The Hunt

Grandma and Grandpa came down for Easter this year, like they do most every year! They sure spoiled their grandkids.

All the Easter goodie baskets from my mom.
Passing them out...
Shake, shake, shake! No need for candy for my niece Emily!


Nephew Carson...
Nephew Duncan's first Easter!


Nephew Calvin...
Niece Bethany...

Have I ever mentioned how hard it is to take pictures of kids??? The best group photo we could get. Jessica, my oldest niece, was the one who hid all the eggs for the younger kids. What a sweetie!

Easter Projects

Painted bird houses.

This was my favorite Easter project for the kids this year. My friend, Yvonne and her son came over and we put together these "empty tombs" with the kids. Once the grass grew (you have no idea how excited we were...we may or may not have called each other when the first grass seed sprouted!), we got together again and read The Berenstain Bears and the Easter Story book. It's so great to have an ongoing project to keep referring to as you teach your children about the reason we celebrate Easter. The girls are often heard singing the lyrics "oh, death where is your sting? oh, hell where is your victory? Our God is not dead, He's ALIVE, He's ALIVE!"
Little Easter smores.
Candy pops.
My mom and Jordan dying Easter eggs.
So pretty!

Making Friends

I'm uploading pictures of our Easter weekend and I couldn't leave out my friend, Yvonne and her family! I met Yvonne at the Y in September when her son and Rylie were taking the same gymnastics class. We scheduled a play date, and we've been friends ever since! I wanted to take a picture of the kids together at church while they were all dressed up, but I forgot! Here is a picture of them on one of their play dates, though...Evan calls Jordan and Rylie "his girls". So cute.

Easter Day 2012

Here are some "family" photos of us on Easter this year. My girls would NOT cooperate for a nice family picture, or any other picture.

Bo's first Easter! His tie doesn't match, but he's still so cute!

This is the fussy face I got from Jordan...
Catching Ryle in action, because there's no way she'll hold still!
Hugs.

Experimenting with window light

While the kids and I were in Iowa this past week, I did a little photography shoot in my old bedroom to try and practice using window light. There are two windows to the west, and one on the north side of the bedroom. These pictures were taken when the sun was in the west (later in the day), and the "shoot" was done in front of a west window. If I'm in the picture, I used the 10 second timer. I learned, though, that when I pushed the shutter release, the camera focused on the door, so we are not in complete focus.

We never finished painting this side of my bedroom door.

I found it to be a cute little rustic background:)

This little chair was my dad's when he was little.

Like the color of my walls and woodwork? Yep, I picked that out when I was 11 or 12.

These last two were taken on a different day, at a different time of the day (around 1:00 or 2:00, I think). You can tell the difference in the light.

Bo is Three Months Old Today

I can't believe it's been three months since I was in the hospital delivering this bundle of joy. Remember my delivery story? Did I tell you that at my follow-up appointment with my doctor, he said he had never had a situation in which the placenta got stuck like it did with me? He's been delivering babies since the early 70's, and I got to be his first patient that has a placenta get stuck! He said he was about to send me to surgery if it hadn't come out when it did. I guess if that's the worst I had to go through, then I am pretty blessed:)

Here you are at three months sweet boy...

At three months, you are smiling all the time. You even do a lot of cooing and squealing, that soon will become giggles. I can't wait!


You are not great at holding your head up, as you can tell from the pictures below. Your mommy needs to be a little better about giving you time on your tummy so you can practice that skill. Sorry about that. It will be my fault if you are delayed in that area.

You are finishing up your size 1 diapers and have moved onto size 2...more to help hold the explosions in your diaper than because you've out grown the size. The bigger diapers are also nice for the night time, as you have stopped pooping all the time and I don't have to change you in the middle of the night:)

Since we're talking about the middle of the night, you might like to know that you are completely unpredictable as to when you will wake up. For a while, you were only waking up once a night, somewhere between 1:00 and 3:00. Lately, though, you've decided that you like eating more often, like every 3 hours. I don't think I like that decision, but I'll deal with it, especially when I get to see your sweet, smiling face.

I am basically forcing you to suck on a pacifier so that those fingers stay out of your mouth. I don't think your sister will ever stop sucking her fingers and I don't want you to have that addiction.

I think you are growing at the right pace. You are right in the middle of 0-3 and 3-6 month clothes.

We transformed the toy room into your room, but you are not sleeping in it yet because you are not sleeping through the night. I'm hoping that will happen sooner rather than later:) So, your *nursery* is still in the living room.

Hanging out with Grandma

My parents are in Wichita to celebrate Easter. We've been jumping-up-and-down excited for their arrival. The kids got some good time with Grandma today.

I love this sweet picture of my mom and Jordan:) I might have to frame it for her for mother's day.

Here come the smiles and squeals of *almost* laughter:)

Spring hair cuts

Spring hair cuts for the girls! I cut Jordan's a little drastically, so I tamed it down a little with Rylie:) Don't look too close, though. Cutting hair is harder than it looks! I REALLY want my hair cut, but don't know where to go and how to get it done with three kids in tow. I'm thinking of just cutting it myself...if it's that bad, I can always have someone fix it, right?!