Easter weekend

We had a great weekend celebrating Easter. On Saturday, we did the annual egg hunt at our church. This is always special and being Zeke's first Easter it was extra special. I had double duty with the kids since Matt was enlisted to help out so I gave Maddy her egg hunt marching orders & helped Zeke with his hunt. Part of me felt bad needing to leave Maddy on her own, but when I saw the result my guilty feelings quickly left. The final count was Maddy 28, Zeke 3.

On Saturday evening we dyed eggs- this was out first year as a family doing this since previous years we felt that Maddy was too young. The kids had a lot of fun but dad was a bit of an Easter Grinch. For some reason he doesn't have the same fond egg dying memories from his youth as I do. When I was growing up my parents would hid the eggs we dyed but I decided it seemed a little risky to carry on this tradition for fear of losing track of some eggs.

Our church did a wonderful Lord's Living Supper that Matt participated in Sunday morning. He was Matthew the Taxpayer of course. It was great seeing the Last Supper come to life.


In the afternoon we headed out to Matt's cousin's house for more fun, good food & another egg hunt. Zeke remembered the drill from the previous day and really racked up this time. One cute moment of the day was Zeke helping his same age cousin, Luke, add candy to his bag.

This year it was special not only being Zeke's first year, but also hearing Maddy tell me about the real meaning of Easter. We read the stories of the Passion Week each day and she was able to tell me parts when she heard & saw things. I am truly blessed to have a family to share these great memories with and to be able to create traditions of our own.

Easter Pictures!

I will write more tomorrow about our very full weekend, but for now here is a little picture teaser....

Good Friday

We went to see my Mom for Good Friday. We had a nice brunch at a new place in my hometown called Ida Mae's Cafe. It was fun reminiscing about all of the different businesses that used to be on that particular block through the years.

We went to church for service in the afternoon at the church I grew up in and again there I thought about how much things have changed through the years. Good Friday is one of my favorite days as I stop to reflect on the crucifixion and what that moment in history has come to mean to me through the years. One of favorite songs of all time is Thief by Third Day - it talks about the thief on one of the other crosses and his last minute redemption. This story always brings a tear to my eye when I think about the awesome forgiveness available to even the worst of the worst.

Four months later

Our first view of Zeke 12/13/10

Zeke has officially been part of our family over 4 months now. It's so amazing to see the incredible growth in our son during that time. The little boy who didn't know a bit of English has really blossomed in his language, I was away this past weekend for a few days and even in just that time he seemed to have picked up more words & expressions. His motor skills have essentially caught up to what would seem normal for his age and his continual use of the word 'why' keeps us reminded that he is, after all, a two year old.

Maddy has also bloomed as an older sister. There are tender moments in between the fights and a sense of responsibility when she is left 'in charge' for an occasional brief moment if one of leaves the room. Although there have been some hard days, we can truly say we are blessed to have these 2 little people in our lives.

Bye, bye crib...Hello big boy bed

This past weekend Zeke made the transition out of his crib into a toddler bed. He's been testing his sister's bed out almost daily crawling in & pulling the covers over his head so we thought it was time. He's been potty trained for almost a month now so it seemed like the next step (although this mama isn't happy to give up the baby stage, I know it's part of life: ).

He just smiled from ear to ear & giggled when it came to bed time the first night. I'm sure the thrill will eventually wear off, but for now he is excited every night after story time to race into his new bed. He loves being able to get in by himself & even insists on pulling his own covers up.