happy Easter day!

we are so happy to have little A home especially since we get to see liv clothes again

cheeks is my "best medicine" and boy i needed it today!

I can never have enough pic's of this girl

the tye dye twins

this pic is a must have since she ends up on his lap every time she sees him

so happy to have the uppers here

cheeks was the talent show

poor jon was sick so he enjoyed it from here

yea i was on the couch or I would have stopped gray from hunting in his socks

what a great family day praising Jesus for the greatest act of love ever done.

a funny stories

so we were waiting at the international terminal today and here comes out our friend like this pushing this huge kart with loads of luggage by herself so funny it was several minutes before the rest of them followed along
and then on our Easter egg hunt to even the field we made the big guys wear winter gloves

sky taped his bag to his glove so he wouldn't have to hold it, it made for a fun hunt.

we celebrated a lot today!

we were quite proud of our kids today, this morning they were given a choice to go to church for the Easter egg hunt or go to the airport to see some of our favorite girls come home, you see which they unanimously chose

yes, more family home in the USA!

and thankfully we could enjoy the great weather

hum I found these two on the swing had to get a picture

no need to worry about the kids when livs around

they were "rock stars going to the rock star show" G was humming a tune and baby A was copying him humming the same tune it was so cute they are best buds

we left that fun to have coloring egg fun

favorite eggs

ready for the basket hunt

gray found all his clues that led to his basket

lookin good

and then gray lost his second tooth~ toothless joe

what do we do on good friday?

craft naturally, yep there was a craft day organised and aunt betty, one of the craft queens planned out great projects
we actually are simple to please. Give us some beads and juice pouches and we can sit together at a table for hours, grandma gail would have loved today, so glad her sisters have taken over the fun

me? i played with cheeks I tried to teach her how to text but I think she needs a few more (hundred) sessions with me!

if you've been to Melrose in the last 80 years...

you will recognize what has left the building. yep the ever loved un-tuned piano has made it's final exit. family came from miles away to help
before you get all teary eyed know this, we loved the piano but our family is getting larger, in size not number, and we need to extend our dinning room table to accommodate us all and in the history of this house people always mattered more than things so it was time for it to go. Do know this- a scrapper has already come around to make a different use of it reduce-reuse-recycle.

how 4 minutes &58 seconds made today great

B had a race this week on Thurs. "the Don relays"
the big smiles on every ones faces is because B broke the 5min mark for his 1 mile. This is a very big deal even more so for a freshman runner and total bonus he had a cheering section! Thanks shawn &suz for braving the unseasonable weather you guys are the best!

sparky fun fair 2011

and wa hoo we had more cousins in town and you know how we love our cousins!
I was sooooo proud to see my 2 sparkies in 1st and 3rd place

sadly we were missing one cousin who had a high fever

and here is our newest cousin

I am more than thrilled to have my baby working in sparks carrying on a long tradition

we have cousins on both sides, nothin better

me and my newest little babes and we are both sad because she was leaving to go back home to the east coast.

generations of Gods faithfulness

today was a great day the kind that doesn't come along often. Our entire family is in town and minus uncle Bill we were all happy to smile around the amazing woman who leads this family the complete great grand children picture, well until #20 comes in Sept. God is so great

here we are thanking him for our food and family camp style- so perfect

"Take a picture mom. I'm the dad and these are my sons"

the weather was such a blessing a beautiful day for celebrating palm Sunday

finally I get to hold "cheeks" a 6 hour drive keeps me from kissing those cheeks as much as I'd like

one thing that is true - we love to have fun together, it just happens we can't help it

cousins make the best buddies

more big f-u-n

I feel I hardly need to sum this post up but I enjoy every opportunity to give God the glory.

There once was a man who fell in love with a beautiful woman and together decided to devote there lives to Jesus and see what He had in store for them. Guaranteed it has not been as fun as today we have trudged through devastating blows have even lost some along the way, well not lost we know where they are and because of those 2 godly people we celebrate the love we have for each other in a way that is only possible for those who follow the hero of palm Sunday.