Resurrection Eggs

Have you heard of resurrection eggs?  You start 12 days before Easter and open one egg each day.  Each egg contains a simple item that represents a part of the Easter story and a scripture verse.  Someone shared some with us last year and boy were they a blessing. 



Several times this year, Nate has mentioned them and said he wanted to do them again.  With Easter just around the corner, it's time to get our resurrection eggs ready.  I, of course, had to search Pinterest and the Internet to find a plan I like.  I found one that seems very similar to what we did last year at This Simple Home and wanted to share it with you.



I hope you will do this activity with your children this year!  It is very simple to get together and will only take 5 to 10 minutes each day to discuss (depending on how talkative your children are).  I promise that this simple activity designed for children will. bless. you.  This time each day will be a time to focus on Christ and the amazing love he has for us - enough to die for us.

You will need to start on March 19th or 20th depending on when you want to end - the day before Easter or Easter.

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!

Baby Calf

We have a sweet baby calf that was born last week.  Unfortunately, its mother didn't survive the birth. I hope this little guy makes it.  They don't do well without their moms.  On the bright side, Nate is having fun feeding it and chasing it around the barn.

Tae Kwon Do Testing

Nate had his first TKD testing last night.

He said he was a "bit worried" about it. They test in front of a panel of judges, the other students, parents, grandparents, etc.

He did a great job! He will find out Thursday if he gets a new belt.

Watching the big kids and adults break boards

Snow Mountain

A couple of weeks ago we went to Stone Mountain, Georgia to play in the snow.  They have a snow play area and a snow tubing area.

Don't let the pictures fool you, it was 60 degrees the day we were there...and that was fine with me. :)

This is the "kiddie" tubing area.  It was a good warm up for Nate. 

They have a moving sidewalk that takes you up to the tubing lanes. 

If you live in our area and your kids are over 36 inches tall, you should definitely check out Snow Mountain. 

Teeth and Tae Kwon Do

Do you see it?

We found Nate's first loose tooth a couple of weeks ago.  Then, last week we saw his first permanent tooth. This boy is growing up way too fast.  :(

Nate has been talking about taking Karate (Tae Kwon Do) for a couple of months.  He really just wants to karate chop and kick stuff. :)  His wish came true last week.  Check it out!

Christmas Fun

We enjoyed a wonderful Christmas season.  We were not too busy like we seemed to be last year.  Nate had strep throat for the first time and that did eliminate a couple of activities, but I didn't mind. :)

Here are a few highlights.

I was looking for some fun, Christ centered Christmas songs and came across Toby Mac's Christmas album and LOVED it.  I listened to it over and over again.  You should listen to it now, seriously.  Just YouTube it and listen for free. 



We had a fun Christmas party with or small group from church.  Don't you love the photo props?





We also had a fun day with our cousins making Christmas crafts, ornaments, and cookies.  They are sweet girls and we are always thankful when we get to spend time with them.





My niece, Ashlyn, came over and helped make a cake for Christmas Eve. This has become a new tradition for us.  This year we went with Red Velvet Cake with Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting.  We always have some sort of cake making drama.  This year, all of our layers (4) were very difficult to remove from the pans. We had one that was totally ruined.  What do you do with a broken cake layer? Make cake pops!  We knew the basics of how they were made so we just went with it. I had some leftover sticks from Nate's birthday cupcake toppers and we dipped them in white chocolate.  They weren't perfectly round and they weren't perfectly smooth, but they were perfectly tasty.  Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of them. :(

We made some chocolate Christmas trees and snowflakes to adorn our cake.  Look out professional cake bakers. ;)




We always spend Christmas Eve with my family.  This year it was a little less festive because my brother-in-law, Chris, was sick and couldn't join us.

My parents got Nate a camo hat and...

a Nook.  He was very excited about this. :)

My sister's birthday is on December 23rd. Happy Birthday Jill!

My mom got my dad an Elvis CD.  The highlight of the evening was Ashlyn and Nate dancing to Elvis songs.  :) 

Nate told me about 10 PM on Christmas eve that he wanted to make Christmas hats for a few of his stuffed animals.  He said we would make them Christmas day.  I always have a stash of fabric scraps and just happened to have some red.  I decided to make the hats that night to surprise him Christmas morning.  At midnight I was putting Christmas hats on stuffed animals.  The things moms do for their children! :)

I put them on his night stand by his bed so he would see them first thing.  The next morning Darren and I were waiting for him to wake up when we heard giggles coming from his room.  That was his first Christmas surprise.

Nate is all about Angry Birds right now.  This was his favorite present.  Now he is also all about Star Wars, which Darren and I know very little about.  We haven't even seen any of the movies.

We always spend Christmas evening with Darren's family.  This year it was cut short due to possible severe weather, but we had a great time.  Nate got more Angry Birds stuff and a really cool telescope from his Aunt Lynn and Uncle Gavan.   

The next morning, we woke up to snow.  The flurries only lasted a few minutes, but it's always exciting to see snow in our neck of the woods.

Finally, have you ever seen so many pine needles?  I am still finding random pine needles. 

Lately

Nate's Christmas tree

Nate had his first deer hunting experience a couple of weeks ago.  He and Darren went with my dad.  They didn't bring home a deer, but they had fun. 

I almost hate to post this because we have horrible luck with pets, but we have a new kitten.  The best thing about this kitten is that she found us.  One morning we woke up to this constant, annoying meowing.  I wanted to get the gun (not really), but then we found this sweet girl.  She actually kind of looks like Bob. 

Nate has participated in two Christmas programs - one at church and one at preschool. 

At the preschool performance, he was a wise man. 

Finally, we are trying our very best to focus on Christ and not let the busyness of the holiday season be a distraction from the true meaning of Christmas.  Here are a few things that are helping us do this.

We did our first Jesse Tree last year.  This year, a friend told me about this devotional. We are loving it. 

I ordered this book through Nate's preschool.  It is fantastic.  Seriously.

I saw this cute nativity on Pinterest.  I knew Nate would not want to color the entire thing at one time.  So yesterday we started with Mary and will add a piece (or 2) each day until Christmas eve.  This gives us another great opportunity each day to talk about the birth of Christ.