Easter 2012

For Easter this year, I decided to try to coordinate all of our outfits (as some are prone to do)...

Don't we look cute?

Jeff already had his shirt, so I grabbed it and took it with me to find matching/coordinating shirts for me and Deacon.  Success!

Sundays are always pretty busy for us in the morning, getting ready for church so we decided to give Deacon his Easter basket after we got home from church.

He got a little remote control (the boy LOVES remote controls!) and some bubbles (he also LOVES bubbles!) with a hand-held bubble-blower.

It was a beautiful day on Easter Sunday, so we took the bubbles outside to see how the bubble-blower worked...

In the words of my husband, "This thing is the HEAT!"  I'm pretty sure Deacon loved it...score one for mama!

time with Grandma & Grandpa...

Jeff's mom & dad came down to visit a couple weeks ago and they got a pretty fair amount of time with Deacon, which they really enjoyed.  I'm not gonna lie, we took full advantage of them while they were here.  :)

Jeff and I were both involved with an all-day ministry opportunity at a local prison on Feb 11, so that was actually the reason we chose this time period for them to come.  I knew they would enjoy keeping him for us, plus I didn't really have anyone else I wanted to ask to spend their whole day Saturday watching my kid, you know?

As it turned out, while they were here, we had quite a few opportunities to take advantage of the "live-in babysitter" situation (hello, childcare savings!), including a date night together for Valentine's Day.  I actually felt kind of bad that we did take such advantage, but I think if you ask them, they wouldn't see it that way at all. *wink*

a visit from Grandma Sherry...

At the end of September, beginning of October, Jeff's mom, Deacon's Grandma Sherry, came to visit.  Most of Jeff's family lives up in IL (where he's originally from) so Grandpa Duane & Grandma Sherry don't get to see Deacon near as much as they'd like to.  While Grandpa Duane had to stay back and work, Grandma Sherry booked a flight and came to visit for about a week.

(I think she secretly enjoyed having Deacon all to herself. :)

I went to a scrapbook retreat in Ocean Isle Beach Sep 30-Oct 3, and Sherry arrived in Wilmington on Sep 29, staying through Oct 6.  I gave Jeff a hard time about planning when she would come, saying he was a "chicken" about being with Deacon by himself for 3 days but truthfully, it was the perfect time for her to come (and I knew Jeff would be just fine with Deacon by himself :).  I was in OIB and Jeff began a new job of sorts that Monday I was gone (working from home all the time now) so Jeff's mom was able to take care of Deacon for us (saving money on childcare is always a good thing :), which gave her some really good quality time with him.

I know she enjoyed every minute!

They took walks and bike rides together (on our new bikes!), played on the floor with Deacon's toys, sat outside and blew bubbles, enjoying the beautiful weather we had while she was here.  We had lots of sunshine and comfy temperatures while she was here and I know she was so thankful to be able to get out and enjoy it with Deacon.

She always asks us if there's anything we'd like her to make when she's visiting (or we're visiting them) so we got to munch on some of her famous apple crisp, beef stew and yummy banana bread.  We enjoyed having her just as much as Deacon did!  :)  Love you, Grandma Sherry!

Deacon's 1st Easter...

Every year our church has a big Spring Fling for the kiddos for Easter -- everything from egg hunts for all ages, pony rides, bounce houses and food, of course.  We usually participate by serving somewhere but this year we just attended as parents.  :)  And any good parent would take their child to an egg hunt, right?

So that's what we did.  We took Deacon to his first ever egg hunt.  It was at 10:30am last Saturday morning and I thought we were going to get rained on but it turned out to be a pretty day.  Basically, we have this huge field that we just throw a bunch of eggs on and then when the horn blows, all the kids run onto the field to gather as many eggs in their baskets as they can.  No hunting, really.  Just gathering.  For Deacon's egg hunt, the ages were from babies to 1 year olds.  So, pretty much we just sat down somewhere with Deacon and took photos of him chewing on the eggs.

Cuz that's what he does.

But he's dang cute when he's doing it.  :)

And then Easter Sunday, we awoke to a beautiful morning that turned into a gorgeous day.  Exactly what I would order to celebrate the day my Lord Jesus rose from the dead, praise His name!  We dressed Deacon in a cute overalls outfit (I had been told that boys get robbed when it comes to finding cute little outfits for Easter and that was pretty much it -- I ended up going with something he already had that was just as cute as what I found in the stores).

We gave Deacon a little Easter basket with a few things -- some books, a pack of pacifiers and an inflatable beach ball (which he can't play with now, but soon...).  He also got some bubbles, a fuzzy, cuddly stuffed bunny and a little outfit from family.

We had a nice day -- awesome service at church, good lunch with friends and then just relaxing the rest of the day.  Jeff's younger brother, Tim, and his wife, Leslie, were here for the weekend so it was nice to visit with them.  We took a walk around the neighborhood...it was just a really nice day.

[hard to see his eyes with his cool sunglasses on,

but I think he was watching the bubbles...]

Hope you all had a blessed Easter, too!

[6 mos]