Easter.

This Easter was very interesting.. in that, my girls are really getting the meaning of it... We have books that talks about the true meaning of Easter... And we go through the "Resurrection Eggs" (which I totally recommend for little ones) to help them understand and tell the story of Easter..but this year, my 5 year old was thinking profoundly about Jesus' death and His resurrection.  When Good Friday came, she seemed sad/melancholy almost the entire day... I thought she was sick..but before the Good Friday service she told me that she "was thinking about Jesus and His death on the cross."  It just made me think how pure their hearts and minds are... she was really grieving the loss of this man who was the Son of God... and come Sunday, she was ready to party and celebrate the risen King!!  And what was also neat was how Big Sister (who accepted Jesus into her heart a few months ago) wanted to be baptized when she saw people getting baptized during the service!!  All day today she said, "Mommy- I want Daddy to baptize me." :)  I am sure next year, Easter will take on a whole new meaning to the girls.. but this year, it was so neat to see their little hearts, minds and souls being touched and moved by the Spirit of God!

The cross that our church asked me to paint for the Good Friday service...

Our "hearts" that were stapled onto a tree before the service.. 

Biggest Sister drew a heart with her and Jesus next to it..

The restaurant we went to after the Easter service to celebrate as a family!  What a great restaurant with yummy food, excellent service and relaxing ambiance!  I think we will make this a tradition! ;)

Egg Hunt.

We live in a neat community that organizes fun events for the many children that live in our neighborhood. This past weekend, they had an Easter Egg Hunt...which I'm not a huge fan of, but Biggest Sister always remembers her first Easter Egg Hunt that she participated in and looks forward to it every year.  We were not planning to go to one this year, but we ended up going with our wonderful neighbors and the girls really enjoyed it.  They loved the hunt (even though it only lasted less than 5 minutes, and they had a limit of how many eggs they can put in their baskets) but they especially loved spending time with our neighbor/friend's kids.. Such sweet kids...I hope they will be friends for a long time.

Love Day & Nature Walk.

Nature can not be replaced.  Obviously.  But this is what I was thinking while the girls and I were on a walk at a nature reserve in our neighborhood.  We were surrounded by beautiful trees and flowers...even the rays of the sun and the dirt on the ground were so beautiful and calming this Valentine's morning. :)

Biggest sister had fun looking for insects...and managed to bring a couple home..

This baby doll seemed to enjoy all the nature also. ;)

Big sister picked some pretty flowers.

Earlier today, we had "design your own pancake" as a family.  We had so much fun... we decided to make it an annual Valentines tradition. :)

We also made Sunflower Butter Cookies for the first time.  They turned out pretty good!

In the evening, we had a candlelight dinner (with a ton of candles)... and turned off all the lights.  The girls absolutely loved it (this may become a tradition as well)!  Who knew celebrating Valentine's day as a family would is so much fun!!

New Year.

There is no better way to welcome the new year with great friends, great food and great conversations!!

We had a wonderful... sushi-making, acorn-picking, mariokart-racing, birdhouse-coloring, bone-fetching, chocolate-dipping, stair-climbing, photo-taking, new year-celebrating weekend!! :)

December.

In previous years, we had a tradition in which we purchased the Christmas tree and decorated it and decorated our home after biggest sister's birthday (which is the 6th).  We started this tradition so that her birthday would be somewhat "separate" Christmas and tree-decorating was something we can look forward to do after her birthday celebration.  This year, we seem to not be able to wait that long... Maybe it's because the girls are older and they're excited about Christmas... Bryant brought out the Christmas bins today and we started decorating...

It sure is starting to look a lot like Christmas around here... Now let's see if we can wait to buy the Christmas tree...  ;)