Easter - April 5, 2015

Easter morning, 2015.

We started with our traditional Easter Egg Hunt. There were baskets with books on the island in the kitchen, then eggs with candy out in the backyard to be found by sweet boys. The only sad part about the morning was that Brady wasn't feeling too well and had to stay home from church.

 For breakfast we had have a doughnut to symbolize the tomb, and an Oreo to symbolize the stone that covered the entrance to the tomb. "The found the stone rolled away from the tomb." Luke 24:2

 Eli, Daddy, and Major going to church on Easter morning. Brady and I were at home since Brady was sick.

 Every Easter I also make a lamb cake to represent Jesus as the lamb of God. The cake is red velvet to symbolize the blood of Christ, and the outside has white frosting to represent new life, clean and white as snow.

 Last are Easter activities, painting eggs and dying eggs.

Early April Randoms

These first few pictures were taken the first couple of days in April. This first one is of Major and myself waiting for Eli's baseball game to start. This picture pretty much sums up the season with Major. He is full of energy! Ha!

 My mom sent me this picture of my mom and dad at church on Sunday morning. I thought they were so cute, dressed alike. 

 Eli before his first baseball game of the season. Go Cardinals! He played pitcher and 3rd base this season.

 Here is Brady before his first game. Go Mets! He was 3rd batter in the line up and played pitcher the whole season. Since he is in coach-pitch, that means he stand at the pitcher's mound and fields the balls. He had several plays every game and it was almost always a guaranteed out! Brady played a great season!

March 2015

My grandmother, Dorothy Elizabeth Otis Jones, died in Columbus, Georgia on February 21st at the age of 91. She would have been 92 on April 15th. She was the last of my living grandparents and she and her husband, Pops, were the two with whom I was the closest. On March 2nd we had a memorial service for her. These were the family members who were able to attend the service. It is going to be hard to point them all out in a group like this, but I'm going to start at the far left and do the top row of adults first. First is Anna (Jones) Caulley (my cousin) and her husband Don. Next to Don is Erin Jones and her husband (my cousin) David. Then there is myself and my dad, Don Belcher, and my mom is next to him, but you can barely see her behind Eli. Next to my mom (Pam Jones Belcher) is Buddy Jones (my Uncle) and his wife Maurine. Then is my Aunt Peggy (Jones) Carter. My Uncle Bob (her husband) was there as well, but I believe he had already left to help his son unpack who had come to the memorial. Next to my Aunt Peggy is her son and my cousin, Nick Carter. Then Daniel Jones (my cousin) with his wife Melanie. Grams' three children are my mom, my Uncle Buddy, and my Aunt Peggy. Now, to go to the children. On the far left side is Caleb and Jon David Caulley. Then the 3 children my cousin David and Erin adopted, I'm so sorry, but I'm still not sure of all their names. Then is Major, Eli, and Brady. Next is Luke James Caulley. Then Colbie, Isaac, and Daisy Jones, the children of my cousin Daniel and his wife, Melanie. Whew, that was a lot of typing, and that isn't even all of the family! I am so thankful for the family that I have and for the legacy of love and faith that my grandmother passed on for generations to come.

 In mid-March I cut off my hair to make wigs for children with cancer. This is my 4th time to donate to these types of charities.

 And a random shot of Bill and Major playing tough. :)

 For Spring Break this year we went to Sugar Land, Texas, where we used to live. We visited friends and saw Bill's parents who moved to Missouri City, Texas from New Hampshire to be with us. Little did they know, we would be moving to Alabama! Here is a picture of Major with Bill's dad (Big Daddy) and Brady watching some morning cartoons.

 Rebecca Pace and myself. She is one of my best friends in Sugar Land. I miss her dearly!

 Rebecca Pace, Shelley Gowens, and me having a girls' night. I love these friends so much and miss them like crazy!

 Bill's birthday is March 26th, but we celebrated a day early to be with Bill's parents. Here is a picture of Bill with his cake, and his mother. He turned 38 this year.

 Bill's favorite place to eat in Sugar Land was a pizza place called Grimaldi's. He was able to eat there for his birthday.

 After visiting Sugar Land, we drove to Austin, Texas to visit Bill's sister, Kameron, and her husband, Devin. Since Bill's actual birthday was the 26th, we had another cake at Kam's house! And we ate at Mexican restaurants twice that day, so Bill got his fill of birthday food!

 Before we left Texas, we were able to spend a morning with some dear friends, the Granville's. The Granville's have 6 kids, but most of them were in other activities, so we got to spend quality time with Eli's best friend, Max (on the far right) and his little brother, Champ.

 Brady, Major, and Eli sleeping all together at Aunt Kam's house. I'm so blessed that these boys love each other so much!

 When we got back to Alabama, baseball season was in full swing! Eli tried his hand at pitching this year, and did a GREAT job!!

 Brady moved up to coach pitch this year and played pitcher and hit 3rd in the line-up. He also did a great job! These boys LOVE them some baseball!

February 14, 2015 (Valentine's Day)

February 14th, Valentine's Day with my sweethearts!

We made our traditional heart cake. It was yummy good!

 Daddy took the boys outside to play some baseball before going home for Valentine's Day goodies.

 Heart-shaped pizzas!

 Helping make the cake...

 Finished cake with Daddy and his boys, Brady, Eli and Major

 Our other Valentine's Day tradition is to go on a scavenger hunt for Valentine's Day goodies. Here is their first clue leading them to their first treat. Their clues took them all over the house, and even out into the yard. It was lots of fun!

 This picture of Major in a white shirt and jeans is for a 50's style sock hop Valentine's Day party at the home of his sitter, Mrs. Gail Head. he was so cute!

 I took a picture of daddy and Major sleeping because this doesn't happen much anymore. I walked into the living room and this is how I found them. So sweet. I know this won't happen much longer, so it makes me very happy when it does happen.

 This last picture was taken a couple of weeks after Valentine's Day. My boys are always helping me make cookies and other yummy things!

January 2015

I am going to admit, keeping up with the blog book and all our pictures is much more difficult at this stage in our lives than in previous years. I am teaching full time again instead of staying at home with my kids, and Eli and Brady are old enough to be playing sports and those sports are becoming much more serious the older the boys become. So although the date is actually June 18th, I am just now able to start 2015's blog book. Here goes catching up on the last 6 months...

This first picture is of Major with his favorite Christmas present. He is a soldier he will tell you, and he is defeating the bad guys and saving the princess. He plays in this manner constantly.

 This second picture is from January 23rd when it was Bible Heroes Day at school. Brady dressed up as Noah and Eli was King Josiah, the boy king.

 This 3rd picture is from January 31st when the boys and I made a cake. Not just any cake, an ice cream cake! They were very proud of themselves, so we had daddy take a picture of us with our finished product.