they are, waiting to start the hunt, still waking up.

I really love scavenger hunts.  My mom did them for us on Easter and I love carrying on the tradition.  It was fun to put different presents at each location and see how excited they were.

Here is Ryder's new Spider Man sleeping back hiding in the closet and a Fancy Nancy sticker book for the girls.

Next clue leads us to art supplies and stamp markers in the fridge.

Reese found the wooden blocks on the sofa.  She was so happy!

Don't think that I made up these little rhymes and clues all by myself.  Wish I was that creative.  Maybe if I had given myself more time.  No, I found these nifty little clues on Pinterest.  I loved that they talked about Jesus' being alive as it's the most important thing about Easter.

Last clue led us to Easter baskets that me & Auntie Casey put together.  Girls had flower baskets...

and boys had sports and cars.

It's all about the cars.

They found all the clues.  Now it's time to HUNT!

Can we come outside yet?  I love the toothless grin.

Ryder had a blast hunting eggs and he was really good.  He found some tricky ones that I thought the older kids would get.  Side note: I love this new shirt he's wearing that says "Always Hungry".  He is. Always Hungry.  Reese & Ryan aren't big snackers but Ryder boy is.  He's always asking me for food.  He's like a mini Cory with a super charged metabolism.

Run, Reesey, Run!

Haley found the golden egg, Round 1.  It had $5 inside and she over the moon.

Here we are checking out our loot.

We had the rest of our family over around 11 for brunch and another egg hunt.  The weather was gorgeous and our food was waaaay too yummy.  It was the perfect day with family except we missed Grandma & Grandpa, who were in Las Vegas for the weekend.

Reese won the golden egg, Round 2.  It was all so exciting.

Ryan looks like she's going to snatch that money from Reese, but she truly was happy for her sister.

Mimi & Ryan.

All five of us together :)

Early Easter at Gammie's house

My Gammie & Papa were married on Easter Sunday in 1949.  What a great time of year to get married.  My mom & Aunt Carol had an awesome idea to get the family together for an egg hunt & yummy food to celebrate the day.  There's a chance that Gammie's house will be sold soon (don't get me started on that one) and belong to someone else next year.  Someone not in our family :(  

We decided to make the most of her beautiful front yard with sprawling green grass.  The weather was so perfect at 5pm and the kids had a great time running around picking oranges, hunting eggs, and just being kids.

Here are some fun photos of our afternoon:

Rome, Ryder, Reese, Ryan, & Haley.

Reese telling Uncle Eddie a story.  He's such a good listener :)

Sassy Ryan & Spunky Reesey

Sugar cookies from AJs are the best.

Will had just woken up from his nap.  

He was a bit unsure of the egg hunt in the beginning but warmed up quickly.

Love these two boys so much.  They are just too yummy!

Sweet little girls.  They had a blast picking oranges in Gammie's grove.

Ryder boy on the hunt.

Sweet Keira girl.

Cory and the boys.

Me & Auntie Emmie.

Ryder was having waaay to much fun tackling Luke and wrestling him to the ground.  Luke is only one year older but much bigger than Ryder.  He was such a good sport to put up with Ryder and his unnecessary roughness.

What's been happening

I feel like I have been so out of touch when it comes to updating our blog.  Our days have been crazy lately and I feel like I haven't had a chance to catch my breath.  Two weeks ago the kids came down with Hand, Foot, & Mouth Virus.  It definitely threw us for a loop because we've been so healthy all winter.  I guess all good things must come to an end.  The virus started with Ryan, she passed it to Reese, who gave it Ryder.  It was a domino effect for sure.  We went to the Dr. on the 30th even though I knew what it was.  She confirmed my suspicion and gave us some tips on how to beat the virus.  She also gave Reese some antibiotics for a different infection that she was dealing with.  We've all been healthy for the past week but that last week in March left us with fevers, throwing up, and rashes.  Ugh.  No fun at all. 

Work has been crazy busy for Cory and I.  We count our blessings every day that we are able to provide for our family and stay busy in an economy where so many are unemployed, but it also can make for some stressful days.  Wednesday of this week Cory left the house at 6:30am and didn't come home until after 10pm.  We stopped by the office for about 10 minutes at 7pm so we could say hi to him before the kids went to bed.  Most days aren't that bad but this market is keeping us on our toes.  I feel like I'm on the never ending search for good babysitters that can watch our kids on short notice.  I had a brand new sitter lined up this past Friday and she no showed when I had an appointment at the office.  I had to take Ryder with me and then my mom ended up coming to pick him up after the Good Friday service at the girls' school.  Craziness. 

We've been having some fun days but I feel like I'm just trying to live in the moment and soak it up.  Easter is coming up and we have a fun weekend planned with the family.  I'm really excited to spend some time with the ones I love.

Ryder's prayer

Ryder likes to thank God for everyone in our family and also for cakes and cookies.  He is the world's funniest child.  Lately he started adding "Just Kidding!" to his prayer.  As in, "Thank you, God for cookies and mac & cheese.  JUST KIDDING!"  It's so awesome because he says, "Dust Tidding".  We crack up every time.  I finally got a decent video.  The other times I tried I was laughing so hard the camera was moving up and down.  Here is our cute little munch, saying his daily prayer.