He's Alive Buns

It's Easter time already.  Everyone is thinking about dresses with ruffles (well, except for in our house), Easter baskets, jelly beans, peeps, egg coloring, and Easter Egg hunts.  Easter doesn't seem to be quite as busy as Christmas time, but it's still so easy to become so distracted by all the "Eastery" things that we forget to take the time to remind our ourselves and our children why we celebrate Easter in the first place.  Our family is no different.

Last year I ran across a repipe for "He's Alive Bun's"  I've heard others call them Resurrection Rolls.  Ben and I made them together last year, but this year all three boys are going to help.  I am excited to be able to share the story of Jesus' resurrection with them in a way that they can see and feel...in a way that they will find interesting...in a way that will keep their attention.

I will post the recipe below.  It's really simple.  For those of you that have never made or heard of them they are simply marshmallows wrapped in a biscuit.  The really neat thing is that when you bake them, the marshmallow melts....leaving the inside of the biscuit empty!

I plan to make the buns with the boys and then while we are eating them we'll read this:

"On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they

had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb,

but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering

about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. 

In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground,

but the men said to them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead?

He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee:

'The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men,

be crucified and on the third day be raised again.'"

Luke 24:1-8



Here's Ben with a "He's Alive Bun" last year.



We also plan to make enough for the boys to take to their Sunday School Classes on Easter.  We'll attach the scripture to the plate of buns so that the teacher have a little something extra to share with the students.

So what are your Easter traditions?  Do you have a neat or interesting way of sharing the gospel with your kids?

He's Alive Buns

1 roll- Refrigerator Biscuits (Pillsbury or similar)

Large Marshmallows - 1 per biscuit
Melted Butter
Sugar and Cinnamon mixture- Just enough to cover the buns.

Directions:

Wrap one biscuit around 1 large marshmallow. Brush on melted butter and roll in cinnamon/sugar. Bake as directed on biscuit pkg. The marshmallow will melt and the bun will be hollow inside.

Note: Make sure to pinch the dough together as much as you can. Some will still pull apart and marshmallow will spill out. Also, your pan will be a sticky mess, but it washes with a little scrubbing.

A Favorite Memory - Caleb

Yesterday I posted a favorite memory of Ben here, so today I thought I would share one about Caleb.  Oddly enough, one of my favorite memories of Caleb also has to do with an elevator, but there are no alligators or crocodiles involved.  ha!

Once when Caleb was around age three I took him to the eye doctor by myself.  (It didn't turn out well...he refused to let the doctor look at him without Denver there to hold him.) 

Anyway, the eye doctor that Caleb goes to has an office inside the hospital in South Bend.  That day Caleb and I found a place to park in the parking garage and then made our way to the nearest elevator.  When we got there we pushed the button and then waited. 

As soon as we pushed the button, a lady walked out of the parking garage and stood behind us to wait for the elevator.  I didn't think much of it or pay much attention to her because Caleb was talking a mile a minute.  Several seconds later the elevator dings and the door opens.  I stepped forward toward the elevator and said to Caleb, "Let's go, Joe".  Caleb stepped into the elevator and without missing a beat turned to the lady, waved his arm for her to come inside and said, "Come on, Joe."  The lady and I busted out laughing.  It took a minute to explain to Caleb that I was talking to him and not to the lady who he thought was "Joe".

Caleb will be 5 this summer and now says these rhyming things with me...when it's time for bed he often says, "Go to bed, Fred" or when we are in a hurry he'll say "Hurry up, Chump"....but I'll always get a chuckle out of the lady named Joe.

A Favorite Memory - Ben

Today, for some reason, I thought of one of my favorite memories of Ben and wanted to share.  Over the next several days I will post a favorite memory of each of the other boys.

I think Ben was about 3 at the time.  It was Christmas and a group from the church was at a local nursing home to sing Christmas carols, to visit with the residents, and to hand out lap quilts.  We had a pretty large crowd and a good mix of people from small children to grandparents.  Everyone was having a very festive and fun time together.

When we finished the first floor and were on our way to the elevator, I told Ben that we were going to ride on the elevator and let it take us up to visit other people.  A few seconds later we stepped on to the elevator and pressed button number two.  After a second Ben said, "This is an alligator?"  Everyone chuckled and I answered that no, it wasn't alligator.   Before I could again tell him it was an elevator, he responded...  "Oh, I know.  It's a crocodile."  That was it.  Everyone in the elevator busted out into full belly laughs!

To this day, whenever I get into an elevator with Ben, I think about alligators and crocodiles.  :o)

Introducing Piper!

Here she is...Piper, our new puppy!

Last summer we got a rescue dog, but had trouble with him around Eli.  Denver and I decided that if we were going to get the boys a dog again that we wanted to get a puppy so that we could raise it and train it around our children.  We wanted a medium size dog.  One that appeared friendly since we tend to have a lot of visitors and small children over....especially on Small Group Nights, but we didn't want a little yapper dog.

Piper is kind of a dying breed.  Less that 300 of them are registered every year.  She probably weighs 12 to 15 lbs now and should get up to 20ish and be at or below knee high.  She was born on New Years Day, so she's not quite 4 months old.

She loves to cuddle, could couldn't care less if people knock or come right in, isn't hyper, loves to jump on and lay down on the couch and refuses to climb or go down the stairs.

When she is outside her favorite thing to do is to chase the boys around the yard. 

They love it!  And she loves them!

Welcome to the family, Piper!

What a Hoot!

I am finally getting around to posting pictures of the other baby quilt that I mentioned in a previous post.  This one was given to a new baby in the church, Abbey.

These cute little owls were fun to make, but took a LONG time. 

I hand appliqued them, but then machine pieced and quilted the rest.

Denver put all of the eyes on the owls. 

He wanted to make sure they were looking in all different directions. 

It really made the quilt cute and whimsical.

The Power of A Voice

Denver has been gone all week.  More than a week actually.  He left last Saturday for Haiti and won't be home until tomorrow night.  It's been a really long week for me.

I've had the boys almost all by myself.  My mom took all the boys for a few hours both Sunday afternoons that he was gone and Eli spent the night at her house on Friday night.  I also had a babysitter on Friday night for the older boys so I was able to go to dinner with a couple of girl friends.  We had a great time laughing and enjoying ourselves.  I really appreciated the breaks here and there.  I love my boys desperately, but sometimes it's nice to have a few minutes to myself and talk to some other "big people".

The really hard part about Denver being in Haiti is that we can't even talk on the phone while he is there.  Our cell phones don't have an international plan and to add it for the week he is gone is really expensive.  We are able to email in the evenings, but by that time in the day Denver has been exhausted, sometimes emails are slow going back and forth, and Denver has to email from his small phone.  It makes it difficult to have a real conversation.

Tonight though, Denver and the guys flew from Haiti to New York.  And guess what?!  I can call New York!!  I was so excited to hear my husband's voice.  It seems like such a small thing, but I found it so comforting...so relaxing...so calming. 

Before his call I had been having a rough evening.  Ben, Caleb and Eli are really missing their dad too.  They always fight amongst each other, but they have been even more emotional and easily irritated by each other.  Tonight though....whew!  They were just going at it.  I finally just lost my cool and I really raised my voice yelled at them.  Wouldn't you know that exactly 3 seconds later there was a knock at my door.  It was the neighbor.  I know he heard me screaming at my kids.  I felt absolutely horrible.  Horrible that he heard and horrible that I lost it.

But you know what?  As soon as I heard Denver's voice...it was all good again.  It is such a blessing to be married to my best friend.  Someone who knows me inside out.  Someone who loves me unconditionally.  Someone who can calm my heart with the smallest word.

I pray that God would continue to help us build and strengthen our marriage.  That it would glorify Him and that we could lead our children and others to know Him better.  Oh what a gift I have been given!