Easter Pictures

The Warrens & the McDonalds

Our family picture

Ryan's sisters came to visit and had lunch with us on Easter Sunday - here's a group of all of them

Those cutie little McDonald kids!

My 3 beautiful children

We were under tornado warnings for a while and had the sirens going off.  Once that passed, Matthew went out in the rain to prepare our yummy Easter kabob lunch.  Thanks honey!

Yummy!!!

Easter Basket Hunt

Last year when the McDonald's visited, the Easter Bunny made the kids find their baskets.  This year, he was a bit more creative.  All 9 of the kids woke to a note from the Easter Bunny telling them they were on a hunt for their baskets.  They had to work together and go place to place with each other to find the next clue.  It had rained the night before so some of the clues got wet and the grass was quite wet while they were searching, but had fun and found their baskets!!

The letter the kids woke up to

Most of the kids (minus Carter) ready for the hunt

Christian reading his clue (he found in the fridge)

Under Rebecca's tree

In the back of the car

Under the porch

Under the welcome mat

Under the trampoline

In the mailbox

Here they are!!!

Julianna with her basket

Christian with his basket

Rebecca and her basket

The McDonald's with their baskets!

Decorating Easter Eggs

The kids were so excited to decorate eggs again this year!!!

Owen can hardly wait

Julianna & Caleb

Dylan concentrating hard

Tiffany & I had fun with the egg wraps!

Doesn't that look good?  Way to go, Tiff!

Christian found these stickers stuck on his arm - so they are no his eyes....get it?

Rebecca with her eggs

Jordan made some cops & robber eggs.  Here's the cop!

Here's the robber!!!

Julianna with her eggs

Christian's Ninja egg

Owen had so much fun

Gabby was proud of hers, too

Caleb - what a cutie!

The big boy eggs

Our set of Veggie Tales eggs

Owen snuck one and I had to chase him down to get this picture.  Too cute!

New Responsibilities!

Matthew took Christian out and taught him how to drive the riding lawn mower.  He has great hopes that Christian will take over this job for the summer!

He doesn't look real thrilled, does he?  Man, I tried to tell him that not only did I have to push the mower in my days, I also had to rake up the clippings and bag them!  You would think he'd appreciate it....oh but if you've read my previous blogs, he's now 13....'nuff said!

A Surprise Gift!

I have not blogged about the personal journey I've been on and won't necessarily go into it now, although many of my readers (ha - I know it's just my family who reads this, if I'm lucky!) already know what I've been doing.  But since November, I have been changing my diet and exercise habits.  I have a personal trainer, who just happens to be a friend of mine and she's my own little miracle worker.

I showed up for my work out and weekly weigh in in April and much to my surprise, my sweet friend had a 20 pound gift for me.  That's not how much the gift weighed, but a gift to me for losing my first 20 pounds!  I was so overwhelmed with her sweet gesture.  So I had to take pictures and do a short blog on it.  I had to share with you!

Isn't just the package the prettiest?!?

I got a Gatorade, a hand held fan (because I'm always complaining about how hot I am), a cold pack for when I get too hot, a soft towel to get wet & drape over me when I'm too sweaty for my liking and a wonderful set of ponytail holders that have major gripping and hold my hair back.  Isn't this the greatest?!?  

Thanks to Rachel, my trainer & more importantly my friend!

Easter weekend Visitors

The McDonald family came to visit us again this year over Easter.  They are friends who moved here from Ohio and we got to know them from church and then they moved back to Ohio.  But we love having them come visit us.....especially on Easter weekend.

The usually arrive on Thursday evening and then spend Good Friday with Family as we usually go to Leiper's Fork with my family.  But our plans changed this year, so we stayed home while they went to visit with Ryan's sister.  It ended up being a really good thing for us to stay here and get a few things done.

Julianna ended up with a fever that Friday and took a nap (without being told!) 

The house seemed awfully quiet and this is how we found Christian - sound asleep on the couch (that never happens!)

Matthew got the chance to work on his message while Julianna napped & I worked out!

This is Carter - the baby of the family - what a cutie!

As always, we love a bit of friendly competition

Ryan is one serious player, regardless of what it is we're playing

Gabby & Carter watching

Sweet little Maggie

This is Owen - the only Tennessee born McDonald - see the hat???

Julianna with Dylan & Caleb