Family Home Evenings

This year we were very excited for Easter. Zack is finally catching on to traditions, and holidays are so much fun because of it. I am really getting into it too, this is one of the fun parts of having kids! I got my new Easter baskets done, and they look so pretty! I went to Michaels and bought some matching baskets for all of us. Then I bought some springy ribbon, one for each of us. The boys got the ribbon around the basket and the handle, and the girls have a bow as well as the wrapping. I am so proud of them. While I was getting into the traditions of the Easter Bunny, Aaron reminded me about the importance of Easter and that he wanted to focus on the real reason we celebrate; the resurrection of Christ. Later that week I was talking to Britta about how excited I was for this Easter, and about the conversation Aaron and I had about the reason for Easter. She told me about her tradition with her kids, she does her baskets on Saturday, so they can focus on Christ on Sunday. I love this idea, so naturally I'm stealing it.

As part of our focus, we made sure our family home evening was about the resurrection. I put together a lesson about how Christ died and was buried in a tomb, then he came back to life. I cut out a tomb, a stone and a picture of Christ for us to color, and showed him how Christ was laid in the tomb, the stone was rolled in front and three days later, he came out resurrected. I hope he caught on to the concept, but it's hard to tell. It was exciting to see his face as he was learning new things. He will now answer the question "Why do we celebrate Easter?" with "Jesus was resurrected!". It's times like these that I love the most about spending time with my family!

Growing Up

What a beautiful little girl we have been blessed with! She is growing so fast too. We took her to the doctor at the end of March to find out that she is in the 93rd percentile in height and the 82nd percentile for weight...what a tall drink of water! She's all healthy and happy. So, we started her on cereal after our 4 month appointment. She's getting pretty good at it too, but we're still trying to get her to take the spoon without her binky following it! That's ok, we'll get there.
She's also getting pretty good at grabbing things she wants. We have entered the grabbing phase, what fun! The other night we had strawberry shortcakes for dessert. Aaron had her on her lap while eating his, and she sure liked the way that bowl of sweets looked. She started reaching for it, and she was persistent. Aaron would move the bowl away from her, but every time he brought it in front to eat some, she was coming at it again! It's no longer easy to eat with her on our laps...what a fun phase we're heading into!

Honey-Do List: Yard Work

One of the things that Aaron has looked forward to the most is getting a Honey-Do list. He loves to work with his hands, and couldn't wait to get started on projects in our new home. The first thing he wanted to take care of was our yard. Our tree out front was grossly overgrown. Aaron wasn't sure if our homeowners insurance would approve the policy until the tree was taken care of, it was rubbing up against the shingles on the roof. I was anxious for him to take care of it because there was a branch that would rub against our bedroom window, really annoying in the middle of a windy night! Aaron did a wonderful job trimming up the tree, it looks so nice! Unfortunately we did see some shingle damage after getting the branches down, but we did expect it.
Our next project in the yard is our garden. We have a patch outside our patio that will be perfect for a small garden this summer. We got all the ground cover pulled out, and most of the big rocks out of the patch. We're going to plant some tomatos and peppers, perfect for sandwiches and salsa. It feels good to have our own place to take care of!