Our Easter Weekend and the Monday After......

It was a really GOOD Good Friday!

Everyone was to come any time after 6:00......

and at 4:30 Louis Dean and I sat out in the gazebo for a few minutes before it was time for us to get dressed and light the candles. We paced ourselves pretty well and were not totally exhausted which meant we enjoyed the party as much as anyone.

I was so happy to see Rayne!

I swear she's grown up since they left for Puerto Rico in January!

But she is still the same sweet granddaughter she's always been.

Here she is writing a note to the Easter Bunny.

She's telling him that she knows how fond he is of carrots and that she is leaving one out for him when hops in later that evening to hide some eggs.

It did my heart good to see Rayne and her Mummers together!

I was thrilled to have my first born daughter and the son of my old age with me to celebrate this Good Friday. I began the tradition of gathering on that day instead of Easter some 15 years ago.

Benjamin was so happy to see one of his favorite people in all the world!

June and Ben bonded when he was just a baby boy and she would come for art class every Tuesday night - always without fail - with some special little treat for him and Amber!

Runts were one of his favorite and I think he half expected her to have some in her purse for him that night!

I have displayed a photo of the two of them together in the dining room for years and years.

There's our friend, Virginia, beside June. We go back to our days at First Christian together.

Louis Dean played some pretty music.....

The quads arrived and Harrison headed straight to June and said, "I've been missing you!"

Logan went to her Granddad for a big hug!

This is the little girl who had stranger danger when she was a baby!

She was happy to see her Uncle Ben!

Rayne had hugs ready for her Aunt Amber.

Here I am with my five youngest grandchildren.

Jesse and his family weren't able to make it this year.

Family times are such sweet times.

There's Reaoma's daughter, Pam, back there in the red. She is recovering nicely from her very complicated back surgery and we were so glad she could join us.

I love seeing all my children together.

Amber and Mike both looked great!

You know they work hard all the time being parents to quadruplets but they have it down so well that it doesn't even LOOK that hard!

The kids flocked around Pam and wanted to see all her 'pischurs.'

Everyone has their baskets!!!

There was, indeed, an Easter Egg Hunt in the front yard complete with nearly 100 confetti eggs!

It was a lot of fun!!

One last photo and it was time to say goodbye as only the quads can do!

They have been doing this ever since they were little and used to come over every week for a whole day. They never liked to go home before dark!

The house was now empty as Louis Dean and I went in to turn off lights and fluff up a few things.

It had been a GOOD Good Friday!

I admit to being a bit dismayed when Saturday dawned and it was time to get up.

But it didn't take long to get into gear and mix up my potato salad, dress and head to Fort Worth for another celebration!

This is Nita's grandson, William - aka Taylor - and his beautiful fiance, Bianca.

They are engaged and will marry in October. They live in Arizona and this was Bianca's first ever visit to Texas!

In keeping with her tradition, Nita took them to Billy Bob's and they got their picture taken with the Bull Riding Photo Booth!

Nita has a whole slew of these pictures with family members!

Lily is great grandmother to Taylor. 

We will all be going to Arizona for the wedding.

Nita's daughter, Leah, and her husband!

Lonnie's wife, Michele, and Nita's husband, Mike.

We all drank a toast to William and Bianca!

Even our Andie had her Dr Pepper in a tiny wine glass so she could clink along with the others.

It was a great afternoon just talking and laughing and eating.

That's a Black Forest Cake and we ate every bit of it!!!

Time to go!

Deanie is one of Louis Dean's favorite people in all the world and I am so happy to be able to tell you that Deanie is slowly getting better and better!

From there, Louis Dean and I shopped for him some slacks.

There ARE times when overalls are simply not appropriate!

As in Easter Sunday morning at church!

We tried several stores before striking gold at Macy's!

He bought three pair and took a tag form one to keep in a safe place so he can order more when he needs them!

Our last stop was to visit Mother and Lillian.

We brought them chocolate shakes and they drank them while I did a slide show of my March photos on my laptop. Mother is doing well except that her legs are terribly swollen.

We came home and fell into bed.

Unfortunately, I was too tired to sleep and went into Sunday morning with just a few hours of rest.

We did get to church nearly on time! Amber and Mike had saved seats for us and it was a wonderful service!

While Amber's Easter dinner cooked, there was another egg hunt!

Amber was so clever! She gave a color for each child!

Logan got pink, Harrison got the blue eggs with Trystan getting the green ones and Kailey had yellow ones. This worked out GREAT!!!

We stayed over there all day!

After lunch we stayed with the kids while Amber and Mike along with his brother and Amber's brother, Ben, all went to the movies! They had fun and so did we!

Alas, the evening was over on Friday before I made my Easter Peeps S'mores so I took all the ingredients to Quadville to make them there but the parents got home before I fixed them and declared that the kids had had enough sugar! Did I mention that I took Cake Balls from the baker who lives next door to us? I think I'll take the stuff with us to the ranch this week and make a smaller batch of them down there one night when we have a campfire.

So this ended our Easter!!

*Photo from when they arrived last week^

This morning Sabrina and Rayne boarded their flight home to Puerto Rico.

Summer came over and will stay with us tonight and tomorrow night and I will take HER to the airport on Wednesday morning for her flight to PR where she will stay for several weeks!

It was a chilly day here in the DFW area. 

A perfect day to sit by the fire in the den and watch movies.

Just a little update on Summer......

Sabrina came home on the 22nd and took Summer to get her injections for her pinched nerves on the 23rd. Summer was pretty much out of commission after that until the last day or two. This makes it a very good thing that she gets to go to Puerto Rico now and spend a few weeks with them.

I love this pic of Rayne from earlier in the week.

They arrived safely and Sabrina shared this beautiful sunset this evening.

Today I packed up all the Easter decorations - which filled two tubs!

ONLY two tubs!!!

The next holiday to decorate for will be the Patriotic theme and then Sunflowers and then FALL!

My blogging spot tonight!

I love having my daughter here with me.

She's making hair bows - always creating new designs.

We have the radio tuned into the classical music station and are enjoying the night sounds and the water fountains back here.

Summer and I like chilly weather while Louis Dean is a bit more delicate and is in the den watching Gunsmoke. We may join him in a bit and watch a program before I call it a day.

I need to get caught up on my sleep!

I've enjoyed being home but I do get more tired here than I do at the ranch.

We hope to get some gardening done back here before we start to pack up and 

go back to the ranch. Dean and Sherry will be away and we will be on Critter Duty this weekend.

Truth is - I miss those critters!

However, we have the best of both worlds - a city life and a country life.

I would never trade either one!