Easter Recap...

Pictures & The Easter Weekend Recap....
Thursday night, DW and I decided to take Belle to have her picture taken with the Easter Bunny. Here's what she wore. I wish you could see the fabric up close... its the palest blue bunny toile...

She did so good with the Bunny. I'll even say the picture was worth the $19.99! Yes, $20.00 to have our picture taken with the Easter Bunny. Can you BELIEVE that?!?!? Evidently the Easter Bunny didn't get the memo that we're in a recession...

Saturday we spent the day at my Granny's house. We took DW's lawn mower and yard tools over, and all the guys worked in the yard getting ready for Easter day. Devin, Gabe, Jason and Uncle Ronnie worked all afternoon. They mowed, trimmed up palm trees, washed porches, raked leaves and got everything looking good. I am thankful that those cousins and I were blessed with such good husbands. And Aunt Kay, too. But we've all known what good men our Momma's married for a long time. Our Dads have always done whatever was needed or asked...It's a good feeling to know that this next generation will do the same.

The big kids dyed Easter eggs and the momma's cleaned Granny's house, baked (and ATE) cookies, and pulled chicken for casseroles.

Saturday night, for dinner, Aunt Kay fried two of the biggest packs of bacon I've ever seen, made rice and tomato gravy, white gravy, cream 40 peas, and Krissy made cracklin' cornbread. YUM. And we ate cookies.

Sunday morning, we got up to see what the Easter Bunny left Annabelle on her first Easter.

The "Easter Honey" also stopped by and left baskets for me & DW.... awwww.... :)

Here's what sweet girl's Easter ensemble looked like. I fell hard for this dress with the smocked bunnies and eggs when Carrie and I saw it in Fernandina. I didn't buy it, though. After I got home, I wished I had. So I called the boutique and paid for it over the phone and Carrie picked it up for me a few days later! I just wanted something sweet, girly and age appropriate. We took a family picture at church, but haven't gotten those pics yet from DW's Daddy...
But, here's a couple shots we took at the house....

After church, we went out to the cemetery to take Cooper an Easter egg and place an Easter Lily in his memory. This year I found the sweetest eggs filled with Disney's Little Einsteins characters. "Eo" (Leo) was his favorite. So we bought the Leo egg. When we got out there, I opened the egg and hadn't noticed when I bought it, that it was ORANGE. "Oange" was Coopie's favorite color. Then when I opened the egg, "Eo" wasn't dressed like he normally is. He was in PAJAMAS. I loved Cooper in pajamas and he loved to be in them. Leo also didn't have his normal expression on his face. He had a crooked, light-up-his- whole-face-smile. Which of course, made me think of my sweet boy's similar smile. I was grateful to have found this egg that I am sure Cooper would have loved. We are slowly finding our new "normal." Which when compared to most family's "normal" is so completely abnormal. Most parents don't visit their son's grave on Easter and desperately wish he was in his Easter suit (which his Momma would have made sure matched his baby sister's dress). But, this is what we've got. Bottom line. There's no changing it. We could let it ruin us. Many days I feel like it has. But, as we stood there on Sunday afternoon, Devin thanked God for what the day meant to us and for us. And I was reminded that Jesus conquered death. His own and ours. Coopie's grave is not the end. It is the end of many of our earthly hopes and dreams, but it's not the end. My Redeemer lives---and Cooper lives with Him! Because of that, I find peace and grace---Peace and grace that allowed me to spend the afternoon watching my cousins' children hunt eggs. Of course there were moments when I wondered what Cooper would have been like hunting eggs this year. Which is one reason I love this girl so much...

See, she's 3 days younger than Cooper. She is my cousin, Amy's, youngest. She's always been special, but now she's like a little time-line to me. I see what new things she's doing and learning and I get a little glimpse of what Cooper might be doing if he were here with us.

Anna loves my girl, a lot. The whole weekend she wanted to touch her and love on her and she would remind her momma that she "had washed" when Amy would tell her not to touch Annabelle. She's 3 years and 4 months older than Belle. Amy is 3 years and 10 months older than me. And all our lives, other than our cousin Stephanie, there isn't a cousin I was equally as close to. So the circle of life continues. Time moves forward. Everything changes. But thankfully, somethings come full circle.

Amy & Belle

Speaking of coming full circle... I had some serious dejavu moments this weekend watching all those Georgia kids... it was like being in a time warp. One of the boys would do or say something and we'd all go, "That was so BEAU!" or "That was so RITCHIE!" or "man, that looked like Seth"... the boys had a weekend full of chasing and catching lizards and even caught this "skink". I don't know if that's what these huge snake-looking lizards are really called, but that's what we know them as.

The kids played outside, rode bikes and took walks down the old dirt road. Just like all of us used to do! Of course there was some fussing and fighting, just like the old days! Here are some of them, sitting on the same black bench (that our papa built, I might add) that we all used to sit on... at that same brick house... at one point during the weekend, I found it hard to believe that us girls are now the mommas. Woah. I had to ask if the girls thought all the kids thought we were all as old as we thought our parents were. Aunt Kay assured me they DID. :) What a funny feeling, to be "grown up"...

What sweet memories and how sweet that we are STILL making them! The only way the weekend could have gotten better is if the rest of the family had gotten to be there.

Here's little miss with her Easter goodies. Poor baby- nobody ever gets her ANYTHING...

Easter weekend was a good one.

~annie~