So, I'm finally here to do my Easter post. I know, I know, it's been over a week. But we've all been sick (in fact, we're all still sick) and I just haven't had the energy to upload pictures and clean them up so I could make a post. But I got all my (very minimal) editing done this morning and I'm ready to roll.

To start off the weekend, on Friday afternoon we headed over to Eli's parents house for the night. It was so nice to get to visit with them. They live just far enough away that we don't get over there but every so often. Saturday was Markus' first birthday and the party was in the front yard. I was really cute. It was nautical themed and Erin did really well with the decorations. She had the cutest little touches that I would have never come up with. I wish I had gotten some pictures, but I was videoing instead. The birthday boy looked like he had tons of fun digging into his cake. And Helen helped Markus open his presents. Actually, she opened most of his presents without him, but it was cute. After the guests left and we got everything cleaned up, Eli's Dad set up the studio and we did pictures. We haven't had pictures of all three of us since Brayden was tiny. I'm really excited to see how they look.

We headed back to Mobile that evening and went to my mother's to dye Easter eggs. It was tons of fun! We had six dozen eggs. Yes, six dozen. We only lost a few. We had six kinds of dye. We combined a couple to get stronger dye, gave Brayden a couple cups of his own, and we had stuff to make them glitter, tie dye, and egg stencils. It was quite a spread. Little man was so covered in dye by the end of it! I wasn't able to get it all off for Easter the next morning. Here's some highlights.








Brayden's Corner (the blue and green egg on the far side of the egg carton are Brayden's very own works of art)


Our finished products

Sunday morning we got up and headed to church in time to see the butterflys released. It's an Easter tradition that every year Ms Candy gets caterpillars and puts them on display several weeks before Easter. It lets the kids watch them as they transform and then they release them on Easter morning. This year they were housed in individual boxes so each child could release a butterfly. Daddy helped Brayden set a butterfly free while I got some cute shots. Brayden was more interested in the wrapping than what was inside.











I wish I had gotten a good shot of Brayden in his little outfit, but it was too cold and by the time church was over, he was so tired. I suppose now that it's warmer I'll get him dressed and go to the church to get a few pictures.

After Brayden's nap Mom, Clint, and Michelle came over to do a little Easter egg hunt (one for Brayden, and one for the older kids) and watch Brayden open his basket. He racked up this year. He was totally more into the chocolate than the toys. Now I have to get Eli into the front yard one Saturday to build a frame to hang his new swing from. Brayden's just loved his new bath toys. He thinks the fishing set is just hilarious.







Well, that's about it. We've been working on getting over this virus and I've been planning my Aunt Sharon's baby shower. I'm really having a lot of fun. I'll give you all the details later.

~Liz