Weekend

I got home Saturday afternoon to find Jason driving around the yard on the lawn mower. He had just finished tearing down an old shed & lean-to in our backyard and used the mower & trailer to haul the junk to our burn pile and decided to pick up the last of the sticks and leaves in our front yard too. I think he just liked driving around on the lawn mower! While I was outside I took a few pictures of our flowers that are blooming and the puppies. We have four little females left and they are all spoiled rotten. Last week, Jason brought a different one in every night- he said they all needed some individual attention. I got some pictures of him playing with them, but hadn't posted them yet so I threw them into this post too. After resting up yesterday while Jason worked outside we went bowling in Central City with a group of people from my work. It was cosmic bowling (lights out) so none of the pictures turned out very well, but I posted a couple anyway.

Jason driving around in the front yard Headed to the backyard with lots of leaves & sticks These flowers in our backyard have been blooming for about 2 weeks now and remind us that it is finally spring! The puppies enjoyed the nice day outside. Just lounging Jason with one of the puppies inside I'm not sure who is having more fun Stacy & Adeana at bowling Jason did good the first game - he only fell down once, I beat him the second game!

Omaha

One of my best friends is getting married this summer and her bachelorette party was on Friday night in Omaha, NE. I took the day off work and got some things done around the house in the morning and then flew to Omaha in the afternoon. Mariah picked me up at the airport and we headed to the hotel where we met up with Mariah's two sisters, Stephanie & Nancy, and our friend, Marin to help Mariah celebrate her upcoming marriage. We had an amazing dinner at M's Pub. The food was great and I would definitely recommend it if you are ever in Omaha, reservations are recommended. After dinner we headed back to the hotel for a while and then Marin, Mariah, and I went out for the evening. We ended up at an Irish Pub where Mariah got plenty of attention for wearing her tiara and bright pink veil and several requests for a dance. I'm not sure she sat down the whole night! We all had a blast, but my 10:00 flight home the next morning came very early. We had a great time and I am so glad I was able to hang out with two of my friends from college for a night. We definitely need to get together more often. Here are a few pictures from my night in Omaha.

At the hotel before dinner. Mariah at dinner with her beautiful tiara & veil. Nancy & Stephanie Marin & me The bride-to-be and her maid of honor Back in the hotel room after supper before Stephanie & Nancy left us :(

Eckler Family Easter

After the Pollard Easter we headed to my mom & dad's. Jason was outside working on his food plot on dad's farm and I don't know maybe just wandering around in the woods till dark. He can always find something to do outside! I went to church with Jessi, Travis, and their kids. We had a late dinner that night and afterwards we celebrated Kyle's birthday (only 2 months late). Andi sang to him all the way to church even though he wasn't in the van. I guess she was just practicing. After supper we were able to hang out with my family and we played Cranium until it was time for bed. The Belt's decided earlier in the week that it would be easier to spend the night at mom & dad's and they would get to see us longer. We slept in on Sunday, but when we got up we were surprised to see the Easter Bunny had been there and brought something for all of us. After breakfast we watched Andi hunt eggs in the snow. She was pretty cold by the time she found all her eggs. Then we all got ready and headed to my uncle's house in Centralia for Easter with my mom's family. After eating an great lunch there we headed to Middletown to see most of my dad's family before we headed home. It was a good weekend as we got to see almost everyone and spend time with our families. Kyle blowing out the candles on his birthday pie. Kyle playing his old guitar and singing with his headset on. Mom dug this out for Andi on Saturday night and Kyle was showing her how to use it.

The Easter Bunny left something for all of us at mom & dad's.

Andi on Easter morning TJ with his new hat

Andi almost ready to go hunt eggs. It was cold out so she had to bundle up. She now says "cheese" for pictures, which explains her face in this one.

Andi hunting eggs with Jessi's help. Jessi, Kyle, & I on Easter morning. Mom & Andi Kyle & TJ

Pollard Family Easter

Saturday morning we got up early to get ready and head back to Missouri for the weekend. Jason & I normally have a hard time getting up for work, but I got up in time to make cheesecake brownies before we left at 6 am. We had three puppies to deliver over the weekend so we loaded them up for the drive. They weren't too bad, but then again I slept most of the way on Saturday morning. We got to Shelbina for Pollard Easter with Jason's family. Everyone was able to be there including Grandma Cile. Lola fixed a great lunch and then Jason & Justin hid eggs for the kids to hunt. Later we went with Justin, Megan, Les, & Chase to see a cabin that Justin has been working on. We had a good time hanging out with the family and the puppies got spoiled a little on their way to a new home.

Ed holding one of the puppies. I think he misses not getting to play with them.Allison wasn't real sure about them, but she got warmed up and played with them a little. Getting ready to hunt eggs. It was cold outside that afternoon!

Chelsey hunting eggs. I told Jason she was definitely his neice because she is always hamming it up for the camera just like him!

Allison hunting eggs.

Allison checking out her candy & eggs with Megan's help Jason & I with Grandma Justin, Megan, Allison, and almost due baby Pollard with Grandma Leslie, Chase, & Chelsey with Grandma. (She got lots of pictures taken that day!) The Pollard Family

Decorating Eggs

My favorite holiday as a kid was always Easter. I'm sure I liked it because we got to dye eggs, the Easter Bunny brought lots of candy, and we got to hunt easter eggs. Even though Jessi & Kyle were better than me (so they claim) at hunting eggs I still loved it! Since moving to Ashley Jason & I have found a church in Nashville that we really enjoy. We were able to attend last week for Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. It really reminded of me of what Easter is all about and it is definitely still my favorite holiday, but not for the candy, even though I don't mind it! It is so amazing to hear and think about everything that happened leading up to this Christian holiday! This year as our first married Easter together we decorated eggs at home to take back for our neices & nephews to hunt. We decorated them after church on Thursday night because we didn't think there would be enough time on Friday night after we got home to pack, dye eggs, and get everything else ready to go. Thank goodness we did them on Thursday because by the time we did get everything ready on Friday and get to bed it was almost time to get up and head to Missouri for the weekend!

Jason & I after church on Thursday night. Decorating eggs. Jason is always such a ham. The egg kit we got came with a few puzzles that Jason did while decorating eggs. Here are a few of the eggs we decorated to hide on Easter. Jason made an egg for each neice & nephew with their name on it. He really got into it. All two dozen eggs we did that night. Funny thing- we didn't bring any of them home with us! Thank goodness for family!

More Visitors

My cousin Laura Lee has a meeting in Mount Vernon tomorrow so she, her husband, Butch, and two kids, Trent & Kaylee were in town tonight. Jason & I met them in Mount Vernon to eat and after a great meal at Chili's they came to our house for to see the puppies. The puppies have really gotten playful over the past couple of days and were very entertaining tonight. Trent & Kaylee enjoyed playing with them and Kaylee tried to smuggle one out in her jacket, but they decided (with a little coaxing from Laura Lee) they better wait until summer to get a puppy. Though Kaylee infomed us that these would be bigger by then, Jason said he might have more puppies by then so we are going to try and plan for some puppies ready to be sold in June...or maybe just find one from someone else then! We don't get to see them very often, really just during the summer at State Fair so we were really happy to see them tonight and we had a great visit! Here are some pictures of us with the puppies.

Fire & Ice

Two weekends ago when everyone else seemed to get snow all we got was freezing rain and ice. The roads were never too bad and the trees were actually pretty in the mornings when they glistened in the sunlight. We were pretty lucky and only lost power a couple of times and only had some limbs fall out of our trees. We did lose one tree in our backyard, but Jason didn't like it and was hoping it would split. We didn't experience any major damage though- thank goodness! Last weekend was our chance to pick up sticks. After working all afternoon Sunday we got the front yard finished. Thank goodness we didn't do the backyard to because my legs were sore from picking up sticks all day. I must be getting old!

Here is a picture looking out into our backyard with all of the ice

The weather was definitely nicer this past weekend. I caught Jason playing baskeball outside and knew he wouldn't let me take pictures of him so this one is kind of blurry because I took it through the front door. He caught me and decided to pose. It seems like whenever I have my camera he will either refuse pictures or do a dorky pose.

Later that day Jason started the fire and we roasted hotdogs and marshmallows. It was pretty cool that night, but our fire was big enough to keep us warm.We didn't have any roasting sticks so Jason found a stick and used his pocket knife to make it useable. However, it wasn't very long so luckily he found a 6 foot long metal pole we could use to hold it. I'm sure if our neighbors could see us they were laughing at us.