Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!!
We just returned tonight from a busy, fun-filled weekend at Grandma & Grandpa Hatting's--it seems like the weekend goes too fast when we head up there! We not only celebrated Easter, but we also celebrated Addy's, Nate's, and Great-Grandma Hatting's birthdays!
Even though we did an Easter egg hunt this weekend and saw the Easter bunny, we tried really hard to keep the focus on Christ and his death and ressurection rather than eggs, bunnies, etc. We went through the Resurrection Eggs (made by Family Life) and those were really neat! Creighton got a new Bible in his Easter basket, so he enjoyed reading the Bible passages for us out of his new Bible! We talked a lot about the "crooked path" (our will) and the "straight path" (God's will). We had some very good discussions about choosing the right path to take for our lives. He's really been understanding the Bible more deeply lately and asking a lot of questions! I love it!! Except that I can't answer most of his questions, so we have to make a phone call to Daddy! =) Here's just one example...we were talking about Jesus' death one day (we were talking His death and ressurection in the days leading up to Easter) and Creighton noticed in one story--after Judas' betrayal--that they said "the eleven disciples". Here was the conversation...
C-"I thought there were 12 disciples."
M-"There were, but remember Judas betrayed Jesus...and now he's no longer with Him." (I was desperately trying to avoid telling him about suicide!!)
C-"What happened to Judas?"
M-"He died right before Jesus." (I'm starting to panic a little here!)
C-"How? Did they kill him on the cross too?"
M-"No, honey, he didn't die on the cross." (See? Still avoiding it...)
C-"What happened to him then?"
By that point I had to tell him, I couldn't lie! So, we talked about Judas being so upset about what he had done that he hung himself (this gave me some opportunity later to somewhat explain Nate's job to him!). He asked me "why didn't Jesus save Judas? He could have, you know." Wow, deep thought! And here was my terrible answer--"that would be a good question for Daddy!" Thankfully, Nate is awesome at explaining that kind of stuff to him and had a good talk with him about God giving us all choices (free will) and how Judas didn't choose Jesus--he chose his own will for his life. Jesus had been trying to help Judas for many years and Judas still chose to betry Jesus. That one conversation has led to so many recently about choosing Jesus in everything that we do! As hard as it is to answer those questions, it has been so fun to watch him discover all of the wonderful things about Christ!!
And then there's Addy...apparently we need to work on being humble next--we went to church with Nate's parents this morning and saw another little girl with a pretty Easter dress on. I said "Look Addy, she has a very pretty dress on too!" Addy's response was quite different from what I expected--"But I'm prettier than her." I am SO not ready to raise a girl...I was not at all prepared for that! =(
On another note--here are a couple of pictures of the kids from this weekend. Addy's dress was very pretty, but she wasn't any prettier than any of the other little girls at church! ;) Everyone looked adorable in their "dress-up" clothes! Suprisingly enough, they didn't want to take them off when we got home from church!
The kids didn't want to stand by the Easter bunny (I think they were a little freaked out...) at first. Then Creighton noticed they had some juice boxes sitting on a table nearby and asked for one. I told them they could each have one if they went to stand by the bunny long enough for a picture. So, they did...notice the look on their faces though--I'm sure they are thinking "I can't believe I'm doing THIS for a juice box...". Tyson sat on the Easter bunny's lap too, but I don't think he really noticed what was going on!