Thursday, April 23, 2009

Easter Baskets & Egg Hunts

After church we came home and the kids changed their clothes. They did mention that they must not be getting Easter baskets this year because they didn't find any on the table like they did last year before church. But while they were up changing, I brought the baskets out of hiding and as they came down the stairs they discovered their baskets and the fun things within.







After that I took PJ outside (and secretly hid a bunch of eggs for a hunt) and came back in to let the kids know that when I was out with PJ, I saw a BUNCH of Easter eggs all over the place! They were pretty excited!





Later that day when the cousins came over, we made Resurrection Rolls and the kids had a blast doing that! It was great because when their roll came out empty inside they could each tell the story of why the 'tomb' was empty. Then they happily gobbled up the yummy rolls!


Tia Michelle with Juancho (above) and I (below)

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Easter Breakfast & Service

On Easter Sunday we got up bright and early to make it to the 'Sunrise Breakfast' at church. Thankfully it wasn't truly at the hour of sunrise, but it was 7:00 am, and I confess that the Dressel's were the last of the all the family members out the door!








Some of the Meadows/Dressel crew: clockwise from lower left - Laura (notice her shoulder length haircut!), Robert, Howard (my dad), Joel (standing, the one who has the skater hair Juancho was hoping to emulate), Debby (my Mom), Michelle (my younger sister) and Jenni (my older sister).







My niece Ashley (who stayed with us for a while last Spring) and her
daughter Serenity (7 months)





Juancho, looking handsome as always,
satisfied from a great Easter breakfast!








Angie looks a bit like I caught her red-handed
doing something she wasn't supposed to! As far
as I know she wasn't up to anything... :)

The Family Picture:

This is our 2nd Easter together as a family, and I'm starting to see a theme with trying to get a family picture with us dressed in our finest. Last year, donuts were the reason for family picture difficulties - click HERE to re-live that (scroll to the bottom).

This year I claim that the intense sun caused me to blink right at the moment of the picture click...and Robert to be squinting intensely...the kids look great though!



So, when something fails, try, try again, right? So we did - a number of times. And each time either someone was turned around, or talked at the moment of the click or SOMETHING. This was the best pic we got - and actually I think I like it even better than a regular posed picture - it captures the joy in our family!



Princess Angie! She wore the same
Easter dress as last year and looked
as beautiful as ever!

Monday, April 20, 2009

Road Trip!

Early on Good Friday we began packing up the car for the road trip south to Iowa! We got the back of the mini-van packed out, got the kiddos buckled in and PJ all situated. Robert pulled the mini-van out of the garage while I moved his car into the garage to stay while we were gone. But as Robert drove half-way around the block, a horrible noise was coming from the brakes.

We made a quick decision that driving 5+ hours with a loaded vehicle with grinding brakes was probably a poor idea, so we moved Robert's car out of the garage and pulled the mini-van back in. We then went on to mount the car-top carrier to hold all the luggage, since Robert's car is smaller and wouldn't fit all of us, the dog and the luggage without it. After some trying moments to hoist heavy suitcases into the carrier and get the carrier closed with all the luggage, we were ready to go. Poor PJ had significantly reduced space to stretch out, but he didn't complain.

The drive south was fun and the kids were in good spirits. We credit kids that travel well to the invention of the portable DVD player! :)

Halfway to my parents home in Iowa City we stopped to visit good friends of ours, Jacque and Justin who moved to Waterloo last year. It was fun to see them and the kids (and PJ) loved running around in their big fenced in backyard while the adults visited.

We stopped at a gas station in a random small town in Iowa (called 'Floyd'). The gas station had a number of monuments indicated that we were then in Floyd, IA - obviously there was some community pride this gas station had! The girls loved the monuments and wanted their pictures in front of them, as you'll see below! Juancho, meanwhile, helped Dad with 'boy stuff' like filling the car up with gas and washing the windows. He's such a great helper!

The Road Trip Cast:


Dad, aka - The Driver


Mom, aka - The Picture Taker
(PJ was captured in the background on this photo too!)

Juancho, aka - Sleepyhead


Lala - aka - Crazy Girl!

Angie, aka - Sweetie
Tribute to Floyd, IA:



Sunday, April 19, 2009

Easter Week 2009

Catch up time again...

I'll be writing a few posts about some of the fun things we did during Easter Week this year. It was a special week for us for so many reasons. Always remembering Christ's death on the cross in order to bring us life AND his resurrection from the dead showing the grave could not hold him is an awe-filled thing to celebrate.

This Easter also marked the first time our whole family was able to travel down to Iowa to visit my extended family since LAST Easter! It was a LONG over-due trip! :)

The weekend preceding Easter the kids and spent some time coloring Easter eggs. We loved it, and they loved eating them later too! Here are some pics and videos!

PS - take note of Laura & John's longer hair in these photos...in some later Easter related posts you will see their spring haircuts!

Side Note: Juancho had been growing out his hair virtually all year in the hopes to achieve the 'skater hair' that his cousin Joel pulls off so well. But with Juancho's courser hair, it just seemed to get 'puffier'. I was more than fine with his decision to get it cut off...whew! :)