Easter Memories

We had a very nice Easter weekend.  It was full of family and friends! :)  We started off saturday with an Easter egg hunt with our church.  The kids found a TON of candy - Susanna even found some money and a prize ticket.  The weather was much cooler than I had anticipated it would be, though.  But it was tolerable. 
After our church Easter hunt we went to Rylee's house for her birthday party.  The kids LOVE going to D and Ry's house!!  We had lunch with them and then we had an Easter egg hunt at their house.  Each kid there found some money eggs as well :) And finally on saturday we came home and daddy helped the kids dye their Easter eggs. 
We woke up on Sunday morning to MUCH NEEDED RAIN!!  It rained all day but because we have been in such a bad drought I don't think anyone was complaining.  We had a wonderful service at church and the church even served breakfast.  Don't know why I didnt' take pictures there?  After church we went to Great Grandma's for lunch and another Easter egg hunt.  This time we had to do it inside because it was raining all day!  The kids had so much fun.  We are so thankful for our friends and family and for our Savior Jesus whom Easter is all about!! 


Here are lots of pictures of our weekend!

Matt this egg for me :)

The Easter baskets for the kiddos...

 My sweet girls on Easter morning...

 Violet in her cute Easter dress...

Philip got these goofy glasses at Great Grandmas :)

 Daddy hiding some of the eggs INSIDE since it was too rainy to go outside :)

 Easter is like Christmas at Great Grandma's with all of the gifts the kids get :)

House Update - We're Almost There!

We took a trip over the weekend out to the house to check on the progress.  Our builder says we will be ready to close within 30 days!!!  This brings out much excitement AND apprehension.  Can't wait to move into our new house that is just the way I wanted it, but we have SO MUCH TO DO to get ready to move!! I was so excited yesterday, though, when the Fed Ex guy delivered two huge boxes from the Container Store!! I spend a couple of days browsing their website for things to help make our lives more organized :)  I found several different types of drawer organizers, under cabinet organizers, pantry organziers, etc.  I wanted to open the box and dig right in but I knew I'd never be able to get them all packed in the box again so I'll wait until we get moved.  :)  So, yes, we do have a lot of packing still to do - and our garage is almost full of stuff already.  It's a lot of work.  Anyway...here are some of the latest pics....

We have appliances now!  I'm scared to death that the person who stole our copper will come back and steal our appliances.  Ugh.  I pray that doesn't happen.  I have to say that I am SUPER happy I had them install under cabinet lighting.  Yay!

The kitchen sink area - very messy from the electrician and his boxes he didn't throw away. Again, loving the under cabinet lighting!  :)

The kitchen sink.  Since I couldn't really afford the farmhouse kitchen sink I wanted, I opted for a single basin sink so my skillets and casserole dishes can all fit in there.  I don't wash dishes in the sink so I don't really need a divider in there.  This sink is made of composite granite. 

My cheery laundry room.  I'm loving the yellow! :)  We are having to change out the faucet on the sink, though.  That faucet won't work to get the mud outta my kids clothes/shoes!

The kids bathroom.  Yep, it's blue :)

The master bathroom sink/vanity.  Just needs a mirror.

The fireplace.  So happy with the sconces!!! :)

Cherry Cream Cheese Tart Recipe

Today I made this yummy Paula Deen Recipe here  They are called Cherry Cream Cheese Tarts, although you could make blueberry or strawberry or whatever you'd like.  We had a cookout with church tonight so I thought these would be good since they were individually wrapped.  Plus, I saw Paula Deen on the Rachel Ray show the other day and she made them and I've been looking for a reason to make them! :)

This is what you need...cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, vanilla wafers, eggs and pie filling or preserves. (Please overlook the spilled bowl of dog food in the background...I don't know why my dog insists one digging for very specific pieces of his dog food, therefore spilling half the bowl!) 

After mixing the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla and eggs...

Into the oven...

They kind of puff up when the bake and then they sink back down and have an indention so you can put the filling on top. 

The recipe says to use a paper cupcake liner but I would suggest that you either get the thicker foil ones or use two-three liners per tart.  Seems to me that just one was way too flimsy...as you can see from my odd shaped one in this picture! :)  Or maybe it was because I was too impatient to let them COMPLETELY cool off in the muffin pan. :)  They were yummy, though!!

Oklahoma Skies...

It is spring in Oklahoma and that means that there will be plenty of storms.  I am one of those freakish people that actually ENJOYS watching the weatherman on the t.v. telling me about possible tornadoes in Sasakwa or some other place that isn't really near to my home.  (And I especially pay attention when the storms are headed my way.)  When you live in Oklahoma and there are storms nearby that means you will have beautiful skies!!  Tonight as the sun set the light outside was a beatiful orange color.  This is one reason that I really can't wait to get moved...so I will have much better views of the skyline.  Where we live now, all I can see are the tops of houses and trees.  Anyway...thought I'd share a couple pictures. 

These are two pics I took just now...I wish my camera was able to capture the "orange-ness" of the sky tonight! 

I took these pictures the other day.   I wish I knew technical terms, but this "big 'ol cloud" was very pretty!  :) 

Yes, I took a picture while i was driving.  Aren't those clouds awesome? 

This storm was interesting because all of the "bad" weather was just east of us.  You could see a very distinct difference b/w the clouds that were over me (the light feathery ones) and the dry line/front that was east of us causing tornados. 

My Little Puzzle Man!

My sweet Philip LOVES puzzles!! He is particularly fond of "States" puzzles.  (That's what he calls them :) He has a US Puzzle at his Grandma's house and we recently found this one buried under a bed from when Madeline was younger.  So, yesterday, I helped him a little with the frame.  Then, today he did the entire thing by himself in about 5 minutes!  It is 48 pieces and is 2x3 feet.  He has even started learning the states and how to locate them on the map he does these puzzles so much - and his grandma helps him so much!  He can identify Oklahoma (of course!), Texas, California, Maine, Florida, Washington, Oregon, Tennessee and Kentucky!  We are working on more of the central states.  It's so fun to watch him grow!! 

A Summer of Oklahoma Festivals - The Apache Rattlesnake Festival

Today we loaded up the car and went on an adventure to the Apache Rattlesnake Festival!  This is an Oklahoma Festival that we have never visited.  Apache is one of the areas that Matt has become more familiar with lately because of his job so he heard about this and we decided to go.  The girls were pretty excited to go too.  After thinking about it, I realized I had never seen a rattlesnake before (other than at the zoo).  And I had never heard their rattlers in real life before.  I decided today that we need to try to make this a "Summer of Oklahoma Festivals".  I told Matt we should see how many different festivals we can go to this summer.  We always go to the Watermelon festival and I know there are all kinds of other festivals around here - so we'll see what happens! :)  Anyway...here are some of the pictures of our adventure!

Lots of tables with random trinkets to look at and shop through...

I'm teaching my girls at a young age to "junk" and look for treasure!  They are looking at a table of marbles here...

Here we are in line to see the rattlesnakes!

Madeline and her ticket....

And here they are...MANY MANY rattlesnakes!! and ALL of their rattlers were a 'buzzin....

Daddy holding SuSu so she can get a better view.  We were in room with a built-in cage (it had windows for viewing) while a couple of very BRAVE men stood in the middle and demonstrated the snakes and did a little educational talk about them. 

This is a "Coachwhip" snake that wasn't poisonous so they let the kids touch it's tail.  My kids weren't afraid.  I didn't touch it, though. 

This is a rattlesnake.  And those men would irritate one of the ones on the ground and the snake would strike at their feet but they were wearing boots that protected their feet. 

Mommy and her sweet Violet.  Doesn't she look too cute to be in there with a bunch of scary snakes!  :)

We needed to take a rest and feed the baby...

On the way home we stopped at CiCi's for pizza.  Violet got her first taste of chocolate in the form of a brownie.  She LOVED it! :)