Our Beautiful and Blessed Easter

It was a busy, but beautiful Easter weekend!  In between Colton's performances of Easter Alive, we managed to get eggs dyed and decorated on Saturday morning.  This year, we tried putting temporary tattoos on them and they turned out great.

 Our favorite method, though, is always good ol' crayons!

 Colton always has to do a camo one:

 One of mine and one of Cady's:

 Not quite half of the 40 we decorated:

Always a great time together as family! So glad Colton is not "too cool" to do things like this with us.

The kids awoke to pretty cool baskets and treats the next morning:

 

Even a badminton, volleyball set to share:

 Then it was time to get dressed up and head to church to celebrate the true meaning of the day - the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior!

 

 

 A couple more with their goodies after they were all dressed up:

After a wonderful church service, it was back home to finish preparing the dinner.  Grandma Mary, Johnnie and Grammy and Grampa Mac all came over to join us.

 After dinner, the kids took turns hiding eggs for each other and some of us adults:

 We then ended the day with a piece of my carrot cake - an Easter tradition!

April Fool's!

It's been a while since I have pulled any April Fool's Day pranks on my family, but I did this year.  Just on the kids - Colin was fortunate to be out of town!  I started first thing that morning by putting green food coloring in their cereal bowls.  When they poured in their milk, it turned green!

 Then, I helped Cady pull one on Colton.  Thanks to my sweet friend, Kate, for the idea - we cut out some letter "E"s from brown paper and she told her chocolate-loving brother that she had made him some brownies.  He was not amused and kept saying "That's messed up!"

 He did get me, though!  He told me one of the dogs pooped in the house and I only believed him because we have Sunny now and she is still so new, I thought it was possible!  It really looked like it when I saw it on the rug, and I was not happy, but as I leaned closer to inspect it more, he yelled "April Fool's" and was laughing.  He had wet a toilet paper roll and crumpled and rolled it up and it did look like dog poop until you got real close to it!  He was pretty proud of himself and I have to admit I was impressed!

Until next year!!

Meet Sunny!

Well, it's official - we are now a (gulp!) THREE dog family!  It wasn't planned, which some may think makes it worse, but we gave a wonderful, sweet, dog a home and a family and we believe things worked out just as they were intended.

So, here is Sunny, our new 4 1/2 year old, terrier cross, rescue dog:

 She joins our other dogs, Roxy (almost 5) and Piper (almost 10):

 Here is the story:  We had gone down to our local Farmer's Market weekend before Easter, to take Colton to meet a friend so they could do a project together.  They were meeting in the area where the Humane Society has dogs up for adoption.  That was no big deal - we always like looking at the dogs.  Just LOOKING, though! We got Colton sent off down the market with his friend (they were interviewing food vendors about health issues) and then Colin, Cady and I decided to look at the dogs.  This one caught our eye immediately! She was just so scruffy and cute!  Looked like a typical movie mutt to me, and I loved that! Well, long story short, she won our hearts and we were already in process of adopting her when Colton got through with his project and came back to meet us! Just look at that face:

 Here she is at home with Colton:

 Then, attack of the jealous dog:

 Cady and I had to take her to the vet that Monday.  I think she enjoyed the ride in the car:

 Love how she crosses her legs when she's chillin'!

 Then I told her to smile, ha ha!

One of my friends made the comment that she looks a lot like Sandy, off of the movie Annie, so I had to take a pic and compare, of course!!

 We've also noticed she likes to eat while laying down - lazy pup!!

 She's been a nice addition to our family and we all love her! Well, Piper and Roxy are still on the fence about that. They haven't been mean to her but they definitely haven't gone out of their way to interact with her either! Hope that changes soon!

Spring Break 2015

I am sad to say that Spring Break 2015 has already come and gone! With me working this year, it was even more welcomed and needed!  Colin took the first couple of days off of his job and we headed to beautiful Arizona!  We drove to Phoenix early that first Saturday morning where we shopped (Bass Pro! Cabelas! Outlets!) and ate (Black Bear! BJ's!) and enjoyed being out of Cruces for a day and a half.  On Sunday afternoon, we headed to Tucson where we stayed for 2 more nights.  We stayed at the Embassy Suites there and really loved it.  The breakfast was included and was huge - omelet bar and cooked to order pancakes, bacon, etc.  We would eat a nice breakfast then go straight to the pool until 1 or so - whenever we got hungry.  It was so nice and relaxing and the weather was perfect!!

 Then, we would get showered and cleaned up and head out for lunch and a little more shopping and exploring. I snapped these pics at the hotel one day:

 It was a wonderful time! The rest of the break was spent having fun with Papa Jimmy and Gramma Suzy, who came to stay with us a few days.  We were even able to go eat breakfast and see a movie with some friends on Friday.

So sad it is over, but the one good thing is that the countdown to summer is on!! Thirty-six days, I believe! We can do it!!