friday five 3-28

Whew, the weeks just seem to fly by! Spring is already here, and hopefully spring weather is not far behind! This week I am so thankful to celebrate with many around the world the death and Resurrection of Jesus. I can hardly wait until Jordan can fully understand why Jesus is so important to his family.
{ps: did you notice the new blog header? boo or yea?}

• As I type right now (Thursday) I have my three love bugs at our house for the day! Whew, it was a whirlwind of a morning! But all three are peacefully sacked out right now. I'm extra thankful since Jordan always naps better at home. It is nice to be at my own house to nanny and was great to not have to do the work of getting everyone out the door with everything for the day! :) 

Snuggles on our couch   |   Porch picnic

• Even though preparing for Easter can be wearing on Josh {youth group, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Food Pantry, Sunday set-up, Sunrise service, Easter breakfast, and two regular services. Whew!} we both still LOVE this time of year. Celebrating Jesus' sacrifice so that we might truly live is such a humbling thing to do. We are also looking forward to giving Jordan an Easter basket and doing our own Easter egg hunt this year.  

• We put on an Easter egg hunt at our church last Saturday. It's been awhile since they've had one. It was loads of fun, and no surprise, Jordan totally loves hunting for eggs! We've had quite a few hunts at home now, too :) It was fun to reach out to the community in this way, as well. I'm looking forward to next year even more, when I can be a little more prepared when I help share the Resurrection Eggs, too.

Practicing before heading to church

Helping pick up carrots from the carrot toss  |  Decorating his bag with pastor Paul

Hunting eggs  |  Checking out his loot with Holly  |  We had fun!

• Spring brought our birds back for another year! Even though it's sometimes annoying to have nests on top of our porch pillars, watching them build their nests, hearing their beautiful chirps in the morning, and seeing the baby birds is so exciting! Jordan loved to be lifted up to see them last year, and I anticipate his excitement this year, now that he can understand why he's excited :) 

• We went from one of Jordan's worst stretches of sleep in awhile (up 1-3 hours every other night for a few weeks, and then every darn night for a week and a half, playing, no matter what we did) + many short naps and a very fussy, going-out-of-control child, to a few days in a row of good solid rest and so many less power struggles. This wasn't the first of these cycles, and I'm certain it's not the last, but it's always a huge relief to make it through them [alive]!

He didn't even notice when I came to get him from the nursery this week.
Too busy having a tea party with "Eemee"

These 79 cent window clings are worth like a million bucks to him.

Snuggling and warming up post kitchen water play
{he played for almost an hour, so he was soaked, of course}

He loves spices. He faked putting spices (from real empty spice bottles) on his
crackers and  2 tin foil shakers for like 30 minutes.

Chilling on the new playground at nannying

More things we never want to forget, and never remember to write down {til now! :)}

• He loves money now! Ha! We taught him how to put it in his piggy bank, and he's in love. {I filled half his Easter eggs with a few pennies each. He gets so excited over every. single. penny. :)}
• We sat down to sing before bed Wed night and he asked me to sing "Grace." We haven't sang Amazing Grace in a couple weeks, and he just thought of it! I am so thankful we are filling his grand memory with Godly things as much as possible!
• He has at least a handful of his books "memorized" - he can fill in at least one word for each page. Goodnight Moon, Going to Bed Book, Winnie the Pooh's Colors, Pooh's Blackberry Surprise, and a couple little Mickey books are the ones he knows best :)
• If I haven't noted it somewhere yet, I better note it now. The boy loves water. He'll play in the sink for an hour, brush his teeth for 30 minutes, and drinks at very least a quart of water during every bath (and probably when he plays at the sink, too). I was just looking through pictures this week from last summer, when he would drink from everything in his pool, too, and open his mouth for the hose and sprayer, every. single. time.
• All of a sudden a few weeks ago when I was cleaning up puzzles at nannying he came over and started putting one together. So fun to watch him succeed in getting every piece in every puzzle correctly! :)
• His obsession with the word "different" switched this week to "new" (because daddy changed his facebook picture and therefore had a new profile picture on my phone). Now everything "other" or "different" is labeled "new."
• I love, love, LOVE to hear him singing "holy, holy, holy," "hallelujah" and "Lord." And he can say "doxology."