Easter 2014

He is Risen, indeed!

 After church, we enjoyed a beautiful afternoon at our apartment playground with a potluck Sunday dinner and community Easter egg hunt.

Jarrod corralled the kids while the other adults ran around "hiding" eggs.  

 The kids collected all the eggs off the playground and returned them to the large basket, then went to get a goody bag of candy, toys, and a Jesus has Risen coloring page.

 When Jarrod collected the eggs, all the kids gathered around him to see what was next.. so he took the opportunity to talk about the significance of Easter and egg hunts... celebrating New Life!

Happy Easter!

Happy 2014!

We celebrated the new year by having friends over today for lunch and graham cracker houses (hey, it is not too late to make them!.. it's still the holidays!)  

We had a great time with this family from church!

Then, when it was 2pm, I looked at Jarrod and said "Happy New Year!"... because it was 12am in Virginia (and because I went to sleep at 9 the night before.. I know, party pooper...).

I am not much with making resolutions, but (for the record) this year I hope to be more disciplined - spiritually (completing BSF homework on time without cramming) and physically (exercise more, eat healthier).  I hope we see some good results! :)  

Happy New Year!!

Merry Christmas!

For to us a child is born,

to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.

And He will be called    

 Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,   

   Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

       ~Isaiah 9:6

From our family to yours,
 We wish you a very Merry Christmas as we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, our Lord!

Reverse Trick-or-Treat

Marc has had a keen awareness that Halloween was coming up - he remembered it as a fun time to dress up as some character (...I'm glad that candy wasn't necessarily associated with this memory!).  Since we didn't have any parties or plans to do anything that encourages dressing up - I began to think about what other options we could do that would be fun and out of the ordinary in Seoul.  

While my mom was still here, she got us a lot of delicious chocolate candy... and while I would've liked to consume it all.. I am no longer pregnant and need to see the numbers on the scale going down!  I decided that we would go "reverse trick-or-treating".

Marc, Emmalyn, Alaina, and I got dressed up, and with candy in hand, went to knock on our neighbor's doors to GIVE the kids candy.  It was fun for Marc and Emmalyn to dress up and visit our friends - and great to see the delight on everyone's face when the kids offered up hard-to-come-by candy.  Some even gave them candy in return.

 Trick-or-treat!

Happy Easter!

Marc was pumped for Easter - we have been practicing egg hunts all week.  :)  He was surprised to find a special Easter basket waiting for him when he woke up, though.  AND even more delighted when we did the "real" Easter egg hunt with eggs filled with candy.  He had to check out the candy in each egg before finding another one.  Emmalyn got in on the action too - finding all the of purple eggs we placed around for her.  She loved picking them up and putting them into her basket.

One of the items in Marc's easter basket was The Berenstain Bears Storybook Bible.  He really likes reading & watching Berenstain Bears stories, so we are excited to share Bible stories with him this way.

As I was putting Marc to bed tonight, I asked him if he knows why we pray.  He said, "Jesus is alive!" That's right!!  On this day we remember what Christ did for us - His death on the cross - and the Good News that He defeated death and is alive - that we might have new life through Him. 

Happy Easter!