easter traditions

We've had such a great weekend celebrating Easter with my family.  We started some new Easter traditions and continued some old ones!! 

We made resurrection rolls on Saturday morning.  I made them last year but Pearson didn't like them.  I let the boys help me make them this year.  They really enjoyed it.   After I explained that the marshmallows represent Jesus because he was sinless and pure, Pearson said, "Can we eat Jesus now?" Ha!!  

 They ate about 3 Jesus' before we buried him in the tomb.  

 Nash was in charge of rubbing the oils (butter) on Jesus' body and Pearson was in charge of putting the spices on his body (cinnamon & sugar).  We made a mess, but it was to totally worth it!

 I had to help a little bit with the tombs to make sure Jesus' body was nice and secure in them!!

 When we open up our tombs we exclaim, "He's not here, He has RISEN!!!

**I technically should have cooked mine a little bit longer and the marshmallow would have completely disappeared, but the bottoms were getting done so I pulled them out of the oven.   We got the point though.  The big marshmallow was gone, just like Jesus was.  

 The boys both loved the resurrection rolls this year.  We gobbled them all up!!!

 After our crazy morning getting Nash's forehead glued back together, we came home and dyed eggs.  Nash is such a mess these days that we decided to do this while he was napping.  Maybe Nash can join in on this tradition next year.

 This was actually our first year dying eggs.  We had never done it with Pearson, but I needed the eggs for deviled eggs since I was in charge of our big Easter lunch.  

 Pearson loved it and would have died another dozen if I would have let him.  

After the boys rested for a little while, I pulled out our homemade resurrection eggs. My mom has a store-bought set and I have always loved them.  I finally put together my own set after seeing my friends cute homemade set.  You see hers here.  

 We've done these eggs now no less than 10 times and Pearson can tell us all about the Easter story.  

 Easter Sunday always seems so busy so we decided to give their little "Easter Baskets" from Lolly & Pops on Saturday.  Last year Lolly had a fun scavenger hunt for all the cousins so we decided to carry on the tradition and do a fun little hunt instead of just giving them an Easter basket.  Pearson loves maps so we created this little map to give him clues as to wear each gift was.  

 Pearson knew just where to go after looking over his map and Nash just followed along.  

They both thought it was so cool that they had presents in the mailbox.   

 They had four presents outside on the treasure hunt, then we headed inside for a different kind of hunt. 

 Lolly wrote clues telling Pearson where to look for his gifts.  

 We found one in the fridge and another in our cup drawer.  

 Then we found on in our dryer and another in our train table.  

 Finally, after all of our hunting they boys finally got to open all their little gifts.  

 Lolly & Pops gave the boys so many fun little trinkets and toys and some new summer swimsuits.   We are so incredibly thankful that they are here this weekend celebrating Easter with us!!

What fun Easter traditions do you do with your family??

the gash of nash

My little rough and tough boy is all beat up.  Last night he fell pushing a truck around and busted his lip.  This morning he had a run in with the window sill and got a nice little gash on his forehead.  

 Thankfully the gash wasn't too bad so we were able to go to Urgent Care and get it glued rather than to get stitches.  

He was so brave.  He cried really hard when it first happened but quickly went right back to his happy little self.  

Then while we were at the doctor he laid so still while she put the glue on and only cried when it began to sting.  She said it would start to sting after about 30 seconds and she wasn't lying. Poor baby let us know it was stinging.

 It was nothing four stickers and a green teddy bear couldn't fix.  

 In the last 3 weeks Nash has had a black eye, a busted lip, and a gash on his forehead.  What are we going to do with this kid???

Lowe's Build & Grow

When Nash was first born Matt took Pearson to his first Lowe's Build & Grow. They had the best time and it began a little Saturday tradition (when they had them) for the boys to go and do their thing. Nash is now at the age to start enjoying them so the last three Build & Grow's we have taken both of them. They absolutely love it!!!!

We are town visiting my parents and it worked out perfectly that there was aThursday  night clinic while we were here. The electric wheelchair was running low on battery and creeping soooooooooo slow so the boys thought they were so strong giving Pops a push to make him go faster! 

It was great to have Lolly there to help Pearson so I could help Nash. Pearson can pretty much do them by himself but just needs a little help here and there. 

Pearson's tongue helps him out quite a bit too! Ha! We just about died laughing watching his tongue work while he worked.

Nash was so excited about his racecar because this was actually a pullback car. It really moves on it own. When we left, I was chasing him and his car down the lumber aisle! 

It's crazy that they sell these little kits for $7.98 at Lowe's but give them out free if you sign up for their clinic. We are already  looking forward to their next one on April 9th to build a bird feeder!!!!! 

MOPS Easter Egg Hunt

This morning we headed to FBC South for an Easter Egg hunt with our MOPS group.  

It was a great Easter Egg hunt because there were tons of eggs and not that many kids!!

Pearson said "It wasn't a real egg hunt because the eggs weren't hid."  But I don't think he seems to mind since he came home with a basket full of eggs!!

This was Nash's very first Easter egg hunt.  Last Easter he wasn't even walking.  After each egg, he was say "Hey, wook Mommy!" Then he would open each egg and eat the candy.  He only ended up with 5 eggs since he spend so much time with each one.  

But clearly he wasn't disappointed that he only got 5 eggs!!

 After eating half of their candy from their eggs, these crazy boys played on the playground and enjoyed time with all the little MOPS friends.  We are so thankful for this sweet group of friends that has really helped make us feel at home in Tyler. 

 Probably not the boys favorite part of the day, but definitely mine was a little mini photo session set up.  We have a photographer in our MOPS group and she set up some props for us and took all of our kiddos pictures.  They turned out so sweet.  Love these sweet boys!!

You've Been EGGED {+ a free printable}

Last year before we moved to Tyler, we "egged" our friends and had a blast.  I've been looking forward to doing this to our new friends in Tyler ever since we moved here.  And lucky for us, Easter is super early this year!!

Here's what you'll need to egg your friends…….

You've Been Egged Printable {available at the bottom}

The First Easter Story {found here}

12 Easter Eggs per family 

Easter Candy

Zip-Loc Bags

Tape

Fill 11 eggs with candy and leave 1 empty to represent the empty tomb.  Place all the eggs in a separate zip-loc bags just to make it easier when delivering them.  Print off the You've Been Egged sheet and The First Easter Story sheet.  Sign your name at the bottom so your friends know who "egged" them.  Staple them together and load them up with all your Easter Eggs.  

This morning we loaded up the car with all of our eggs and papers and mapped out a route all over Tyler to deliver to our friends!!! I promise Pearson was more excited than he looks, he was just reading the Easter story.  

 We talked in the car about being sneaky and how we are going to try not to get caught "egging" our friends.  We were even able to sneak a picture in front of one of our friends houses!!  

When you are leaving the eggs, be sure not to hide them too well, because you want to make sure they can see them when they pull up to their house or come outside! I packed a roll of tape and just taped the papers to their door! 

We egged 9 families.  I only let Nash get out at a few houses because all he wanted to do was throw the eggs and then they would bust.  And then he was sad when we left each house and didn't get to play with his friends.  

 Pearson loved being sneaky and hiding the eggs at each of our friend's houses.  His favorite egg to hide was the "tomb egg". 

While Pearson loved delivering the eggs, I think he loved reading everyone's text messages more as they came in all afternoon.  He was thrilled to see that everyone loved it.  And he loved that we even got a few pictures from our friends.  

Pearson's best buddy from school, Jackson and his little sister Lucy Anne hunting for their eggs and enjoying their candy!!

Nash's sweet girlfriend, Sarah.  He seriously talks about her all the time and even calls her "My Sarah".

The best part about doing this is that is teaches our little ones the real meaning of Easter.  It seems like around Easter there is an Egg Hunt every day at every event.  A church egg hunt, a preschool egg hunt, a MOPS egg hunt, a friend egg hunt, a family egg hunt, a neighborhood egg hunt and so on.  It's so easy to have fun at all of these and totally forget that Easter isn't about the eggs, the candy or the silly Easter Bunny.  Easter is all about celebrating that JESUS CHRIST IS RISEN FROM THE DEAD!!

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Enjoy!!!

Whole30 {week 4 recap}

Ahhhh!!! 30 days of real food!!! I did it…..well almost.  I did technically quit 2 meals short, but I'm still saying I completed the Whole30.  That's a lot more than what most can say!!  I'm proud of myself and I'm really pleased with my results.  I will share more in another post!!

Day 25 

Breakfast: Omelet with bacon, peppers, onions, & Sauteed Potatoes, & Clementine

Lunch: Cauli-Rice with Chicken Apple Sausage, Spinach, Onions, & Rotel, Pineapple & Kiwi

Dinner: FD's Grillhouse Steak, Baked Potato, Green Beans (all cooked with no butter)

Day 26

Breakfast: Smoothie with pineapple, mango, banana, almond milk, almond butter & spinach and two boiled eggs

Lunch: Chick-fil-A Grilled Chicken Nuggets, Quac, Carrots, Fruit, & Applesauce

Dinner: Pizza Spaghetti Pie & Green Beans and Clementine

Day 27

Breakfast: Spinach & Chicken Apple Sausage Egg Scramble & Banana

Lunch: Pack Salad, with Chicken, Pecans, Bacon, Egg, Tomato, Cucumber with Zesty Ranch Applesauce

Dinner: Creamy Cauliflower Shrimp Chowder 

Day 28

Breakfast: Egg in a Pepper with Bacon, Leftover Potatoes, & Kiwi

Lunch: Leftover Pizza Spaghetti Pie

Dinner: Chili Lime Chicken Burger topped with Avocado, & Salsa and Apple Nachos

Day 29

Breakfast: Chia Seed with Mixed Berries

Lunch: Leftover Pizza Spaghetti Pie and Kiwi

Dinner: Garden Salad with Grilled Chicken (no croutons or Cheese) at Scotty P's

Day 30

Breakfast: 2 Fried Eggs and Fruit

Lunch: NOT WHOLE30….Small sandwich, Kettle Chips, & Fruit Salad

Dinner: Chicken Cobb Salad with Tessamae's Zesty Ranch (Also 3 Swedish Meatballs that were NOT WHOLE30)