Happy Easter!

He is risen! Alleluia! Alleluia!

Happy Easter!!! Many blessings to you during this time of great hope and celebration!

This was one of the best Easters I can remember! Getting to be at home with family on Sunday to celebrate Easter, getting to go to the vigil and be part of a new Catholic's entrance into the church, having so much to pray for this Lent.. It was all very fruitful, which made this Easter one of the best!

We celebrated at our house this year. We made it a lunch time meal since Tom had to sleep in the afternoon. We were itching for the egg hunt anyway.

Spiral ham, potato casserole, resurrection rolls. Mom brought fruit and broccoli salad and Tom's mom brought her Oma rice. DElicious!Mike is signing Easter ..

The hunt is on!!

They were all over the house.

Xavier looked everywhere.

Philomena sat well with her grandma. She is slowly becoming used to the idea that she is not mom. Wait until she finds out that grandmas are even better.

Oh and Mena won her very first egg fight! This is a tradition that has been in our family so many generations that no one knows where it originally came from. Each person has a hard boiled egg and we crack them on another's egg until only one is left.
Congratulations Mena! :)

Here are the bunny carrott cakes we made. They were delicious AND cute!

The last egg is found in Nano's shirt pocket. It always goes to the youngest.

and the First annual Easter Triops monster costume. Hmmm... maybe this is one tradition that won't stick. She is cute though :)

During this Spring, a time of new beginnings, may the Easter season bring you great hope in our Risen Lord! Alleulia!

Happy 5th Birthday Xavier!

April 10th was on a Sunday this year. On that day we had godparents and grandparents over for a small party. He got some fireman Megablocks, a Mater car ramp, a Starwars transformer, and a bubble machine. It was a fun afternoon!

Here he is with his twin Gabriel... and his brother Zachary..

and his bubble machine...

The icecream cake was something we will do again. It was a hit and really easy to order :)

Happy Birthday Xavier!

Blaise's First Communion day

April 3rd, 2011 ~ Blaise Alexander received his First Communion! He has been preparing for a long time for this day and it was finally here. For the last 9 days he has been praying a novena and making a "garden" of beautiful flowers representing virtues in his soul. Blaise's seriousness about this big step outweighed his excitement by far. He knows how important this sacrament is. He was almost nervous about it, but I know Jesus is pleased and so happy to get to come to Blaise. May He shower him with graces and grow Blaise into the strong virtuous man we know he will be. May his faith and love for Christ be strengthened, especially through these "little visits." We didn't get pictures of the Mass but here are some afterwards... There were 12 other children in his class. 2 girls and 11 boys. Here they are being enrolled in the scapular... and the miraculous medal:

My dad's sister on the left and my oldest brother James on the right. Mom and dad in the middle.

Immaculate Conception's First Communion class of 2011

Godparents Mr & Mrs Stock

Mena is really looking like her dad in this picture!

We thought Blaise couldn't get much higher than receiving our Lord for the first time. I guess we were wrong