Easter Morning, Noon and Night

Some people might think its lame to get a new toothbrush in your Easter basket... but not this girl! Just look how excited she was! What better compliment to chocolate bunnies? (Excuse the bottomless jammies and our unmade bed, if you please.) She got some other stuff too.... like some camouflage "farm shoes" for when we visit the sheep. Two fistfuls of jelly beans will make a girl smile. (Starburst brand - thank you very to my friend Shannon who introduced me many Easter's ago - if you haven't tried them, you should)And I guess I should comment on the skeleton jammies. I almost didn't notice she was wearing them. These are her favorite jammies. She's been wearing them since October. They glow in the dark, so every night that she wears them her daddy takes her into the darkened bathroom where she stands on the counter top and they do a "bone dance" in front of the mirror. It's pretty funny actually. She requests her "bone jammies" every single night. When they aren't clean she asks "Mommy, can you wash them for me so I can wear my bone jammies?"

Church on Sunday morning is the norm, and so is checking out the fish for a while before we can leave.Bibby and Pops invited us to our favorite rib joint for Easter brunch. We arrived to the restaurant early and Leah entertained herself by acting silly and running around... And around.... And around... You get the idea... But this went on for about 30 laps before the rest of the family got there.

After we filled our tummies with prime beef and fixins, Leah needed a little Pops time. When I suggested she get back in her own seat she was beginning to protest......until she saw this bowl of ice cream arrive at her own seat!!! This is the bowl of vanilla bean ice cream that comes with a kids meal. :) Looks daunting... but don't worry... she conquered it.After brunch we headed home for a quick nap (2 hours of Leah telling stories to her babies and singing loudly in her bed) and then out to my Grandpa's for the Cooper side of things.The hunt is on...
When the basket gets too heavy, she gets some help from sweet Bronwyn.Below are all 5 of the Cooper-greats. Check out Jayden snagging Leah's Easter eggs. Not long after this pic was taken he'd practically emptied her basket into his. :) See! And Leah could care less... she's trying desperately to get someone to give her permission to eat her piece of candy... while Jayden is making off with all her other eggs.

Some of the cousins checking out the 4 new, woolly babies in the family.

Leah's favorite Aunt

"Night night sheep!"Think of this... without the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, not one person in the whole world would be celebrating Easter. No baskets, no bunny, no candy, no eggs!

Thank you, Jesus, for your sacrifice. Thank you for your mercy. Thank you for your love.

Easter Eve

On Easter Eve we spent alot of the day with Kevin's side of our family. Leah had her first "organized" egg hunt ever. (Not to say the family egg hunts are disorganized... but you know what I mean.)

She was more than ready. Several times she said, "I want to go hunting, daddy!" Words he's longed to hear for so long. ;)

Checking out her basket... nope... nothing in here yet!

Leah and Madilyn getting all warmed up for the big hunt...First a hug and kiss from Grannie. (This is her Great Grannie - Kevin's Grannie) Look how windy! Leah is pretending to fly.

I think I've had just about enough wind to last me all year. Look at their clothes bubbling up! And the hair going crazy...

Love the egg-speckled grass... as far as you can see!

With the strong winds and heavy basket of loot, she needed a little help from Grannie. The little huntresses checking out their baskets...

Leah(2) Jaxon (3) Madilyn (1)

The first egg Leah opened had a messy, melted, chocolate bunny.... It was opened, and on her face and her dress in nanoseconds!

Grannie helping us sort out the chocolate ones... so we can toss them. :) After a few skittles...

A soft peppermint (love those!)...

Some bouncing...

And sliding...

Then it was off to have some lunch with the family.

I think they look like they could be brother and sister! Weird. She looks so much like my side of the family too!

I bet I took 30 of these trying to get a good one... Close enough...

Grannie with her three great-grand-babies!

And there's PaPaw up top.

After a sweaty nap... she was up and at it again.

"We're gonna color eggs aaaaaaand make cookies?"

(And stay up waaaaay past bedtime!)

What a fun celebration!

He is risen!

I wish Easter came around more often. It is by far my favorite holiday. What a revival it always brings in my heart! Happy Easter!

"He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed." Isaiah 53:5
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Really Really Really Good Friday

I heard this song for the first time a few years ago. God used it to totally transform the way I worship Him. I can't get it out of my head these days. I've been using this blog to boss people around this week.... so if you didn't buy pink shoes like I told you to, at least do this next thing... and listen to this song. :) I believe God gave us the gift of music to bring us closer to Him, and few current songs do that like this one does for me. TRUTH in every.single.word.



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ATTENTION ALL GIRLS!

Do you know what's better than TOMS?

BABY TOMS! Pink, sparkly BABY TOMS!

I truly believe EVERY girl in the world needs some of these. We were innocently looking for new sandals for this spring and summer when we fell in love at first sight. The girl likes accessories already (thanks to her Grandmothers...and Fancy Nancy) but she LOVES her pink TOMS.
Its times like these I wish I was Oprah and could give them to every little girl I meet. "You get pink, sparkle TOMS! And you get a pair and you and you and you!!!!!!"

Just look at them!!!!If you aren't familiar with TOMS click here and read about their "One for One" promise. For every new pair purchased they will give a new pair of shoes to a child in need.

Get some! You won't regret it! For Leah's size, they come in silver sparkle and purple sparkle too, plus some not-so-sparkly colors. You know it probably won't be long before we forsake all other shoes!

(And that last picture has nothing to do with TOMS, she just wanted to keep her sunglasses on while we went grocery shopping... and I wanted to remember it. She's a funny girl.)

Leslie had a little lamb (or 4)

If you name your kid a weird name you have to expect that there will be a few comments made about it behind your back. (I'm not condoning it... its not nice to talk behind people's backs... I'm just saying...) The same goes for sheep. Just keep in mind that these already came with their names.

Meet Dashwood, Wickham, Norris and Brandon! (only not in that order, I don't think)

Leah loves the sheep. This was her first time to have them eat from her hand. It took awhile for them to warm up to new people. They still don't care for me.

Give us a kiss!!

Leah kept saying "Here you go Norris. You want some food, Norris? Norris, come here and get some more treats!"

After we spent plenty of time with the sheep, she ran for a while, like a maniac, through the bluebonnets and then she found a doodle bug and decided she wanted to give it to Grandpa. (That's her great grandpa... 95 years old and spends his days working in his yard and hoeing his garden.)

They had a nice chat about the roly poly and then we released him back into the wild. (The bug, not Grandpa.)