Easter

Okay.... so now on to Easter. We had a wonderful Easter. After our trip home from Nashville, we got up Easter morning to a surprise from the Easter bunny. He of course went crazy. Elaina got lots of fun things from him... My Aunt Ellen Jane sent a blue Easter bag full of goodies as well...

Next, we were on to church. Our church had a big Easter service (with everyone at the Colliseum). We usually have 5 services but they had one big one this year. We tried to sit in the regular section and it worked for a very short time. Elaina danced to the songs but soon tired of that and realized she could run up and down the isle and climb chairs. So, it was off to the family section in the back. Unfortunately, we could not pay attention very well to the service because of her and all the other children playing. But, she had a good time. see....

They had buckets out -(for offerings I think)... she thought it was fun to climb in it....

and put on her head.....

Peek-a-boo.....

After church it was off to Erik's parents house. We had a blast -the weather was gorgeous. Here is a family photo in our Easter garb....

Me and my little girl....

Elaina enjoyed being able to walk around outside and play

Here she is on her first "official Easter Day Egg Hunt"... she did good and enjoyed it....

Afterwards in Elaina fashion, she took her eggs that she found and laid them on the table to "examine" each of them... she is so funny...

It was a wonderful Easter weekend and we enjoyed spending it with Elaina and our family. Until next time - love to you all!! Hope you all are well.

Trip to Nashville to see Elaina's cousins

This is the 3rd post in 3 days.... Like I said, we've got a lot of catching up to do. The Stringfellow clan packed up this past weekend for a trip to see my sister, Abby, and her family in Nashville. We only stayed one night so we could be back in Knoxville on Easter. Nevertheless, we had a fabulous time. Elaina really enjoyed playing with her cousins, Sadie and Celia. She wanted to do EVERYTHING they did. She was so mesmerized by them and just thought they were the coolest thing coming.

The weekend was filled with lots of excitement. The first exciting thing to tell about was that on the way to Nashville, we had to stop in Cookeville to avoid the bad weather. We thought we'd walk around the mall until the storms passed. Well, we made it into JCPenneys and they made all the shoppers take cover in the JC Penney's break room/office area for about 20 minutes. We got to meet a lot of people and it made for an interesting story. All was well, the weather passed and we were on our way to Nashville again. Our hearts go out to those who were affected by that storm in Murfreesboro. That was so sad... Now onto the rest of the weekend...

Elaina sacked out in the car while playing with her computer....

Cousins Celia, Sadie with Elaina - Elaina has started to do this silly "CHEESE" face when the camera is on her. She looks up and squishes her face up.
We grilled fish and shrimp Friday night - YUM. We also had grilled squash which Elaina LOVED. Here is her Aunt Nell feeding her some.

Elaina woke up Saturday morning first (since he is on Eastern time). Celia was not far behind her. So, I got to enjoy Celia and Elaina eating breakfast together. Her is another shot of Elaina's "CHEESE" while eating her yogurt

After breakfast, we went outside where Sadie and Celia have a battery powered car. Elaina loved riding in it with Celia. What a sweet shot....

Another good shot.....

After playing outside, it was egg dying time. Elaina liked this too. Here she is putting stickers on her dyed egg. Yellow to match her shirt.

Celia and Sadie dying eggs....

Elaina and me

After nap time, we walked down the road to feed some horses some apples. This was Elaina's first close encounter with a horse. She liked them and was not afraid like I thought she'd be

Here she is touching one

On the way back to the house with her mommy and Aunt Nell

We hooked Abby's dog, Marvin, up to the stroller by his leash and he pulled the kids the rest of the way home What a funny dog - the kids thought it was hysterical. Marvin did not seem to mind

Cousin McKayla spends the night

Last weekend, Elaina's cousin, McKayla, spent the night. Erik was at church all weekend doing the lights for the Sacred Storm drama so we got a lot of girl time with the 3 of us. Elaina enjoyed having her here. Sunday was so beautiful so we had a picnic lunch outside. It was fun. Here are some pics of that event.

Later that day, we went to my aunt's house for a "pre-Easter" dinner. I got Elaina's eggs out for her "pre-Easter" egg hunt. Here she is examining each egg.

Okay, so here's what's been going on...

I've not been good at updating our blog lately so I've got a lot of updating to do. With Easter being today, I can't possibly put all the Easter/family pics in one post so I will do a series of post over the next few days.

To start, let's talk about Erik and I going away for the weekend about 3 weekends ago. It was fabulous. We only went to Gatlinburg to a cabin so not very far but we needed a get away with each other badly. We went with two other couples from church but it was our first full weekend away from Elaina. And, I surprised myself with how well I did. I missed her but not like crazy bad like I thought I would. She stayed with my sister one night and my mom the second night. Needless to say, she had a ball and was spoiled emmensly. In fact, my mom rocked her to sleep when she stayed with her so I had to "re-calibrate" Elaina over 3 nights to know that mommy doesn't always rock her to sleep. So, here are some pics from the weekend - I think this is the first blog post where Elaina does not have a pic posted. First time for everything....

This is pretty much where we sat all weekend...

The happy couple....

We were all in charge of one meal - we were over breakfast. So, breakfast a la Stringfellow. Cinnimon rolls, eggs, and bacon. Breakfast of champions.

Dave and Tonja cooking dinner in the kitchen - a lot of eating went on during this weekend

This is the second most sat in spot - around the table playing cards - Uno to be exact. We played the longest game of uno known to man. I thought it would never end.

So, as always, the Gatlinburg cabins are decorated a bit oddly at times. The theme of this cabin was bears. This paticular decor looked very odd - it looks like these bears hung themselves.

Dave and Tonja... Dave took most of the pics so this is one of the few pics with him in it

Carl and Sabrina playing Taboo - laughing. In addition to eating, a lot of laughing happened over this weekend.

The gang..... (from left - Carl and Sabrina, Dave and Tonja, Erik and me)