sleep, mornings, and Easter.

I MUST update from my last posting about "night visitors". Thank you everyone who commented, it is very nice to get some feedback when I put my heart out there. So guess what? The kids have not come up to visit for 6 nights in a row. [insert boogie dance here] I took Megs advice about a reward system. Our kids have sticker charts for when they have good behavior and do chores around the house. So, we told them they would earn a sticker for every night they stayed in their beds. It worked. Praise God! Hubby and I had a big looooooonnnnngggg chat over dinner last week about their visits, told them about the stickers, prayed about it and WHALAH...we have had NO visitors. awesome.

Something else about their lack-of-visits has triggered something new for me. Let me start by saying that anyone who knows me at all, knows that Carrie is NOT a morning person. I want to be. I have tried to be. My body revolts when it hears the alarm go off. Seriously! I am a super heavy sleeper, I usually go from to REM to awake in seconds...no transition time (so I never feel rested when I wake up).

Anywho.... last week, part of the frustration of the kids waking me up is it made things impossible for me to even think about getting up early in the mornings. So, along with praying that my sweet kiddos would STAY IN BED!, I asked God to help me be a morning person. (I've been trying to do it in my own strength) For the last few days, I have gotten out of bed at 5:30AM, without struggle. I get up, go down stairs and I have my quiet time with the Lord. I get to have 45-60 minutes of solid quiet. No interruptions. I've heard others doing this strange phenomenon of getting up before the sun. Now, I understand why they do it. I can not take the credit...it is the Lord waking me in the mornings (no alarm clocks...except this morning). He loves me and enjoys our time together too. Because its Spring Break, I crawl back into bed after my quiet time an take a quick nap until the kids wake up. But today, I am staying awake. I know the Lord will carry me through this day. Ever since I've been waking up in the mornings, I have more hours in my day.... I play with my kids, I cook (what?), I have time for Paper Trunk stuff, I get laundry done, I clean (again, what?)... I know that God is blessing my obedience from our morning time.
it. is. super.

Easter. Did you have a nice Sunday? We sure did. After a wonderful service at church we headed to Vancouver to spend the day with family. The weather was not "springy" so we had an indoor egg hunt. We ate delicious food. We had a great time with family. Here are a few pictures from the day...
sweet boys.

sweet girl.

we had a special visitor for the day...the Easter bunny!

indoor egg hunt is on!

our annual Easter family shot.

love these kiddos...love that they don't visit at night anymore.

this was probably my favorite thing of the day. My Skittle was writing on one of those AquaDoodle pads...I snuck behind him to see what he was doing. He had drawn a sun and a Son (if ya know what I mean) and wrote, "Dear God, I love the things you and your son did."


I'm off to start another day of Spring Break. I hope your day is full of happiness and joy!