Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!  I love Easter.  It is a wonderful time to reflect on God's entire plan for the human race from creation, the fall, offering Himself up as a sacrifice to pay our fines, conquering death, and offering eternal life to us.  How blessed we are to be part of His eternal plan!

This year we celebrated Easter with our church family as usual and in the afternoon headed over to Grandma & Grandpa's for dinner.  We had a delicious dinner and too many desserts, but it was sooo good.  After dinner we headed outside for our traditional Easter egg hunt.  This was Benjamin's first year to join in, since last year he wasn't even crawling.  We tried to help him understand the point of the hunt, but he just wanted to pick up the egg and play with it, so after 4 eggs we just let him sit down and play with them.  Next year we may have to practice ahead of time. :)  

The 2011 egg hunters: Cohen, John, Amy, Benjamin, and Emma.  

Tulips & Surgery

On Monday, my mom and I took Benjamin to the Tulip festival.  I had not been for about 10 years and it was fun to see the beautiful colors.

Benjamin loved the pretty flowers and was so gentle with them.

But much more fun than the flowers were the rocks.  Such a boy.

If you look closely, you will see below that Benjamin is not admiring the pretty flowers, but the rock he is holding. :)

Now those are what I call shoes...

Tuesday was Benjamin's eye surgery.  We had an early start and were back home by early afternoon.  Everything went well and Benjamin did great.  When he checked in he was actually excited and thought it was a party.  The other children we were sharing a room with were crying and very upset and Benjamin was bouncing around having a great time.  Maybe he felt like he was back in familiar territory?  Maybe he was excited about wearing the pink hospital clothes again (I still don't understand why they didn't choose green, brown, or yellow)?  He certainly didn't need the meds they gave him for anxiety, but they did help him to be less hyper.

After the surgery was not as much as a party as his eyes were sore and I am sure he was confused, but he still did great.  The worst part now is having to give him eye drops 4 times per day.  Have you ever given a toddler eye drops?  I reminds me of calf wrestling you see at rodeos.  To do it well, you need 3 people.  One to control the hands and body, one to keep his head still, and one to get the drops in.  Unfortunately, it is just me for 3 of the 4 times per day.  You can imagine how that goes!  Now he is a bit cross-eyed and his eyes have a lot of red in the white part, but both of those should clear up in a week or two.

#7 & Fun with a Blanket

Spring!  I love this season.  Though we have had so much rain, God has provided a few days here and there of sun.  Last Friday was absolutely gorgeous and such a gift.  I got to spend several hours outside in the yard weeding and just enjoying the fresh air.  Benjamin came out too after his name and had great fun.  Sunshine does the heart good.

I am really surprised how easily I have settled into my new role as a full time homemaker.  I feel like I have been doing it for years in some ways.  I still find it strange how little time there seems to be though and how fast the days go.  That was one of my biggest concerns about staying home - being bored - but I have not had the chance yet.  Baby is now 14 weeks along and according to one of my books is 3-4 inches from head to rump and if you could peek inside would look just like a miniature human.  Thank you, God that we are fearfully and wonderfully made.  I am still experiencing some nausea, especially in the evenings, which I was sure would be gone by now.  I am praying that it will fade away soon and not last the whole pregnancy (or I might wish baby would come early! Just kidding.)

Brian is doing really well at his new job and has received good compliments from both his manager and coworkers.  He is really starting to get into his work and seems to enjoy it.  His current job is a contract position (a little higher pay with lousy benefits) and there is possibility that he may be hired on full time in the future (a little less pay, but hopefully good benefits) which would really bless our family as we have a very special boy with some pretty special needs.  We would appreciate any prayer we can get in this area.

Benjamin is doing well.  He is happy and vibrant and I fall in love with him all over again each and every day.  I feel so blessed to be his mommy.  We found out several weeks ago that he will need another eye surgery, that is scheduled in 2 weeks.  This surgery is to correct his "wandering" eye and may be on one or both eyes. This is surgery #7.  Seven is the perfect number, so I am praying that this will complete his surgeries, though we have been told that sometimes it can take multiple surgeries to correct this problem.  If gone un-treated, his brain would eventually "turn off" the sight to that eye to avoid seeing double, so it is very necessary.  We would appreciate prayer for this too, as every surgery comes with risks.

A few weeks ago we received a blanket made from girls in Thailand that live in a Remember Nhu home.  (Remember Nhu is a ministry that has homes in several countries that welcome in primarily young girls that are at high risk to be sold into prostitution.)  They are learning to knit and have knitted together squares to make a little blanket.  As soon as I opened the package, Benjamin decided it was his blanket and spent the next half hour or so dragging it around the house.

Here is another picture I thought was cute.  Our church's little Sunday School has been learning about the Armor of God.  One week they talked about the helmet of salvation and gave the kids little toy army helmets as an illustration.  (If you are wondering were Benjamin's glasses are in these pictures, so am I!)