Happy Easter!

We hope you all had just as beautiful and blessed a day as we did!  We were blessed to be able to spend time with both sides of our families and to enjoy some gorgeous weather.  We attended a beautiful Easter service and are remembering the true reason for the season and all that we have be so thankful for! And, we had a really good time in the process...

Ella was lucky enough to have multiple Easter bunnies come to visit her this year.  The first one showed up at Grandma and Grandpa Carnes' house...

Ella enjoyed checking out all the gifts :)  Including, her very own Princess cellphone.  You know, just in case she needs instant access to Cinderella.

And, probably the winner of "Most Exciting Easter Gift" was BUBBLES!  Seriously, the girl is obsessed!!!!

We took a break to read a few books...

And even remembered our good manners.  This is a picture of Ella saying thank you - or "Tank Toos" as she would say.  She is very good with her manners these days and this makes me so proud.  (Although, it is unfortunately countered by the constant stream of "No" and "Mine" - How are we old enough for this!?!?)

We headed over to the church for Easter breakfast.  We didn't quite make it to the sunrise service but we did enjoy some early morning coffee, yummy breakfast, fellowship and, of course, some delicious milk from our Easter Bunny cup!

 
Afterwards, we went home and changed in to our Easter clothes and came back for the service.  Ella spent her time playing in the nursery and looking cute :)  And, yes, those are pearls.  She is a Southern Belle after all!

This is Ella's new pose every time I squat down to take her picture.  She is such a copy cat these days!

And a family pic by the cross...

A little playtime with Grandma and Grandpa...

We headed over to Great Grandma and Great Papa Sweems for  delicious Easter dinner.  Ella had a blast playing with all her cousins.  As an added bonus, Mary Grace and John had BUBBLES! 

Looking adorable in her Sunday best!

Hanging out with Mary Grace.

Grandma and Grandpa got Ella this adorable little mini folding chair and she loved it!  Should be great for tailgaiting for those Gamecocks in the fall!!

Enjoying a little juice with John.  I'm not sure who came up with the idea of juice with a cute little character on top but I sure wish it was me.  I've never met a kid who didn't think juice tastes a million times sweeter with their favorite TV character on top!

And, finally, there was an Easter Egg hunt!!  This marks Ella's 3rd hunt this year so by this time she was a seasoned veteran.  But, there is a chance she may have a had a little help from Mom.

And, Grandma...

Luckily, Ella could enjoy the hunt with only about 3 eggs.  She mostly just likes to pick them up then dump them out and pick them up again.

After lunch we hit the road and headed back to Winston-Salem.  As you may have read previously in the blog, our in-laws have graciously been keeping Maggie while we were trying to sell our house but since we are under contract now (hooray!!!) Maggie got to come home this weekend. We have really been missing her - not her hair - but her.  We are so appreciative to the Carnes for watching our "first" little girl and are so glad to have her home.  Both the girls were zonked on the way home and pretty much slept the entire way.

Which was great so we were rested and ready to play with Granna and Papa!

We played in the yard with the pups...

And found our second surprise from the Easter bunny!!!

What a lucky little girl...

Checking out the loot...

All in all we have had a fun, and busy, weekend!  We are thankful as always to share with our loved ones and would like to take the time now to wish all those we could not be with a very Happy Easter!  We love and miss you all and hope to see you very soon :)

We'll have lots more pics of our beach adventure and John Dickson's third birthday to come so check back soon!