Little Happies -- One Joyful Easter

I hope you all had a wonderfully joyful Easter Sunday! Alleluia, Christ is risen!

John and I had special visitors with us throughout the Easter Triduum: his parents AKA my awesome in-laws! We had a lovely time relaxing with each other, exploring downtown Memphis, attending various Masses/services, and even doing a little baby shopping! It was just SO great that I have SO many Happies to share with all of you!

 --one--

Playing a new favorite game with two of my favorite fellas -- husband and father-in-law. Don't you just love their goofy faces? Also, you know I stood on a chair to get this picture for you. You're welcome.

Btw, this game is called Bohnanza, and it's a GREAT party game! There's not too much to it -- you basically just plant, grow, and sell bean fields for coins. But then there's also a lot of wheeling and dealing and luck of the draw. And the illustrations on the cards are a hoot! Stop by sometime and we'll play it with ya!

 --two--

When we told John's mom & dad that we could possibly be adopting in mid-May, they were SO excited and then insisted on taking us to Target to stock up on the essentials! Car seat, diapers, wipes, binkies, diaper pail, crib sheets, formula, travel changing pad, an outfit for baby to come home from the hospital in -- they were just SO generous! And my mom & dad bought us a beautiful crib!! I can't believe we own so much baby stuff! If you'd told me just a month ago that I'd be buying baby gear, I would have told you you were ruh-diculously crazy. And I would have been totally wrong. Mea culpa.

I think we're ready for baby now! And all thanks to excited future-grandparents. :) 

So now we just wait and see! The birthmom I mentioned in my last Little Happies post will probably be shown 3 profiles (including ours) on Wednesday. Ahh! Praying for patience, patience, and more patience! 

 --three--

The Rock n Soul Museum in downton Memphis is super cool! We took Mom & Dad Saturday afternoon and they loved it! I obviously had to force John to pose in front of this ridiculous costume, once worn by Elvis himself. We bee-bopped our way through the whole museum, learning about the history of rock and soul music in Memphis while listening to some great classic tunes. We highly recommend it if you ever visit Memphis!

 --four--

After the Rock n Soul Museum, Mom wanted to grab a drink on the rooftop of The Peabody Hotel, a hotel famous for the ducks they let swim around in their lobby fountains. We were 13 floors up! And the weather was perfect! Check out the view! 

  --five--

The Easter Vigil is always beautiful. I especially love when the church is lit only by candlelight. I wasn't able to get a great picture, but I can still feel the inner-happies I experienced surrounded by the warmth of the glowing candles. 

 --six--

This little creature was randomly formed by the dripping wax from my Vigil candle. What do you see?

I see a t-rex!! See the little arms and the long tail? Wait, did t-rexes have long tails? Oh well! I think it's super accurate and cute!

 --seven--

John, Stephanie, Mom-in-law, and Dad-in-law after the Easter Vigil. So lovely!

 --eight--

I made my Sriracha deviled eggs for the Easter party we attended yesterday. They were a huge hit, gobbled up very quickly! I may have gobbled 4 myself. Mmmm! 

 --nine--

Our friends have a hilarious birthday gift tradition. Since they're all at the point in their lives where they really don't want/need gifts, they instead just give (or re-gift) gag gifts to each other. Above you see Mr. D showing off this silly Italian chef with fish statue, re-gifted from some friends that are moving and don't want to bring it to their new home. We all had a good chuckle out of it.

There are some gifts in this circle of friends that have been re-gifted at least ten times. They're all so familiar with these re-gifted gag gifts that the birthday boy or girl will try to guess which gag gift is in the bag before they open it. Ha! I think this tradition is great because it takes the focus completely off gifts (AKA material possessions) and puts it on the truly important stuff: quality time and good laughs with family and friends.

 --ten--

Speaking of traditions, here you see us showing off our Easter baskets! Growing up, my parents would hide Easter baskets for each of us and we'd have a basket hunt around the house early on Easter morning. We didn't hide our baskets this year, but we still get a little something for each other to celebrate this great Holiday. This year was blu-ray themed (since Target had a sale)! Nothing says Easter like Despicable Me 2 and The Little Mermaid, right? :P

Happy Monday, friends! Can't wait to see your Happies!! 

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