A little Easter Memories 2013

Easter morning basket check....3 out of 4 kids checked their baskets before breakfast.

The kiddos in their "Easter Frocks" before lunch.

Karl prepares the bbq chicken for the grill.

The Egg Hunt...over the past few years the big kiddos have not wanted to be caught 'dead' doing the egg hunt..so this year, Gam and I decided to add a little 'green' to the eggs...and everyone was more than willing to participate. Pop and Karl hid the 30 eggs very HARD. It took them quite a while to find them all, and in the end we were missing one egg. Karlie, Gam and Pop walked the yard over and over until Karlie found the very last one. I must say, adding some cash inside the eggs was fun. We will have to keep up with the that tradition.

Hunting for those eggs, was difficult business...I think we need to have the hiders of the eggs use a GPS to hide them next time. Opening the door to the yard to hunt...there was not an egg in sight. This was hard core egg hunting...these kids had to actually  HUNT for them, not just scoop them up. ;)

This was the best egg hunt we've had in a long time. It was fun, and I didn't get any of the cash filled eggs.

Pop and Karl try to point the kids in the right direction of where they hid the eggs...but toward the end of the hunt they had to start looking for the missing eggs too.

The kids count their cash. 

Easter2013 was fun. It was great watching the kids check out the Easter baskets, and then heading to church together.  It was awesome coming home for a great Easter lunch, then hiding and finding $$ eggs, but the real treasure of Easter is JESUS!

Thank you Jesus!

John 3:16

"WHAT DID THEY DO TO HIM?"

Earlier this week, Jolie and I headed to her weekly speech appointment. Our appointment time is usually in the morning, but this one time it had been shifted to after lunch and I forgot to change the time in my phone calendar and we soon found ourselves two hours early to our appointment. There was no time to come home and go back, it would have been a waste of time, energy and GAS, so we just decided to go around the corner to Lifeway Christian Bookstore until time for her appointment. Jolie loves that store, and was soon rushing around looking at the Bibles, books, and toys. She had brought me many things asking for if she could get it "next time"...when she ran upon a huge panoramic photo of Jesus carrying the cross. It was a  bloody scene, one similar to the one here only larger,and right on my girl's eye level. It was quite bloody, graphic, and tramatic especially to my three year old.

She turned back to me from her side of the isle, and screamed astonishedly,  What did they do to Him? So standing across the isle, I said they put Jesus on the cross, He died for us. He died for all the bad things we have done. She peppered  me  with many questions as we made our way out of the store. As I buckeled her into her car seat, She asked,"Did God kill him?" I answeered "No, God sent His Son Jesus for us."  "Who killed him then?" I said, "The people did, but the good news is HE rose again...He came back to life three days later. AND when we believe in Him and place our trust in HIM, he becomes Savior and when we die we go to heaven  to live with Him there."

Later that night, when Dad got home, we told him of our experience at the store.

The conversation went like this," Dad I don't want to do that."
" Do what, Jolie?"
"I don't want to die on a cross."
"Jolie, you don't have to, Jesus has already done it for us."

It's time to PLAY ball again

It's Time for that familiar phrase:

PLAY BALL

This season, Shek has spent some time in several different positions. Here he is at catcher. He's been lobbying for a new catcher's mitt. I guess he will get one of those soon. 

The Swan House

I am not a native to Atlanta, so I am really unfamiliar with the local history. Karlie is studying the modern era at Konos Academy this year, and for the 1960's era, they are reading The Swan House by Elizabeth Musser. I noticed that it was about Buckhead, during the '60's. So I set out to read it too.

 Soon we realized that the history of the book was about real places just literally up the road from us. AND the book opened with the 1963 crash in Paris, where over 100 Atlantans were killed on this plane crash. We learned that this indeed was a fiction novel based on real Atlanta history. Also, it was about a girl finding faith in Jesus, so of course I was all into reading this book along with Karlie.

It has become one of my favorite books. Last Sunday, on our way back from Karlie's Pure Fashion Headshot session we talked daddy into taking the Buckhead exit and driving us by The Swan House.

 In the book, the main character, Mary Swan lives next door to the swan house. It even gives the address, and this is the house that the character in the book live in. I snagged a couple of quick photos as we passed it .

The character Mary Swan lived in a beautiful home.

Dad stopped the car and we snagged a few photos of The Swan House.

 Driving through the neighborhood, Karl said, "Nice neighborhood, I think I could live here." 

 We loved The Swan House.

We can't wait to go back....

Fashion Show ready

It's the time of year again. It's almost time for the PureFashion show next month. To get ready the girls go to get the hair and makeup done and then their headshots are taken for the fashion show program. Karlie's group was first, so she was in and out in a flash. Then we headed back through ATL..and just had a fun afternoon of family fun on our way home.

 Karlie gets her hair styled.

She wore green because it was St. Patrick's Day.

We can't wait to see her headshot in the Program.
Fashion show is about 1 month away.

I'm BacK!

I've been so busy lately, that I've let blog posting go for a while. SO I am way behind in documenting what's going on in our family. A couple of weeks ago, Zach was home for spring break and just before he jumped in his car to head back to Nashville, we took a few family photos. Of course, I stuck us in the sun and we are all squinting, but at least we're together right?

Here's a photo of Honey with her great grands.

Next, Gam and Pop joined the photo!

Then Karl and I joined the photo....We love some family time.

My iphone takes some good snapshots. I find that I use my iphone more because its always with me.

Another iphone snapshot.
Got to love it.

summer nights?

It's been cool around these parts lately and I am ready for some summer, sunshine, shorts, flip flops and jsut good ole laid back beach time. I can just hear that Rascal Flatts, song "Summer Nights" singing in my head.

Looking back over some photos today, I came across some beach photos from when we stopped at St. Simons briefly last summer. Longing for some warmer weather and just the beach in general, I stopped and played with this photo. I cropped the strangers that were walking on the sidewalk and played with the color. It's been a very long time since I participated in the Sunday Snapshot, I think I will give it a go again.

I am ready for some summer nights or you? Let's head to beach.