Easter Morning at Home

Easter with the Hursts

In Merit.... we had fun watching all of these crazy kids!!!

Easter in Abilene

We had so much fun with my side of the family this year.... my sister has 3 kids and one on the way, and with my 3, and my 2 cousins Megan and Gracie, it was a Blast!!!  My great grandmother also made it this year, and we all met at Abilene State Park just outside of Abilene in Buffalo Gap.  We couldn't cook out because of the burn ban, but had great food, a fun egg hunt, and the weather was great!

Maddox Meets Grandmother

When Maddox was about 8 weeks old, I took him to Shamrock to meet my Grandparents.  My Grandmother has always been such an important person in my life, and since she married my Grandpa, he has been, too.  Has treated us just like his own.  My Grandmother has Alzheimer's, and she is managing quite well and seems to be progressing rather slowly.  She has her moments of confusion and near-panic, but over-all, still very "with it".  I drove to the panhandle by myself with Maddox, but it is only about 4.5 hours from here, and I feel blessed that I have the opportunity to live closer to family again so that I can do these things easier.  She was soooo good with him, and he just listened to her talk and sing, and smiled at her.  I was in heaven watching them together.  Grandpa made the best meals while we were there, and it was such a relaxing, peaceful visit out in the country.  The only downfall was that this was in the middle of the high winds we were having and fires were breaking out everywhere.  I was nervous about getting on the road to come home, but it all went okay!

Easter 2011- Part 1

Like most of our holidays, we celebrated Easter about 50 times.  The first mini-celebration was the weekend before Easter, and we had some good friends over for a cookout and the kids hunted a few eggs.  I was running around like a mad woman that week....  barely had time to get anything prepared and only stuffed about 20 or 30 eggs, so between 8 kids, they didn't go very far!  But the kids were all pretty young and didn't care too much.  I didn't get many pics because I had Maddox most of the time, so here are a few for the sake of documentation.  We had a great time!

My Baby Laughed at Himself!

This has been a super weekend....  Chann played AWESOME this morning at T-ball (got her first "out" and hit from the pitcher 2x... usually has to use the T").  I took Jaxson to Lucas's b-day party and he had a BLAST on the water slide.  We are slowly but surely getting to know the folks around here, and they are all very welcoming and sweet.  Chann and Jax went to stay with M&M tonight, and we are going up there for lunch tomorrow.  I am making lemon cream cookies and a squash casserole (you HAVE to watch 5 ingredient fix on food network..... AWESOME!!!).  But- the whole reason I took the time to quickly type this post and that I got such a kick out of my precious Maddox tonight!  I was about to bathe him and just like always I was holding him up in front of the mirror.  He has never noticed himself until tonight, and he looked at me, looked at himself, grinned from ear to ear and chuckled.  It was the cutest thing EVER.  This does NOT get boring the 3rd time around, it just gets better!

Chann, Jax, and Maddox- Spring 2011

Love my little munchkins!   Had to try to get a few of them all together FINALLY, and I love them with all the white.  Just a challenge to get them all posed, keep their hair in any sort of neatness, get Jaxson to open his eyes, and forget having time to iron his shirt... no way!