Easter festivities

What a wonderful time to celebrate our Savior's death and resurrection! I sometimes feel that Easter is more commercialized than any other holiday.  At Christmas time you still see the baby Jesus and the occasional manger scene along with the Santa Clause, but where do you see Christ in Easter?  Everything is all about bunnies and ducks and eggs and candy.  You have to REALLY try to focus on the Lord or else everything else will sneak in (not to subtly) and take over.  How sad is it that we have to try so hard to remember the greatest thing our Lord ever did for us.  Living He loved me, dying He saved me, buried He carried my sins far away, rising He justified freely forever, one day He's coming. Oh glorious day!!!  I hope that all over you were able to take time away from the busyness of Easter and spring and remember what Jesus Christ did for us.

We were very fortunate to be able to spend some time with both sides of our family this year.  Kyle's parents came over Friday evening and stayed through Saturday.  Although, Kyle and I were ready to have them "committed" as they decided to ride the motorcycle over to our place.  It's a 2 1/2 hour drive and it was low 40's and raining! Needless to say they were a little chilled when they arrived :)  They assured us that it had been sunny and in the 60's when they left their place.  Maybe next time they'll check the weather before they head out, lol.  We had a great time together though.  After a great meal and pretty yummy dessert, if I do say so myself, we had a good time talking and spending the evening together.  They brought some goodies for Hayden and of course she had to sample them :)  

Saturday morning we colored eggs with Hayden.  She had such a fun time! She kept saying, wow, over and over again :)  Such fun things for an almost two year old mind.  After lunch we headed over to the library for an Easter egg hunt.  They had a separate section for 0-2 year olds which was perfect.  The eggs weren't exactly hidden, more like scattered all over the floor.  All the kids had to do was pick them up off the ground.  Hayden started picking up eggs but once she figured out they had candy in them she wasn't interested.  She just wanted the candy!  Oh well, she'll figure it out sooner or later :)

After nap time, we headed up to see my parents in Emmetsburg.  We had a great time with them Saturday evening then got up for church Sunday morning.  Justin made it sometime in the night so it was nice seeing him Sunday morning as well.  The church was packed out and I was able to see some friends there from high school that I hasn't seen in years.  It's always great going back and seeing old friends.  Dad had a great message, one that really spoke to the heart.  How important it is to know Christ as our PERSONAL Savior....you never know when He will come again to get His children and we will meet Him in the air! Mom made a WONDERFUL ham meal and cheese cake for dessert.  My favorite! Needless to say, my diet took a MAJOR hit this weekend :(  After a nice nap, Hayden was raring to go again.  Grandma DeFord hid a few eggs around the living room and Hayden was able to find them.  She did much better on this one than she did at the library :)  She also got a new skirt and shirt outfit...super cute!  Thanks mom! We went for a walk and mom and dad were VERY impressed at how far Hayden walked all by herself.  Dad thought she went probably a quarter of a mile :)  Alex is in track this year and since Justin did track too, and did very well, making it to state in the shuttle relay, we all went to the track and watched them work on hurdles.  Justin gave some great tips and worked well with him.  We are hoping they'll actually get to have a meet soon as all of them  have been cancelled due to rain.  I am so proud of both of my brothers :)

All in all, a wonderful weekend with family, friends and remember our Lord.  I trust you all had a great weekend as well!

Sorry, I couldn't figure out how to rotate the picture on the blog

Little wonders

Hayden and I are home alone this weekend as Kyle is off on his annual turkey hunt in NE. The nights get a little lonely after Hayden goes to bed, but I have to say that I have thoroughly enjoyed our mother-daughter time.  I have noticed so many change in our little toddler lately and it's been fun to really watch her and see all the ways she is growing up. 

Lately she has started to really talk a lot more and people we meet are constantly commenting on her large vocabulary.  She is definitely not a shy little girl that's for sure! Just today she saw another little girl at the library and immediately started talking to her.  Within a few seconds she grabbed the little girl by the hand and started dragging her over to the play area saying, "play, play".  Lol, that's my little social butterfly :)  A couple weeks ago Kyle was going to head to the basement for something and Hayden wanted to go too.  She came running over to me, handed her cup to me and said, "a hodis me?"  Translation, "can you hold this for me?"  I have to say, I was a little surprised and had to ask her to say it again.  This was the first time she had said such a completely sentence.  It was so cute and of course I had to hold her cup for her while she went with daddy :) 
A few other key words and phrases she uses a lot are: see, boke (broke), I found it, dere it is, where go?, what's that?  It's so funny to hear her using these words around the house.  Sometimes she'll pick up some random object and say, here it is, like it's something she has been searching for for hours.  Just today she grabbed an audio book at the library and said, "I found it!" like it was just the thing she was looking for :) 

Aside from all the new words and phrases she is using she is really coming into her own little personality.  She LOVES to have her picture taken and every time Kyle or I say something is cute or laughs at something she does she immediately says, picure's?  Most of the time we give in :)  Who wouldn't want to take a picture of such a cute little girl??  She poses for every picture and has to use her "cheese face" as we have come to call it.  I feel very sorry for whoever takes her 2 year pictures, they are going to have a very hard time getting her to stop making that face!  Hayden also likes playing with small objects like magnates, erasers, stickers and even money.  She's very good about never putting anything in her mouth but she'll line them up, dump then out of containers, count them, put them back in containers.  And she does this kind of thing for hours! From what I hear from my parents, I was the same way as a kid so I guess she comes by it honestly :)

So, back to today and our girl time.  After a morning at the library we got Subway for lunch and then Hayden went down for a nap.  One more plug for my little angel, she LOVES to sleep.  She can be going a hundred miles an hour and playing wonderfully but as soon as 1:30 rolls around all I have to say is, "are you ready for a nap?" and she immediately grabs her doll and blankie and heads for the stairs.  She loves her naps :) After her nap the sun finally decided to come out and warm the place up a little bit so we went outside to play. This is where the tittle, Little Wonders, came from.  The world is soooo new to an almost 2 year old! Last summer was fun, but I can tell this summer is going to be even better.  Hayden found some buds that had fallen off a tree and was completely enthralled with them.  We looked at the buds on the ground, the buds on the trees, and dead leaves on the ground.  She even tried putting the dead leaves and fallen buds back on the trees!  I explained how it doesn't work that way but I am not sure how much of it stuck ;)  I had so much fun watching her look at everything and try to figure it out.  I realized just how observant she is to think of  trying to put the buds and leaves back on the trees.  There were so many times where I found myself smiling as I watched her looking at everything.  I am so thankful for the blessing that she is in my life. God has spoiled Kyle and I with such a wonderful little girl. 

This was a crazy long post, but I did it mostly so I could look back and remember these fun times.  I really should have started a lot earlier in Hayden's life but better late than never!