Happy Easter

We had a wonderful Easter Day! I have quite a few pictures to post when I have a little more time to go through them!

I am kind of bummed because I ordered Easter cards on Shutterfly and I still haven't received them in the mail! When I orginally ordered them, it said April 3rd. Then they shipped and the date of delivery just keeps getting pushed back. =/ So I don't even know if I should send them out anymore, lol. Thankfully I used a promotion code and they were free. =)

I just loved our Pastor's message in church this morning..... Do you REALLY believe in the Easter story? Because if you do... it changes everything!!

Mighty Is The Power of The Cross

Reflecting on the work Jesus accomplished on the cross for you and me.....

Holy Week

Today will be my last Sunday post as it is the last Sunday in Lent! It begins Holy Week which is Jesus' last week of life before his death and Resurrection (next weekend). Our church put on an Easter pageant this morning.. a play that re-enacted from Jesus' 40 days in the wilderness to the crucifixion and empty tomb. It was powerful.
Ya know, it got me thinking.. how awesome it would have been to live during those 33 years that Jesus walked this earth! God in human form, performing miracles, healing the sick, restoring sight to the blind, raising the dead all with the touch of his hand! I was thinking how easy it would be to believe that He is the Savior if I could have walked and talked with him. But as we know... even (some) of his closest friends, men He called his brothers, His disciples.. betrayed him. In those final hours, Judas led the soldiers to Jesus to have him arrested and Peter denied even knowing Jesus three times. To think, when it comes to life or death, even his disciples did not stay faithful.
This week is a time to focus on the crucifixion of Jesus. And it's hard. It was hard just watching it re-enacted in a play! Much less to think about that it really happened. Jesus had all the power of God at his fingertips.. he could have easily fought back. But He knew that "the Scriptures must be fulfilled. "(Mark 15:49) To think that He took our place and bore the weight of the sin of the whole world... "He too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death- that is, the devil" (Hebrews 2:14) If you get a chance this week, read Hebrews chapter 10. It discusses how it was the religious duty in the Old Testament to offer sacrifice after sacrifice to God to forgive them of their sins. And how Jesus was part of God's plan to redeem all people.... He was the final, once and for all, sacrifice for our sins. There is nothing we can or have to do to receive eternal life but just receive what has already been given to us! The greatest story of all time! I am so grateful for the hope and joy and peace we have in Him!

P.S. I have 4 tomatoes now! It may be a success after all!

Easter Egg Hunt

Yesterday morning we were supposed to have an Easter Egg Hunt with our MOPS group. I think about 50 people responded that they planned to attend. But it rained Wednesday night and they ended up having to cancel it because the ground was too wet. So that was a bummer, but thankfully Laura opened up her home and invited just our table over to her house to do a hunt inside... picnic and all! It ended up being me with Wyatt, Kelly with her 2 (Luke and Becky), and then of course Laura (with Avery). It is amazing how with only 4 little ones it can be so crazy! lol ... especially toddlers I guess =) But we had a blast!

Playing

Becky

 Teasing the dogs, lol

 Luke and Becky ready for the hunt!

Wyatt figured out right away what he was supposed to do... so cute!

 Looking and thinking..

 I think Becky sat down and opened the first egg she found, lol 

Checking out what he found!

 Cheerios, hehe

This is blurry, but, Luke started running around and it got Wyatt so excited, he ran around right behind him =)

These 2 couldn't get enough of the stairs, lol 

And our attempt(s) at getting a group shot. These make me laugh, so much fun with these little ones =)

Avery swiping Luke's egg when he's not looking, haha

Seems like we had a busy week.... the Mr. has to do a cross country flight tomorrow (Saturday) so me and the little guy are just going to chill out at home all day!

Wyatt's World

We had Wyatt's 15 month appointment this morning. Poor guy had a rough day.. he is cutting 1 or more of his "eye" teeth and his thighs were sore from his shots the rest of the day. He just wandered around and fussed if I wasn't holding him =/
We were surprised to look at his stats on the growth curve! He weighs 22.3 lbs and is 31 inches long. His weight puts him at only 18% and his height is 50%! His Dr. said this is where he will tend to fall on the growth chart from now on since his growth really leveled out. So it looks like he is going to be long and lean! It's so crazy because I always think he is big because of his clothes size, but I don't know.. I guess the brand of clothes I buy just run really small! (He wears 18 mo and 24 mo clothes!) Weird. I think he is going to take after my metabolism because the boy already eats us out of house and home! lol
His Dr. was super pleased with his development. She said, "You guys, seriously. He is just perfect." lol I am so thankful for a healthy little boy =)
While we were waiting, we were telling Wyatt to do different things. I said, "Go spin the chair." And he went over to the chair and made it spin! I've never said that to him before, it is so crazy how smart they are! I gave him my keys and said, "Open the door." And of course I had to whip out my camera, lol

He loves to climb. I know I have said that before but it is crazy. We went to a friend's house for a play date a couple weeks ago and Wyatt climbed up on the couch (like he does at home). Well, my friend's 15 month old, Becky, hadn't discovered that yet. She said ever since the day we were there, Becky climbs up on the couch now, haha. Anyways, one day after we went on a walk Wyatt climbed up in the stroller and we caught him jumping in it backwards, just laughing! So the other day when we got back from a walk, I collapsed the stroller, trying to prevent him from being able to climb in it. Yeah, he still climbed on it.....

He seriously thinks it is hilarious when he climbs up on something!

And 2 pictures I am loving right now...

I'm Horrible At Coming Up With Titles

Ack! The weekend just flowed right into the start of the week and I realized I didn't post Sunday's Lent inspiration. We did have a wonderful weekend though! Saturday night my MOPS group put on a date night out catered by a Mexican restaurant for dinner and our pastor and his wife spoke about marriage and parenting. Tyler's mom came down to watch Wyatt and we just had a really nice night out. Sunday after church, we went out for lunch with 2 other families (both have 15 month olds!)... and then Sunday night Tyler had some fellow flight students over for a study group and we grilled out for them. It is such a blessing that we are both starting to connect with people and build friendships... I have a lot of thoughts on that, hmmm, maybe that will be its own post.

Anyways.... this week I wanted to link up to this devotional from Grace Notes, by Philip Yancey. It goes along with what I am studying right now in my bible study and that is that we will experience suffering. Sometimes I think people have the (wrong) impression that life for a Christian is just happy and perfect and everything is hunky dory! Sure, God does bless with good health, and finances and possessions, and overall happiness.... but, he does not promise these things. Ever. All good things come from His hands (James 1:17), but they are not a guarantee. In John 16:33, Jesus says, "In this world you will have trouble. But take heart I have overcome the world!" There are several places in Scripture that we are told that we will experience trouble, suffering, and heartache.
What a Christian is promised by God is... "Never will I leave you. Never will I forsake you." Hebrews 13:5 This is how a Christian can experience hope and peace and joy in the midst of life's sufferings. We should expect suffering as a part of our time here on earth. But that is the beautiful thing about this Easter season...... we are reminded that Jesus conquered death when he rose from the dead and we have eternal life free of suffering awaiting us in heaven! We need this reminder all year long, not just during the Lent season.

Also, this is unrelated but I know I have a few young moms that read so I wanted to share this post "Ten Fun Ways To Keep Easter About Jesus" at the blog, "We are THAT family." (I don't have a problem with taking part in the commercial aspect of Easter and Christmas, but as Wyatt gets older I will make it a priority to keep the focus on the real celebration of those holidays!) That post has some great ideas for Easter!

Spring is in the air...

Spring is in the air and I am loving it! I didn't plan on blogging tonight but I just had to after I went out to water my tomato plant and saw this.....

Like I've said before, I have no idea what I am doing when it comes to growing vegetables, but I'm pretty sure that looks like a baby tomato?!?! We have finally had some direct sunlight the last 2 days and I think that was just what it needed. I am so excited!

I've done a couple things around the house to lighten it up a little bit and add some "spring"!
First, I spray painted a picture frame (that I already had) white, and then I printed out a free printable to put in it! Super easy and cheap, and cute!

I found the printable through Pinterest (of course!) and here's a link to the site! (It comes in different colors and there are a couple other designs too!)

And the other (not finished) craft I've been working on...

I already had those shelves. They were brown so I painted them white. Then I just wrapped yarn around paper mache letters! I'm sure it is pretty obvious what word it is supposed to be.... but everytime I go to Hobby Lobby they are out of "V"s !! lol It'll be cute when it's done. =)

We started up our Spring bible study this morning at church, so we'll have that every Wednesday morning through May. The weather was gorgeous today and will be for the next couple days! I <3 Spring.