Pictures from Easter

Yes, I know, Easter was last week, but you'll just have to give me a break. I'm moving a little slower with each passing day. =)

When I was a little girl, we always looked forward to getting new white shoes for the season and new dresses for Easter. Some years we would get store-bought dresses, and other years my mom would make new dresses for us. Either way, we loved them! Sometimes, we even got to wear a pretty hat or carry a purse. I love being able to share this excitement with my girls. We are very blessed to receive many "hand-me-down" dresses from my nieces, so I feel like once a year we can splurge on a new dress for Easter. My mom has even made dresses for them some years, and the girls really love and appreciate those, too.

This year we were able to find some dresses on sale at J. C. Penney. It wasn't until a few days after we bought them that one of the girls mentioned to me that they had picked out the same (or similar) color dresses as what they had last year. =) Oh well....there are only so many pastel colors, and the girls each have certain colors that they like and that look best on them. Maybe we'll make a point to really change things up next year. =) That's another thing that I've been thinking about recently. Next year I'll be shopping for a little dress shirt and tie for "Bubba." I hope it's as much fun as shopping for dresses. =)

Here are a couple pictures of us from Easter Sunday. We spaced apart in the 2nd picture so that "Baby Bubba" could be in the picture. =)

My Flower Garden

This past week I had a surge of energy and decided that I was ready to take on the yard. When I feel this way, I have a hard time "taking it easy" and usually end up overdoing it...which is what I did. =} It was so worth it, though! Every time I look outside and see all the beautiful, colorful flowers, I smile and thank God for his wonderful creation and for allowing us to enjoy such beautiful things.

As you'll see in the pictures below, I have planted some lilies, pentas, angelonia and lantana. The more blooms there are on a plant, the better! I love seeing constant flowers! I also took some pictures of a gorgeous, green dragonfly. In case you didn't know, green is my absolute favorite color, so when I saw this little guy flying around, I just had to take some shots of him. He didn't seem to be too afraid of me and just kept flitting all around...almost intentionally posing for me sometimes. Anyway, here's my flower garden. Enjoy!

Let's go fly a kite...

Spring is here! In honor, I've decided to show a few of my favorite flower photographs that I've taken over the years.

Even though I enjoy the cold weather, I find Spring to be so rejuvenating. Our backyard is especially delightful with the cool breeze coming in off of the water. Last night when Jason got home, I asked him to grill some fish for dinner. While he was grilling, the girls decided that they wanted to fly their kites. We got these kites last year and didn't have much success with them. I think it's because we got them later in the Summer, and there wasn't as much wind. The kids spent most of their time running with the kites "flying" about 2-4 feet off the ground.

Needless to say, my hopes were not high that they would have any greater success this time around, so I left them with Jason to help them while I worked on things inside. I could hear them laughing and playing, and I figured they were having a good time. All of a sudden, Jason knocked on the back door to get my attention.

This scared me and made me think that something was wrong, and I got a sick feeling in my stomach as I remembered what happened last year. Because they couldn't get their kites too far off the ground last year, the strings were obviously down closer to their bodies. One of the older girls was running around with her kite, and the string caught around Sydney's neck. She had a cut around the front of her neck from one ear to the other. She was very fortunate that the cut was only surface. I don't even think it bled much if at all, but it still leaves you with the thought of what could have happened.

Anyway, when Jason knocked on the door, I ran to see what was wrong. With a big smile on his face, he pointed to the backyard. I looked out the window, and to my surprise, there were the girls FLYING their kites! As you can see from the video clips below, they were extremely thrilled and proud of themselves! Alyx could not control herself. Because she was so excited, she kept yelling everything she said. We kept having to tell her to quiet down a little bit, so she wouldn't disturb the neighbors. =) We're nice that way, I guess.

Alyx did not heed Jason's advice of not letting the kite go too high, and she ended up having her kite yanked out of her hands by the wind. Let me tell you...the way she cried and carried on, you would have thought someone just cut off her arm. Oh, to be that young again and to feel that your biggest crisis is losing a kite. =) "Daddy" came to the rescue and chased her kite down to where it was caught in a tree in front of our neighbor's house.

Oh, in case any one was wondering or even cared, the grilled fish was FANTASTIC!! Thanks, honey!