Catching up (and Easter pictures!)

I keep meaning to blog. Really, I do. I take little mental notes, and sometimes I even take notes on paper, and I mean to write a post tonight, ok tomorrow, ok tomorrow night...and so it doesn't happen.

Now I can't find my list of notes of things I meant to blog about. That happens when your inbox fills up, overflows, and spills on the floor (assisted by a preschooler) a few too many times.

I'm also having trouble remembering if I just meant to blog about something, or if I actually did and just forgot. Don't tell me if you've already read most of this, ok?

Josiah is sitting up!



I promise, usually he thinks it is great. He turned six months old on Sunday, March 29th and promptly sat unassisted on Monday, March 30th. What an on-schedule baby.

Jonathan turned four years old! It has been an odd, spread-out sort of birthday for him: Grandma and Grandpa took him out for dinner and gave him his present the weekend before (and oh, what a present - grandparents and aunts and uncles went in together on it and he LOVES it!), then we did our dinner celebration with "Cowardly Clyde" from us and an airport puzzle from Grandmommy and Granddad (Mom, you keep giving my kids puzzles to do and surprising me with how well they can do it - Jonathan can do that puzzle better than I can!), and next Saturday he's going to have a party at the park with friends. We had to wait for the park party because what fun is a party in Lent when you can't have cake? :)

Anyway, in some ways it is odd to have it all spread out like this. But I kind of like having the presents spread out. I think he's more able to enjoy and appreciate each one when he's not inundated with all of them at once.

We've been talking with Jonathan and Thomas about Lent and Easter a lot. Jonathan is old enough to really start absorbing a lot of what we say and what he hears at church, and it is really fun to hear it repeated back to us through his four-year-old words. On Good Friday, while Gabe was driving them to church, Jonathan informed him that

"Jesus needed the bad people to put him on the cross so he could save [us from] all our sins."

Funny how important those two little words are, isn't it?

And lest our heads inflate and we pat ourselves on the back too much for raising such a theologically sound preschooler, that statement was followed by this one:

"The bad men nailed Jesus to the cross so that he couldn’t come down when they weren’t looking."

(We followed that one up with a discussion of how very surprised everyone was when Jesus walked out of the grave when they weren't looking!)

I love getting to teach (and then observe) preschoolers/toddlers as they learn about Jesus. It is simultaneously a fearsome responsibility, an utter joy when they say something that reveals they're getting it, and oh-so-funny to see it all through their eyes. Speaking of which, a few days before Easter Jonathan informed me very seriously that Lent had been much too long and it was really, really time for it to be Easter so he could eat candy again.

And oh, did we eat candy yesterday! I'm surprised the boys didn't make themselves sick - we did try to keep it in check but when there is a candy dish out for company and it is within reach - quite a lot was eaten. :)

We went to church first, even though we were sick. How can you miss EASTER??? (We couldn't.) There was an egg hunt for the kids afterward:



And we made an attempt at a family picture. Jonathan is still in the "don't take my picture" phase. How long does this one last?



We also dyed eggs and ate a lovely potluck meal with Gabe's extended family. We are blessed with some awesome aunts and uncles in the area. The boys love spending time with them...and dying eggs is so much easier when there is more than one adult per dye cup!



Isn't Jonathan's "oh my goodness!" face just priceless??



Thomas was ever so meticulous, as always.







Josiah and Grandpa:



Uncle Phillip taught the boys how to "chill".




And I do believe a good time was had by all.

Happy Easter Season!