Golden Nuggets

I've been catching my kids lately saying the "darndest things"...

I overheard a scuffle between Madison and Malachi, and although I don't know what happened, they seemed to resolve it on their own:

Madison: "Say 'Sorry', for goodness sakes!"

Malachi: (With emphasis) "Sorry, for goodness aches!"

On Easter Sunday morning, our neighbor brought over a basket of goodies for the kids and left it on our back patio. The kids enjoyed going through it and finding delicious treasures while Seth and I enjoyed watching the kids dive in. We had to laugh as we watched as Malachi picked up sparkly plastic egg and exclaimed,

"What's this 'Doo-(h)ickey'?"

Yesterday, I changed Mathias' diaper in the dining room, then, in order to get him redressed without grabbing the soggy dud, wrapped it up and threw it in the direction of the kitchen garbage...Now, even if I was Michael Jordan, I wouldn't have been able to make it in the can, but Malachi noticed the flaw and said,

"Mom, you whiffed it!"

Enjoy, we sure did!

Easter, Etc.

Hi Folks,

I think it's high time I update you on recent happenings in our lives.

First of all, The Promise was a success. As far as I know, there were 3 people who gave their hearts to the Lord! That makes all of the hours and hard work worth it, right there. Below is a picture of our family in front of the empty tomb! (I missed the opportunities to get pictures of our family in our "Promise Garb", sorry.)

After church, Easter morning, my whole family went out for brunch. I only share that because I want you to see Mathias' reaction to Grandma giving him his first lemon:

After a nice afternoon nap, we headed to Seth's Folks' house for an Easter Egg Hunt. Seth's twin sister Sandy, who doesn't have kids yet, brought a huge tote FULL of eggs with little prizes inside. Divide those by the number of children hunting (7) and you've got a large grocery sack full for each child! The adults were just throwing eggs on the ground to get them all "hidden".

Auntie Sandy

Uncle Davy (Sandy's husband) assisting in the festivities

All in all, it turned out to be a nice Early Easter in Minnesota!

Life Is About to Get A Whole Lot Busier...

Last night was the first in a weeklong series of practices, dress rehearsals and performances for THE PROMISE, an Easter Production on the Life, Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

As I've stated before, our WHOLE family will be involved. Please pray for stamina for us as we try to take it all one day at a time :D

Please also pray for Mathias, as I've been trying diligently to get him on a reasonable eating and sleeping schedule...which, I'm sure will go right out the window this week.

And finally, pray for the hundreds that will see THE PROMISE this year, that they will be open to what God wants to do in their hearts and lives through the drama.

Thanks,
Rachel

"Ferberization"

As I type this, I am listening to my poor little baby wail himself to sleep on the monitor in my living room. How long does it take until they're okay with going to sleep on their own? We've been using the Ferber Method since he was born! And when will he start sleeping for longer than 2-3 hour intervals in the middle of the night?

For the most part, Mathias has a pretty constant napping schedule. I lay him down between 9 and 9:30 for his first nap, and between 12 and 1 for his second. Then, he usually gets tired again around 4 or 5 so he'll take his final nap then. We lay him down for the night around 7:30-8 and then he's up again 4-5 times per night. Right now we're slowly introducing solids before bedtime in hopes that it will calm any hunger pains he may feel in the night, but I think it's too early to tell if that's working or not.

I'll admit that in the night, I don't let him cry very long before I go in and get him. Seth's pointed that out to me more than once :D. And as for his daytime naps, they tend to be pretty short-1/2 hour to 45 minutes most of the time.

HELP! Does anyone have any sleep advice for me?