Easter!

This weekend has been absolutely crazy. 18 people. Only 2 bathrooms. I love my family, but sometimes it gets a little crowded when all of us are together in the same place. I loved being with all of my cousins this weekend! Since I am the oldest, I usually get stuck taking care of the small children, which I do not mind at all. My cousins are all quite younger than me. My closest-aged cousin is Sarrah, who is in 3rd grade.

Friday, I had track practice in the morning (I found out that I will be throwing on Varsity for both shot and discus on Friday at the Varsity meet in Waverly! I didn't think that I was going to make varsity, I did terrible in my throw-offs!), and then I had to help sell yummy treats at our softball team bake sale. I found out that I didn't make it onto the 18s team this year, which is what I was really hoping for. So, it looks like I will be playing 16s for another year. The way they have this set up really angers me. Oh well. There's nothing I can do. Anyway, we have to raise money so that we can pay entry fees into tournaments. At our little bake sale, we had it set up outside, and I forgot to put sunscreen on, so I got fairly sunburned. The bad thing is that one side of my face got more sunburned than the other, so I look quite dumb. When I got home, my Uncle Darren and Aunt Betsy who live in Minnesota were already there with my adorable twin cousins, Elizabeth and Olivia... aka: Libby and Livvy. We had an awesome evening with them.

On Saturday, we woke up early, and went to the Live Like Addie run in Syracuse. Addie died from cancer last year on March 26, two days shy of her birthday which was March 28. Addie was in Elle's grade, and she was always a very happy girl. She also loved animals, she always came up with creative ways to raise money for animal shelters. I couldn't participate in the run because of NSAA rules about being in a sport season and participating in a competition, so I just volunteered as a water girl! Needless to say, more water got spilled on me than actually went into runner's mouths. After that, I drove to Hickman to help my Grandma with her food pantry stuff. We were putting together Easter meals for the needy families in the area. (Speaking of driving... The engine light in my car finally went off! It had been on since the morning of All-State auditions... October 13th. I have no idea why it was on, but I hope it stays off!) After returning home, I enjoyed dinner with all 18 of us, and once again I was on baby duty. Baby Ellijah is so adorable, and he is such a happy baby. He only cried a couple of times.

Sunday was crazy. There were 12 people all trying to get ready for church at the same time. I have my Sunday routines down to a science, and when something in my routine doesn't happen the way it;s supposed to, I get a tad grumpy. Let's just say I was fairly grumpy. Church was amazing, as usual. The orchestra was breath-taking, but I wasn't that impressed by the choir. The message was very convicting, and our pastor must have been planning this for a long time because the "Easter sermon" fit right into our study of the book of Hebrews. I was quite impressed.

Lunch was amazing, as always. I'm so glad that I live in a family of women who can cook delicious meals. I really hope I inherit that. My Grandma Dreessen and I were having a lovely conversation during lunch about me. According to her, I have little Dreessen in me, and I am all Illg (her family) and Stofer. She said that the only Dreessen trait that I received was my curly hair, but that also comes from Gregory as well. She also said that one of my most defining Illg characteristics is my Illg-laugh. I don't think any of you have ever heard my real laugh. It is almost scary. All of my grandma's siblings and my mother have it as well. It really is strange. It's really funny when we all get together because it is Illg-laugh after Illg-laugh while people are shouting over each other because we all have loud voices. And don't even get me started about Illg family reunions.

After lunch, I took this little guy into my possession, and I was baby-hogging him all day. I really think that out of us kids that I was the only one to hold him all day. This is partly because every time I tried to pass him off to a cousin, he would start crying. Baby Ellijah is so adorable. He is cutting teeth right now, so he slobbers everywhere, but some how I over-looked that. I was trying to get him to say my name, but he can only say "Dada". I was quite disappointed. How hard could it be? "Ann-a-sta-zia". I don't understand why babies can't wrap their little brains around saying my name. (On a side note, right after this picture was taken, that little booger grabbed my earring and pulled really hard. I thought he was going to rip it through the skin.)