Resurrection Hope

"Then bursting forth in glorious day

Up from the grave He rose again!

And as He stands in victory, 

Sin's curse has lost its grip on me;

For I am His and He is mine

Bought with the precious blood of Christ."

Here in the love and power of Christ, we stand.

Zoë - Life

Anastasia - Resurrection

Truly an Easter child. Holding her Lamby.

Happy Easter!

We celebrated Easter this year along with my grandparents, mom, brother, aunts and uncles and cousins in The Dalles. We witnessed a community production of "The Last Days of Jesus," a Passion Play that stretched from Thursday evening through Sunday morning, re-inacting the Last Supper through the Resurrection. We are so blessed to be able to celebrate our Risen Savior with our extended family! 

Ready for the Resurrection 

(Passion Play sunrise service)

With the cousins :)

After seeing the re-inactment of the Resurrection, we all went to my grandparents' church service and enjoyed some special Easter activities - animal petting zoo and an Easter egg hunt (of course). We then went home for a delicious meal, and off to the park for our own Easter egg hunt. 

Pure delight!

Searching for eggs with Anna

Our sweet cousins Wesley and Joshua

 found the golden bunny and "let" Zoë find it. :)

After-egg-hunt eggs-haustion. LOL!

(In truth, I'm not a fan of Easter egg hunts. I feel like it becomes such a big deal for kids and adults that it overshadows the true reason for our celebration. But I discovered "Resurrection Eggs" which sound really cheesy but really are a powerful way to "baptize"the secular symbol of the Easter egg. Each of 12 eggs contain a symbolic object to help tell the story of Christ's suffering, death and resurrection, correlating with scripture readings and devotional conversation. Very cool. And great for kids, even as young as Zoë! She LOVED opening them up and discovering all the treasures inside. I had a great time reading through the selected scripture passages and talking about it with my cousins on Holy Saturday.)

2nd Easter egg hunt at the park

With Wesley

Gorgeous magnolia tree by my grandparents' home

With Uncle Judah and Lola

What a beautiful reminder of new life!

Happy Easter from our home to yours!

 May we truly live in this "new life" offered to us by Christ, 

and walk in Resurrection Hope every moment of every day.

Winter Adventure

One thing I miss the most is snow. Of all the places I have lived, Portland is the first place I have gone through an entire winter without snow. It's just crazy! I have to admit, I have enjoyed not needing to shovel or scrape feet of snow off our van in the mornings, but I really, really have missed watching falling snowflakes, tromping in deep powder, and seeing the sparkly snow at night.

Since I couldn't make it through a year without any snow, we went looking for some! We took Zoë and a couple of our friends, Jeremy and Amy, four pairs of snowshoes and a little blue sled to the Trillium Lake trailhead on Mt. Hood. It was a beautiful day - the perfect temperature, and the snow was a delightful powder.

Zoë enjoyed tromping around in her snow gear (and I couldn't help but giggle at how cute she looked all bundled up!), and had a good time being pulled on the sled...until she got tired of that and wanted to pull it herself. Then be carried. Then go back into the sled. Then be done.

We never made it to Trillium Lake - Zoë was ready to turn around and we had run out of food for bribery. But, we had a great time, nonetheless!

22 months going on 23 years

Zoë LOVES all things "grown-up." She loves carrying around mommy's purse, she loves putting on lipgloss and painting her nails (even though mommy never does), she loves talking on the phone and reading to herself in the rocking chair. She wants to drive our van, push her stroller, feed her baby doll Madeline, cook in the kitchen, wash the dishes, push the shopping cart, carry everything possible at once, and climb up the stairs all by herself. 

Oh, and she LOVES all things "techie." iPods, iPads, computers, cellphones, keyboards. All of it. (They are the main source of tantrums as well. :s) Every time we go to the chiropractors office, she asks the office ladies to sit in the office chair and type on the keyboard (and they let her!). We call her "Little Miss Secretary."

Who is this big girl, and where is my baby?? :) It is a little crazy to see how close we are getting to the 2 year mark. Wow. The time really does go by quickly, and I need to remind myself to cherish every moment - even the tough ones.

Love you, Zozo!