Day 4

I hope you're enjoying this week as much as I am.

You can find out what happened on Wednesday, Day 4 of the Last Week of Christ's Life here at Janae's blog.

Day 2

This was written by Janae:

Four important events happened the Monday before the Savior was crucified. First, he cursed the fig tree. Second, he cleansed the temple. Third, he healed at the temple. Last, children gathered crying "Hosanna." The following explains each of these in more detail.

After spending the night in Bethany, Jesus and his apostles walked to Jerusalem on Monday morning. As they were walking they were hungry (Matt. 21:18), and Jesus promptly found a blossoming fig tree. When he looked closer, however, he found that the tree had no fruit, only leaves. Jesus cursed the tree and it immediately withered away (Matt. 21:19). Apparently, this type of fig tree produces small fruits even before it gets leaves, so finding a tree full of leaves but no fruit meant that the tree was barren. It gave the appearance of having fruit, when in reality it would never have any (New Testament Seminary Student Study Guide, 48). The fig tree is a symbol of hypocrisy, particularly of the Jewish leaders in Jesus' day. They gave the appearance of being righteous when inwardly they were ravening wolves.

Upon arriving in Jerusalem, Jesus and the apostles when straight to the temple. In that time period it was common for people to travel a long distance to the temple, and they were therefore unable to bring the necessary animals for their sacrifices. Shops set up outside the temple to provide currency exchange and sacrificial animals were both acceptable and necessary. Unfortunately, when Jesus arrived he found that the sellers and traders were priests who worked in the temple, and that they were lying and cheating the people to fill their own pockets (Eric D. Huntsman, “Reflections on the Savior’s Last Week,” Ensign, Apr 2009, 56). It had been three years to the week that Jesus had first cleansed the temple, and here they were again, doing the same thing (Daniel H. Ludlow, “The Greatest Week in History,” Ensign, Apr 1972, 34). He pushed over the tables of the money changers and the chairs of the dove sellers, and cast out the men involved (Mark 11:15).

Jesus spent the entire day at the temple. He healed the blind and lame who gathered there after the money changers and animal sellers were kicked out (Matt 21:14). Children also gathered at the temple, crying "Hosanna to the Son of David," a title used only to reference the Savior. This upset the chief priests and scribes, but Jesus turned to them and said, "Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?" (Matt 21:15-16). After teaching all day in the temple, Jesus returned to Bethany for the night.

The Last Week of Christ's Life

I love Easter. Celebrating our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and remembering the Atonement and what it means for each of us is a humbling experience. I enjoy this time of year- the world is fresh and new with signs of Spring. I feel a renewal in Spirit and Body and Mind.

This year my dear friend Rebecca invited me to participate in a blog hop to celebrate and discuss the days of the final week of Christ's Earthly ministry. Some of these women I know personally, some I have never met. But I'm excited to join together with these wonderful women who have testimonies of Christ and share our testimonies with you.

Today is Palm Sunday and you can find out what happened today and read Rachel's thoughts on the events of the day here

I'll be back tomorrow to link you to the next post so you can follow along with us this week.

A Big Big Boy Bed!

Benjamin has been in his toddler bed for a long time now. (click on that link if you want to remember what Benjamin looked like at 22 months old- what a baby face!) We've been talking about getting him a regular twin size bed for awhile now and finally took the plunge when my friend emailed me a link to a bed on Craigslist that was exactly what I wanted for a great price.

This is a loft bed from Ikea. We put Benjamin up high so we could store books and toys underneath for now. I threw his crib mattress under there to give him a place to lay down and read or play (and I haven't had time to take it up to the attic yet). His rocking chair and a basket of books are under there too.

Benjamin loves being able to climb up and down the ladder to his bed. He "practiced" over and over again the first day we set it up. He loves it and is excited to go to bed at night! I just wish the bed was cool enough to convince him to nap during the day again.

When Daniel is big enough we'll put another twin mattress right on the floor underneath the bed- instant bunk bed! We're excited for the boys to share a room someday soon!

Soccer!!

This is Benjamin's first season playing soccer. He is the youngest player on his team. The other kids are 4 and 5 years old. But he has the heart for soccer and keeps up with them. In fact, he's usually the only kid that plays the entire game- the other kids all take breaks but we can't get Benjamin to sit down for a few minutes when there's a ball on the field. Here are a few fun pictures of Benjamin playing in his first couple games.

The county rec center decided to name the kid's teams after the World Cup teams- Benjamin is on the Australia team with 2 friends from church. Here's a picture of Benjamin in his uniform right after his first game. I forgot to take a picture of him in it before he was all tired and sweaty.

I love how big the uniform is on him. That's the smallest size they had!

Also, did you see his shoes? It rains a lot in Georgia. There are usually nice big mud puddles at the ends of the soccer fields and of course the kids all go running straight for them. Benjamin's shoes are permanently muddy.

Sandwich Time

This little boy makes me laugh every day. He has quite the sense of humor. And he wants to be a big boy soooo badly. This was Jonathan's lunch. He wanted it. So I gave it to him for one bite. He wouldn't give the sandwich back, screaming and crying when I took it away. And he wouldn't settle for having a piece torn off for him. He had to have the whole thing. And he ate about 1/4 to 1/3 of it before we got home and Jonathan got his sandwich back. And yes, this little guy eats his veggies :) We love that.

Valentines Day Pictures

Since we slacked off this year and didn't do Christmas cards this year I attempted to get Valentines Day cards sent out instead. Well, that didn't happen. BUT I did get one step of the process done- I took the pictures of the boys in their new church suits. They turned out somewhat cute and even though I didn't get the cards out like planned, I still wanted to share a few of the pictures.

And we wanted to let everyone know how much we love y'all and miss those of you we don't get to see now that we're in Georgia. And we love all our new friends that we've made here in Georgia. We are so thankful for all the wonderful people in our lives :) Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Valentines Day, etc!

Random Moments that Make Me Smile- January 2010

A few things that I loved witnessing in January:

Benjamin beginning to really play with and have conversations with friends. It's so fun to listen to the little pieces of conversation we overhear and try to figure out what they're talking about.

Daniel started making this cute face whenever we told him to smile or say cheese:

Daniel has also picked up my love of books. I'm so glad both my boys enjoy reading as much as I do.

These boys love each other! (most of the time anyway...)
What's cooler than sharing chicken nuggets with your brother in your own play tent while watching a video?

Happy Birthday Benjamin

Our baby boy turned 3 back in January! Jonathan and I decided that at age 3 we would start the tradition of letting them choose a fun cereal to eat for breakfast on their birthday. We don't let them eat sugary cereal so this will be a fun and special tradition. Benjamin chose a box of Lucky Charms for breakfast- good choice little man!

We had a birthday party for Benjamin at our house. He chose a Spongebob Squarepants cake and that kinda determined our theme. We had a few Spongebob decorations and some streamers.

And a fun pinata! Benjamin was too shy to take a whack at it himself, but Daniel had no problems going after it.

We took a lot more pictures but I'm too lazy to upload them all. The kids had a fun time (even though we had to do it in the garage because it was cold outside) and little S. was the one who managed to break it open- look at this girl go!

Finally we sang and had cake, again Benjamin was too shy to blow out his candles on his own, BUT he was so pleased to have everyone sing to him. He was smiling behind his hands trying to hide his happiness.

After cake we opened presents and then everyone went home. We took a lot more pictures, but remember my previous comment about my laziness? Yeah, still lazy. Anyway, Benjamin loved his birthday party and we were glad to have so many people celebrate it with us!