Easter 2013

We had a really sweet Easter.

Sunday morning we woke up to make sure that the Easter Bunny stopped by and left baskets for the girls… he didn’t disappoint. :)

DW cranked up the Chris Tomlin station on Pandora while we did a few last minute things around the house and AB munched on a chocolate bunny for breakfast. Mames had pancakes- she’s only 1, but as soon as she’s old enough to ask, she’ll be eating candy from her basket on Easter morning, too. :)

The girls were also excited to get Easter treats from all their grandparents and Uncle Adam & Aunt Nen and Aunt Kels. There’s no lack of love or sugar around our house. :)

We had to make sure AB knew she couldn’t wear her beloved pop-up slippers to church…she was so excited to get these. According to her, they are her favorite things- PURPLE and UNICORNS. (We knew her favorite color was purple, but we didn’t even know she knew what a unicorn was…) :)

Grammy & Pop got to our house just as we were finishing getting ready for church. They were bringing their part of our big Easter lunch…

We tried to take some pictures on the porch before we left for church, but that didn’t go so well… The girls had matching dresses again this year and it will be a sad day when they’re old enough to not want to match anymore.

We managed to get a few pictures, though, where everyone’s looking at the camera – these days that’s about all we hope for. Ha…

I do love this one though…

Church was really good- and I loved that our preacher talked about the difference in happiness and joy. It was a slightly different Easter message, but a good one for sure. Our culture is so concerned with finding happiness and we so often focus on the things that make us feel happy- but real Joy only comes from Jesus. As Christians, we should focus on sharing God’s love and joy with others. I certainly want to be a person who shares joy with others- many times I know I’m not, though…always good to have something to work on, right? :)

The children’s choir sang a song they’d been practicing and I am pleased to report that AB finally learned the words were; “The women found the tomb was empty” and NOT “The old woman found the tomb was empty.” :)

We did the flower cross and at the end of the service, the children released butterflies again this year.

Grammy tried to help AB with hers, but there was no helping it. We left him on the flowers and told her he’d wake up later and fly away. :)

We tried a couple more pictures at church…but those went about as well as the ones at the house… Ha… I love that nobody’s looking at the camera except Kels, who looks adorable. :)  Mames was in the process of convulsing to get down, Nie-Nie’s just holding on for dear life and AB is blinded by the sun. I hate that we didn’t get a good one, but sometimes real life just looks like chaos…Chaos that I am forever grateful for –even though sometimes I have to remind myself of it. :)

When we left the church, DW, the girls and I went out to the cemetery to leave a bunny on Cooper’s grave.

We’ve learned to deal with the bittersweet-ness of holidays, special occasions and just every day life better than I ever thought we would five years ago. But on the drive out to the cemetery, I was feeling a little raw and weak. Holidays tend to be that way for me, but I think this year was a little different, too, because it was our first Easter without my Granny here, too. It’s like charting new waters and making new traditions since she isn’t here anymore, and I’m like most people when it comes to change…it’s hard.

I tried to imagine what Easter must be like in Heaven, but there’s no possible way to. I am certain it is amazing, though. And in that same thought, it was sweet to think of my grandparents there together with my boy this year. I know it’s crazy and when we get to Heaven, I’m sure it doesn’t even matter, but there is something so comforting to me to know there’s somebody there with Cooper who knew and loved him here. 

I’ve been a little sentimental this past week remembering what Easter looked like in my childhood. They are sweet memories and I am so thankful for them. Part of that whole difference in joy and happiness, I think, is making sure to not focus so much on what we don’t have that we loose sight of what we DO have.

Easter lunch was spent at our house with my parents, my uncle Jerry, Aunt Pam and cousin Emily along with Pappy, Nie-Nie & Kelsey, and Adam & Lauren. There were many we wished were with us, but who weren’t here simply because they had other plans, live out of town, or have gone on to be with Jesus. It would be so easy to let missing all of them or wanting something different than what we have, fill our hearts and rob us of enjoying what’s right in front of us. I’m so glad that didn’t happen to me yesterday. Yes, I would give ANYTHING if my girls had their big brother here to have to fight for all the eggs--- I’d love it if my own big brother and his family had gotten to be with us this year, too---- We missed seeing DW’s mom this year, along with his brother and family, too… It would have been wonderful to have our ENTIRE family together- all the aunts, uncles, and cousins with all the dozens of kids hiding eggs and playing in the yard together, just like those Easters when I was growing up. But that’s not what we had – and that doesn’t mean what we did have wasn’t wonderful, too.

It was the sweetest afternoon watching everybody sitting with their chairs all around AB and Mames and watching the girls hunt eggs, blow bubbles, ride their car and play…

We ate, laughed, and just visited…three of my favorite things to do! :) Everybody had a full belly after a delicious lunch and we spent the afternoon outside under a big oak tree enjoying the weather. (Well, half of us stayed inside longer than the rest to watch the Gators play basketball…) :)  Those are the kinds of things that make for great childhood memories.

Jesus died and rose again – giving us the choice to CHOOSE Him- and to CHOOSE joy!

How blessed we are.

~amw~

Spring Break…

Spring Break is this week, but since we’re not in school yet, it really doesn’t mean anything to us… except that AB’s dance studio was closed this week, too.

Our girl did know, though, that it was Spring Break. Last week during dance her teacher told them that they would be closed because of Spring Break and asked if they had any big plans. Apparently, AB thought some of the other girls’ plans sounded like fun, so she came home asking what we were going to do for spring break. She even got specific and asked if we could go to a water park. (I’m guessing someone at dance said they were doing that for Spring Break).

We didn’t make any water park or big plans, but we did plan to spend a day with Aunt Nen while she was off for the week, too. We decided Tuesday would be a good day since we were going to have our nephew Warren that day.

Lauren and I planned to take the kids to the Butterfly Rainforest exhibit at the Florida Museum of Natural History. I haven’t been to the museum in YEARS (since before it was moved to it’s current location). The butterfly rainforest was added several years ago, but we hadn’t been to even see it yet.

It was so cold when we got there yesterday, that we decided to skip the butterflies and just do the inside part of the museum. I was a little worried about taking the kids to a museum- but it ended up being so fun for them. Warren and AB both loved it. There were big fossils, fun tables set up where the kids got to do hands-on things, giant shark teeth, dioramas, re-creations of lots of Florida’s outdoors – including an ocean walk through with giant fish replicas!

There were caves to climb through, a beach with moving fiddler crabs, and even a teepee with Indians having a rain dance complete with thunder and lightening – this was a little on the scary side and left Nen repeating “they’re not real people- this is just pretend..”  - By the third time she said it, I realized she was saying it just as much for herself as for the kids. Ha.

We explored all of the different areas and ended the visit with a stop in the Discovery Room. It was perfect for all three of the kids – Even Mamie got in on the action! The big kids got to dig for fossils, do puzzles, look at x-rays, and even make pretend butterflies float through the air, while Mamie got to climb a few steps to slide down a tiny slide.

I was seriously impressed with the museum and the kids had a great time. Even Warren (who that morning said he didn’t want to go) talked about how much fun it was. I love finding fun things to do with the kids that are close to home.

After the museum, we had lunch and then went on a big exciting trip to the grocery store – because what is Spring Break without a trip to the Publix??? :)

~amw~

Year Five…

In March of 2009, AB and I drove up to Carrie’s in-laws’ chicken farm for our first annual pictures with the baby chicks. It’s a tradition that has stuck and on Friday, we took our 5th Annual Easter chick pictures.

A lot has changed in five years… Our 3 and 5 month old are now big grown-up four year olds… (who apparently cross their legs like ladies these days.)

I wasn’t sure what Mamie would think of the chicks this year- since this was the exact age AB was when she was terrified of them…

AB – scared of the chicks in 2010

Mames liked them though, just from afar. :) She was glad to have a chair to sit in and even kept pulling her feet up so they wouldn’t touch her! Ha…

Turns out, I should have been worried about AB, who at first seemed to have her circa 2010 reaction…

Let’s zoom in on that face…

It wasn’t long though, before she was in on the chick holding action…

Allie was like she has ALWAYS been – first to grab one and last to let them go. She has loved squeezing a chick since before she could walk. It has to be some of that chicken-farmer in her DNA. This picture pretty much tells the whole story…

Allie is squeezing and loving that baby chick, while Mamie & AB are giving her the “you’re CRAZY, girl” look- and Whitt gives the Whitehurst girls the “who YOU calling crazy?” stare… :)

Like always, we tried lots of different ways to get a picture of the kids with the chicks – including putting them on their shoulders…

Whitt thought that was really funny…

So did Mamie who saw one on her sister -

Then I think she got worried one might be on her shoulder, too… so she just played it cool and looked away- hoping if she didn’t actually SEE it, that meant it wasn’t there…

It was though- so she hopped up and then tried to herd the chicks together. You can take the girl off the cattle ranch, but you can’t take the cattle ranch out of the girl…goes back to some things being genetic.

It’s always a fun day visiting the Mizell farm- Carrie has wonderful in-laws and we always love getting to see them a few times during the year. They’re sweet to let us come and terrorize (I mean love-on) their chicks year after year.

We always follow up chick pictures with lunch at the Chick-fil-A, and while it does seem a little wrong – it never stops us. We did forego our usual shopping after lunch for some play time at the park, though. It was a gorgeous day and besides, who in their right mind wants to go shopping with four kids?!?!? I’m not saying we’re NOT crazy, just not THAT crazy.

~amw~