Bubbles!

One day last week, we ran the jacuzzi and added some bubbles!

Boy, did Caeden have fun!!

I sure love my little man!

Pretending to sleep on a bubble pillow

Look who's SITTING!!!

On Easter Day, at 5.5 months old, Callie officially started sitting up!  This means she can sit without support, for several minutes, without falling over....at least until Big Brother comes to "love" on her!  

She is such a big girl - loving to sit up and play with all kinds of toys now!

Easter 2013

Easter was filled with lots of fun activities this year (as is every other holiday in our family).  :)

As soon as we finished celebrating St. Patrick's Day, we moved onto Easter!  Last year, we started doing Resurrection Eggs with Caeden.  But being only 2.5 years old at the time, he had a limited understanding of what the Easter Story really meant.  This year, we did the Resurrection Eggs again, but added a little fun to it!

Each night before bed, he knew there was an egg hiding in his room.  So, he would look all over for it...and when he found it, he would of course look inside.  We would then talk about the various objects that were in the eggs each night, and read the Bible story to go with it.  He had a much greater understanding of Jesus' death and resurrection this year!  There were several times leading up to Easter that I heard him telling people about all the things that happened to Jesus - and he seemed to remember every detail!  While we emphasized Jesus' love for HIM each night, it was mainly the details of the story that he remembered.  However, it did lead to lots of questions about heaven (and death) that we got to answer.  It's so great seeing his little mind try to comprehend the Gospel - and we just pray that he decides to accept God's gift of grace at an early age!!!

But of course, we also like to do the traditional Easter traditions also!  So a few nights before Easter, we dyed our Easter eggs!

We started the genius (Pinterest) idea of using a whisk 

last year - and love it!  It keeps the egg from 

rolling off your spoon or dipper!

And of course, Callie had to get in on the action too....

This picture is just to show off her

cute bunny pajamas!  LOVE the bunny

tail on her little bum!

And her bunny slippers!

The night before Easter we did Resurrection Rolls for the first time with Caeden.  This is a fun tradition to start with kids....If you're interested, here's the link for more information!  Being the night before Easter, we reviewed the crucifixion that we had been discussing the previous few weeks.  Then we explained how they buried Jesus with this activity.  

The marshmallow represents Jesus.

So we explained how they put oil on Jesus' body...

(we rolled the marshmallow in butter).

Then they put spices on his body...

(we rolled the marshmallow in cinnamon/sugar).

 Then they wrapped him in a cloth (crescent roll).

And put him in the tomb (oven). 

We baked them while he was sleeping, and

the next morning, this is what he found.... 

JESUS' BODY WAS GONE!!

HE IS ALIVE!

p.s. - these were a yummy breakfast too!   :)

Now, at 5am on Easter morning, I woke up to the awful sound of my husband regurgitating all of his food from Saturday - yes, he had an awful stomach bug!  This meant we did not go to church on Easter morning...  This was so hard for me!!  I mean, celebrating Jesus' resurrection is the whole reason for Easter!  But I knew that it was more important for me to take care of my husband and celebrate the resurrection in my heart.  I'm telling you - this was the first Easter in my whole life that I've never been to church!  It was sad, but I knew it was right...  

So, after Daddy was awake enough to walk into the kitchen just for a few minutes, we let the kids see their Easter baskets!  Daddy didn't want to miss out, so we waited until mid-morning, (when he felt like he could handle getting up) but surprisingly Caeden didn't even ask about his basket before that!  

 His expression when seeing his basket!

Checkin' it all out...

CANDY!  The best part!

Then it was Callie's turn:

Reaching for her eggs!

Checkin' out her new pacis and bows!

And trying on her new sunglasses!!

Hee-hee!

Now, the plan was for my parents to come down for the afternoon and have Easter lunch with an egg hunt at our house.  Normally we have lots of family come - and everyone contributes a dish.  But this year, my parents were the only ones available to come.  Their contribution was the ham, but it was already at my house so I could cook it.  Sooo....this meant I was going to be cooking the entire Easter meal by myself. Well, I had relied on the fact that Reid could tend to the kids while I cooked.  Little did I know that Reid would be very sick on Easter morning.  So I had to enlist some help during Callie's morning nap...  Caeden was my yolk-masher for the deviled eggs, and he did an awesome job! 

And even though we didn't go to church, I still

wanted to dress the kids up for some pictures!

And this year, Callie fits in her Easter basket!

Playing with her dress...  

Brother & Sis!

Since Daddy was sick, it was just mommy that

got pictures with the two kids:

(but we're planning on re-dressing up soon

and taking some pictures with Daddy!)

THEN IT WAS TIME FOR..

THE EASTER EGG HUNT!

Between my parents and us, we had 95 eggs to hide!

The kids had a blast! 

This was his routine for every.  single.  egg.

As soon as he found one, he would open it...

Take out the candy...

And eat it... 

I'm pretty sure that only half of his eggs still had 

candy by the time the hunt was over. 

Even though Daddy was sick, and we didn't get to go to church, we still had a great Easter!  We are so glad that Caeden is starting to understand the grace Jesus showed us on the cross!  And thankful to God himself for sacrificing his Son for OUR sake!