Happy Easter! Christ is Risen!!

I LOVE Easter Sunday. I remember being a kid and getting up for sunrise service at the park and then going to the church gym for breakfast. It is a day filled with so much HOPE and JOY. I can not fully understand the sacrifice that Christ made on my behalf, but I am thankful that He offers us new, resurrected life! Hallelujah! What a Savior!

Church was great this morning, as usual. Our pastor reminded us that today is about LIFE conquering DEATH, and in order to really live that life that was intended for us, we have to follow Christ and put fear aside. We sang the song Christ is Risen by Matt Maher and it is a song whose theme is victory in Christ. Here it is...it's definitely worth a listen. The bottom line is this: Christ is ALIVE. He is risen and active. He wants to be in relationship with us. How humbling. How amazing.

After church, we went to Bravo (a great Italian place) for lunch and then came home for naps. We didn't even get around to taking pictures until after naptime. We might not look quite as sharp as we did when we left for church, but I still think the kids looked precious. Kirk and I continue to pray that they will someday accept the gift that Christ has offered to them of a new life and victory over sin!

Leah looked "picture perfect", as Kirk said :).

She sure can make a mess though!

Happy Easter, Leah!

I tried to get a picture of the 2 kids together. This is the best we could get (sorry about the placement of Leah's hand :)).

Just not interested in pictures. Sorry, mommy.

We finally got around to giving Elijah and Leah their baskets at about 5 pm tonight. They both dug right in, as you can say (yes, Elijah is putting a hershey kiss WITH a wrapper in his mouth...no time to take that off!).

Happy Easter, buddy!

Mmmm...candy.

Leah promptly dumped hers out. All it had in it was sweet potatoes and hard boiled eggs...I think she may have been looking for the candy :).

I love her.

My friend Amy stopped by this afternoon and took a few family pics for us. They aren't great but at least we documented it :).

The kids were not interested.

Elijah is so stubborn these days and refuses to smile for the camera. He was actually covering up his mouth here just in case he accidently smiled.

And this is a little bit more like what life usually looks like around here. Someone is usually naked, Elijah typically has no pants on and is wearing one of Leah's bows and Daddy is making them both laugh. I love it.

Happy Easter from the crazies!

OH NO!

Many of you know I am a sucker for traditions. I absolutely love all the cheesy things about the holidays. Last year, I tried to color eggs with E which was a huge bust. This year, I thought it would be more interesting for him. Well, it certainly was interesting. I set up the dying station while Elijah was watching Barney. I left the room for a minute, apparently right when Barney was ending. I came back into the room, expecting to see Elijah in his chair watching Barney, but instead, found him standing in a huge blue spot on the carpet with the plastic cup in his hand. He apparently got up onto the table, got a hold of the cup, and either tried to drink it (unsuccessfully), or just pour it all over himself and the carpet (successfully). I definitely let out a big yell, which scared him, and lots of crying ensued. Anyway, we did finally get him cleaned up (the carpet is a work in progress) and colored some eggs. It all seemed a bit anti-climatic, however.

Not happy, feeling blue (pun intended).

The evidence.

"Water A-chin"

The other day I set up a water station (or "water a-chin" as he calls it) in the kitchen for Elijah. He loved it. I just took a towel and a few bowls and filled them up with varying amounts of water and then let him sit down and go to town. He had a blast pouring the water in the bowls, and on the floor, and all over himself.

Hard at work.

"Ok, Mommy, just take the picture so I can get back to business."

Just because she's cute

Leah is definitely an idependent woman. She likes to do things herself and she is trying to figure out how to get her hands on anything and everything. She hasn't figured out the whole crawling thing yet, which I think will make her a lot more content (not that she's not content, she just gets frustrated when she can't reach something that looks appealing to her :)). Anyway, here's a few recent ones of the cutie:

She wanted to hold the spoon. She sat in the chair well after her sweet potatoes were done, just enjoying the spoon!

Happy about it.

The other day, I went in to get Leah when she had woken up in the morning. She had gotten a hold of the comforter that came with her bedding set and it was draped over her head. By the time I got my camera, it had fallen off her head but it was still cute.

Happy faces in the morning. ps. I love her new bedding!

Hi, sweetheart! It's too early to be that happy.

Grandma and Aunt Konni.

This weekend, we had a nice visit with Kirk's mom and sister. Konni is doing college visits and they stopped to see us in between 2 schools. We had a nice, relaxing weekend and we all enjoyed having them! Kirk and I actually feel sort of indebted to them because they watched the kids while we went to our apartment complex's easter egg scavenger hunt (for adults). The grand prize was a 32 inch tv and an ipad. Well, guess what? Kirk and I cleaned up (and by that, I mean, we beat the 5 other people who were there). That's right! We are the proud owners of a brand new iPad (we gave the tv to the couple who came in 2nd). It was a very exciting Saturday :). Then, Grandma and Aunt Konni watched the kids while Kirk and I enjoyed an evening out. It was wonderful...thank you so much, Mom and Konni! So here are a few pics.

Mom downloaded an app on her iPhone that shows pictures of animals and makes the sounds that they make. Want to entertain a 2 year old for hours on end? There's an app for that.

Leah's new favorite game is empyting out the toy bins and then crying when all the toys are out. It's great fun...and Konni joined in on the fun (although, she didn't cry when the bins were empty).

I love this one!

Leah loves Grandma!

Tomorrow will bring its own worries.

Kirk has an interview Monday morning at 9 am and if you are reading this, I'd like you to take a minute to pray. Pray that Kirk will have a clear mind, a confident spirit, and a peace in his heart about it. Also pray that God's perfect will would be done in this situation. I KNOW there is power in prayer and I know that many who read my blog believe that too.

These are the verses I am claiming (which, by the way, I am certain was no accident were the verses I was scheduled to be reading today in our "reading through the Bible in 2011" plan):

"Your heavenly Father already knows all your needs and he will give you all you need from day to day if you live for him and make the Kingdom of God your primary concern. So don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today's trouble is enough for today." -Mt. 6:32-24, New Living Translation

A Colorado Wedding

This past weekend, I headed out to Colorado to take part in the wedding of one of my best friends, Amy Jo. Amy Jo and I went to Taylor together, but we also attended Focus on the Family Institute together in the fall of 2004. It was very special to go back there for her wedding. We had such a fun weekend and I am so happy for her! She is now enjoying a 2 week honeymoon to Hawaii (jealous!), and I can't wait for her to return home so we can debrief about her awesome day.

A bunch of the girls at the rehearsal dinner.

The almost-Wagners at their rehearsal dinner.

At the salon getting our hair done. Julie, Amy Jo, Esther, and me.

The bride and me, pre-dress.

I had SO much fun with these girls!

The bride and me, post-dress.

I had the very important job of putting Amy Jo's garter on.

Sorry I ruined this great picture by closing my eyes.

They're married!

The bridal party limo ride from the church to the reception was SO fun.

This is why I want to move to Colorado everytime I go there. It is so beautiful.

Julie and me with the Ferrells. Matt was in my class at Focus.

And this is everyone who went to Focus and their spouses. Such a fun crowd!

and the TU photo (plus Jon).

I was apparently having a great time!

Amy Jo and Jon, thank you for including me in this day! I had such a great time and am so incredibly happy for you 2. Can't wait for my next visit to Colorado!