I Heart Easter!

Easter is my holiday!  I love it so much.  I just adore the spring weather, the Easter egg hunts with my family.  If you hear a rumor that I elbowed my mom and then knocked her down for an egg, I neither confirm nor deny that rumor.  I love Easter baskets and the Easter bunny.  I love dressing up in pretty clothes for Easter.  This year we dressed up in our new Easter finery the Sunday before Easter, because General Conference fell on Easter.  So, I wore a silver sequined top with a purple skirt. I decided to spare my boys and had them wear silver ties instead of purple ones.  I thought that was safe-- that is until my color blind son saw his tie that Sunday morning and in a grumpy teenage boy tone declared,  "Mom, why are you making me wear this tie?  You know I hate pink?"  I love Easter Sunday dinner and I love that my husband likes to cook and was happy to take over since I didn't feel good.  I love that we stayed home and watched our church's General Conference on Sunday.  What better way to spend Easter Sunday then to hear the word's of our General Authority?

And, I love my Savior and I'm thankful that he died for my sins.  I'm thankful for his atoning sacrifice.  I am so thankful that we have this Easter holiday to remember and celebrate His resurrection.

We spent Good Friday having dinner with friends and then shopping for our Saturday celebration.  On Saturday, we spent the day with my family enjoying everyone's company, picnicking and hunting for eggs.  Sunday was spent watching General Conference, having Easter dinner with my family and recuperating.  What more could you ask for?  

I hope you all had a great Easter weekend with loved ones.

Just Wanted One Picture

We got home after church on Easter and I called out that I wanted one picture.  Fred had already taken his tie off.  I didn't know a person could get their tie off that fast, because we only had one foot in the door when I told them we were taking pictures.  You would think torture was involved the way they were acting!

Easter with Friends

My most favorite holiday of the year is Easter with Christmas being a close second.  I just love everything about Easter.

We were so glad that we got to enjoy the Garstka/Turner family picnic.  We had a very nice time and even brought Mollie and sweet little Josie (Auntie Jan's dog), but we sure did miss our family.  Mom, Dad, Auntie Jan and Uncle Joe went hiking in Lawton.  They were able to visit with Jeff, Emma and Lainey.  Jessie was still traveling back from her senior trip at Big Bend National Park.  Other family members had to work and Grandma was too frail for an egg hunt.  So, we just weren't able to pull off a get together this year!  However, we were so thankful for wonderful friends that included us in their fun family get together.

Of course, Sunday took us to church where I love to see everyone dressed in their Easter finery!  And, where we remember the real reason we celebrate Easter - the remembrance of Jesus' atonement and resurrection. After church, we ended up at the Palmer's for dinner (sweet friends from church).  They were too nice to remember us!

While we didn't get to celebrate with our family this year, we are so grateful that we have friends that made us their family this holiday!

Tie One On

To get this story started, let me give you a little background.  I work for Nouveau Eyewear and we are a licensee of Van Heusen.  You might have seen their men's shirts and ties at JCPenneys and Kohls.

I received this FedEx package at work addressed to me from PVH (the parent company for Van Heusen).  I thought it was odd, but not out of the ordinary.  I thought the tie was for us to use in our display at Vision Expo (a trade show in New York).  The tie would need to be sent overnight for the show and I had already sent two, so I wasn't sure it was all that necessary.  So, I sent this picture to my boss and asked him if he really wanted the tie sent.  The entire time I kept thinking, "that tie sure would match our Easter outfits."

I noticed there was a packing list attached to the outside of the envelope, so I cracked it open and realized that it was Jonathan's Easter tie!  So, I guess that tie really did match our Easter outfits.  I had to text my boss back and let him know that he couldn't use the tie for our Van Heusen display. I guess JCPenney was out of stock and had it dropshipped from PVH.  And, that is what I get for ordering our Easter clothes online and for not paying attention.

Lainey's Basket Runneth Over

What is a girl to do when her Easter basket runs over?  Make a pile on the ground, of course!  The hunt does not stop!  It never stops for a full basket!

(This is one of my favorite pictures from Easter weekend.)

I Love Easter

I love Easter.

I love springtime.

I love the worldly traditions of Easter.  I love chocolate bunnies and Easter baskets.  I love Easter egg hunts and dying eggs (we skipped that tradition this year).  I love Easter dresses.  Oh, how I love Easter dresses.

I love spending Saturday with our Bond side of the family.  I love our crazy antics and the fun that we have together.

I love Easter dinner.  Ham, potato salad, baked beans, deviled eggs and rolls.  I love watching/hearing my son scrape his plate clean.  That kid can put away baked beans.

More than anything, I love learning about our Savior's Atonement.

I love going to church and hearing the talks and lessons.  I love my sweet Sunday School class and the spirit they bring to our class.

I love my Savior.

The First Easter Morning

Of all the victories in human history, none is so great, none so universal in its effect, none so everlasting in its consequences as the victory of the crucified Lord who came forth in the Resurrection that first Easter morning.

- Gordon B. Hinckley

Flashback Friday: Sibling Love

Easter 2005

I absolutely love this picture.  It is typical Jonathan and Jessie.  Jonathan is smiling so sweet with his arm around his sister.  He looks so sweet angelic.  My favorite part is that he is absolutely oblivious to the fact that he has caught her ponytail in his embrace and apparently it is painful.  My guess is that she is adding an extra dose of dramatics for added flair.  

The more I look at this picture, I could just eat him up and perhaps take that shirt back to The Children's Place and get a smaller size.

Flashback Friday: Easter

The obligatory group shot...

TJ, Cheyanne, Malena, Jonathan

Bond Family Easter

Every year my Mom's family gets together to celebrate Easter.  We eat, hunt, torture each other with confetti eggs, and then we torture a pinata.  It is great family fun.  I think that it is a rarity these days for extended family to spend time together.  I am proud of the fact that my kids know their 2nd cousins.  I love that my kids talk about their aunts, and people assume that they must be talking about my sisters.  I correct them, and tell them no that my kids are referring to their great aunts. 

We enjoyed our festivities at my cousin Tammy's house.  She and her husband, Randy, were kind enough to host.  They live in Greenville (almost to Wolf City), and they have plenty of room for us to run wild.  We always have fun at Tammy's house.  We were so glad that her friend Jody could join us.  Jonathan enjoyed Jody's son TJ and one of TJ's buddies.  We all enjoy TJ.  He talks with a slow East Texas accent combined with a little bit of a speech impediment.  But, it's not just his adorable voice that gets you.  He is honest.  For instance there was a love connection between my cousin's male dog and my Auntie Jan's dog.  TJ announced in his cute little drawl,"That one dawg is humpin' that other dawg."  There was no excitement in his voice.  It was just a statement.  We laughed and laughed.  It would not have been funny if Jonathan had said that, because he would have been in serious trouble.  But, it was too funny when TJ said it!

I think I can speak for everyone when I say that we all had a blast.  Our little family was long overdue for a family get together.  Our last one was Aunt Judy's funeral the day before Thanksgiving.  We had Tammy's family join us for Christmas, but the entire group did not gather.  It was nice to finally be together.  We needed to relax, laugh and play!

I Love My Family

Saturday was a day spent celebrating with family.  I love my family so much, and I am thankful for their influence in my life.  I took some special pictures, and wanted to share them here. 

Grandma - getting her to pose for a picture is like pulling teeth!

Uncle Joe and Dad - I love this picture!  Side by side taking pictures of the pinata fun.

Sweet little Cheyanne

Don't you just love little girls?  Mismatched flip flops and dirty feet!

Jonathan brought this butterfly net as one of the prizes.  He ended up picking his own prize.  Funny how that works.  I didn't quite expect him to put it on his head though.

Sitting on the tractor.  Jonathan was so intrigued with Randy's tractor.

The highlight of Jonathan's day came when Randy let him drive his tractor, and then later he got to drive it again with Grady.  Jonathan is already making plans to go visit Mamaw and Grady, so that he can drive Grady's tractor.

Uncle Joe has an armful of dogs.  We brought Mollie, because we thought she might have fun Auntie Jan and Uncle Joe's dog, Josie.

It is so embarassing when Mommy has to trim your ears.  Mollie has a double ear infection. She scratched her right ear until she had all of the hair matted.  I ended up having to cut both ears super short to match.  Cut is too nice of a word.  I whacked at the hair on Mollie's ears.  The groomer is going to be so mad at me!

Tired kiddos!

While we were missing our sweet Aunt Judy this weekend, I'm sure that she was watching us from Heaven.  I think I might have heard her laughing during the confetti egg fight!  Cheyanne inherited her Grandma Judy's luck, because she won $10 in the Easter egg hunt.  Judy was always our big winner, so it is only fitting that she passed her luck down to her granddaughter. 

I am so blessed to have such a wonderful family!

Easter Egg Hunt

Cheyanne, Jess, Molina, Jonathan, Dalton (TJ's friend), TJ

Run for it!!!

Sweet little Cheyanne

Jonathan

Jessie

Molina

There were so many eggs that Jonathan filled up his Easter basket and had to switch to a Walmart bag!

After the hunt, we told the kids to count their eggs.  After they counted their eggs, they were to let Fred know how many they had.  TJ and Jonathan came in 1st and 2nd.  TJ was quite proud.  he sang and danced his number. Both boys assumed that they would be rewarded handsomely for their efforts.  We had brought prizes for the kids, and they were set up in one of the bedrooms.  We were sending the kids in one at a time to pick the prizes over and over until they were gone.  Only we started with the kid that had the LEAST amount of eggs!  Jonathan and TJ were both confused at first, but they were good sports!

All of the kids had so much fun!  We came home with tons of candy.  I don't know how we will ever eat it all.  I am trying to stay far, far away from it.

The Adult Easter Egg Hunt

Easter isn't just for the kids.  We make sure that the adults have fun too.  We have an Easter egg hunt just for the adults, and there are prizes to be won! 

Jonathan hunted for Grandma, and Jessie hunted for Uncle Joe's mother, Ms. Leona.  Grandma was going over strategy with Jonathan.  She told him that she wanted the good prizes!

Molina helped me find a few eggs.  Otherwise, I wouldn't have had a single egg.  I got a late start, because I stayed behind making sure Jonathan got started.  Then when I finally got started, the eggs were hidden super well.  The blind girl couldn't see the eggs hidden up in the tall parts of the grass. Thanks to Molina I found SIX eggs.  Yes, I had the least amount of eggs by a mile!

Dad and Josie had an easier time finding the eggs than I did.  I guess they were able to see those eggs hiding down in that tall grass.  As we were hunting, I started worrying about my cute little sandals getting dirty.  About the time that I voiced my concern, my cousin Tammy yells out, " Hey everyone make sure that you watch out for snakes!"  Although, I get tired of the hustle and bustle of Frisco sometimes, I am so glad that I don't have to caution my guests to beware of snakes!

Fred was a rock star at hunting eggs!  He definitely has the better eyesight out of the two of us.

Usually, we number of the prizes and stuff the eggs with numbers.  This year, we didn't quite get this done.  Everyone just got the same amount of prizes.  We took turns going into the "prize bedroom."  The old people... yes that's you Auntie Jan and Mom... decided that we should go in oldest to youngest.  Poor 18 year old Chris graduated to the adult hunt this year.  Obviously, this didn't work out in his favor.  My cousin works for Rubbermaid, so I scored some mighty-fine kitchen items as prizes.  I think everyone should orchestrate an Easter egg hunt for the big people.  It is always sure to be lots of fun.

Bunny Pinata

Everyone has a bunny pinata for Easter, right?  Auntie Jan and Uncle Joe started bringing a pinata to our get togethers several years ago.  One year we gathered at my Grandma's apartment.  I'm sure we were quite the sight.  We hung the pinata in the breezeway and began to beat on this poor bunny pinata with Grandma's broom handle.  Turns out Grandma's broom handle wasn't so sturdy.  Let's just say Grandma needed a new broom after we were finished.  This year we used Fred's baseball bat.

Tammy, Jonathan and Grandma enjoyed watching the festivities!

Jonathan is trying to figure out what happened

I think TJ's form could use some work, but he made great contact with the poor, defenseless bunny

Pretty in purple.. Molina was next up to bat

Jess got in a good whack!

And, Chris was the one that managed to bust it open (despite Fred's efforts to keep him from making contact with the pinata)

The looters going in for the candy!

Now, doesn't that make you want to have a pinata next Easter?

Confetti Eggs

Every year my Auntie Jan brings confetti eggs (I don't know their Spanish name, so that is the name that I'm going with) to our get togethers. 

Of course, that is always bad news for a boy with ADHD! Jonathan has a hard time using his self-control when it comes to confetti eggs.

Even though his self-control is at a minimum, he has an absolute blast!  And, quite frankly, he isn't the only one that gets a little crazy.  Yes, I'm talking about you, Auntie Jan!

Everyone gets in on the act.  Even the littlest of littles.

And, we always make sure that the non-participators get hit!

No one is exempt... even if you are in charge of grilling.

Happy Easter!

We started this morning out just like most every other family... with a visit from the Easter Bunny!  However, at 14 and 11, the kids' loot isn't nearly as fun as it was when they were little. 

We had quite the Easter celebration on Saturday.  I think Jonathan needed more sleep, before getting up on Sunday morning.  Just looking at this picture makes me yawn!

Jessie was fresh out of the shower!  She must have been pretty tired too... her shirt was on backwards.  I realized it over breakfast and pointed it out to her. 

Jessie wearing her Easter attire.  I didn't buy new Easter outfits this year.  I brought out Jessie's 2008 Easter skirt, and bought a new blouse to go with it. 

Jonathan is still looking tired in his picture.  He is sporting his new turquoise shirt that matches Jessie's skirt.

How sweet is this?

Me with my sweet kids!  And, no, I didn't have anything turquoise to wear. 

We had a great time with family on Saturday (I will write about that later), and then the we had fun checking out what the Easter Bunny brought on Sunday.  The best part of the weekend was going to church Sunday morning.  We had the opportunity to learn about the true meaning of Easter.  Each and every day I am thankful for the Atoning sacrifice of our Saviour, Jesus Christ.  However, I especially love the reminders on Easter.  I hope that our faith has been renewed and our testimonies strengthened today.