See What A Morning

We had a GREAT Easter day! It started off with our traditional Easter Treasure Hunt. The kids get treasure clues and follow the clues to locate their basket. Will was "suppose" to be able to open the eggs (that the clues were in) and then Worthy would read them.

There was a little drama, but it all ended well.

After a wonderful morning at church we came home and had a great Easter dinner. For a number of years I've been wanting to make lamb for Easter, but in the past morning sickness & early pregnancy exhaustion deflated my ambition. So this year, I finally tackled making a leg of lamb - and we were thrilled with the results. It will definitely become an Easter tradition! Here was our Easter Menu.

Leg of Lamb
Scalloped Potatoes
Steamed Asparagus
Cafe Salad - Spring Greens with pears, candied pecans and gorgonzola cheese
Rolls
Lemon Curd Trifle

Dan's parents joined us and helped to make a great holiday even more wonderful. More importantly, worshiping on Sunday morning was really amazing. We had attended a very powerful Maundy Thursday service and there was a tangible anticipation of Sunday morning celebration. He is Risen Indeed!

Faces of Calvin

Calvin is officially 3 months old now and he's starting to show some personality.

He enjoys "playing" on his mat. Unfortunately, he doesn't get to do this as much as he would probably like. We've had more than one incident of big brothers forgetting he was there. And all that playing can make a little baby SO tired...

Ahh, that's more like it :)

And just to show you that it's not smiles & giggles all the time....

NC Cousins

This past week our North Carolina cousins came to visit. It was so wonderful to spend time with them. We adore them! They’re wonderful kids.

It’s such a nice change to have girls with flowered dresses around (even if they are riding four wheelers!)

The weather even allowed us to head down to Fort Island Beach here in Citrus County. I had never been there! When we first moved here, I received an erroneous report that is was gravelly. Seemed very sandy to me - especially since I need to vacuum it all out of my car today.

Spring Fun - Finally!

It's been a cold winter here in Florida. Okay, okay - so it hasn't been Northeastern, Ohio cold, but it's been relatively cold. So, we've finally gotten to be able to enjoy the pool - somewhat. It's ice cold, but the boys don't seem to mind too much.

Will continues to love the water!

I finally got a video of him saying his favorite tag line: "Oh Man".

One of William's favorite past times (to my great annoyance) is throwing things in the pool. Most often those things are Worthy's Hot Wheels cars. Notice the car in his hand...
and now all the cars in the pool...

Brotherly Love?

Worthy & William both seem to be warming up to Calvin. They each seem to love on him in their own way. Worthy loves to show him cars and his toys. He also likes to read to him. This is a shot of Worthy reading his Atlas to Calvin. He spent about 30minutes actually reading to him. I'm not sure who was more entertained.

And William - he loves to hold Calvin and give him kisses. If Calvin is under his playmat, William has a tendency to lay down beside him and hang out.
I'll need to remind myself to check out this post two years from now when they're all fighting over toys.

Calvin's Baptism

Today was Calvin's baptism at church. It was such an amazing experience. I used to be strongly against infant baptism. This was before I understood the beauty of Covenant Theology. Within this framework, the sacrament of baptism is an amazing picture of God's promises to us.

Uncle Peter took these pictures and captured this great shot of Dan & William

During Ray's description of baptism, our Wiggle Worm William gave me some quiet snuggles.

Dan showing off Calvin

Calvin's baptism

We were so fortunate to share this, not only with our church family, but also with Dan's brother and sister-in-law and our nieces and nephew. They came down to visit from North Carolina and we were so thrilled that they were able to be a part of this special day with us.

After church, the kiddos enjoyed a game of checkers while Sheepshead played in the narthex at church. A wonderful morning... until William had a meltdown :)

Favorite Recipes

I'm not an individual that LOVES to cook. That being said, I do like to eat. So I thought I'd list some of our Go-To recipes. These are the ones that we eat regularly - meaning, my kids like them, they're relatively easy to put together and generally healthy.

Beef Stroganoff - Crock pot recipe
Turkey Tetrazzini - Usually I'm not a casserole fan, but this I like. I usually make it in the morning, put it in the fridge and heat it up right before dinner. Generally, I'm not a big leftover fan, but I really like this reheated the next day.
Pasta with Lemon Cream Sauce, Asparagus & Peas - Not make-ahead, but super quick & a lot of flavor.
Farfalle with Turkey Sausage, Peas & Mushrooms
Chunky Potato & Swiss Chowder - Sneaky way to get the kids to eat some veggies. They love this.