Easter

A few of their favorite things from the Easter bunny.

Our family at Nana and Paw-paw's house.

Love this picture of the girls!

Nana with Sophie and Abbie

The girls with Nana and Paw-paw

Abbie, Sierra, Sophie and Summer

Abbie and Summer

Sophie-1st Easter egg hunt of the day at Nana's house.

cousin Annie over at Uncle Jim and Aunt Linda's house.

Harper, Grace, Sophie and Abbie after their egg hunt.

Abbie loves hanging out with babies!!

picture of all the little cousins including: Abbie, Annie, Sophie, Grace, Ty and Harper.

We had a very nice, busy Easter overall.  The weather was very warm.  Our family attended Brentwood Hills for church this year because Matt was teaching a Sunday school class.  After a wonderful service and Bible class, we had lunch at Nana's with Nana, Paw-paw, Uncle Mike, Aunt Shannon, Summer and Sierra.  Although we had fewer people this year, we still really enjoyed being together.  The only downside for our family was that Paula had developed a cold and was not feeling well.  Our girls hunted for Easter eggs after lunch at Nana and Paw-paw's house along with a little boy, Charlie, who lives across the street from them.  We visited for a while and then headed for home for a little bit.  We had so much good food for lunch.

Then, we went over to Uncle Jim and Aunt Linda's house to be with them as well as their kids and grandchildren who live in the area.  Uncle Walter and Katie were in town as well so it was great to see them for a short visit.  Katie works in Houston right now but she had gone to Ohio to visit her parents for a few days and then came down to Tennessee with her dad before heading back to Texas.   Nana and Paw-paw came for a little while too.  Sophie and Abbie loved seeing Grace, Harper, Ty and Annie who are first cousins with each other (the first three are siblings) but I guess second cousins with my girls.  We don't get to see them very often.  The kids hunted eggs over there.  Annie was so cute because she was content to sit in the grass and look at a plastic egg, etc while the other kids ran around hunting for eggs.  =)  After that, we ate dinner and visited some more with everyone.

Home Tweet Home

wreath on our front door (notice anything unusual)?

bird nest with four robin eggs

On the weekend before Easter, Matt's parents were here visiting.  One night, Matt and his parents were coming in and his mom noticed that there was a bird's nest right in the middle of our wreath!  It kind of blends in and it's up pretty tall so I wouldn't have been able to see down into it.  I don't know when I would have noticed if it Teresa hadn't found it.  I got the pictures by standing on a stepstool and being able to shoot some pictures from above.  We'll have to keep an eye on things.  My first instinct when it was pointed out to me was, "oh, well, I'm gonna move it" but then I was reminded that the Mama bird would abandon the eggs.  I hope we don't have birds flying around inside our house once these birds hatch but it should be interesting to watch them grow!  I love spring because of all the new life, pretty colors and growth.

Easter egg hunts

Here's Sophie's friend, Abby C., after she found some eggs.

Here's our Abbie with a big smile!

Abbie and her friend, Sophie C.

Sophie with her eggs and Abbie behind.

Brooke, Frances, Sophie and Abby C.

Abbie with the Easter bunny!

Abbie found some Easter eggs!

This past weekend, we had nice, warm weather.  The girls had soccer games on Saturday.  Matt's parents, Mimi and Papa Tom, came in from Virginia just in time to see part of Abbie's soccer game.  That evening, Abbie went to a gymnastics birthday party at Let it Shine while the rest of us went out to dinner.  The next day, Sunday, was very busy.  We attended early service, had lunch at Chuy's, came home and had a little downtime while getting ready to lead the Girl Scout meeting with Sophie's troop (it was my turn to lead a meeting), went to Girl Scout meetings, came home and got ready for the Easter egg hunts at church, picked up friends for the egg hunt and went to church, attended church service, dropped off our friends and returned home.  Whew!  What a day!  We were all so tired.

It's funny because we have gotten to be really good friends with a family in our neighborhood, the Clark's, who have girls the same ages and they have the same names as our girls but it's reversed.  Their Abby is the same age as our Sophie and they are in the same class at school. They are also in Girl Scouts together.   Their daughter, Sophie, is Abbie's age and they are in Girl Scouts together and they are on the same soccer team.  Anyway, we invited them to come to the Easter egg hunts with us at church and come to church with us.  All of the girls had a really good time!  It was about 80 degrees on Saturday and Sunday.  Our church has a big playground so they had fun playing on it in between the egg hunts.  They also had cotton candy, popcorn, and lemonade at the egg hunts.

On Saturday, our family went to Chick-Fil-A after the girls soccer games so that Matt's parents could enjoy a late lunch and we could have a little snack.  The Easter bunny was there and Abbie was somewhat scared.  She kept trying to hide behind Matt's mom.   Anyway, I told her that the Easter bunny would probably be at our church egg hunt on Sunday.  Saturday night before bed, she started acting nervous about seeing the Easter bunny again the next day but she said that she would go up and give him a high five.  She has always been very scared of the Easter bunny.  Well, we all laughed when it turned out the Easter bunny at our church (Andy Parker) did not have his face covered so Abbie didn't even have much to be scared of!! This may be the only picture that we have of Abbie with the Easter bunny because she usually always cries and we have to take her away from him!! 

Washington D.C.-Spring Break 2014

Abbie and her daddy reading the paper on the Metro

Abbie's 1st time riding the Metro!

Abbie near Ford's Theater

We ate lunch at Cosi while in D.C.  We were starving!

We saw Mr. Peabody and Sherman at the movies earlier that week!

Abbie and her daddy with the Swedish chef at National Museum of American History.

Abbie and Sophie at the White House.

Abbie as a unicorn.

Now, it's Sophie's turn to be a unicorn. 

Here we are at the Lincoln Memorial.

Sophie and Abbie with Mimi and Papa Tom before we left Virginia.

The girls with Aunt Leia.

Our family

I forgot to mention in my last post that when we first arrived in Virginia, Matt's Uncle Gary and Aunt Jo were visiting Matt's family too.  They stayed until Monday and then, they headed home.  We were glad that we could visit with them for a little bit because we had not seen them in a while.  One day, we went with Mimi to see the movie Mr. Peabody and Sherman. They really liked it!  We also went to visit Papa Tom at work so that he could show the girls off to his co-workers.  It was funny because Abbie really hit it off with one of the ladies who works in his building.   Her nickname is Sunshine and she let Abbie practice answering the phone and everything (she had another co-worker call).

Papa Tom was off on Thursday and Friday and it finally started to warm up at the end of the week.  We decided to drive in towards D.C. on Thursday and then catch the Metro.  It was still somewhat chilly in the morning and a very windy day, but we were able to see some things in D.C.  We took a tour of Ford's Theater, where Lincoln was shot, and saw the Peterson house.  Then, we ate lunch at Cosi.  We had definitely missed our normal lunch hour so some of us were starving.  It was very good.  Then, Matt's parents walked over to the National Museum of American History.  Matt and I walked with the girls to the White House.  They loved seeing it!  Then, Matt hired a man on a pedicart to bike us over to the museum.  This was great because the walking was a little too much for the girls that day for sure!  Sophie loved seeing all of the First Ladies Dresses and a few other things.  Abbie got tired and bored pretty quickly but she liked seeing a display of puppets that they had.

Matt's parents rested and had a snack there and then headed back on the Metro to wait for us.  Tom, Matt's dad, has a form of ALS disease (Lou Gehrig's) so he gets tired easily from walking and he is having more trouble with his balance.

Matt and I walked with the girls from there to see the Lincoln Memorial.  The Washington Monument is closed for renovations due to an earthquake in 2011.  We saw the WWII memorial as we passed.  It was   very windy as I mentioned before and kind of chilly.  I did not think we were ever going to make it there and back because it was a lot of walking for Abbie.  Matt carried her on his shoulders part of the way back.  The girls enjoyed visiting D.C. even though they were worn out!  Sophie has always loved President Lincoln so I'm glad she could see some things that interested her.  We told the girls that we'll have to bring them back and see more of the sights of D.C.!  We met up with Mimi and Papa Tom back at the Metro station at our car.  We had a very late dinner and then drove back to Richmond.

Snow Tubing over Spring Break

Abbie and Sophie are ready to go snow tubing!

Here's our crew before we went snow tubing. (our family and Aunt Leia)

Sophie loved snow tubing independently!

Here's Abbie-what a big helper!

Peace man!

We drove up to Virginia to spend time with Matt's parents and sister, Leia, over Spring Break.  They live in Richmond, VA and it was very cold for the 1st part of the week.  They even got some snow.  We have really been wanting to take the girls snow tubing lately but haven't had the chance (me in particular).  One day, we drove over to Massanutten, VA (about 2 hours away) where there is a ski resort with all sorts of activities.  It was a beautiful drive because we saw a lot of snow along the way!  We ate lunch on our way over and snow tubed in the afternoon.  They have a special lift that you stand on with your inner tube that is like a mechanical sidewalk from the airport.  It takes you back up to the top each time after you come down the slope.  We had a great time but as the sun came out more and more, the tubes started going a little slower and getting stuck before we got to the bottom of the hill.  We had dressed with lots of layers so our coats and some of the outer layers came off while we were there.  We had a lot of fun snow tubing!!  Each person rides in his or her own tube but you can connect them if you prefer (up to 4 tubes).  Abbie preferred being connected to other people most of the time.

Book Character Day

a piggy and a wizard!

Abbie as Mercy the pig and Sophie as Hermione from Harry Potter

Last Friday was book character day.  The girls had a parade at school.  Sophie knew that she wanted to be Hermione from Harry Potter.  I worked hard on doing lots of braids all over her head the night before so that she would have curly hair and it worked!!  She also wore my graduation gown from when I earned my master's degree.  It required lots of safety pins but her daddy made it work.  We couldn't decide who Abbie should be for book character day.  We debated between 2 or 3 characters.  She loves the Mercy Watson books by Kate DiCamillo about a pig named Mercy.  One of our neighbors had the pig accessories (including a little curly tail).  Put those pig accessories with a pink outfit and Wa laa-you've got your pig!!  =)  Abbie has always liked pigs.  I think they had a good day and then, they were able to come home and play outside.

Daddy Daughter Dance

Before I blog about the Daddy Daughter Dance, I just wanted to say that recently we welcomed a new nephew/cousin into the family.  Aunt Martha and Uncle Matt welcomed their second little boy, Monroe Daniel, on Thursday February 20. He was 8 lbs 10 ounces and 22 inches long.  Aunt Paula was able to meet Monroe the next morning (she did not want to go in midst of tornado warnings for the birth).  Uncle Matt, Aunt Paula, Sophie and Abbie were all able to go on Saturday, February 22, 2014 to meet Monroe.  He is a precious baby and I will post pictures soon.

Abbie's putting on some powder and getting her "do" fixed.

The girls are showing off their roses from Daddy!

They are ready for a special night out!

We have had an exciting weekend.  The girls got their daddy to be their date on Friday for the Daddy Daughter Dance at school.  We tried to make their hair curly, etc (with a little success) and they got all fixed up.  Matt was going to have dinner with just the girls at Jason's Deli and then attend the dance but Abbie really wanted her mama to come too so we ate dinner there as a family.  Both of the girls looked very pretty!  After dinner, they went to the dance where they took pictures in a photo booth, made a craft, had snacks and of course, enjoyed some line dancing, etc with their friends.  They had a a fabulous time and were worn out when they returned home.  Yesterday, Abbie scored two goals in soccer!  Sophie also played a game but their team lost.  We had lunch with Nana at Chick-Fil-A between the games.  After the games, Sophie was going to sell Girl Scout cookies with her troop but they sold out!  Last night, we celebrated Paula's birthday a little early with Nana and Paw-paw at Carrabba's.  It was wonderful and there was no wait!