Cole, Alex, & Anna Grace

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Oh Happy Day!


Some of the words to a song in church this morning were "Oh happy day, happy day," and it was definitely a great day. My sweet boys were baptized this morning in church- which I think is the perfect way to spend an Easter morning!


I have been talking with the boys for several years now about baptism and what it means. They have heard the story of the birth of Jesus and how he died for our sins and rose again from the grave since they were babies. It was Alex who came out of the shower one night several weeks ago and said, "Mommy, it is time. I believe that Jesus died for my sins and I am ready to be baptized," (actually he calls it "babatized".) It took a while for us to be able to arrange a meeting with our pastor and little Alex would pray at night when I was tucking him in, "God, please don't let it take as long for me to get babatized as it took to get Anna Grace home from China." I would reassure him that it would not take 3 years to get "babatized" like it took us to get his little sister. Then, on Friday night as I was tucking him in, Alex said, "Mommy, I can't wait for this weekend." I asked him why he was excited, thinking that he would say because it was his birthday or because of the egg hunts and Easter baskets. But he said, "Because this is the weekend that I get babatized!!"



Somewhere during those few weeks of waiting, Cole decided that he was also ready to get baptized. He has been reluctant because was afraid to be in front of the whole church, but he knows that he has Jesus in his heart and he should proclaim it.



And so, this morning, a sunny warm Easter morning, both of my boys were baptized in front of the church. I am so proud of my sweet boys and the decisions that they have made. I know that as they grow, they will have challenges in front of them and they will make many mistakes, but at least they have made the first step in a life that is pleasing to God.

We spent Saturday evening at home celebrating Easter with my family. We spent the evening in our backyard dying hardboiled eggs, eating a big meal, and hunting for eggs. We even roasted Peeps over a fire!












Today after church we went to Mike's family's for another big Easter meal and egg hunt.


Alex found a Fireball inside one of his eggs this afternoon!!




Now, we are all exhausted. Anna Grace is crashed on the couch still in her Easter dress watching a movie, and the boys are reading some of the books that the bunny brought in their baskets. I am trying to muster the energy to pack bookbags and prepare for the week ahead. Anna Grace has rehearsals for her upcoming recital, Alex has two soccer games and a practice, and both boys have church Wednesday night. It will be a busy week as usual, and I still have not even bought groceries!

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Alex's Birthday Party

We celebrated Alex's birthday a week early since next weekend will be Easter weekend. As I posted earlier (when I was talking about Mike's broken hand), Alex decided to have his party at the roller skating rink this year.







We have a family tradition that my dad started when I was growing up where we make our own birthday cakes. This year, Alex designed his cake, I baked it, and Mike was in charge of icing it. Actually, decorating the cake is always Mike's job. Poor Mike had to decorate the cake with only one good hand this time, but he still did a great job.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

More Spring Break Adventures

Spring break has been over for a week now, and I still haven't posted about the rest of our week after our camping trip.

I was excited to finally take Anna Grace to her dance class. She usually goes with her babysitter during the week while I am at work, so this was the first class that I have been able to attend. I loved watching her try to shuffle in little tap shoes and practice the dance for her upcoming recital.






Thursday of spring break included a trip to a petting zoo with another family. Alex was the only one of my three kids who really seemed to enjoy all of the animals. I think maybe Cole is getting too old for petting zoos :-( and Anna Grace was frightened by most of the animals. She did enjoy watching the animals, but the only one that she was not too scared to pet was the bunny.










Thursday night of spring break was a trip to the skating rink. Alex has his birthday party there this weekend, so we thought we should teach the boys to skate before the party. I had been warned by several people that we should not have a skating party because someone always breaks an arm, but I just laughed it off. Ironically, while we were at the skating rink teaching the boys to skate before the party, Mike tripped over Cole (who had fallen) and broke his hand. He is now in a cast for an undetermined amount of time. Poor Mike!

Monday, April 4, 2011

Our Spring Break Camping Trip

I hope I don't bore you with too many pictures, but with the 176 pictures saved on my camera (even after I dumped out all of the bad ones from the weekend), it was hard to just pick one or two good ones to post on my blog. Don't worry though; I didn't post all of them!


We spent the beginning of our spring break camping with another family in the mountains. The weather was cool in the evenings and warmer during the day- the perfect weather for camping.



The boys loved riding their bikes and trying to pan for gold in the creek. We took a little trip to an old gold mine for a tour and some gold mining. After that, all Cole wanted to do was try to pan for gold with one of my blue enamel camping plates in the creek. He never found any in the creek (not too surprising), but each of the boys did find a few flakes on the gold mine tour.






All of the kids also loved roasting marshmallows and hanging out around the camp.













Anna Grace enjoyed playing on the play ground and visiting the horses. Cole and Alex (especially Cole) have never cared too much for horses. It has seemed strange to me that they don't share my love of horses, but I think Anna Grace is going to be my little cowgirl. All she talked about all weekend was walking down to the barn (which she calls "Donalds" from the song "Old McDonald") to see and ride the horses. I was really surprised when she let me toss her up on top of one of the horses and let me lead her around. She kept yelling to her brothers, "Look at me, look at me!!!" She was so proud of herself that Alex was finally convinced to ride behind her for his first horseback ride. I think he was not going to let his little sister show him up!