Happy Easter!

We had a wonderful Easter! We had our families over to our house and everyone but Lia came! It was the five of us, Sandra, Tim, Aunt Toots, Joshua, Shannon, Gary, Stephanie, Josh, and Pap. We missed you Lia!! It was wonderful to have the larger house to have everyone over, and the weather was beautiful. It was a lot of work getting ready, but the benefit was the clean house when everyone left, and we didn't have to do any packing or driving! Late in the evening I came down with the flu, or some other bug that has me still very tired and not feeling well, but improved. Gary's on his final "spring break" day and where is he? Yup! School! Lots to do when teachers and students are not around. The kids were very good all weekend until about an hour ago when they decided to color on the window seat cushion. They've never done anything like that before... well, actually I guess they did color with dry erase marker on the seats of the van last summer. *sigh* Kids are great aren't they? We're in our second UOP class, just as much work, but a little more concrete in the content. I'm beginning to see that the final project is going to be very very time consuming so i really need to start it now even though it's due in a little less than two weeks. We've been doing our best to get out and enjoy the beautiful spring weather! I can't believe its so nice all day and only rains at night lately. We have a screened in back porch which we are really loving. I'm anxious to put plans in motion to fence in the backyard for the kids and get some trees and limbs removed. Once these classes are over I will be so relieved! Gary's done a lot of work clearing out leaves from last fall from the gutters and flower beds. I'd guess he's about half done. We need to clear out what's dead and see what kind of plants and flowers come up the next few months. We also hope to put in a garden still.... The screens were all washed and put in by Gary a few weeks ago, the breeze is AMAZING!! I love it. We truly do love this house! And ina few weeks the ice cream shop down the road is going to be open!!!!! Gary is in his glory as his beloved Duke Blue Devils are National Champions again! It made the Tribe's Opening Day 6-0 loss a little easier to take... Esther is still growing and changing. She's almost sittig up unassited, she's grabbing and holding thigns and transferrig them from hand to hand. She's preferring her left hand at the current time and her grandma is left handed so we shall see! Should be interesting teaching a lefty how to write! She also prefers to investigate things with her mouth so we have to be very careful what we put within her reach. She's now a pro at eating rice cereal, pureed apples and pears. She rolls from side to side and plays well on her tummy but is not at all interested in rolling on her own. She's SUCH a happy girl smiling and blabbing and laughing all the time! She's just perfect and I love everything about her! We have three amazing and wonderful children and I thank God every day for these blessings he's loaned me!!! And their daddy of course. :)