Easter 2013

Hey friends! I hope your week and Easter weekend was wonderful!

Last week was spent either being in pain, or rushing to finish pending orders and getting ready for Easter during the moments I actually felt decent. I don't know what's causing the pain I'm having in my face/mouth (Doctor says sinuses), but I do know it needs to stop NOW because it has interfered with my life long enough! I've missed work, church, time with family/friends, and sleep for the past 6 weeks. Fortunately, I think I've finally figured out how to control the pain, so I'm hoping things will level out soon. I'm beyond ready to have my life back!

ANYWAY, so sorry for the complaining! I know that MILLIONS of others out there, including many in my own back door, endure WAAAAY more horrible things in this life than mouth/face pain!

Now on to Easter fun!

We were excited that we were all relatively healthy this Easter, especially after last year's mono outbreak. Jameson was on Spring Break the week prior to Easter, so we had a lot of time to relax and not have to rush around like crazy. I will have to say, it was really nice!

Saturday night, we decided to try a recipe I found on Pinterest that used iced circus cookies to make cake pops. After listening/reading several stories about how hard it could be, I was sure my attempt would be a complete and total failure. I have ZERO patience for anything cooking/baking related. Surprisingly, it was really easy and the pops came out great!

Except for that one lone cake pop on the lower right that decided to fall over...causing the big puddle of chocolate underneath. LOL

 Yes, I know they are upside down....but I didn't have anything to use to do them the "correct" way. HAHA!

I also overestimated the amount of chocolate I needed, so I ended up dipping a few other things:

Peanut butter crackers

Donuts

I still ended up pouring out about 1/2 cup of the chocolate. Next time I'll start with just 1/2 package instead of a whole!

I also made a few buckets for my great nieces and nephews.

That night,the kids were really hyped up, and it was almost impossible to get them to go to sleep! The poor, overworked Easter Bunny wasn't able to make his delivery until after midnight! We finally had to tell Jameson that if he didn't go to sleep, the Easter Bunny would completely skip our house. That seemed to do the trick. It's too bad we didn't thin of that several hours earlier. LOL

Finally, the Easter Bunny came. We chatted for a few minutes, and he went on his hoppity way.

Sweets even got her own basket!

Chelsea's new obsession is The Great and Powerful Oz.

Minecraft pick axe, anyone?

50 years of General Hospital

Jameson finding out he got Alan Jackson tickets!

Sweets checking out her loot!

We all had a great day and were definitely sad to see the day come to an end.  Well, Jameson and I were sad. He goes back to school after having the week off and I head back to work. Marty and Chelsea get to enjoy Monday off, too!

But right now, I'm just happy that I'm able to return to work!

I hope you all have a fabulous rest of the week!

Attempt at a Friday Freebie! PEEPS!

Hey friends!  It's FRIDAY!

I hope all of you fared well through the storms earlier in the week.  We had tons of trees down in our neighborhood and in our town, but fortunately nobody was hurt.  Things can be replaced, people cannot!

Anyway, with Easter right around the corner, I've had several requests for my Peeps file that I did for Jameson's class last year.  

Until a couple of weeks ago, I didn't think I could share anything that I created using my Silhouette software.  I've been playing around with some different programs and I think I may have figured it out!  I was able to share it via e-mail with one of my fabulous bloggie friends, and she said it worked!  YIPEE!

So, here is my first attempt to share a file.  You should be able to click on the photos, download them to your computer, and then print!  IF IT DOESN'T WORK FOR YOU, I honestly have NO IDEA how to change it or fix it.  SO SORRY!  I am a total computer idiot, so converting things is way above my head and thought process.

"You're one of my favorite Peeps" circle file:

Peeps S'mores label.

I attempted to share the PDF file, but Blogger doesn't recognize it as a file.

 I hope this works for everyone!

It's a mono Easter, Charlie Brown!

For us, Easter usually consists of Easter baskets, new Spring clothes, church, and Easter egg hunts with the family.  This year a mono diagnosis changed all of that.

I know mono is really no big deal....unless you are elderly and/or immunocompromised.  Jameson will be fine and Marty & I will be fine, but we don't want to risk Chelsea's or my mother's health, so all of our normal plans changed this year.

We decided that Chelsea would stay with Mama this weekend, to stay away from the germs. We would have to make sure the Easter bunny got a last minute change of address for her.  I did manage to sneak a peek of her basket before it was delivered:

Chelsea also got two new outfits and went to church with her Nana, so she was a happy young lady!

Jameson, however, hasn't left the house since Wednesday (other than to watch his daddy work on the deck) and wasn't feeling well enough to go out and do all of the "normal" Easter festivities.  He did love all of his goodies left by the Easter Bunny:

Nothing better than a ZOMBIE chocolate Easter bunny!

 

See his HUGE lymph nodes?  They get bigger every day.  Bless his heart!

Light saber anyone?

It's so ugly, it's cute!

And what gift-giving holiday would be complete without a Lego set?

So, even though this had to be one of the most cool and beautiful Easters in recent memory, we spent the entire day at home, watching movies (thank you EB) and watching Jameson putting together Legos.

Chelsea did stop by for just a minute to drop some things off (well away from her brother):

She was supposed to have black tights under the dress, and a belt, but instead she forgot about the belt and put on the pants from her other outfit.

**sigh**

She still looked really cute, though!

The biggest surprise of the day was when my friends Clay and Julie (and Miss Mallory) stopped by (they stayed in the car) and brought me (us) a HUGE surprise:

A PEEP cake!  She knows me so well!!!

And not only is it a Peep cake, it's a yellow cake with chocolate frosting!  She's the only person that remembers that's my favorite cake ever!

Even though we didn't have a typical Easter Sunday, we spent the day together (and got to see Mama and Chelsea for a few minutes) and that's all that really matters!  We hope you all had a wonderful and blessed day, too!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter from the Hill Family!

Remember to celebrate & honor the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ EVERY day, not just today!

Easter Treats!

As usual, I made Easter treats for my kiddo's classes.

Pinterest had SO many super-cute and crafty ideas, but I managed to contain myself and just make two things.

The first thing was this:

 Front:

Back:

It's a Do-it-yourself S'mores kit using Peeps!  The tag on the front says "You're one of my favorite Peeps!"  The tag on the back gives the instructions for making your very own Peep S'mores.

(Original Idea from HERE)

I thought these were so cute when I first saw the idea on Pinterest.  However, they were really messy to make and the more I touched them, the messier they got.  Right now, most of the bags have a ton of graham cracker crumbs and Peep sugar in them. HAHA!

Then, I just decided to make more of my M and M filled tubes using Easter M and M's.

These are just so fun and easy to make!  And other than the M and M sorting, they are really quick to make, too!

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**Update on Jameson**

I got the call this afternoon that Jameson does have mono.  THANK YOU GOD!  I know it is strange that I would be "happy" my child had mono, but his NP and I were really worried that there was something much worse going on because of his atypical (lack of) symptoms.  Fortunately, all of his lab work was completely normal, except for his mono titers.

God is Good....ALL THE TIME!

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I hope you all have a wonderful Easter weekend!

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