Happy Easter!

Holidays are so much fun with kids. This year we celebrated the spiritual part of Easter on Sunday and the egg hunt, candy, and easter basket portion on Saturday. Most of the documentation of the holiday was captured on video by Dave, but we did get a couple pics of the kids digging into their Easter Eggs.

The morning started with a hunt for Easter baskets. Lizzie was very into it this year, considering she is already obsessed with hiding and finding anything and everything. Hide and go seek is definitely a favorite game around here! She was more than elated to find a basket stuffed full of jelly beans, chocolate, and a little wind up chick that hops.

Mid day we had a couple friends over for an egg hunt in the backyard and barbecue. The weather was perfect this year! We got some great footage of Lizzie running around the backyard, fast as lightening, snatching up all the eggs. She was very much into the finding and collecting aspect; while, Josh was into the finding and immediately eating the candy aspect. It was all very cute and amusing to watch. In the picture above, I think Josh had just stuffed about 20 jelly beans into his mouth at once..hehe.

Even little Julie seemed to be very excited about the Easter eggs and Lizzie was kind enough to let her suck on her packages of candy.

9 Months!

Julie is 9 months! Whoa, where does the time go? I loove this pic because she's playing a little game with me. I stick my tongue out at her then she sticks out her lil tongue. She loves to mimick my facial expressions and then we both laugh and laugh!

She is up to all kinds of new tricks these days. The other day I had laid her in her bed and when I went in to check on her she was sitting up! She can go from laying to sitting to crawling position all on her own. She can even pull herself up now! She loves to stand and play now while holding onto her table top toy. She can definitely get from one side of the room to the other, too. Its kind of a mixture of scooting/crawling at this point.


Its a miracle that she has learned to get around at all considering she hardly spends any time on the floor at all! I just can't resist her when she holds her chubby little arms out to me and gives me those big blue eyes. I end up carrying her around all day. She is such a snuggly Mama's girl- I love it! She still has some stranger danger instincts so she doesn't always show her always smiley/snuggly self to many people.

She's getting to be so big and her hair is really getting thick too! She's getting older...noo!

This girl has the sweetest little personality. Its so easy to make her smile and laugh. Every time I pick her up she gives me the biggest hugs. Gotta love little baby squeezes.

It was so nice to fiiiinally have good weather so I could take her outside to get some pictures! She was loving the sun. She's very good at expressing her emotions with all kinds of noises and syllables. Her most commonly heard noise is Mamamama. One day I said, "Say Mama!" and she said, "Mama!" I was very pleased although not convinced she knew what she was saying...

This girl has some serious eyelashes. I still have people comment on them all the time. I wish my eyelashes went to my eyebrows!

Sneaky Little Jewel

Don't let this sweet little smile fool you. And don't underestimate her strength based on her petite appearance. Lizzie learned the hard way. Quite the funny story:
It was time for Lizzie to wake up from her nap so Dave snuck in and placed Julie on the floor right next to Lizzie's crib. Julie played with some toys on the floor and made just enough noise to wake Lizzie up. Meanwhile, Dave was secretly spying on their interactions from the doorway behind the dresser. It went a little like this:
Lizzie: "Oh, hello Jujiebean!" (Her nickname is a cross between Jujubes and Juliebean)
Julie: Looks and smiles but continues to play with toys.
Lizzie: Gives a mischievous smile then begins to chuck everything in her crib at Lizzie's head. Blankets and animals are now flying in Julie's direction but no direct hits.
Julie: Continues to play not even realizing the assault that just took place.
Lizzie: Is now bored and disappointed at the lack of response and turns towards the wall.
***So Dave seeing his opportunity runs in grabs a blanket and chucks it at Lizzie's head. A DIRECT hit!! Then runs out unnoticed***
Lizzie: Spins around and looks incredulously at Julie. "How'd you do dat Jujiebean?!!!"
Julie: Smiles big and continues to play with toys.

Meanwhile, Dave is cracking up and brings the two girls over to me. And Lizzie tells me, "Julie GOT me!!"
hehehe...

Chocolate Strawberry Cake

I have found baking and decorating cakes to be a really fun creative outlet for me lately.
My friend, Heather, has been having a hard time lately and just had a birthday. Chocolate and strawberries are the perfect medicine for the blues so I put this one together to cheer her up a bit on her special day.

Food Allergies

These are some pics I took a couple months ago when Julie first started eating solid foods. She has been a good eater from day one! She will eat most everything I give her. I would say that her favorite food is bananas. Unfortunately, I just got the bloodwork results from her doctor and she is mildly allergic to them! She is also moderately allergic to cow's milk protein which means no milk, cheese, yogurt, baked goods,etc. (for now). Kids usually outgrow these early food allergies so there may still be pizza, icecream, and bananas in her future!


The good news is that the allergies are not extreme so its never threatened her breathing. The doc recommended to give her some time and then slowly reintroduce these foods slowly with the hope that they will go away soon! Until the banana allergy disappears I will have to give the girl lots and lots of peas! (her 2nd fav food!)

Minivan Momma!

I was reluctant to give up the Beamer, but I am LOVING our new minivan! Its a Honda Odyssey EX-L 2008 with only 29,000 miles! It still looks and smells brand new. My favorite features are: 1. DVD player (no screaming kids anymore) 2. Power doors (no balancing bags, toddler, carseat, while simultaneously trying to open door) 3. Back up Camera screen on rearview mirror (no worries about crashing new, large vehicle) This car is definitely kid approved. Car rides have always been stressful events that usually end up in 2 girls screaming; no, make that 3 girls screaming (including me). But that is all in the past thanks to build in DVD player that turns on where it left off every time I start the car!

I know I am starting to sound like a car commercial but we are really pretty happy with our new vehicle. AND we got a great deal on it. The car dealers tried really hard to swindle us but we caught on to all their tricks. We had a few of our own up our sleeves. I have a great story about the car salesman trying to show us false paperwork to cover up the fact that it needed a new battery. The good news being the old battery was the only thing wrong with it.

When I look at this picture of Sunbeam it does make me kind of sad we had to let her go. I will admit I form a personal bond with my cars. I reeeally loved that car!

Portillos!!

Celebrations of Dave continued! We recieved an unexpected delivery from one of the BEST restaraunts in the US on Dave's actual birthday night: Portillos! We had Italian Beef sandwiches for days! This was an AMAZING gift from my parents that was very surprising and delicious. This giant box came complete with everything you could ever want or need on a beef sandwich. Dave was in heaven! Julie and Lizzie were both very excited to wear the Portillos hat and smile for the camera.

Dave- you are such an amazing husband and father. We all love you so much! I hope you enjoyed your 3oth birthday!