Anna's Birthday Party

Okayyy, so this is from way back it February...

Crystal and I went to Anna's birthday party! (Poor Rach

couldn't go because she had a horrible migraine) :(

Crik and I had a wonderful time though!

*hiding their eyes because it was a surprise party* =)

Opening presents!!!
The awesome "sweet 16" card!

Sledding!! Oh it was SO much fun! (and nobody got hurt!

That's always a plus!)

:D A bunch of girls... yes it was an awesome party!

:) Criky and Me.

Isaiah bringing the balloons.

Chillin' in the basement.

So yeah... this is a really old subject to blog about...

We had a great time though!

Happy Birthday again Anna! ;)

Thinkin'...

Well now, this is kind of a different sort of blog post from
most of the others that get put up on here, but for the last
couple of days this has been on my mind and I thought it was
interesting. Here goes...

Last week I read this book. Now, it was a fiction book and I don't
really think the author intended to be too "deep" in her writing, but
this one thing is just stuck in my head from it and it really got me to
thinking.
The thing that stuck out to me from this book, was a conversation
between the main character and his father. They talked about how
God made us all very unique. But we were made in His image. Since
we were made in his image, but not exactly like him we have an
empty place in us that we will try to fill. Only God himself can fill it.
And basically, we were placed on this earth was to learn to love God
and long to be with Him. Being "stuck" here on earth cultivates our
longing for heaven. Heaven seems so far away. All the things in this
life that we go through that are tough, they either make us want to
push ourselves away from God, or they increase our longing for heaven.
But God blesses us with little glimpses of what is good. Little glimpses
of perfection. Little glimpses of heaven.
Those things serve to nurture our long to be with Him in heaven when
we reach the end of our lives.
Those little glimpses are not the "real" thing. But they increase our
desire for the real thing.

I'm sorry that that was kind of jumbled.
I've just found myself thinking and thinking about that stuff all week
you know how when stuff piles up, it looks messy? Well that's how my
thoughts have been. Messy stacks, and then somebody turned on a fan :/

Epesians 3:11 says:
God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted
eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole
scope of God's work from beginning to end.

And since then I've realized that when the good stuff happens,
or I see something beautiful, or I hear the birds singing, or wake
to sunshine in my eyes and have a 4 yr. old whispering 'gmornin' Biko' ;)
It reminds me that there is 'something more'. And that my life isn't
just here. When I reach my "end", something more will be there. And
I get to finally touch that "perfect" that I have always wanted.
And I will see Him too.

Well...

Well, we got good news, and not so good news...
The GOOD news is that I've got some blog posts lined up...
The not so good news is that I'm not posting them tonight.

We haven't taken a whole lot of pictures in pretty much the
whole last year, that's why we haven't blogged as much, but
we do have some stuff blogworthy so I'm working on them!

So, keep your eyes peeled and hopefully in this next week
I'll have some new stuff up!

Say Hey! (it's a good day)

Grandpa came to our house for Easter dinner.

We really had a great time (and the food was wonderful!)

Love you Grandpa!!!!

:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

But very early on Sunday morning the women came
to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared.
They found that the stone covering the entrance had been
rolled aside. So they went in, but they couldn't find the body
of the Lord Jesus. They were puzzled, trying to think what
could have happened to it. Suddenly, the men appeared to them,
clothed in dazzling robes. The women were terrified and bowed
low before them. Then the men asked, "Why are you looking in a
tomb for someone who is alive?
He isn't here! He has risen from the dead!

HAPPY EASTER!!!

Easter Egg Hunt

Today was the 2nd annual Eldena Easter Egg Hunt! :D

Faith Center in Rockford (the church Uncle Ron/Aunt Amy

and Jared go to) donated most of the eggs (like 600!!!) and at

first I thought WHOA that is way too many eggs for the "small"

group we'll have, but of course I was wrong... There were tons of
kids! (Well, about 40, but for Eldena that's huge!!)

We started the day off with face/hand painting.

Rachel and Cecelia were our 'artists' and they did a great job!

It's a good thing those two know how to be patient with kids

because believe me, ALL the kids wanted something painted on them.

Then Mom talked for a few minutes to the kids about the real meaning of Easter. Now, I didn't hear the whole thing, but somehow she incorporated spiderman comic books into her talk... So I'd say that was one supercool "message" :)

Haha, well, Zoe (who was my helper) and I had 300 eggs to hide

just in our yard and we didn't have much time to hide them so

we just put eggs everywhere. This was one of our

ingeniously hidden eggs ;)

Wahoo! All the kids ages 5-8 were in my group and

we had a great time!
Since the ground was so muddy because of the rain this morning
we staked down some tarps for the kids to be on while we got
all the rules talked through and after when we sorted eggs.
I had somewhere between 12 and 15 kids (I didn't take
time to count, and no, they're not all in the picture)
and they found ALL 300 of those eggs within 20 minutes!
Mrs. Z had the biggest group (the 1-4 yr. olds) And of course
all those kids had a parent with them too, so her
group looked huge! They were sooo cute, and would
get so excited when they picked up an egg! Just made you smile!
Whoa! Who would've thought that an egg would be here
next to the tree! ;)
Opening all the eggs! :D

Rachel (and Jared helped too) had the 9-14 age group.

So she got to hide her eggs the toughest! They looked like they

were having fun. They really had to search for some of those eggs!

After the eggs were all found we sat the kids back down

and had them open up all their eggs. They got to keep the candy

and give the eggs back (so we can do another egg hunt next year!)

And anybody who got a Bible verse in an egg got to go read it to

Mr. Huene and pick something from a prize table!

We kindof forgot that some of the kids wouldn't know how to read...

So it took a little while, but Mr. Huene, he's so sweet he got down

on the ground and either read the verse to the youngest kids, or

helped them sound out every word ;)

Hot dogs! Dad grilled lunch for everyone!Oh ho ho! ;) T and I made the desserts.

It was really fun! I'm hoarse, but I had such a great time!

I can't wait 'til next year! :D

Happy Easter All!

Good Friday...

Then Jesus uttered another loud cry and breathed his last.
And the curtain in the Temple was torn in two, from top to
bottom. When the Roman officer who stood facing him saw
how he had died, he exclaimed,
"Truly, this was the Son of God!"

Thank you so much Jesus for your sacrifice.