Our Lovely Easter Celebrations

We are so blessed to have both of our families in town, and as a result, we celebrate all holidays twice. :-) Sometimes that means crazy, long days with too much food, even more dessert, and no naps- not a good combination. I am usually frazzled because we run from one place to the next {and occasionally we visit up to 4 different locations on 1 holiday}.  Now that we have 2 babes, it is a lot harder to haul them all over the planet on a given day- so we are getting better about taking turns for holidays, or celebrating the day before or after with one or the other family.  For Easter this year, the Bradford side decided to have their celebration on Saturday, which was wonderful because all the cousins could come and we didn't have to feel divided or rushed. Jack had so much fun with his (2nd) cousin, Ellya. He pushed her around in his fire truck for a long time! 

On Sunday morning we celebrated as a little family.  Sean and Jack repeated proclaimed, 

"He is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!" 

and we gave Jack and Claire their easter baskets :-) 

Claire shared her candy with Mommy&Daddy ;-)

dinosaurs!

loves his soft bunny

Later we went to Nana's house for dinner and an Easter egg hunt with the cuzzies.  We now have 11 kids at our family parties! 4 of which were born in a 6 month span. Claire is number 11. 

We had so much fun celebrating with our families, but the greatest joy is knowing that we serve a living God. One who conquered Sin and Death; a perfect, sinless sacrifice. He is Risen Indeed.

love this pic

Jack & Nicky {wish I could have heard this conversation}

cute lil chocolate face!

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Born in a Nest to Die on a Tree

Where's Jacky

A couple of nights ago I was resting with Jacky at bedtime {in his big boy bed} and I asked him, "Who loves you?" This was not a strange question because it's one we often ask him, to which he replies enthusiastically, "Mommy loves Jacky!" {or Daddy- depending on who asked} On this occasion he didn't stop with "Mommy"- he kept going with the list of people who "love Jacky." He was going through his list- "Daddy loves Jacky, and Mimi loves Jacky, Claire loves Jacky, Jesus loves Jacky, Papa loves Jacky, Coco loves Jacky, Grandma and Grandpa love Jacky, Missy loves Jacky, Jon Jon loves Jacky, Nana and Grandpa love Jacky..."
 I couldn't believe he said,

Jesus loves Jacky

so I said, "Jesus does love Jacky!" and he just said, "Yes- Jesus in his nest loves Jacky" and continued his list of all the family members and friends that love Jacky. 

There were two things that really struck me about this little conversation with my little two year old boy: 

He knows Jesus.  He knows Jesus loves him.  Of course he is only 2 and he doesn't understand salvation or sin or the cross, or even how truly incomprehensible and incredible it is that we are loved by the Creator of the universe; but he knows Jesus loves him.  

That is why the Lord sent his only son to die for our sins, because of his LOVE for us, so that we could be reconciled to Him, and have abundant life {here and now- not just for eternity}.  To know His love is the greatest journey.  I want Jack to know His love. To walk with Him, to seek Him, and to know the peace, strength, power, forgiveness, and abundant life that is found in loving Him. 

He knows Jesus at the beginning of His story. Jack described Jesus as in his nest.  His picture of Jesus is the baby in the "nest" of straw in the manger.  Jack doesn't yet understand that the rest of Jesus' story, and His ultimate act of LOVE for him, was on a tree- when he died on the cross.  This sweet little boy is just at the very beginnings of his walk with the Lord, but I pray that as he grows, so will his love for our Savior Jesus, who  "loves Jacky" so dearly.

"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

Romans 5:8