New life through Easter

Easter was a little bit of a whirlwind for us this year since we had been travelling.  We got back to Emerson in Durham in time for dinner on Saturday night and then hauled back to Charlotte and tucked in bed around 11:00 before a quick sleep and quick wake up.  Terry and I both volunteer at church, which we have loved being a part of; it just means an earlier start.  Terry volunteers and leads in two areas - Connections and something called 'Next Level.'  He helps people who are new get connected at/in the church and praying with people after services.  He is made for this in my mind, and I love to see him being a part of this.  I do something called Band Hospitality which just means that I make breakfast for the band.  Our band at Elevation is incredibly talented, and it's an honor to get to serve them.  Thanks to Pinterest, I haven't even run out of new breakfast ideas.  Thankfully Emerson loves being at church and is comfortable and familiar with all the people she is with and easily hangs out there with us for several hours on the weekends.  Easter service was again amazing as it was last year.  It isn't posted yet as I write this blog, but hopefully when it posts for you, the service will be up on the website so you can check it out.  

One part of the Pinterest inspired breakfast, photo tweeted by one of the band members:

After church, we just hung out outside enjoying the fresh air as a family.  Emerson read the Sunday paper, mowed the lawn with a lawn mower she picked up from Caleb's house, and found a roly poly with her dad, which she thought was very cool.  She has a Scholastic video with a little show called "Bugs, Bugs, Bugs," which she loves.  It has a roly poly in it and she always laughs at it with Terry; so they were excited to find a real one and see how it rolled into a little ball!

No joke, when she picked up the comics, she said, "Here's the one for kids."  

We didn't talk a ton about Easter this year for several reasons - we weren't together the week before, and how do you broach death on a cross with a 2 year old?  We did read Easter books about Jesus, and if you ask Emerson why we celebrate Easter, she will tell you it's because we are celebrating that Jesus is in heaven - which we are, so at least we have laid the foundation in the right place!  Again, thanks to Pinterest, Emerson got to eat her Easter dinner out of Easter eggs (while in her pjs), which she thought was so great that we have been packing her lunch that way the rest of the week so far.  

Hope you all had a good Easter, and this little girl... 

wanted to tell you in light of celebrating new life at Easter...

Surprise!  Family of four in October, here we come!  Now you know why I let my ironing pile grow for several weeks.  I had been exhausted beyond reason but am back to the land of the living and we are all as excited as Emerson is in this picture!

Spring Break

I know you are going to be surprised that this is going to be another cell phone upload update...and that it is again long overdue.  Hopefully the exorbitant amount of pictures I'm about to post will make up for all of that.  Before I get into 'spring break,' I should back up a weekend to when Emerson and I took a girls' trip to Georgia to visit Kristi and Carver.  I didn't take my camera with me, but it was such a fun quick trip and you can read all about it here.  No really, you should, they had so much fun!

Last week was my mom's spring break from school - she is a 1st grade teacher extraordinaire.  It was also Beth's youngest daughter's spring break, and they took the week to go to the beach - I felt a little jealous but was so excited for them to have a week away, we all know she works so hard to help us raise our little girl so well and want her to have all the breaks and respite she deserves!  I am really sad to say that after an entire week with her Grammy, I don't have a single picture of them together from the week!  Mom came to our house  to keep Emerson Monday & Tuesday and while she was here, she did what she always does - plays maid!  I promise my house is clean, but she loves to clean, so I had inadvertently (maybe) been storing up a huge pile of ironing for her, and she totally knocked it out.  Gary Chapman might need to add a 6th Love Language, and it would be ironing...and it might be mine.  As in, iron for me to show me love, clearly not that I iron to show you love! :)  Thanks mom!  Meanwhile, she played and played and played with Emerson who chose her Grammy over her mommy the entire week.  That was okay with me though because that's how I want their relationship to be; I love how they love each other.  Wednesday, they went to Winston and then Friday traveled a little further to Durham to spend the night at Adam & Ashley's with Caleb.  Meanwhile, back home, Terry and I traveled Thursday-Saturday to Asheville for our 5 year anniversary trip.  How in the world 5 years has come and gone is beyond me - 5 amazing years!  We had the best time and are so thankful for all the people who love our girl so well to have let us go on our trip and feel so restful and confident that she was so well taken care of and having a blast without us!  Here's a photo tour of her week via my phone and pics sent to me from Grammy & Laura's phones:

While Grammy was here, we walked to Rita's and Emerson enjoyed 3 sample cups full of italian ice

Her hair had gotten absurdly long, so when they got to Winston, mom took her to get her hair cut with our beloved Ashley who cuts our hair - her little hair cut is so cute to me!  There was always a chipmunk, bunny, mouse, or other creature sharing a meal with Emerson at mom's house!

Emerson worked hard to help mom plant some new flowers in her planters by the front door and water them in true Emerson fashion - half naked.  She prefers this way because she loves to have her little body sprayed with the hose!  Hope this isn't inappropriate...do I need to make this blog private??

Every good gardener deserves a popsicle for their hard day's work!

Or maybe they just get ice cream because they are at their Grammy's house.  See all the little creatures again?  The chipmunk is the infamous "Chippy" who likes to live in her armpit, as she and Caleb sang about in a previous video post.

The two silly cousins before bed one night - I am told they had an absolute blast together and played hard together Friday & Saturday!

Eating a muffin the size of her head for breakfast one morning

Meanwhile, we, the parents, were still off enjoying this (ah, Asheville, how I love you...)

And when we got back to pick Em up in Durham, after a delicious dinner at Adam's house, the kids had a quick pajama egg hunt before we hopped in the car

More on Easter coming up later this week!  Thanks Grammy, Laura, Adam, Ashley & Rocky-Pop for playing with and loving on our little girl.  Especially you Grammy, we all love you and are so thankful for you and ALL you did for all of us this past week!