Easter

I've been loving our Easter get togethers these past few years. This year, it was a SUPER busy week and month, but in the end, food was made, table was set, Easter eggs hidden, baskets were prepared so all was well.

Rachel, Kyle, Roxanne, Jonny, Curtis, Laura, Dave and I were all here. (Jonny reminded me there were actually 10 here with the 2 little bambinos). It was good, we had enough food that EVERYONE could have eaten for two!

We ate at about 5:00 and had a wonderful meal of Ham baked in chopped apples and raisins, potatoes (made by Curtis) with carrots and onions and I'm not sure what else, but I need to get the recipe , an asparagus tomato parmesan dish, rolls, deviled eggs, green salad with candied nuts and strawberries and poppyseed dressing, Basically a typical Easter meal, but oh so beautiful and oh so delicious. For dessert, Kyle and Rachel made popcicles -- fresh raspberries and guava? One with a citrus juice and cilantro. I'm not sure I remember the combinations, but again... oh so good!

After dinner, we did some arts and crafts while Dave went out in the backyard to hide the easter eggs. We had way too many eggs and not enough hiding places. So there were handfuls of eggs around in the hiding spots. Four of the eighty or so eggs had prizes. Curtis is on a roll for winning the easter prizes and once again was a winner. I hope it keeps him coming in future years!

We chose to all bring an Easter Basket and have an exchange. Each person drew a name and that is who received your basket.

In other family news, Roxanne and Jonny just came home from their anniversary camping trip to Sedona. They have been married 4 years this month. Roxanne has passed her halfway mark in her pregnancy. They are having a girl!

Kyle announced that he accepted a new job offer in Utah and is leaving next month. Rachel will stay here an extra 3 weeks or so to finish up the school year. Rachel is nearly halfway through her pregnancy too. I can hardly stand the fact that this baby boy will be so far away. But I am happy that their plans are going forward successfully. They have talked about Utah for some time now.

Melanie is in Utah, enjoying school and everything social. She came home for spring break and Easter weekend is too short to make it home. She finishes up her semester in a couple weeks and life will be more relaxed for her for the summer.

I forgot to take a group photo, but here's a super cute picture of Dave. Happy Easter!

We love you Lexi

It's a sad day at the Hale's house. Our little Lexi passed a couple days ago. It was somewhat unexpected and I am clearly not ready to have such a quiet house.

Lexi had some medical issues. We visited the Vet just last Monday. The prognosis was not good, but I thought we were looking at our last year with Lexi, not our last week. Her health took a downturn very quickly last weekend, and she ended up having hard afternoon and passed away in my arms at midnight.

She was breathing noisily late in the evening, but still wanted to go upstairs to her bed. I sat beside her bed for a while to make sure she was settling into some restful sleep, then I went downstairs. An hour or so later, she stumbled down the stairs obviously in distress. I scooped her up in my arms and she passed away about 10 minutes later. I woke Dave up and we rocked her and had some tears together. It's a heart breaking thing to experience the end of life.  I went to get a blanket to wrap her up in, and my sweet husband went outside in the middle of the night and built a little wooden box to rest Lexi in.

Our wonderful dog Lexi has been with us for 9 years. She absolutely loved our kids.
Weirdly, she was kind of a man-hater. She came to us like that as a teeny tiny puppy. There doesn't seem to be a reason for it, but she doesn't care for Dave, nor any male that comes to our door, in our house, house guests etc ... it doesn't matter, just doesn't like men. So we got her as a puppy while Brady was living in Flagstaff. We already established that she doesn't like men. So a few weeks after we got her, we were out of the house for the evening, and came home to a surprise visit from Brady. And who was curled up on Brady's chest? snuggling into his neck? our man-hater puppy! Go figure. She loved and adored Brady, only him and no other man .

Lexi also waited 2 years for Brady's return from his mission, and a year and a half for Melanie's return from her mission. She was super excited for both of them to walk in the door after such a long absence. She loved Sunday nights when all the kids would come for Sunday dinners. When the house was empty, when I was home alone working at my desk, she would often spend a lot of time upstairs by herself, or in the backyard. But the minute the kids came in the door, she was all over them.

We will miss you, little Lexi. you'e been a sweet part of our family.

(this is our last photo of Lexi)