A Blessed Easter!

Last year during Easter, Jason and I made a bunch of food with the hopes of inviting our new neighbors over a hot meal and to get to know them better. Unfortunately no one turned out being home, so we celebrated alone that year. It's not exactly easy celebrating the holidays without family around, so this year I wanted to invite those in our small group without any family in town, over to celebrate with us! AND we also happened to have our dear friends Kate & Tom and their son Rocco in town visiting with us that day.

I couldn't have asked for a better day. The sun was shining and it was a beautiful 75 degrees outside, my friends all came together for a meal that turned out great and fed everyone, there were no puppy accidents in the house and we closed the evening with the guys taking turns playing some tunes. And did I take pictures of any of this?...no I did not. I know, slap my hand, I deserve it.

But I will post some pictures here that Tom & Kate took while visiting us and then also some that our close friend Ben DeRienzo took that Sunday morning at Easter service.

How adorable is that little guy? I swear Rocco took a piece of my heart with him when he left Tennessee. I luurve that boy!
He was the hit of the church service, flirting with the ladies sitting behind him and dressed in his Easter best!

Here's my very beautiful and very pregnant friend Alicia. I know right, I look more like the one that should be pregnant! Note to self - get a freakin tan!
I can only dream that I'll look this hot when I'm 6 months pregnant someday!
Some of my wonderful friends that I'm blessed to have, Ida, Tabby & Melanie. Ida and Tabby were part of the group that came over later for Easter dinner.

The Hallstroms hanging out at our house Sunday afternoon.
On Monday, we had the entire day to spend with Kate, Tom & Rocco. I really wanted to give them a taste of Nashville, but unfortunately there wasn't a whole lot happening in the city that day. So they didn't get to really see any live music, but we did take them through Broadway to see the honkey-tonks and then stopped for ice cream while we waited out an afternoon storm.
Rocco could care less about his new toy at the moment, he's eye-balling some vanilla fudge ice cream. Atta boy!After hitting downtown, we headed out to Opry Mills so Tom could check out Gibson and Kate and I could do a little shopping. Check out how pint-sized this guitar is for Rocco!
To finish the day off, we took Tom & Kate out to The Hermitage Cafe downtown for some real southern dinin'. This place is about as authentic as it gets. That's Linda, our waiter. We asked where we could sit and she said just as long as it wasn't in her "reserved tables". I asked "Who are your reserved tables for", she replied, "My drunks!" Haa - well, we thought it was funny. The diner opens at 10pm and stays open till 1.30pm the next afternoon and they have the best home-cooked food. Delish! Rocco was a total champ hanging out till the wee hours of the night!

Miss you Hallstrom fam - come back and see us soon!!