Easter Egg Hunt

Grandpa and Grandma Wiederstein gave John and Emma Easter baskets on Saturday, so after a good nap today, I hid John's eggs outside. He had fun searching for them and still looked handsome...even with the Lightning McQueen shoes on.





After bringing the eggs inside, John and Emma both got to open the eggs full of circus peanuts and vanilla wafers. They would always shake them first, so we had an impromptu lesson on the different sounds the items made. That way, we didn't have to open every egg. I think we'll fill the empty eggs with more items and have John guess what's in them.



Emma got ahold of one circus peanut during the impromptu lesson with John. Needless to say, that made a mess! I took the picture and then took it away.

Easter

Conversation with John this morning on the way to church:

Mommy: Happy Easter! He is alive! Who is alive?

John: John

Mommy: Yes, you are also alive. But it's Easter, so who do you think I meant?

John: JESUS!

We enjoyed breakfast at church before first service and then attended first service together (for the most part anyway). I did the children's message at both services and am always amazed at the number of children at NewLife. We have a great group of kids and volunteers!

Scott took a very tired Emma home for a nap, and John stayed with me for second service. He and his friend Tommy even stopped playing long enough for me to get a picture of them dressed up. After church and a long wait in line, we enjoyed a delicious buffet at the Triple Crown Eatery (Prairie Meadows). Emma enjoyed smearing a butter packet on the table.

Easter at the Wiedersteins

On Saturday, we went to Grandpa and Grandma Wiederstein's house. It was a BEAUTIFUL day outside, so John enjoyed a tractor ride with Daddy. We took pictures with Emma in the tractor too, even though she didn't go for a ride in it. Kristi and Bella also came to visit for awhile. Bella was wearing one of her fancy dresses. What a doll!

Tea Party with Grandma

John's been having a lot of fun playing with Emma's birthday presents the last week. New toys are always fun...even if they are "girl" toys. John, Emma, and I have been having tea parties, and Grandma Van Manen was invited to one. That meant I could actually take pics.

Easter Dress

For her birthday, Emma received a beautiful dress from Uncle Matt and Aunt Jackie. Today I decided she'd better try it on, since I want her to wear it for Easter Sunday. It does fit, even if it is floor length. What a beautiful child of God! Now, what am I going to wear? Hmm...

Bathtime Fun

John and Emma had fun playing in the bath together tonight. Probably because I let them play first and then cleaned them. Emma's not a huge fan of playing in the tub after she's all wet. John, on the other hand, will often play until I force him to get out because the water's freezing cold! Anyway, John started with dumping water behind Emma and she kept laughing and trying to "get" him. When he started getting water on her face, she wasn't quite so happy.

Check out their mohawks. Emma's flopped over because her hair is so long, but John's was perfect. He, however, wouldn't let me get a picture of him straight on. Most of his pics were from the side because he kept turning his head.

Birthday Guests

Emma was blessed to have many family and friends at her birthday party, including lots of kids. We started by reading Hurry Up, Noah and then the kids danced around to 3 Noah's Ark tunes, waving a paper plate with streamers. What fun!


We tried to get a picture of all the kids together, but that proved to be a little challenging.

Birthday Girl

First of all, excuse the quality of some of these photos. The actual photos are perfectly fine, but for some reason they uploaded fuzzy...and I'm not taking the time to change it.

Emma had a lot of fun at her first birthday party. It was funny because she liked the cards even better than the presents themselves.

Her favorite part of the cake was the frosting, of course. Amazingly enough, she really didn't even make too big of a mess. I used a fork to break open the cake for her. She still didn't have much interest in the cake...but she loved the fork and refused to let go.

Decorating Cakes

I now have a new digital camera, and I wanted to play with it a little before Emma's birthday party tomorrow. So I took some pictures of the cakes and cupcakes I decorated. This cake is Emma's own cake. It'll be interesting to see if she destroys hers the way John destroyed his on his first birthday.


I used the other half of the batter from that cake to make cupcakes for the other kids who will be at the party.
Then I made another cake for the adults. Notice the M&Ms are on the adults' cake...not the kids'!

Where Emma Came From

My mom stopped by to say Happy Birthday to Emma tonight, and I took advantage of that by leaving and taking care of a few things at church. When I got home, Mom informed me that during John's bath, he said Emma came from Jerusalem. Then he changed his story...babies come from the baby store. Ahh...the random things he comes up with...

Taking My Sins Away

As Easter approaches, I've been talking with John about why we celebrate Easter. We currently have a book (The Toddlers Bible: Easter Book by V. Gilbert Beers) from the church library. I do like how the book starts with Jesus entering Jerusalem and goes through Jesus going back to heaven and the angels saying that He will come back. Anyway, here's a conversation that John and I had last night as I read:

Book: Jesus wants to help us live with God in heaven. When we sin, we can't go there.

John: But I want to live at home, not in heaven!

Mommy: Well, someday we'll die and that's when God wants us to live with him.

John: oh

Book: But Jesus die to take away our sin. He wants to be our Saviour.

John: But I want my sins back!

Mommy: John, sins are bad. They are the things we do against God when we don't obey him.

John: But I want them back!

At that point, I just finished the story and figured we'd carry on the coversation again when he wasn't so tired.

So, on the way home from MOPS today, he and I were chatting about things he was seeing outside. As usual, I had his Bible songs CD playing in the van. In the middle of our conversation, John started another random one:

John: Jesus will wash away my sin.

Mommy (trying to figure out where that came from - and realizing that Jesus Loves Me was playing on the CD): Yes, he will, John.

John: My sins are good, Mommy.

Mommy: No, John. Sins are bad, and Jesus washes them away to make us clean again.

John: But I want my sins back.

We started the Resurrection Eggs today. We'll see if this helps clear things up...maybe?

Boxes

While eating supper tonight, John turns to me and says, "What did one box say to the other box?"

Not sure I understood him correctly, I say, "Did you just say 'what did one box say to the other box?' "

"Uh huh"

I laugh and fall for the bait of John's first joke. "Okay, what did one box say to the other box?"

"Mom, boxes don't talk!"

(I have absolutely NO idea where he picked up on jokes, but that was simply too cute not to share!)

Walking on Sunshine

On March 8, Emma took about 6 or 7 steps down the aisle at church. Grandma Van Manen witnessed this, but I did not because I was teaching Sunday School. Emma had a book in each hand - must have thought holding things would help her walk.

Since then, she's been getting steadier and steadier, but hasn't had the confidence to completely let go for more than 10 steps (and only 3-4 different times of that).

Until today...

Scott, the kids, and I headed to visit Grandpa and Grandma Wiederstein before Scott DJed for the Audubon St. Patrick's festivities. Then Scott and I left the kids to go get set up. When I returned, Emma had decided walking is lots of fun. She was going everywhere!!! I'll try getting a video in the next day or two and attempt to post it.

Emma goes to the Bathroom

Okay...I guess the title is slightly misleading, but I thought it would at least get your attention. Let me begin this post with how our day started. I took Emma in to the doctor today since her eyes have been "mattery" and she's had a slight fever off and on. Right after we got there, she decided to do her "duty." I went to get a diaper out of the overflowing diaper bag, but low and behold there were no diapers. What, you ask, is the point of carrying a diaper bag with no diapers? I did find three pairs of John's underwear, burp rags, change of clothes for Emma, snacks, extra pacifier, etc. so there really is a point! Fortunately, our appointment was as the pediatric clinic, so they had a diaper for her. It turns out Emma has fluid on both ears, but neither are infected. So we went in for nothing...again.

Since our clinic is right by church, Emma and I swung by the church to do a few "quick" things before lunch. She'd been playing in the foyer, and I popped into the office to quickly talk with Noel. I soon realized that I didn't hear Emma's babbling and squealing anymore, so I went on a search for her and expected to find her in the nursery. Nope...she was in the toddler bathroom next to the nursery. (I know, I know. I should have shut the door. I should have watched her more closely. I should not leave her unattended.) And as you've probably already guessed, she'd been playing with toilet paper and the toilet. YUCK! Oh - and she'd done her "duty" AGAIN while in the bathroom. At least she knows where to go! LOL! Needless to say, I cleaned her up and changed her clothes before doing anything else. I'd post pictures, but my camera is boycotting at the moment. Hopefully the rest of our day goes better...