He Is Risen!

"He isn't here!  He is risen from the dead, just as he said would happen.  Come see where his body was lying."

Matthew  28:6

Every year for the past 3 years, we've been making Resurrection cookies.  It's another great activity to illustrate the love of Christ for us.  Each step of the directions has a scripture to go along with it.  The act of baking the cookies, listening to the scripture, discussing it as a family makes Easter so special for us.  We couldn't celebrate Jesus glorious resurrection with the heartache of the events of Good Friday.  It's difficult for a child to understand exactly what happened on that day, but we want them to grow up appreciating Jesus sacrifice for our sakes.

Here's a view of our baking adventure.  It's the first time BOTH kids have fully participated.  It was a blast!  Don't they look adorable in their aprons?

Here they are "beating" the pecans just like Jesus was beaten by the Roman soldiers.

Adding sugar because with every good story, there has to be a sweet part.  I think Kendall agrees - check out her eyes!

Feeling proud of himself.  Check out the thumbs up!

My two little bakers

Sealing up the oven like the tomb was sealed

This is what we found Easter morning - the cookies were hollow in the middle to represent that the tomb was empty

We had so much fun doing this as a family.  I'm sure this will continue to be a family tradition for years to come.  

Getting In The Easter Spirit

There are a number of different egg hunts around the valley in preparation of Easter.  There were three within a few miles of our house two Saturdays in a row.  Since our kids don't need a lot of candy - they don't get much from the Easter Bunny at our house anyway, we narrowed it down to two on two different Saturdays.

Last weekend was the Draper MOMS Club egg hunt and pot luck lunch.  That was fun because Kendall got to be with a lot of her friends and one of Riley's friends was there too.

Getting ready...

Kendall and Natalie race to fill their baskets!

Look at all my eggs Mom!

Hanging with her friends

The crew...

I thought it was hard to take a picture of my own two kids...try this many!

Hanging with some of our friends...

The other day Kendall and I walked into the Great Harvest Bread Company and saw they were selling Baby Honey Bunnies.  They were the cutest things so of course I couldn't leave without ordering one for each of my kids.  In hindsight, one would have been sufficient, but I hate listening to them argue over who ate what, who's is who's, etc.

Isn't it adorable?  Almost too cute to eat!

But not cute enough for my kids!  

Kendall ate the eyes (jelly beans)  in the first few minutes.

Riley caught Kendall eating hers so he immediately had to try his!

Both kids loved them and have been snacking on them since yesterday.  It's a much healthier option than a bunch of candy in our pre-Easter festivities. 

We spent a little time at the mall yesterday and just happen to be there the same time the Easter Bunny was there.  The kids liked following the bunny tracks through the mall to find the Easter Bunny.  They thought it was hysterical that the Easter Bunny was giving THEM bunny ears in this picture!

The second egg hunt we took part in was sponsored by our church.  They had a carnival that followed as a fund raiser for the youth mission trip this summer.  The kids got to try their hands at fishing, knocking over milk bottles, shooting nerf guns, bean bag toss, decorating cupcakes into bunny faces, bounce houses, etc.  It was fun to see some of our friends from MOPS, scouts and church today.

Preparing for the egg hunt

Playing on the big playground at the park

Shooting the nerf guns

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

Tonight we will finish up our Easter Countdown eggs (Resurrection Eggs) and make Resurrection cookies.  Riley really enjoys both activities.  I gave him the option of trying Resurrection rolls this year and he insisted on the cookies.  I think he enjoys the part where you get to use a wooden spoon to "beat" the pecans (to represent how Jesus was beaten by the Roman soliders).  

The Easter Bunny will make a trip to our house, but instead of a bunch of candy, he brings the kids a little sweet treat and lots of other goodies like books, toys, even princesses.  I would rather spend our money on something other than a bunch of sugar that I have to limit with them and to curb my own temptations to sneak things from their baskets!  We'll also head to church tomorrow for Easter service.  I have a feeling it will be a packed house!

I hope that however you choose to spend your Easter that it is a blessed one!

The Tigers Take A Field Trip!

Thankfully I got stuck with something fun this week when I had cub scout duty.  Andy is once again out of town so Riley, Kendall and I got to ride Trax (light rail) downtown to the KSL channel 5 studios to take a tour.  Riding Trax is old hat for my kids.  Most of the others were experiencing it for the first time, along with their parents.

Outside the KSL studios acting goofy - which is pretty normal for them!

I had prepared Riley a little bit for what we might see while we were at the studios.  In our house, we typically watch the local CBS Channel 2 news broadcasts.  We aren't big KSL fans here - except their website and free classifieds.  So the first thing Riley says to the evening news director who is conducting our tour, is that he likes channel 2 better!  Ugh!  Oh well.  It's the truth!  Kids often don't come with a filter, they just say what they are thinking!

Hanging out by the peacock waiting for Mike to take us on our tour.

It was a pretty cool tour though.  We got to check out the control room where they operation everything that is aired on KSL (our NBC affiliate here in SLC).  We also got to walk into the Studio 5 studio.  Studio 5 is a show offering advice on numerous topics, fashion and shopping ideas, crafts including how-to's, cooking, etc.

We also got to see where they record Mormon Times and a HUGE green screen.  After that the kids were dying to see the news room.  We walked in and the kids were in awe of the big cameras, the weather center, and the anchor desk.  All the Tigers got a chance to try out the green screen and see how Grant Weyman does the weather every morning (the only part of KSL news that I like - his kids go to Grace with Riley).

Riley asking one of his many questions of the night.  I was impressed how much he asked and the level of maturity of his questions.  I was a proud Momma Tiger for sure!

Checking out the weather center...lots of computers and monitors!

One of the backdrops in the news room

A picture of the SLC landscape on this backdrop

The kids also got to walk through the news room, hear the police and fire scanners,  meet the 10:00 news producer, see a live broadcast of a KSL radio show, and meet anchor Keith McCord.

Then we all had to literally RUN to catch the train back to Sandy.  Sadly one mom and her kids missed the train.  I felt a little bad for them, but glad my butt was still fast enough (while carrying Kendall and keeping Riley near me) to get there and open the doors for the rest of the den.

It was a late night, but a lot of fun.  I'm glad I got to tag along to this week's scout meeting!

My goofy Tiger Cub...I'm glad he had fun.

Holy Week

In thinking about Easter and what it really means, I came across this post from Mom Life about What's Wrong About Easter?  She discusses how Christmas is such a happy holiday...a healthy baby boy, a guiding star, wise men bringing gifts, and the visitation of angels.  Sounds beautiful, right?  But Easter is filled with gore, brutality and humility.  Stuff that great R rated movies are made of.  But we all know that movies aren't real and this story is.  It's hard to think about just how awful it must have been for Jesus and his friends and family at that time.  Watching my son be beaten and killed would have broken my heart beyond repair if I were Mary.

If it weren't for Easter, Christmas wouldn't mean too much would it?  So how are you going to celebrate Easter this year?  Will you keep it about bunnies, chicks, eggs and candy?  We hide baskets for our kids, participate in egg hunts, etc., but our family also discusses the entire Easter story (at an appropriate level for our young ones) but we don't sugar coat it.  They know Jesus died for our sins, that he was made fun of, that the soldiers beat him, but also of the miracle of him conquering the grave and giving us the opportunity to be forgiven.  If you missed my post about the Easter Story Countdown, check it out HERE.  It's a great way to explain the events to your children.  We also make Resurrection Cookies the night before Easter to help illustrate the Easter story.  If you've never made them, you can find more about them HERE.

Easter is about victory...Victory over sin and death.  Shouldn't we all stand up and cheer as if our team just won the Superbowl?  Easter is also about new life, about starting over, being reborn.  No wonder it's in the spring, when the earth is waking from the slumber of winter.

Hope you and your family find some time to think about what Easter means to you and take some time to celebrate it's true meaning.

Letter Of The Week:

Last week we worked on the entire alphabet - reviewing each letter and sound through songs and actions as well as putting together our alphabet train puzzle.  The train puzzle was a real test for her to see if she could figure out which letter came next and then identifying that letter and attaching it to the train puzzle.  We also spent some time working on Easter related crafts.

This week we're on the letter F.  Since feathers starts with the letter F, we decided to glue feathers on to her letter.  She also decided to have Fruit snacks for her letter F snack.

Here's the masterpiece:

She loves the art projects as much as she loves the one-on-one time with momma.  That's nice part about having our kids 4 years apart.  They both get individual time with me while they are little.  I have to make sure that I don't get too wrapped up in projects at Riley's school, etc. while she's home with me. I don't want her (or me) to miss out on these moments that we can't get back.

Heaven Is For Real

It's fitting that I finish reading the book called "Heaven Is For Real" by Todd Burpo on Palm Sunday.  This book is about the incredible true story of 4 yr. old Colton Burpo's experience during an emergency surgery for a ruptured appendix.  He enters the gates of Heaven and shares his experience with his family.  Mom and Dad aren't sure what to make of their son's stories.  Colton describes things that he couldn't have known if he'd never been to Heaven - things straight out of scripture that he'd never been taught, things about his family that were never shared with him.

I shared some excerpts from the book last night with Andy after expressing to him how much this book had moved me.  When I looked up at Andy, there were tears in his eyes...Now for those of you who know my husband, you know he's not an emotional guy.  So for him to be moved to tears by just hearing me read a few passages to him, you can imagine how powerful this story really is.  

This morning at church, we sang a song called "You Hold Me Now" by Hillsong.  In that song, the chorus includes:  

no weeping

no hurt or pain

no suffering

you hold me now

you hold me now

no darkness

no sick or lame

no hiding

you hold me now

you hold me now

Well, after singing the chorus just one time, I about lost it!  It reminded me of little Colton's story and about the things he described about Heaven.  How his great grandfather, whom he'd never met before, had a new body, a much younger version of himself than when he died.  How Jesus held him on His lap and comforted him.  Colton's dad, who by the way is a small town pastor, asked Colton about what happens at night time in Heaven and his reply was that there is no darkness in Heaven.  That God and Jesus light up heaven and it's never dark...

But I think the thing that got to me the most personally, was that Colton met his unborn sister.  A miscarriage that his mother had suffered only 2 months into her pregnancy, which happened before Colton was ever born.  Colton had no knowledge of this sibling prior to his Heavenly experience.  He told his mother that she doesn't have a name, but not to worry because God adopted her...Most of you know our story...about the multiple miscarriages we suffered before having Riley.  So you can imagine the joy my heart felt reading this.  Colton's parents now joke about whoever gets to Heaven first gets to name their daughter!  

I don't want to give away the entire book...This is one I recommend for everyone to read, believer or not.  If you are a believer, it will just confirm everything you already knew from scripture, but in the simple terms of a child.  (Wait until you read the part about Jesus and the markers!)   In Matt. 18:3, Jesus said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven."  If you are a non-believer, then this may be the book to make you search your heart and seek some answers.  It will make you think about the real possibility of heaven and hell and God and Jesus. 

Easter Story Countdown Success!

We've been working on our Easter Story Countdown for the past 4 days and last night's discussion really warmed my heart.  So what's an Easter Story Countdown you ask?  The idea is that you take 12 plastic eggs and fill them with symbols of the Easter story.  There is scripture to read to explain the item in the egg.  Last night it was about Jesus predicting the disciples would deny him before the rooster crows.  There was a feather inside the egg.  Riley's job is to look up and read each scripture to the family.  Then we open the egg and discuss it's meaning.

I wasn't sure if this activity was having much if any impact on Kendall, because she's still so young.  So last night I asked her a few questions.  I asked her who Easter was about and she said "Jesus."  Then I asked her if she knew what happened on Good Friday.  Of course, that was over her head, so her big brother came to her rescue and told it was the the day Jesus had died.  I asked Kendall where He died and she said "On the crosses."  I then asked her why he died (this is where my heart just melted) and she said "Because He loves us Mom!"

We are making a difference...She IS understanding what we are trying to teach her!  Riley has a Kid's EE Cube (Evangelism Explosion) that helps kids learn and explain  the Gospel message.  It looks like this:

Each side has pictures to use to explain the message of the Gospel.  The other sides look like this:

Kendall likes to play with his EE Cube.  The picture of the three crosses is the one that Kendall will bring to me and say "Mom, that's where Jesus died."  Between what I've been trying to teach her and what her brother comes home from school learning, she's got a good understanding about our faith already and I'm so thrilled about that.  I know if we continue to share and explain our faith and beliefs with our children while they are young, the chances of them actually choosing to adopt them are greater.  

I will never forget the day when Riley prayed for Jesus to come live in his heart...I rushed outside to share it with our neighbor (who also happened to be the youth pastor at our church) and we both were so excited that Riley had experienced his spiritual birthday!  He's not ready to get baptized yet (doesn't like the idea of everyone watching him), but as long as he's confessed to God that he's sorry for his sins and that he's accepted God's gift of grace, that's all that matters for now.  

So if you are having doubts that your children aren't "getting" it when it comes to your faith and beliefs, keep at it.  At some point it will click with them.  Continue to share stories of Jesus and continue to pray for them!

To see more about the EE Cube, click HERE to see a YouTube video of how it works.  To learn more about the Easter Story Countdown, click HERE

New Breakfast Favorite

I stumbled across Hershey's Cinnamon Chips the other day and needed to find a way to use them.  Since my kiddos love cinnamon rolls for breakfast, I decided that would be the perfect use for them.

I took some crescent rolls and buttered them

Then pour some of the cinnamon chips on them

Rolled them up and popped them in the oven for 11 min. at 350

Coated them with powdered sugar and served

My kids begged me for them this morning so of course I had to give in and make them for my little angels!  ;)

Ain't It The Truth

I came across this today and thought, that's me.  Just when I feel like I need a "me" moment because it's been "one of those days," I realize how lucky I am to have had "one of those days" with my little munchkins.

Remember that you aren't in this alone.  We all have those days where we feel overwhelmed, that all we do is wipe noses and behinds, have a never ending pile of laundry, and chauffeur our kids from one activity to the next, but it's because of those little blessings that we wouldn't change it for the world!

Birthday Shirts!

My sweet cousin and her family are going to be visiting us during Riley's spring break.  Both Riley and her daughter Madison have birthdays close together so I thought it would fun for the kids to celebrate together.  In anticipation of her 2nd birthday, I made Maddie some new shirts...well, I appliqued them at least.

Madison's birthday cupcake shirt.  I tossed around the idea of a little rolled fabric rosette for the cherry on top, but decided on the blue one instead.

Kendall loved it and wants me to make her another cupcake shirt...but she has one with ruffles.  How many cupcake shirts does one girl need?

I really liked how this one turned out.  I bought the Mini Monograms cartridge for my Cricut for this EXACT purpose!

Reminds me of a girlie colored M&M

I've got one more left over 24 mth shirt that I need to figure out what to put on it for Madison...Thankfully I have a little more time to stir the creative juices!