dear ethan,
you may know just how to push her buttons and try to do way too much for her, but your sister still adores you! it blesses me beyond words to watch the two of you growing closer and closer as you grow older. i find you two engrossed in legos one minute and playing tiger/princess the next. you two could spend hours digging in the dirt in our yard (no wonder our grass is sparse!) and dancing to seeds family worship
love,
mommy
here's our family on resurrection sunday! we are so thankful to God for the indescribable and completely undeserved gift of Jesus Christ's perfect righteousness for our innumerable sins. "for our sake, He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 cor. 5:21). what a powerful message! it is indeed a message for resurrection sunday, and for every single day of the year! i am reminded daily of my need for a Savior, and i praise God that with the frustrating reality of my sin comes the refreshing reminder that it has been Paid For!
speaking of sin, i woke up this sunday morning quite cranky because caroline had woken up all throughout the night complaining of her sunburn from a couple of days earlier. and since she'd gotten very little sleep, caroline was not exactly singing praises to God that morning either! apparently, we weren't the only ones getting off to a rough start on this resurrection sunday... the power had gone off at church about 30 minutes before sunday school started. thankfully, the fried squirrel in the transformer was removed just in time for our easter fellowship breakfast to begin. (ummmm, no, the squirrel was not part of breakfast. at least i don't think!!) ain't nothin' like a good casserole to cheer up a woman-- by 10:00 i'd forgotten that i was sleep-deprived. i had to laugh when a sweet woman came up to me during breakfast and said, "Christos anesti!" (Christ is risen). i knew there was an expected response, but i only knew the english (He is risen! He is risen indeed!)... so being the movie-quoting dork that i am, i joked back, "he don't eat no meat?!" :) i don't think the lady thought it was that funny, but kristie and jen (my fellow movie-quoting friends) got a good laugh out of it!
kristie and i worked the nursery during morning worship, and while we were missing being a part of celebrating the resurrection with our families, we had a nice morning taking care of the babies. here are amelia lynn and amelia lynn:
i snapped a quick picture of the kids after church... it's been awhile since i've taken one of the three of them! 
after church, we headed over to brian's parents' house for a delicious easter lunch. i failed to snap a picture of the whole spread, but i did get some shots of my mom's cake...isn't it adorably beautiful!? it tasted good too! 
as we were driving to nana's house for lunch, ethan and i had a funny little conversation about the cake.
mommy: gram made a special cake for our easter lunch!
ethan: oooh! maybe there will be eggs on top of it!
mommy: ethan, why do we celebrate easter?
ethan: because Jesus died for our sins and rose from the grave...
mommy: right. so eggs really have nothing to do with why we celebrate easter. so it'd be kind of silly to put eggs on the top of a cake for easter, wouldn't it?!
ethan: well, maybe Jesus is on the cake!
wellllllll, not quite. i guess the three colors of the cake could represent the trinity!??!?!!?
i'd planned for the kids to make resurrection rolls after lunch, but we ran out of time. (i'm hoping to do them tomorrow!) we came home to take very late naps, and then i snuck back up to church for our evening service while everyone else was still sleeping. it was worth every minute that i missed napping. similar to our "lessons and carols" from christmas eve, it was a "lessons and psalms" service. the gospel passages telling the story of Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection were read in conjunction with congregational singing of the psalms that prophesied the last days of Jesus on earth (psalm 16, 22, 35, and 41 to name a few). what a blessing to sing these psalms alluding to our Savior, written long before He ever walked this earth. the sovereignty of God rang even truer to me this night.
i want to share these last few pictures of the kids from easter. one of my dearest friends reminded me this week that easter is not about the special clothes... it's about our risen Savior! and she's absolutely right. so here are my children in their average clothes celebrating the risen Savior. ;) 
ok, i cannot get this song out of my head. it was the song that the "angels" sang during Jesus' ascension at the passion play we went to last week. i downloaded the song today while ethan and i were making dinner, and he asked for me to put it on repeat. usually, this would drive me crazy, but this song does not. get. old. it is titled unto the lamb
all praise unto the Lamb
Who sits on the throne
honor and power, dominion and praise
unto the Lamb
Who was and is and is to come!
the video itself is slightly distracting at times, but the song is truly a blessing. so click play and then open up a new browser tab. :)
may we never tire of singing praise to the Lamb on the throne! He is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Christ the Lord is risen today! hallelujah!
happy easter! our easter weekend got off to a wonderful start the other night when we had the pleasure of attending a local church's passion play. the whole production was not only impressive but incredibly worshipful! i found myself tearing up several times as the anthems of praise rang out from the stage. i also couldn't help but sing along to the familiar songs! it was obvious that ethan was really taking it all in-- he and his buddy joseph were as still as statues through the entire (over two hour) performance. afterwards, he told us, "i don't know what i'm going to tell gram!" (who was home with sleeping amelia) "it was too much!" caroline, on the other hand, was quite the little squirmer. i guess it was too long for her, though i really expected her to be wowed by the show. her favorite parts were "the kids, the soldiers, and the angels". caroline's other favorite part was getting to stand on the back the seat in front of her during the ascension of Jesus.... it was truly an amazing finale, much more so in person than i could capture in this picture. 
as Jesus rose into the air, everyone jumped to their feet and applauded... praise the Lord! Jesus is risen and is seated at the right hand of God! caroline was getting heavy, so i told her to stand on the back of the seat. and my daughter in all her egocentrism exclaimed, "look at me! look at me!" everyone else is focused on the living Jesus in a long golden robe, surrounded by singing angels... and i hear, "look at me! look at me!" just another reminder of how much we need Jesus. :)
as our easter day is filled with the busy-ness of dresses and church and lunch and time with family...may we be like these followers of Jesus, who could not help but celebrate their risen Savior! 
ethan's been walking around the house this weekend singing bits and pieces of "Christ the Lord is risen today", and it took me back a couple of years to when i recorded a little two year old boy singing his favorite easter hymns... take a peek at little ethan singing about our risen Lord!
have a wonderful easter, everyone!
our easter clothes are ready...
now how about our hearts?! this poem that i posted last year is surely worth repeating...
Lord, the condemnation was yours,
that the justification might be mine.
The agony was yours,
that the victory might be mine.
The pain was yours,
and the ease mine.
The stripes were yours,
and the healing balm issuing from them mine.
The vinegar and gall were yours,
that the honey and sweet might be mine.
The curse was yours,
that the blessing might be mine.
The crown of thorns was yours,
that the crown of glory might be mine.
The death was yours,
the life purchased by it mine.
You paid the price
that I might enjoy the inheritance.
thank you, Lord Jesus, for enduring friday that we may celebrate sunday.
just in time for easter, we have a resurrection miracle right in our backyard! when my friend heather moved here in 2007, she dug up a BUNCH of amaryllis bulbs and shared them with me and kristie. i love those flowers, but i was hesitant to plant them because i do not do flowers. i love receiving them, i love admiring them, but i cannot keep them alive in the ground. i did not inherit my granddaddy's green thumb, that is for sure. i have been known to say, "i am growing children, not flowers!" well, my two gardening friends assured me that amaryllis were tough and that i could not kill them. well, bring them on! kristie helped me plant them along my (ugly) fence, and i actually had a little hope! until kristie and heather both mentioned in passing some time later that their amaryllis were blooming... both of theirs bloomed, and i had some green leaves. that was it. and for the next two years, that was it. just green leaves. they looked mighty healthy last year, and i was sure they'd produce some buds then.... but no. my sweet neighbor bonnie and i have had many a conversation across the fence about those poor flowers and whether they'd ever bloom. i'd pretty much given up on the poor dears this year... they were covered in weeds and the leaves were looking quite pathetic. just two weeks ago, i shook my head at them and said, "i told them i'd kill 'em!"
WELL! last week, the kids and i went outside to breathe in some beautiful spring air, and wouldn't you know!? those weed-infested leaves held stems! and those stems held BUDS! red BUDS! i could not believe it! you'd have thought i'd found a box full of gold, i was so excited! i put amelia in her swing, and i started weeding. there is probably a right way and a wrong way to weed, but i just started cleaning out around the flowers. caroline had a ball finding all the "pretty flowers" (aka weeds) for me, and ethan carefully watched me. then i fertilized them and watered them really well. i was tickled. and it was just a day or two later that these beautiful blooms appeared... in my yard! i still can't believe it. something grew despite being in my yard. everytime i'm in amelia's room, i peek out her window to take a look.
now, never mind the dry grass and dollar weeds in the background of the pictures. :) baby steps, people. baby steps. there are several plants that have yet to bloom, so i'll probably get some more pictures soon. i must admit that this has given me a small, small taste of the joy of gardening. just don't tell anybody i said that...
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