Egg Hunts and More!

I am a tad bit late posting photos from our Eggs hunts. Sophie participated in five egg hunts and Emma-Caroline participated in four. We have candy eggs galore! And that sneaky Mr. Easter Bunny stopped by last night with more candy for my girls Easter baskets! It seems there was a good sale on candy at the Fresh Market and he just couldn't resist restocking the candy supply at the Avery House! This first week of the Easter season (and yes, Easter continues for 50 days after Easter day until Pentecost) has been full of some weariness from our Easter day joyfulness, but mostly lots of happiness and fun filled days with Sophie being on Spring Break. I will only be sharing our Easter Egg hunt photos as somehow in all the merriment of Sophie's spring break, I did not take a single photo. Happy Weekend!

Neighborhood Egg hunt, one of many!

Our neighborhood friends, Harlan, Sophie, Emma-Caroline, Ruby, and Parkey

The photos below were taken by Vaiden on Easter Day.

Silly little friends! I love Katie's face!

This is my favorite shot that Vaiden took!

Look at Davis! Such a dapper little man in his seersucker!

The hunt is on!

In the photo below, the girls smiled much bigger for Miss Vaiden than me!

Easter 2012

We celebrated Easter this year with a wonderful service at our church followed by brunch and an egg hunt with the Taylor's. The weather was perfect with a sunny 72 degrees and a light breeze. The day could not have been any more perfect to celebrate the risen Christ. We hope that all of our family and friends had a wonderful Easter too. More photos from our Easter weekend to come!

The Dogwood

The dogwood trees in East Tennessee have bloomed. The flowers have had their peak and now have almost faded completely away. On this Good Friday, however, the blossom of the dogwood will forever remind me of the passion, crucifixion and death of Jesus, our Lord and Savior, for our sins so that we may one day have eternal life with him in heaven.

 While I was away two weeks ago at the spiritual retreat Cursillo, I was blessed with the opportunity to photograph many beautiful dogwood blossoms at their peak. On this holy day of remembering Christ's death on the cross, I leave you with these images from my time at Cursillo.

  I also share "The Legend of the Dogwood." May God's peace be with you all.

Legend of the Dogwood

"At the time of Crucifixion the dogwood had been the size of the oak and other forest trees. So firm and strong was the tree that it was chosen as the timber for the cross. To be used thus for such a cruel purpose greatly distressed the tree, and Jesus nailed upon it, sensed this. In His gentle pity for all sorrow and suffering Jesus said to the tree: " Because of your regret and pity for My suffering, never again shall the dogwood tree grow large enough to be used as a cross. Henceforth it shall be slender and bent and twisted and its blossoms shall be in the form of a cross--two long and two short petals. And in the center of the outer edge of each petal there will be nail prints, brown with rust and stained with red, and in the center of the flower will be a crown of thorns, and all who see it will remember."

Practice Egg Hunt!

Yesterday we had an impromptu Egg Hunt over at a friend's house with some very dear little friends, Mary Caroline, Elizabeth, Sophie and Fielding. Fielding hid our eggs for us and was a wonderful sport in helping the girls find their eggs. The girls had the best time running around the yard on their practice egg hunt. Later we went for ice cream at Brewsters. As Lucy said, "This is the best day ever! I get to have a play date with my friends and go on an egg hunt!" It doesn't get any better than that for sure!

Silly Faces!

Emma-Caroline and Lucy

The hunt is on!

Following the leader.

Counting up the found eggs.

Sweet friends!

Hoppy Saturday!

I have this thing about going to the mall every Easter as well as Christmas and having the girls photos taken with the very same Bunny or Santa depending on the season. I buy the package of photos and every year, at the appropriate season, I pull out all of those photos and set them up for us all to look at and remember how much we liked or didn't like Mr. Bunny at the time. It's a nice way of chronicling my girls' growth and actually something that I look forward to each year as the seasons approach

 This morning we added a little something to our traditional visit to the mall Easter Bunny;  a stop at Bravo Italian restaurant to have breakfast with Mr. Bunny's Brother, Butterscotch. Our Mall Mr. Bunny is Peter Cottontail and is quite the busy fellow, so his brother Butterscotch happily obliged us with a fantastic breakfast.

 We then headed over to the mall for our traditional photo op with Mr. Cottontail. The girls love to see their fuzzy little, or not so little, friend. We are now ready to hunt eggs next Saturday when all of the Easter egg hunts begin!

Hope everyone has a very Hoppy Easter!

In God's Time

Last Thursday evening, I packed my bags, loaded up the car, said good-bye to the girls, Howie and dogs, and drove myself to a beautiful retreat site on Watt's Bar Lake called Grace Point in order to participate in a spiritual retreat called Cursillo. As I drove the 40 miles to the retreat site, I felt anxious. I was concerned I would be uncomfortable in my more rustic camp style accommodations. I am not a campy, rustic type girl. I know this, and more importantly, God knows this about me. I had even packed my travel iron (yes, I really did pack it) in hopes that perhaps I might be able to sneak in a bit of ironing while I was on my retreat. As I entered the gates of Grace Point, I prayed this simple prayer, "Dear Heavenly Father, I know that you know that I packed my iron and that perhaps that is really silly of me since I will be at a camp site this weekend. Please let me let go of my need to have my clothes ironed so that I can fully enjoy this weekend as you have meant for me to." I drove up the hill to my final destination and was greeted by many smiling faces of those who would be taking care of me on my weekend at Grace Point. I was led to the girls Tree House, and as I entered and was shown my bed, the lady said to me, "Amy honey, we have you set up right here. Did you request an outlet be near your bed?" I was shocked! No I hadn't requested an outlet, but sure enough, my bed was located next to one! I had read in my devotional that morning before coming to the retreat that no request is too small for God to be asked if we come to him with complete trust. No, I didn't ask for an outlet, but it was provided for me anyway. The simple thing of an electrical outlet graciously provided to me left me with a sense of peace that transcended any kind of understanding of my own making. We were asked to give up our other electronic devices and time pieces that weekend which I gladly relinquished. It was a weekend spent on God's time in which I was blessed over and over again with love, grace, renewal, and many gifts of the Holy Spirit. It is a time that I will always cherish and carry with me in my heart for the rest of my days here on earth. Although I can't fully explain the moments of grace that I experienced in my weekend I will say, it began with that one simple act of trust in letting God take care of all my needs and unfolded into a beautiful weekend walk with my Father in Heaven. "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you." ~Matthew 7:7

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

 Two years ago, Emma-Caroline came home from preschool all a flutter about how the leprechauns had gotten into the toys and books and had strewn them all over her classroom. They had also turned the milk green and had left gold coins and goodies for the kids to find. What??? I was shocked! I had never heard of the leprechauns doing such things. Apparently I was in the dark about the happenings of the little men in green in the classrooms around Knoxville.

 At the time, Emma-Caroline asked me if the leprechauns were going to be visiting our house. I was in a quandary. I didn't want to disappoint Emma-Caroline and her expectations of the funny things the leprechaun might do at our house, but we were getting ready to put our home on the market to sell and I wasn't about to have a leprechaun "mess up" my house! The leprechaun instead visited the back of Howie's car leaving treats and goodies for the girls in all colors of the rainbow. Thus began our leprechaun tradition here at the Avery House.

 Leprechauns do indeed come to our house, but they are particularly fond of Howie's Volvo and leaving treats for the girls there. Fast forward to yesterday afternoon. We picked Sophie up at preschool and she couldn't stop talking about those silly leprechauns and all of the stuff they had done in her classroom. Last night, Sophie said, "Mommy, do you think the leprechauns are going to pinch me in my sleep?" Just to be sure that they wouldn't, Sophie dressed herself in a green tinker bell night gown.

 This morning, the leprechauns did not disappoint. Outside in the back of Howie's Volvo station wagon were all sorts of goodies for the girls left by the leprechaun.

 Sophie squealed in delight that the leprechauns had been to our house. I actually don't think I've ever seen her more excited! I'm so glad we celebrate this little tradition at our house now. It's so much fun!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Taking the Training Wheels Off

This past weekend, Emma-Caroline requested that her Daddy take the training wheels off of her bike and that he teach her to ride it two-wheeler style. 

 After church on Sunday, we took Emma-Caroline up to the cul-de-sac and so began to path to being truly a big kid.

 With a tiny bit of jitters at first, a few pep talks, some coaching from Howie, and a whole lot of cheering from me and all the parents in the cul-de-sac, our girl learned to ride her bike without training wheels.

  I am so proud of our sweet Emma-Caroline for her will, patience, determination and can-do spirit.

 She did it!

Way to go sweet girl!

Turning One Year Older Now and Then

 I celebrated my birthday on Tuesday, March 13th. My actual birthday was a beautiful sunny day in Knoxville. The daffodils were in full bloom and all of the birds were singing their most favorite songs. It was a great day and this week has continued to be one beautiful day after another. I was completely blown away by the amount of birthday wishes I received on Facebook, It sure does make you feel loved to see so many happy thoughts just for you on your special day. My mom surprised me with a photo of me on my 8th birthday.

 As I looked back and remembered my special day at 8years of age, I remembered how awesome it was to have all of my cousins and friends over to eat cake and ice cream, wear a party hat and open birthday presents. Parties were simpler back when I was 8 and it was AWESOME! I am thankful for each one of the 30 birthdays since I turned 8 that I have celebrated and for all the friends and family who still come out to say, "Happy Birthday!" I am one blessed and lucky girl!