Happy Easter!

Did you receive His love today? Here was our take-away message from scripture this Easter weekend: Jesus loves us for who we are and not for what we do. It’s called grace and that’s what Easter is all about. Happy Easter!

Our Easter weekend coincides with spring break this year, so we're on vacation for the next 10 days. Yippee! What better way to celebrate our Friday off from school than with several neighborhood girls coloring five dozen Easter eggs.

Beautiful masterpieces

On Saturday we visited another neighbor's home down the street with five other neighborhood couples for an outdoor Easter egg hunt. 10 kids + 200 eggs + 60 degrees and sun = 2 much fun.

 Khloe, Kayla, Lexi and Layne

Run girls run! Beat those boys!

 Khloe's hard-earned Easter basket

Full baskets - score! (The boys wanted NO part of this photo - or any - photo opp from the day)

Kayla, Lexi, Layne and Brittiny

Our Easter Sunday

 Angel

Angels

Khloe found her Easter basket!

Caught on camera! This is what happens after a full weekend of fun with friends and family - a Sunday afternoon Mommy and daughter cat nap in front of the fire. Aaron took this picture of us snoozing, soooooo comfortable and warm. This was my FAVORITE nap ever.

But wait, Easter festivities weren't over yet!  We had one more Easter egg hunt and dinner with Grandpa and Grandma F. Thank goodness we get to sleep in tomorrow!

Had to give props to Daddy for this Easter craft he did with the girls last weekend - great job! Kayla wanted to make bunnies and baby chicks - and so they did. So cute and creative!

Bring on spring! 

Spring?

Dare we think it? Dare we say it? Dare we wish for it yet one more day? We hope so! We're ready!

SPRING.

Our first "spring" walk outside! We welcomed the sun and warmth - finally!

I know it might not look like its "warm" in this photo, but it really was!

Thank you God for the sun!

Bye-bye pacifier

That's right, no more pacifier! Or "vaa-vaa" (as best as we could tell) is what you called it. Yup, at 20 months old you finally gave it up. This deserves its own post because I feel like this was a BIG accomplishment for all of us.

From the day you put your first pacifier in your mouth (Okay, so we put the pacifier in your mouth) I have waited for this moment. I knew - I dreaded - that by making the decision to give you a pacifier the time would come when we would have to break you of the habit. When you turned six weeks old (the recommended age to start a baby on a pacifier) we decided we were not going to deal with the potential of a fussy baby or a difficult sleep routine and if that meant giving you a pacifier, so be it. So I purchased six newborn size pacifiers. I was ecstatic you liked them. Unfortunately - no one tells you this - that for the first 6 months of your life you needed your mom or dad to continually put it back into your mouth over and over again. All. Night. Long. Those 6 looooong months just about killed me. I'm not going to lie, thoughts of taping the pacifier in your mouth crossed my mind more than once. But finally you were coordinated and skilled enough that you could always find at least one of the six pacifiers we sprinkled around your head.

Of the six newborn pacifiers you started out with, two survived till the end. A few got lost along the way, dropped in the Black River off the boat, left at various vacation spots across the country, but never did I allow myself to purchase you a new one. When the six were gone, they were gone. If you outgrew the newborn size, even better.

The pacifiers always stayed in your bed, but in the last few months you got sneaky about going upstairs, reaching into your crib to snatch a pacifier and proudly come downstairs to show it to us. We got clever and moved the pacifiers to the top of your tall dresser.  You got even more clever and carried the bathroom stool into your bedroom to reach the top of your dresser. Okay, enough of the pacifiers we said. We're over it.

We knew in December we could have taken them away from you because you were ready, but we dreaded it. It took us until the end of January to go through with it. How miserable would our nights be? How miserable would you be? Could we really do it? Maybe having a pacifier isn't that bad after all? Maybe you'll just grow out of it on your own? We talked ourselves in circles.

One morning I took a pair of scissors and put slits in the two remaining pacifiers. The next time you put one in your mouth, you looked puzzled, took it out of your mouth and examined it, put it back in, cried and got mad at it and threw it down. And that was it! For the next few days you slept with them close to you, in your hand, but never in your mouth. Eventually you didn't even need to hold them anymore and those old, chewed up pacifiers are no more!

THE END.

Lunch date

Picking Kayla up from her half day of school and going to lunch with my girls instantly brightened my day! How could these happy smiling faces cause you not to smile too? It was a great afternoon of painting pictues and watching Wreck-It Ralph (for the 5th time in 6 days!).

Khloe, that cheese face. We just don't know what we're going to do with you, you little actress! That smile is definitely a unique smile that's all your own! It can light up a room! I shared this photo on Facebook and here's some comments from friends that amused us:

- I've seen Khloe's dad make that face

- I hope Khloe smiles like this forever

- Khloe has never looked more like her dad

-Khloe is Aaron, on so many dimensions

- These two could not be any more of mini-me's of you two

- Made me smile too :)

Thanks for being my lunch dates, girls!

22 months

Since this photo, you've gotten your last two teeth on top. You have all your teeth now!

Our oreo cookie monster.

 My first pig tails!

 Here I am smiling first thing in the morning!

I think Kayla snapped these photos of you...

Those crazy red curls! Where did they come from? Daddy says you have hair just like he did when he was two years old - crazy curls that stick straight out! We need to find those photos!

Our bedtime routine, once the lights go out and we're rocking, includes saying "night-night" to every family member, even the four-legged ones. First we say each name and you repeat it. There's not a person - or pet - we leave out: Night-night Amy (Ee-mee), night-night Matt (Maaaaaaht), night-night Sarah, Kurt, Cassidy, Travis, Jovie, Miss Melissa, Addie, Mitchell, puppy Jake, Gramma Kathy, Kristi, Grandpa, Grandma, Tikky, Kayla, Dada, Mama, and Khloe. Our family is in our thoughts every night!

At bedtime we ask you to choose three books to read, but somehow you always manage to sneak in four, and you laugh about it.

Your vocabulary includes the phrase, "I jump!" "I fall." "I okay!"

Bumps, falls, spills and bruises don't bother you, in fact most of the time they make you laugh, but you still fake a good cry and come running for a kiss and a little sympathy and then you're off playing again.

There is one thing that entertains you in the house... and it's climbing onto the cabinet behind the couch, crawling up and over the cushions and falling and rolling down the cushions. Over and over again, climbing, falling, jumping. What makes this even better for you is when you can incorporate a dish towel or two into this activity.

Playing with baby dolls has become a new favorite. You can spend an hour rearranging your baby in it's bed covering and recovering it with blankets and dish towels. I am retrieving my dish towels all over the house all day long. Babies often get taken to bed with you or taken on car rides.

Your favorite songs are the B-I-B-L-E and Jesus Loves the Little Ones. When you want us to sing the Bible song you yell "BIIIIIIIIIIIIII-BULL, BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII-BULL!"

Apparently your favorite color is orange because when we ask you the color of something you always say "orange". You used to know your colors better! Are we going backwards now? It's very exciting when something actually is orange because then we can say "You're right Khloe! It IS orange!"

You're new favorite thing to say is "I don't know!" and "Ooookay!". It is very cute. But then again, so is everything you do!

Cherish every cuddle

So true!

We remind ourselves of this all the time around our home, but it's so important to hear it and read it every once and again too.

So, we cherish every middle-of-the-night cuddle, every teary-eyed request, every extra lingering hug, every "play with me!" and "carry me!", every crumb vacuumed, every toy and doll put away at the end of the night, we remember them all because one day they won't be this small.

Kleenex anyone?

Hakuna matata

What an awesome experience to take Kayla to the beloved broadway musical we love so much, Lion King! The theatrics, the music, the costumes, it's all so spectacular. Although this was Aaron and I's third time seeing the show, it had been probably about eight years since then. Seeing it again made it even more magical to have Kayla sitting between us, edge of her seat, eyes wide, mouth open, questions flowing non-stop for the 3-hour show.

The Detroit Opera House was a beautiful venue,

and our front row, center balcony seats had the best view in the house.

Dinner across the street at the Detroit Beer Co before the show

A special (borrowed) dress helped make it an extra special night! Thank you Cassidy!

We hope Kayla always remembers this special evening and her first broadway musical experience!

Six

Not a little girl anymore, and even has the missing bottom tooth to prove it, Addison turned 6 years old! Little girl era officially ends once you lose a tooth.

Addison lost her first tooth at our house this week - not when she was eating her apple, but eating a piece of lunch meat! She said, "I feel something crunchy".

 We celebrated her birthday with a party at Flames Gymnastics Center, the place Kayla, Khloe and Addie go for their gymnastics classes. To have the entire place to ourselves was.... glorious! And fun! Twelve girls (and one boy!) ran around for an hour and a half then endulged in pizza and cupcakes.

 Ymmmmm, homemade rainbow cupcakes

Man, there sure are A LOT of ooooooooh's and ahhhhhhhhh's and screams and squeals at a girl's birthday party when present opening begins! Until you experience this phenonmenon in person, you have no idea what I'm talking about!



I'm not gonna lie, I'm glad Addison is the first to celebrate her birthday before Kayla. Six sounds grown-up. And now I have a few month to prepare for the sound of saying "I have a six year old"!