Easter

Happy Belated Easter from the girls! He has risen!

The whole family was together again. What a joy!

We got to see our Gran on Easter day!

I think we all look alike here--Gran, too!

The Easter bunny was good to us; he brought us some bunny ears!

We have a tradition of getting our Easter baskets on the stairs. 

It's one of those traditions we just can't let go!

We had a little too much fun with our gifts--thanks, Mommy!

Traditional Easter egg dying in our bunny ears. 

Finally we can't forget our precious baby angel, Tucker. 

She sported her Easter nautical-inpsired Easter dress with some bunny ears.

Possibly the cutest picture ever taken of her! (photo cred to Anna)

Also, this little lady just had a birthday yesterday! She's seven years old.

Our family wouldn't be the same without this lovely addition. 

We love you, Tucker!

We hope you all had wonderful Easters and special times with family. 

Blessings,

-Mary Claire

Updates

Well time sure flies when you're in the middle of college!  We four would know, because ALL OF US ARE IN COLLEGE NOW.  That's right, even our youngest sister has made it to the big leagues.  On that note, a HUGE thank you goes to our parents for supporting us thus far in a million different ways!  We are four lucky girls to have parents like ours.
This year I changed schools and am with MC, while Sarah and Anna are holding down the forts at their schools.  Goodness we miss each other!  Thanks to technology we have been able to keep up pretty well; here is a picture from the most ridiculous of skype/oovoo/chat sessions...

I would say that our semesters have been going well.  God has been providing for us and teaching us so much as we grow up!  Mom and Dad have been adjusting to the life of empty nesters which has turned out to be a life of road trips this fall...they are such troopers!  They have visited us all more than once and have logged I don't know how many hours in the car driving.  Also, Anna has visited Mary Claire and I, which has almost won her the title of Best Twin.  (I'm still in the running, so don't get too comfortable, Anna.)

Here is a picture of Anna, Mom, and Dad's visit!

I have had a wonderful semester full of sorority things and my new choir!  I have loved being able to SING again!  I am so thankful for this semester and how God has provided me with amazing roommates, friends, and classes.  

Roommates!

Choir friends!

Old and new friends two-stepping...it's a huge deal in Texas, y'all.

Sorority sisters!

I am seriously so blessed.  Throughout all of the changes in my life my family has been supportive and loving.   One of the highlights of my semester was Thanksgiving break when the whole family was together for the first time since August!  There really is nothing better than spending time together.  We were in in heaven, or at least Tucker was...  

Sorry this post was a little picture-heavy, it is finals week and this girl is a little weary of writing.  But thinking about my family has been a great study break!  The Christmas countdown has begun, people of the world...get ready for a fantastic Christmas vacation!  Pictures to come...! :)

Elizabeth

Gatherings

Well hello friends!  Let's pick up where we left off, shall we?  Somehow in the whirlwind that has been my second semester of college we four sisters found ourselves back at home.  All of us, at the same time.  I will never take that for granted again!  It was such a relief just to be with all of my family members.  I come to learn more and more how priceless the encouragement of family is.

We were home for Easter weekend and I know I enjoyed every minute of it!  We had lunch with our extended family and had our traditional Easter egg hunt, which the younger three sisters still participate in.  After a rousing game of Dirty Easter Bunny (we've just recently started playing the gift-stealing game at our holiday gatherings) we waved our extended family goodbye and dyed eggs with just us 6.

I love the smell of vinegar, I think it's because I love dying Easter eggs so much! 

We combined efforts this year and had a joint carton, which worked a lot better for those of us who are a little more meticulous about our egg art. (yours truly)

We went to our Easter Sunday service and then returned home to open our Easter baskets, which were especially well-stocked this year!  I even got a Starburst jelly bean dispenser, which is the best Easter present I have ever received!!  We looked through our baskets on our stairs, which, other than the front porch, is our traditional spot for some reason.  Don't ask me why. 

We had lunch with my dad's side of the family and then had a photo shoot, 

because it seems like I can never find a good picture of us four.  Here you go, with a special thanks to M and D, our faithful photographers!

Of course we had to get Tucker in one, which is easier said than done.  She was camera-shy that day.  

The time at home for Easter was short and sweet, and was the perfect interruption for a busy semester.

Sarah and I were extra busy this semester because we spent most of it preparing for Variety Show, our school's dancing/acting/singing competition.  We practiced almost every day from February to April and I loved it.  It felt great to get back into the swing of learning choreography and figuring out costumes and characters.  Our sorority's theme was The Lion King and Sarah and I got to be lions.  We had so much fun dancing together, and our hard work paid off when our sorority won!   Dad even came up to watch us which was so wonderful.  Here are some pictures of our crazy costumes, hair, and makeup!

 We did each others' makeup, which looked especially scary mid-application!

 Finished!

Here's a close-up of our lion group during the show!

The morning after the show Sarah, Daddy, Karl, and I drove back home to see Mary Claire perform in Hello, Dolly at our high school.  Anna came, too!  Even now I still have songs stuck in my head from it; it was incredible!  I was SO proud of Mary Claire, she was a beautiful Ms. Irene Malloy.  She acted and sang her part perfectly.  

Only a few more weeks are left of school and I can't believe it.  I'm focusing on finishing strong and then speeding home to spend some summer days with my family!  Here's to more memories and blog posts! :)

-E

Traditionnn...Tradition!

   Welcome to 2012, everyone!  Even though Christmas is over, I thought it would be nice to share a few of our Christmas traditions.   Two of our favorites are decorating the tree and making pretzels for our neighbors.
   First of all, we get a REAL tree.  This is very important to us... we pick it out together and it always makes the house instantly turn Christmasy when we haul it into the house and the pine-needle smell fills the living room.  We use a homemade felt tree skirt and our collection of ornaments.  Atop the tree is perched an angel that Mama and Daddy bought in Maine before any of us were born!  We put on Christmas music and decorate the tree.
   Every girl goes into her own decorating zone.  Sarah puts her favorites and the prettiest ones on the tree, and gets done pretty quickly.  Anna wants to get as many ornaments hung as possible and be done with it as quickly as possible.  I take my time and am in my own little world of remembering.  I put mine all over the tree, making sure each part is decorated.  Mary Claire is systematic and puts on her favorites but doesn't waste time.  She knows when to stop and is usually finished first, or second to Anna.  Mama and Daddy love to watch and give suggestions or join in on the reminiscing.  What I love about our tree is that every ornament has a story.

Dancing with Tucker!

Never too old to dance on Daddy's feet.

Daddy playing the Hershey kisses bells.

Already finished and relaxing, of course. 

Anna and my first Christmas!  And Sarah's is the Precious Moments one to the left.

    Now that the tree's all decorated, on to our next tradition...white-chocolate-pretzel-making!  Every year we make white-chocolate-covered pretzels for our neighbors and deliver them to everyone on our street.  We have been told that our neighbors enjoy them and we enjoy the time spent making them!  By now we are a well-oiled pretzel-making machine.

Every girl takes a corner of the wax paper and we work until there is no room or pretzels left!

Mama supervises and Daddy eats.

The finished product!  These go into bags that we hand-decorate.

   Usually Mama drives us down the street and we all ride in the trunk and hop out at each house.  This year Anna manned the wheel and we brought Tucker to escort us.  We persevered through the cold (it was Christmas Eve) and left surprises on our nieghbors' porches.  A few days later we ran into one of our neighbors.  She thanked us for the pretzels and said that her husband had been afraid that we had outgrown the tradition.  We answered, "Of course not!"  It takes effort and planning to get these traditions done (especially now that 3/4 of the sisters are at college), but they are important and we enjoy them year after year!  Here's to another year of old and new traditions!

Christmas Cardigans

It's that time of year!  There were many opportunities to take the family Christmas card picture in N.Y.C., but how could we take a picture without our fifth sister, Tucker?  So we waited until Christmas break when all of us girls had returned home.  We decided to set up the tripod at the church, bring Tucker, and see how the pictures turned out.  THEY WERE AWESOME!  Maybe I'm biased, but I think these are just the sweetest pictures ever.  We put two on our card, but I thought some of the other ones were worth sharing.  I love the candid ones, and they show our family dynamic really well.  So here you go!

First attempts!

Tucker spotted the maintenance man...

"Give her a treat!"

"We can't see Tucker's dress!"

This is what happens most of the time at home.

Merry Christmas from the Hills!

Love, E.