Grace Garden

What is this you say? It's a Grace Garden. (Confession: I did this completely out of legalistic guilt. I was reading a few blogs online and felt like a total slacker mom looking at all the cute Easter crafts other moms were using to prepare their children's hearts for Easter. Not the right motive, but nonetheless, it ended up being super fun and a great teaching tool! So glad we will have this tool for years to come. It's sort of like the nativity scene at Christmas...a tangible teaching tool.)

Anyway, the original idea came from Ann Voskamp's blog called A Holy Experience. Google it. Her's is different from ours, but it's where I started. I changed several things about ours to make it suited for my boys.

So how does this thing work? Well as you can see we made a tomb out of rocks and glue and a dixie cup. We made a cross out of popsicle sticks, a little pond out of a dixie cup (just for fun), put flowers for new life, wrote "Grace," "Forgiven," and "Love" on three rocks, put three tea lights for the three nights Jesus was in the tomb, and cut out a Jesus figurine out of cardstock and colored it purple because He is our King.

So tonight the purple paper Jesus will be in the garden praying. Tomorrow (Friday) we will put him on the cross and light the first candle. Tomorrow night we will put him in the tomb in a white cloth. Saturday we will light the second candle, and He will still be in the tomb. Sunday morning we will light the third candle, but wait!...the rock has been rolled away! The tomb is empty and only the white cloth is there.

The boys love our little Grace Garden already....especially the little pond... the only part that isn't spiritual. Of course.

This was SUPER easy to make, and it could be much simpler than what we did. Don't do it because you feel guilty like me :) If you like it, do it because it's a fun teaching tool for our kiddos to understand Easter is more than a bunny.

Here are some pics of the boys' Easter hunt at school.

Carter and Banks

I am not sure why I am so into humor lately, but I have a serious case of the giggles. Hence the reason this pic is my favorite of the day.

Little Bunny Coop

Carter and Whitten

Nevermind....this is my favorite. Bahahaha! All I can think is: "I'm too sexy for my shirt."

Whirlwind of a week

We had a whirlwind of a week last week! We were already pretty worn out from Coop's big day on Saturday, but that didn't slow us down. We had a jam packed week ahead. Sunday started out with a neighborhood turtle discovery. So. much. fun. Whitten, our little neighbor found it.

This is Whitten, the finder of frogs, lizards, and turtles. The best kind of neighbor in Carter's book!

Coop's buddy, Mary Katharine

Off to school Monday morning!

Then Monday afternoon some of Joel's family members arrived to spend a few days. Susan, Ginny, Hannah, Bekah, and Caleb came for some Oxford fun. Pictured above is Caleb and Carter in our new JUMPY HOUSE! This is what we got Coop for his birthday. Great decision! The boys love it and are sleeping extra soundly at night.

This is how our time with Ginny started. Hahahaha! A wipeout! And this was the middle of the day....no alcohol involved. I love a good laugh, and I can always count on Ginny to give me a few. Hahaha!

Hannah and Bekah....getting so old. Beautiful nieces.

Tub O Cousins

While Susan, Ginny, and the kids were here, we celebrated Coop's actual birthday. I ran and got a Kroger cake, and he blew out candles once again.

Susan, my mother in law. Always so sweet to us. We were so glad they came for a visit! Lots of good talks and good bonding time for the cousins. We love y'all!!!

Joel left mid week to go out of town for a few days, so Thursday and Friday it was just me and the boys. We hung around the house Thursday, and Coop wore these shoes around and modeled as I did mounds of laundry. Thursday afternoon we went to Jack's birthday party, and then came home for an early bedtime.

Friday we went on a fun walk at the park with a good friend and got to feed the fish. Friday night we met my parents at Cracker Barrell, and look what Coop got!

You know who got one too. All smiles! BB and Pawpaw are always the providers of great treats :)

Joel got home Friday night, and Saturday we dyed eggs.

Okay, so we could use some lessons in egg decorating.

Hee Hee

We went on an egg hunt Saturday on the square.

Coop and the Easter Bunny. Carter wasn't going anywhere near that giant rabbit!!

Grafton, Carter, and Robert. These are Carter's buddies from school. He loves these two!

Saturday afternoon we went to another egg hunt at one of Carter's school friends' house. All the kids were obsessed with all the catepillars in their yard. Who knew caterpillars were more fun than a bouncy house?

And the finale to my week.....this beautiful piece of art. I posted a picture of this on Facebook several weeks back saying that I had to get one of these for my kitchen, and guess what....Leigh Ann Lott made it for me!!! She mailed it to me, and I immediately hung it above my sink. Rap lyrics in needlepoint...the irony kills me, and the lyrics ring so true to my heart on a daily basis. Funniest present I have ever received. Love love love it! Already thankful for the many smiles this will bring while I am losing my mind :)

Exhaustion is my middle name after such a busy week, but all the fun was worth it! Here's to a lazy week this week...

Happy Birthday, Big Boy!

Dear Cooper,

You are two years old today, Big Boy. It has been two joyful years, two wonderfully joyful years. We are so in love with you....smitten would be the word. You are just so beautiful. So beautiful and so charming and so animated...oh so animated! You are a little light but a very bright little light. When you are around, everything is light. You make us laugh and smile, and you are constantly melting our hearts with those big baby blues.

You love being the center of attention, but you don't demand it which makes it so cute when you get to perform. You sing and dance and grin and giggle and say funny things constantly. But singing...singing is your specialty. You have a repertoire of about 25 songs...not even kidding. You sing yourself to sleep, sing in the car, and walk around singing as you play all day. I am convinced your little voice belting praises to our King is the most precious sound there is. I especially love when you sing, "Sing Hosanna to the King," "Joy to the World," and "Amazing Grace." Your voice is a gift to me. It brightens my day everyday and keeps me going when it's not so easy to keep going.

 You are such a blessing, Coop. You have no idea the light you have brought me. You are loving, affectionate, so friendly, and joyful to the core.

The Lord has truly put His joy in you. You have the joy of the Lord, and it's contagious.

This past year you and Carter have become big buddies. I always say you two are best friends and worst enemies. I never know what I'll hear from the other room....screaming or giggling. You play, wrestle, hit, giggle, hug, share, snatch, slap, help, tattle, etc... The best kind of brothers in my opinion. You keep Carter laughing, and he keeps you moving trying to keep up.

You love spiderman (spomoman), construction vehicles/equipment, cars, trucks, balls, trampolines, baths, basketball, all foods known to man, and Dixie, our cat, to name a few.

Here are some of the funny and super cute things you say:

"I yuh you" for I love you
"Shoo Wee" for a dirty diaper

"Chiway" for Chickfila

"Botball" for football

"Disaball goal" for basketball goal

"Spomoman" for Spiderman

"Poot" for Coop...although this has gone away recently. You can now correctly say your name which is a little sad.

"Drop you" for Don't drop me....not sure why you keep saying this to us. Did somebody drop you at school or church? Hope not!

"Deus" for juice
"Ewww nassy" for Ew, Nasty. Hysterical!
"Dit" for I did it.

Everytime we give you something, you say, "Thank you, you're welcome."

"Bass" for bath

"Wion" for Lion...lately you have been talking about a lion and telling us you are scared of the "wion" in your room. Hope you aren't having nightmares.

Something you request all the time is a "wide" which means you are asking to ride in the car. You absolutely LOVE to play in cars. You are obsessed to put it lightly.

You are also obsessed with "shoobrushes" and "toopaste"...oh my goodness, I love you to pieces, but you about drive me bonkers stealing everyone's toothbrushes and screaming bloody murder when we take them away from you.

You love to take your "biper" off and run around naked.

Imagine a lamb saying the word, "excavator"...that is exactly how Coop says it. Not sure what that's about, but it's super funny.

"Here go" for here you go.

"See you" for bye...accompanied by a wave of course.

So much more I could write! You are a chatty little guy; you talk and talk and talk.

You are also a passionate little booger! You have entered the two's and definitely have an opinion....and you want it to be heard! You can get loud about it too. You want what you want, and you are not happy when you don't get it. Thankfully, you seem to respond to discipline pretty well. And after you are disciplined, you always hug me and want to be held....so easy to reconcile with you. You are a soft hearted little guy.

I love your blonde hair, your chubby thighs, your button nose, your little tiny teeth, your irresistable cheeks, your beautiful eyes, your little fat feet...everything about you. You are stunningly beautiful....a work of God inside and out.

Coop, I am so very very glad God chose me to be your mommy. You are a blessing, a joy, and a bright light. I don't know what God has in store for your future, but I know it's a bright one because you are bright in every sense of the word.

Thank you for being so loving and simply wonderful.

You are my sunshine.

I love you so much,

Mama
Here is a look back at the past year:

Happy Happy Birthday, Coop!