"Silly" disobedience

Don't get me wrong- I LOVE Jaedon's smile!! However, he has learned a precious new trick lately - to flash me those pearly whites while being deliberately defiant. For example- we could be reading a book together or finishing up breakfast and I'll say "Ok, Jaedon, it's time to go get dressed now." And he'll look at me, smile and say "nao"(usually in a babyish voice) then laugh and run away. Hmm... not so cute! I really don't quite know what to do- it makes me MAD!! but I need to figure out if I need to change my approach or what I need to say to him after he does his silly disobedience trick. HeLp?!

Little Men

Fun with Grandma

My mom was able to visit this past week with us - It was fun to have her around to help celebrate Seth's bday and Easter too. Jaedon especially liked that he got to play LOTS of chutes and ladders (and beat Grandma most of the time too ;) We even got her bowling and playing baseball on the Nintendo!!! (Yes, Dad, you read that right! ;)

Seth's Bday!

I love birthdays! We have had Elmo decor in our house all week long - (I should probably take care of that today)- but it's been fun to celebrate Seth's 2nd birthday together. Tuesday, his actual bday, we didn't do anything outstanding (I made pancakes for supper - a sure to please here at the Howells' ;) We got him some Magnestix - magnet toys- that he and Jaedon (and Brad ;) have had fun with. Saturday we had a little party for him - our typical bday gathering of Gma and Granddaddy Howells, Uncle Andy, Aunt Lisa and Katelyn, and the Gurk crew could join us too. This year was special because my mom was able to be here as well. We had an easter egg hunt (meant for the out of doors but I figured it might be kinda tricky to find the eggs in the SIX INCHES OF SNOW we got on Friday) so we did it in our basement instead.
We, obviously, did an Elmo theme- just about perfect for a two year old! =) I had fun decorating the cake altho does ANYONE know of an easier way to make RED frosting? I used 1 1/2 food coloring tubes and we still had a rather pink-tinted Elmo!!
I'll tell you- if I were a two year old I would've been SUPER thrilled about the gifts too! Seth got THREE large balls (as in 3 of the size of the green one in the collage), sand toys and a little wagon to tote them in, a way cool sprinkler, markers (WINDOW markers too which we have already used!!;), and an extra spiffy bubble blower - that we absolutly HAD to try out! SO FUN!
And, of course after the kiddies were down and out the older "kids" got to play some Wii and dance pad. I'm not sure who had more fun - ;)

Our Easter weekend

I have entirely too many pictures to post from this past week so I'm going for the collage look-=)
We have had a really enjoyable Easter week. For the second year now we did the Resurrection Eggs (made by Family Life Today). There are a dozen eggs and one item inside each egg that helps tell the Easter story. For example the first egg has a donkey symbolizing Jesus' triumphal entry. There are coins, a crown of thorns, linen etc... the last egg to open on Easter is empty of course! Jaedon had fun with it this year and Seth just liked opening and closing the eggs!
We did our resurrection cookies again too- only after beating the mix for at least 20 minutes it still was not "stiff" as per directed soooo...our cookies, while tasty, were not hollow. Oh well! =)
This year was the first time I've attempted egg decorating with the kids too. It lasted for all of 20 minutes but it was fun. We had some CARS stickers that were a big hit ;)
And on Saturday our church had a Resurrection Egg DROP (!?) The center bottom picture is a picture of just all the 5 and under crew. They had hundreds of kids and families there- it's one of our churches largest outreach times-. They had the kids come to the front section (by age), sit down and some volunteers dropped eggs from the catwalk above. Each child was allowed 1 egg - and actually we made it out unscathed and boasting of one egg. It was pretty well organized for THAT many people and THAT many LITTLE people! oye. Plus our children's pastor gave a super cool, but very short gospel presentation using a Rubik cube! He started with a "done" cube and then how sin messes up our lives (and twisted it to demonstrate). Then he had a teen "fix" the cube (and talked about how Jesus is the only one who can fix our sin problem)- no kidding he did the cube in under 2 minutes. Brad was oogling ;) and it kept Jaedon's attention too.
I hope you all had a fun, and reflective weekend also!

Baby Boy

Scanning just doesn't work so I stole an idea from another blogging mom and took a picture of the picture! (Thanks, Amanda ;)

So here's Baby Him. Healthy, ACTIVE and growing! We've got 10 more weeks - give or take ;)

Name clues are coming- stay tuned!

Easter Ideas

I'm wondering what good ideas all you moms have about how you teach your children about Easter.

We made these cookies last year and plan on making them again this year. It was a lot of fun and pretty yummy too. The pics are from last year. I'm looking forward to reading YOUR ideas!

Resurrection Cookies -

make these cookies Saturday night before Easter.

1 c. whole pecans

1 tsp. vinegar

3 egg whites

pinch of salt

1 c. sugar

1 ziplock bag

Bible- make sure you look up the passages beforehand

1. Preheat oven to 300. This is important.


2. Place pecans in ziplock back and let the children beat them with the spoon until they are in small pieces. Explain that after Jesus was arrested, he was beaten by Roman soldiers.
Read John 19:1-3.

3. Let the child smell the vinegar. Put one tsp. of vinegar in the mixing bowl. Explain that when Jesus was on the cross, He was thirsty and the soldiers gave him vinegar to drink.
Read John 19:28-30.

4. Add egg whites to the vinegar. Eggs represent life. Explain that Jesus gave His life for us.
Read John 10:10-11.

5. Sprinkle a little salt into child’s hand. Let them taste the salt and brush the rest into the bowl. Explain that this represents the salty tears that Jesus’follower’s shed and the bitterness of our own sin.
Read Luke 23:27.
So far,the ingredients aren’t very appetizing.


6. Add sugar. Explain that the sweetest part of the story is that Jesus died forus because He loves us. He wants us to know and belong to Him.
ReadPsalm 34:8 and John 3:16. 7.

Beat the ingredients on high speed for 12-15 minutes until stiff peaks form. Explain that the color white represents purity in God’s eyes of those whose sins are cleansed by Jesus.
Read Isaiah 1:18 and John 3:1-3.

8. Fold in broken nuts. Drop by rounded teaspoons onto waxed paper coveredbaking sheet. Explain that each mound represents the rocky tomb where Jesus was buried.
Read Matthew 27:57-60.


Turn off the oven and place the cookies into the oven. Take some masking tape and "Seal" the tomb.
(make sure you remember to preheat the oven and then it gets shut off over night. )



Easter morning- take the cookies out of the "tomb" (you can have someone take the tape off before the children get to the oven). Take a bite of the cookie and you'll see it's EMPTY inside.

He is RISEN!

Having fun

There is not a lot going on around our house these days- well, nothing like burning things or locking kids in the van at least. (thank goodness!)

but I like to post some pics of just life for those who don't see the kids often. And no, I did NOT set up the Juniors to sit like that - totally Jaedon inspired. ;)

The voice in the night

For the past 4 nights we have put on a story CD for the boys while they fall asleep at night. It's been a BEAUTIFUL thing! Jaedon, who is always in the mood for a story, does not pester Seth and Seth gets bored with kicking the bed (eventually;) and they both fall asleep (eventually).

Three nights ago I heard a woman speaking through the monitor (in the boys room of course) and as it was 12:45 am, it woke me up and I told Brad that someone was IN the boys room talking to them!!! Ahh- love that waking up dilerium! =P Well, Brad went downstairs to their room (he moves a lot faster than I do right now ;) and alas, there was no one in their room (big surprise right!?). He told me it was probably just one of the boys talking in their sleep. Okay- it convinced me enough to fall back asleep.

So TWO nights ago, at 12:45 a.m., I woke up again to a woman TALKING in their room. This time I woke Brad up and cranked up the monitor - sure enough- we were listening to some lady talking inside the boys room. What in the world is going on?! I KNOW I turned off the CD when I re-tucked them! So Brad, again, went to their room and somehow the CD was playing. okay- I was a bit spooked - (I have a pretty wild imagination at times!)

LAST night-after I turned OFF the story CD, I took the CD OUT of the player so that there was no way a woman would be waking me up around 1 again!!!
Have you figured it out yet? No, it wasn't a possessed CD player or strangers in our house. My darling 4 year old had figured out how to set the alarm for - you guessed it 12:45 a.m. - and it was turned on.
*Whew* And I was trying to figure out how to explain "this CD player is possessed" to the sales clerk at Target!! ;)

Praise for today-

Just thought I'd let you know that my Dad got a job this week! He's hasn't had one since September so this is huge!
Yay!!

Comfy?

Seth has a facination- nay- an obsession with this booster seat and the step stool from the bathroom. He carries them around everywhere all day long, uses them to climb on things or just sits and props his feet up. This one made me laugh!