Easter in Exuma

The last few weeks Dallas has been out on a trip for 6 days, home for 5, out for 6, home for 5, out for 6, home for 5.... lots of trips and lots of time that daddy has been gone :( We made it through and my little boogers were actually not too bad for me!

It's always tough when Dallas goes out though because that is always, without fail, the time when someone will call for business stuff that is always random and I need to consult Dallas about. For instance, some guy calling us up for the ump-teenth time to chew us out for camping on his beach (which we haven't done since the first time he asked us to stop LAST year), for burying aerosol cans on his islands (which us and none of our guests do anywhere...ever), and for leaving all sorts of trash on the island (which again... if we haven't set foot on the island, we didn't leave our trash behind). 

Argh, Momma had to go off on the man the other night for his attitude.... in the best Christian way I could too I promise. I was firm and told him we didn't appreciate being called liars and litterers especially when we weren't the ones doing it and that we didn't want him calling anymore. Trust me, he deserves much worse with the attitude he gives us on the phone. I finally had to hang up on the punk because he just would listen to reason or listen to anything for that matter. Jeepers, my blood was boiling when I got off the phone. BUT anyway...didn't mean to get into that. Above is Dallas' office out there...not bad, huh!

The boys and I got to go resupply the group on this kayak trip, which involved the boys and me driving the boat about 30 miles up the cays to give them extra gear and food. We also got to take them fishing while we had the powerboat with us. I thoroughly enjoyed my snuggles with Joss. He doesn't sleep on me too often these days, and when he's just STILL and not bouncing all over, I've gotta get my lovin' :) 

I LOVE this sunset shot Dallas captured out there. Our God truly is spectacular! The fact that these sights never get old and tiresome (no matter what bit of nature you are soaking up) is really amazing! 

These guys have LOVED playing mine and Bev's old Nintendo lately. I'm telling you, Joss is just as good as I am on some of the games... probably better on a few like Ninja Turtles :) And he doesn't sit around playing it all day either, I promise!

Our scary stick horses make their appearance from time to time and my little beach babes turn into happy little cowboys :) I think Emit likes the hats a lot more than Joss does... any kind of hat, but he's such a cute little cowboy!

"This town ain't big enough for the two of us!"

I have to brag on Joss a moment...We still read at least 3 stories with them each night for their story time routine. They love story time and they are usually really good during that sweet time of night. Well, Joss has very good memory skills and can memorize songs, stories, promises we make about toys, long lost toys, you know standard things that 4 year old's can retain :)

Well, he surprised the pants off me the other night when we laid down to read our stories and they had picked out a story that they had read over and over lately called "Best Nest" by P.D. Eastman. Joss asked if he could read it to us. Well of course I wasn't going to say no to that! He 'read' each and every page of the 30+ page story and got just about every word in the story right. And he was magnificent doing the 'voices' for the different characters :) I can't remember if I got it on video when he did it again, but I will!!! So Awesome!

The first few days after Dallas is back from his trips, the boys won't hardly let him get 5 feet from all of us. They want to do anything and everything Daddy is doing. Sweet little mini-me's. 

Joss was scouting for starfish up there at the bow of the boat. "There's one Daddy, look look, there's another one, and two, look Daddy!!!"

Giving Daddy some good hugs and thanking him for letting him look for starfish :) 

Our very simple but very sweet Easter begins...

The boys joined us in bed and we read and prayed as a family and talked about what Easter means. You never know what all is sticking at this age, but my hope is that they will be able to grow up saying, "My parent's always taught me about the Lord, from as early as I can remember." We enjoyed a sweet service with great praise from LifeChurch with our little church family here. 

Then we went outside to dye eggs. Might as well let them get nice and messy and just rinse them down, which is one reason why they have just their undies on. The other reason being that they think this is their 'fully clothed' attire for playing outside here at the house, and most times....it is :) 

They had a blast changing the water color and seeing the eggs take on their new colors. 

We barely had patience to wait for these eggs to fully dye, so we stopped our decorating there... just color so we could get to the real fun. 

The egg hunt...

Hopefully next year these photos will have them 'hunting' in a grassy yard. I just planted grass a couple weeks ago, crossing fingers it takes off!

We had to take turns. Emit would watch Joss to make sure Joss wasn't peeking while I hid them, then Joss would find them all. Then Emit would hide his eyes and Joss would make sure he wasn't peeking and give him his turn. They only searched for them together toward the end... but they were having a blast playing Hot & Cold for their turn. 

Joss knew he was 'hot' here, but just couldn't quite find that sneaky little egg...LOL!!

I love the little tropical accents with the eggs :) 

So most folks find a special outfit to wear to church on Easter and use that day to capture really nice family photos....

This is how we roll best though, so I can't even pretend like we did that :) 

My happy little hunter!

Ta-dah!!!! I finally finished Joss' big boy bed!! I love how it turned out, and his bed is one of my favorite spots in the house now. Great place for story time too! 

I had planned to make Emit the same bed, but I'm just not sure it would fit in their room without overcrowding it, so I may try to turn this into a bunk when it is time... I think Joss would LOVE that and then I wouldn't have to do all those pesky drawers again, I'm really bad at those!

This was my first 'distressing' attempt on the finish. I wanted to pull out some of the other colors in their room already to try to tie all the colors together. Not sure an interior decorate would think I accomplished that, but it doesn't have to be perfect...just perfect for us and it is! Joss loves it, and Emit thinks it is a really fun place to hang out too :) Happy Boys= SUCCESSFUL Build!

To be continued....