Easter Weekend

Once again Maw-Maw and Pop came down to celebrate Easter with us.  Kenny and Esra came too!  Meike is expecting their second baby and has been very sick.  A four hour car ride would have been impossible to bear.  We certainly missed her!

Maw-Maw and Pop got here on Thursday and took the kids to the trailer to spend the night.  Date night for us!  We ended up eating out in town and getting the house back together after the floor installation was finally over.

Kenny and Esra arrived on Friday afternoon.  We went to Bob's Taco Station for dinner...one of our faves that was featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives!  On Saturday morning, we went to the RV park where my parents were camping to dye eggs and go to an Easter egg hunt.

About 2 seconds after this picture was taken, both kids busted!  I guess they tripped when they took off running.

Poor Campbell cried while hunting eggs because he hurt his leg when he fell.

And this is when Kenny pushed Bailey down.  He was trying to show Campbell where some eggs were, but Bailey rushed in to get them so Kenny tried to stop her.  This family is ruthless!

They were all smiles afterward though!  They both got gold and silver eggs that they got to trade in for a prize so they were happy!

On Sunday morning, the kids came home to find that the Easter bunny had been here!  Their buckets contained all kinds of goodies including earbuds (Barbie for Bailey, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for Cam), sidewalk chalk, bubble bath, bath poof/sponge, Peeps-on-a-sick, and more candy!  They were thrilled!

Obligatory tree pictures in our Easter Sunday best...

Cousins!

Maw-Maw and Pop with all the grandkids

Maw-Maw and Pop

 Three Generations of Furnells

We had another egg hunt at our house after lunch.  Esra got a head start.. 

Then Campbell...

And then Bailey...

Esra got tired of hunting eggs, so he played in the playhouse!

Because we can't have an Easter egg hunt without tears...

This is real life...

An attempt to get all the kids...one crying, one not looking, oh well!

We had a great weekend together dying eggs, hunting eggs, and other commercialized Easter related things.  But we know, that we know, that we know that the true meaning of Easter is that the son of God came to earth, lived a sinless life, died on a cross for our sins, and then rose again.  He lives!  We are so grateful for our Savior!

These two verses of one of my favorite songs sums it all up:

In Christ alone, who took on flesh, fullness of God in helpless babe
This Gift of love and righteousness, scorned by the ones He came to save'Til on that cross as Jesus died, the wrath of God was satisfiedFor every sin on Him was laid, here in the death of Christ I live
There in the ground His body lay, light of the world by darkness slainThen bursting forth in glorious Day, up from the grave He rose againAnd as He stands in victory, sin's curse has lost its grip on meFor I am His and He is mine, bought with the precious blood of Christ

In Christ Alone, Travis Cottrell

New Floors!

We spent the last few days of Spring Break packing up and moving almost everything in the house to prepare for our new floor installation.  We got rid of the carpet in the living room, dining room, and bedrooms.  We crammed all of our stuff into the kitchen, bathrooms, and garage to get it out of the way.  Needless to say, our house was a mess for two weeks! We had two great guys install it for us, but the process took a lot longer that we expected.  They worked two full weekends and several weeknights in between.  One of the guys worked all day on Thursday before Good Friday to finish it up before the holiday weekend.  We are so pleased with how it turned out - and to get our house back in order! 

Before pictures of the living room and dining room:

I didn't take "before" pictures of the bedrooms...just imagine ugly carpet!

After:

Dining room

Our bedroom

Office

Campbell's room

Bailey's room

cutie patooties

flowers for mom!

spring picture day - 2nd grade

Spring Break: Camping

On Tuesday, we went camping for the first time.  Campbell has been asking to go camping in a tent for over a year, so we finally went.  My Eagle Scout husband was excited to show us the ropes of camping.  Our diva daughter and I were a bit apprehensive!  We went to Brazos Bend State Park, which is about an hour and fifteen minutes from home.

As soon as we arrived, we unloaded the car and started gathering firewood.  

After we gathered enough wood to make a campfire, we set out on a hike.  First, we visited the Nature Center and saw some snakes and baby alligators.

Daddy touched a snake!

Baby Alligator

Then, we walked around the first of two lakes.  This one was half a mile.  It was so pretty and peaceful!

 See the alligator?

Two more alligators!

 I can't believe we were that close to them!

Lake # 2 - this one was 1.7 miles...the kids did great!

Bailey and Daddy

 More alligators!

When we got back to our campsite, Judd insisted that we needed more firewood so I took the kids to the playground while he hunted for more wood.  Then he started the fire!

Our campsite - we had a screen shelter that we kept our food in.

Our humble tent...it's a 3 person tent, and there are 4 of us.  Yeah, that was fun!

Bailey loved sitting by the campfire!

Cooking hot dogs for dinner...yum!

After it got dark, we roasted marshmallows and made s'mores!  The kids loved it and ate more marshmallows than I could count!  We spent the rest of the evening by the campfire.  It was getting pretty chilly, but we stayed warm by the fire.  We finally decided it was time to go to bed so we all piled into our tiny tent and tried to sleep.  Despite putting the kids in warm pajamas and me wearing three shirts and sweatpants, it was freezing!  I don't know how much Judd and I slept.  We were both cold, and he was so stopped up that he couldn't breathe.  The kids woke up at 6:30 saying they wanted to go home because they were freezing.  Campbell was also stopped up and couldn't stop coughing.  We ended up putting the kids in the car, turning on the heat, and packing everything up in the dark. We were out of there by 7:00 and home by 8:15!

We really did have a great time, but I think if we go tent camping again, we'll go when it's warmer!