Easter this year...

Each year Easter is becoming more and more meaningful to me. My relationship with Jesus is growing so strong! We (Matt and I) are becoming very involved in our church and have been apart of a small church community this year - which has been a huge success in our relationship with each other and Christ.
During Lent- my biggest struggle has been whether or not I should allow Hannah to watch The Passion of The Christ movie? I had not seen it since the theater, but was ready to watch it again. I struggled and prayed so hard over my decision (even talking to a priest about it). I was given "yes'es and no's" for advice....
I mostly wanted her to understand the sacrifice He went through. I wanted her to TRULY understand what He did for US!
Matt and I watched to movie (to refresh our memories) first. I, of course, couldn't hardly watch it, so how could my (almost) 13 yr old???
We decided she just might be too young still....
Good Friday came and we went to mass... and much to my surprise she "got it".
She was so overcome with such strong emotion for what Jesus did for us she left mass TWICE to go compose herself in the bathroom.
I was so glad that I didn't let watch the movie... I think she would not be able to handle it - she is so sensitive.
It's such a hard balance raising your children to be Faithful and desire Christ. We don't want to put too much "pressure" on them - otherwise they could turn against the church? It's so hard to decide what is too much - though???
So, we decided to just live by example and practice good prayer habits at home.
Matt has now started going to the church on Saturday mornings at 7 for prayer and Bible study with the men's group... he really loves it - I'm so proud!
I've really grown to LOVE adoration. I'm involved in the mom's group at the church and we meet several times a month and at the end of our sessions we pray the rosary and go to adoration. What a beautiful gift we have! To be in our Lord's presence... wow!

We are still learning and growing in our Faith, but this year - Easter has meant so much more to us!

The kiddo's on Easter

We were SO pleasantly surprised that Tim & Kerry could come up for Easter! We had not met Claire and they had not met Whitney.... They are only 11 days apart! These sweet babies are precious!

Here is Lucas discovering that the Easter Bunny left a SPIDERMAN basket.... He was so happy!!!

Trying to find all the eggs...

He can't really hide his excitement

The egg had far too much grass on it - ha!

Can't find the last egg - so they had to call on Dad to come help!

Sweeties!

All because two people fell in love!

Look at these sweet cousins!!!!

From left: Lucas, little Whitney, Hannah, little Claire and Audrey

Sweet Claire Bear Whitney :)

Whitney - again :)

BEAUTIFUL Audrey goof ball!

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

my little love

Whitney

Claire

Future best friends... :)

ummm Audrey - we're supposed to color the eggs...

ha!

:)

a new fun way we decided to do eggs this year

Little Scientist!

We went on a fun outing yesterday to the Children's Museum... Mammy (aka Cathy) joined us for the fun venture! Lucas loves to learn! He has a better memory than me! He remembered coming here a year ago with his buddy Jackson. :) We played in the water and of course in the DINO DIG! He has a fascination right now with dinosaurs. HE LOVES LOVES LOVES them! He knows the carnivores and the herbivores... his favorite is the T-rex, of course. :)

Here he is playing with the tubes and figuring out how to make the water go through them... very cool!

He thought it was so cool to "turn" the water.

The dino dig! He's given a paint brush to brush off all the hidden fossils!

A FOSSIL! What a wonderful Paleintologist!

Mammy sneaking kisses from Whitney in the shade :).

Spring has sprung!!!!!!!!!!

What a BEAUTIFUL Spring day we had today! Lucas, Whitney and I went out to the arboretum with our dear friends Sara and Jackson. We tried to go when Hannah was on Spring Break, but it was so crowded they wanted us to park 3 blocks away - so we went home. We had a great time watching the boys play and run around while we looked at all the gorgeous flowers!

Such sweet little dudes!

Time for some FOOTBALL (even though it was opening day for the Rangers!)

playing tag!

Look how cute Jackson is! He was getting attacked by all the bubbles!

I'm convinced Lucas can not do anything "serious" without sticking his tongue out!

Whitney was laughing at auntie Sara! :)

so sweet!

an angel

she's getting so big!

AND BEST OF ALL -AND TO OUR SURPRISE! We look up and MRS. LAURA BUSH was there! It was so awesome to see this amazing woman so close! It was weird, because I feel like I "know" her ... I'm in the middle of reading her husbands book "Decision Points"

there she is again... enjoying this beautiful day with her friends

and again

beautiful flowers...