Lost.

It's happening.

Our children are shooting up like weeds.  Despite my efforts to keep them little, things keep happening that remind me that my "littles" are turning into "bigs".

It used to be that losing teeth was only something that happened to Nathan, then Ella joined the club, and now...

Adeline Marie has lost her first tooth!

At nearly 5 1/2 Addie lost her first tooth, and now claims that a second one is wiggly!

She had been wiggling it for about a week.  At first it barely budged, but she was so excited!  Then one afternoon she came to me to see if it was wiggly enough to pull out.  To me it wasn't (I actually have never pulled out any of my children's teeth and don't think I could...), so I told her not yet but maybe in a day or two. 

Nathan, the stinker, was sitting beside me and said, "Let me see."  She let him, and Nathan just grabbed the tooth and pulled it out!  This could have ended poorly, but Addie was excited to have lost her first tooth and didn't seem to mind how it happened!

Unfortunately later that day she "lost" her tooth for good so she had nothing for under her pillow.  The Tooth Fairy (she's a stickler here), gave a first tooth grace and generously left Addie 75 cents...which I think Addie also lost.

Easter 2015.

It's come and gone, but I thought I would get a couple of the few Easter photos posted.  

Obligatory Easter photos:  

The girls love to dress up, so this is their usual Sunday attire.  This is however one of two days each year that Nathan graces a tie.

  You would think that we could be a more photogenic bunch.  Maybe someday we'll get our act together.

Not sure what's happening here.

 

 We were able to attend our church's early service.  I sang in the choir, and the pastor had an awesome message titled "Death has no sting, long live the King".

After church, we zipped up to my sister Brenda's house for dinner.  We have traditionally spent Easter with my mom's side of the family.   We have kept this tradition, but now my sister hosts.

Evelyn is all ready to eat. (We have impeccable manners)

  

Following dinner and clean-up, there was an Easter egg hunt.  When it comes to Easter day, I have never done anything "fun" for my children.  I'm not totally against it, it's just not super important to me.  I'm thankful that my Aunt Kathie has taken it upon herself  for at least the last decade to buy candy and hide the eggs.  She has even acquired an Easter Bunny costume!

We don't even remotely pretend like the Easter Bunny is real, and I don't even think my children are aware of the tradition where the Bunny brings you a basket of goodies, (but ask them, I could be wrong).  So, our children are usually pretty nervous around the Bunny.  We would normally get a posed photo with whoever is the baby at the time.  Now my baby is almost three and Bunny fear has set in.

 So, this is what we got. :)

After this photo she wanted to go inside (away from the Bunny).  She told me that the Bunny tried to eat her candy...

Nathan collected his allotted amount of eggs and candy. 

 

 I normally would have taken more photos, but I was inside with Evelyn.  We may or may not have been consoling ourselves with candy. 

  It was a blessing to celebrate our Risen Lord with loved ones.  (We even got in a quick facetime conversation with Aunt Amy and her crew.)   I'm thankful to God for these times with our extended family. 

Holy Week.

Christ is Risen!

Today, this Easter day, we celebrated our Jesus' victory over the grave.  As we sang  in church, "Death has no sting, long live the King!". 

Since this day is what separates Christians from the rest of the world, Matt and I both have a desire that our Easter holiday would honor the Risen Christ.  I love that we can reflect and celebrate throughout the week in ways that are hopefully both meaningful and memorable.

Here is a look at our Holy Week 2015.

One tradition we've done for the past five years is Resurrection Eggs.  I threw these together five years ago by just scrapping things together from around the house and writing the coordinating verse on a piece of scrap paper.  I intended to make them "nicer", but haven't.  Turns out they get the job done, and now the older kids anticipate what is in each egg.  They may be disappointed if there wasn't a Ritz cracker in egg 1 to represent bread. :) (Yes, the cracker has been in there five years.  It still looks good...gross.)   Even Nathan, 8, looks forward to opening an egg.  There are 12 eggs, so we start 12 days before Easter, and each kids gets to open 3 eggs.  Next year I may add more eggs.

Okay, so this next tradition is not really meaningful, but just fun.  The past two years we've gone to an Easter egg hunt at a local toy store.  Each kid gets to collect six eggs, then you hand the eggs in for small toys and crafts.  

I enjoy this egg hunt because:

1.  Most prizes are educational or crafty

2.  The kids are then occupied most of the afternoon completing their crafts or playing their new games

3.  There is a donut shop next door

 As you can see, even Matt got in on some sticker crafting.

 

For the 3rd year, our family was able to host our small group on Maundy Thursday for a Christian Passover meal.  Christian because we focus on the truth that Jesus is the Messiah who has already come and is coming again.  Also, because I've never actually experienced a Jewish Passover meal, and I'm pretty sure there are parts of it I'm not doing right.

It has become one of my favorite days, not just of Holy Week, but of the whole year.  The Passover is seething with symbolism.  I love that we can literally taste and see that the Lord is good.

The kids and I spent the entire day preparing the food and the house.  Many offer to help, but I turn it down.  There's something rewarding about the labor and love that we get to pour over this meal.

 

I was first inspired to host a Passover after my Mom passed away.  The sting of death was fresh and painful.  I needed more focus and purpose in my Easter and I wanted my children to experience Christ as their Passover Lamb.  

 

I found this while digging through a box in the basement a few months ago.  

It belong to my Grandpa and Grandma Garner.  I thought it was appropriate.

Following the Passover ceremony, we enjoyed a full dinner together featuring lamb (of course).

(I've followed the same Passover guide all three years.  I print it off so everyone call follow along.)

Moving forward, we come to Good Friday.

Our church has a service at noon.  We've gone every year, and it's a great time to focus on the cross and our own sinfulness (or if you're like me the sinfulness of your children who are not sitting quietly during said church service...).  But, in all seriousness I love this service and I'm thankful our church has it.

This year, Matt took the afternoon off on Friday so we had some extra time together as a family.  The kids love to make things with "real" tools, so we used some scrap wood to nail together a cross.

Matt and I put in two nails to secure the wood together, then each child got to put in a nail.

 

For Evelyn, Matt pounded in her nail most of the way before passing off the hammer.

 

After finishing the cross, each person wrote down a behavior or attitude they've had the past week (or day, hour, whenever) that wasn't pleasing to God.

 

We then nailed our sins to the cross.

The kids liked it because they got to use the hammer and nails, but it was also a good time to confess sins and thank Jesus for paying the penalty for our sins.

Finally, the Saturday day before Easter, I took the kids to another local church for "Sonrise Saturday".  Matt wanted to get things done at the house, so it worked out well for us to go and not be in his way.

The church set up many different rooms to tell and act out the crucifixion story in tangible ways for little ones.  The children got to participate in things like lifting a life-size cross, casting lots, touching a crown of thorns, and many other activities.  It was fun and something we'd do again.

One of the final stations at the church was "new life" where they had baby chicks and a lamb.

Of course the event concluded with an egg hunt!

 

Man my kids are getting big!

Overall, we had a good week preparing for Easter...Sunday's coming!