He is Risen!!

THIS IS A LONG POST...sorry

Easter just might be the greatest reason to celebrate! Just think our Savior conquered the grave to save us from our yucky sin. What could be a better reason to celebrate?

Jake & I kicked off Good Friday with some of our very good friends and their church. They hold a cross walk every year. We walked through downtown Dallas following a big wooden cross. Just as Jesus had to carry his own cross to be crucified. Along the way we would stop and read each station of the cross.(you can see a small overview of them here) Although, it was very hot(I am loving this weather) we really enjoyed getting into the meaning of the season & learning more about what Christ endured. (I guess really me...Jake just was along for the ride in his stroller.)

We followed Fridays cross walk by going to my mom's house and dying Easter eggs with all my nephews and my cousin who was in town from Florida. The boys loved it & thanks so much to Family Fun magazine for their great tip of putting the egg in a whisk and using that to dye the eggs. No colored hands for the little boys!!!


The Easter bunny made a stop at our house and Jake was so excited when he woke up. We use the same basket every year, so the night before Easter Jake & I sat his basket out with a carrot for the bunny. This was a mistake, at least 4 times after I put Jake to bed he came down stairs wanting to know if the Easter bunny had come yet. (thankfully he hadn't). But when it was finally morning Jake was so excited to see that the bunny had eaten his carrot and all the fun stuff that was in his basket.


Then of course we enjoyed an amazing church service on Sunday morning. It was full of great celebration for our risen King (including a strobe light show)!!! Have I mentioned before we attend a contemporary rock and roll church & Love it! During the service our band sang a great song that was accompanied by video clips that I think brought tears to everyone's eyes. How He Loves Us you can hear the song by clicking the link...amazing!!!


Afterward we headed home to prepare for our annual Easter brunch in our beautiful new kitchen. And the Easter egg hunt in our back yard. It was so fun to see Jake during the egg hunt. I was very surprised he knew exactly what to do and took off running out the back door and grabbing every egg he saw. Too cute!!!

We all had a great time and some of the best moments of the season were teaching Jake about Easter. He loves to sing "Hosanna" & always asks me to turn it on as soon as we get in the car.

Of course a post about Easter wouldn't be complete without pictures of our Easter Weekend!

Renovations

A little renovating goes a long way! We just finished a small renovation project in our kitchen with new floors & counter tops. It has totally transformed our kitchen & we love it!!! You will have to excuse the before pictures as I didn't realize my step-dad & Jason were going to be taking the kitchen apart that day & I had to hurry and get before pictures before it was all torn apart.
Just the floor...Old floor: yucky linoleum...new floor: beautiful tile!!
New counter tops, sinke & faucet...the sink is 2" deeper and seems huge...love it!
View from dinning room
View from living room

The View

We have a big mirror propped against the wall in our dinning room. Waiting for it's permanent home...(still to be decided. But the mirror sits behind Jake's chair and I just love seeing his little feet poking out of the chair while he eats. Warms my heart every time!!

Back Seat Driver

At 2 years old Jake is a total backseat driver!

It started with while we were at a traffic light I would ask him what color the light was and tell him to tell me when the light turned green.

Then while riding in the car with his cousin he picked up saying "turn right", "turn left," & go straight."

So now as we are driving down the street he tells me when he thinks I should turn or go straight or stop. Usually the way he tells me to go is not the way we are going so I say "no this time we are turning right." Or whatever it is that is the direction we need to head in. He is usually fine and will go about telling me what to do.

The other day we were stopped at a 4-way stop that had a flashing red light above the stop sign. I of course stop and then proceed to go. As I am going through the 4-way stop Jake says to me "mommy, did you see that light red?" In a tone that made it seem he thought I was running a red light instead of waiting for the light to turn green.

After getting myself together from cracking up laughing I tried to explain as best I could to a 2 year old that not all red lights are stop lights and at that kind of flashing red light I just have to stop and wait my turn to go through even when the light is still read.

He is so much fun!!! Even if he is my back seat driver. I am sure his daddy will tell you that he gets it all from me ;)

A little bit redneck

Jason is a big Nascar fan. As for me I could do without it, but because he loves it I have taken to at least enjoying it. Every year we go to the Spring race and usually spend a bit of money on the tickets. This year Atlanta Motor Speedway had a deal that the day after the Daytona 500 tickets would sell for the price of the winning car number. Well, the winner was Jamie McMurray the #1 car so yes, tickets went on sale for $1, but there were only 1000 available at the track Monday morning & 1000 available online.

Jason got on the computer a few minutes before tickets were to go on sale and wouldn't you know he was able to get 2 tickets for ONLY $1. We really couldn't believe we were able to get them. The tickets were sold out in 30 seconds. WOW! Saved us at least $80 a ticket. Surprisingly our seats were really good too. We even decided that when we go back we would be tickets in that same section.

So we went a couple of weeks ago to the Atlanta race. My Aunt & Uncle also had tickets (but not $1 tickets) and were sitting a couple of sections over from us. We were able to ride with them and enjoy some delicious food tailgating before the race and after while we waited for traffic to die down. I still can't stop thinking about the brownies...YUM!!

We all had a great time and I love seeing my hubby so excited about racing...even if it is a little bit redneck.

Kurt Busch doing his backward victory lap

Our view of the pits from our seats

It is Cold

Several weeks ago as I was getting Jake out of the car he did this silly shiver and funny face. When I asked him what he was doing he said "my so cold." It was so funny. Then when I was telling Jason about it Jake did it for him to and then we both were cracking up. Of course my future class clown knew we were laughing about what he had done and kept doing it. All of a sudden after about 4 times he looked at us all serious and said "what you laughing about?" but of course he totally knew we were laughing about him and did his now know as "cold face" one more time to make sure we were really laughing about him.

He is such a silly boy and makes us laugh all the time, and he loves when he does things that make us laugh.

Here is a little video of his "cold face." Still not as great as in person, but will probably put a little smile on you face!!

MARCH 2nd

Yesterday it snowed in Georgia for like the millionth time this winter. I am so OVER the cold I can't stand it any more. The snow just topped it off for me. Oh please Spring hurry up. I am so ready & I promise you won't hear me complain one time about how hot it is here in the summer. I am going to enjoy every single rain of sunshine I can find no matter how hot it is. I can't take the cold any more and especially not any more snow. Really...did you catch where I live GEORGIA I don't live in the north or anywhere that is known for snow....it isn't supposed to snow this much in Georgia...ugh...please give me spring. My only hope is that the weather man is right with his claims of 65 degrees and sunny this weekend.

Of course even as much as I loathe the snow Jake loves it and would stay out forever...& I of course have to take pictures even though they are all starting to look the same.