Neighborhood Egg Hunt

This morning was our neighborhood egg hunt! Last year little Leah got practically trampled by the big kids and ended up with one lone egg. This year she was older and much more prepared. And also Dustin had a plan to pick her up and run her past some of the big kids so she would stand a chance! :-)

They had the Easter bunny there for photo ops. Leah wanted absolutely NOTHING to do with him, ha! So I took Carter over for a pic. He was just staring at him it was so cute.

Getting a good spot at the starting line

Lots of kids! And this was only the 0-6 year old age group!

Daddy giving Leah some pointers.

Attempt at a picture...Carter wasn't in the mood

Bubbles from one of her eggs!

Leah had lots of fun this year

Pretty cherry blossoms

The best pic out of like 20 that I took :-) I wish Carter was looking up!

We can't wait for another egg hunt and festivities tomorrow!!

Easter Baskets!

I am linking up with Sarah at Our Journey for the Easter Basket Showcase!!

I always start collecting Easter basket goodies right after Leah's birthday (February!). So then I end up getting too much because I forget what I have! I just love shopping for my kids!!

This year I got cute matching pink & blue baskets! Love having one girl and one boy now! 

Carter is still a little hard to find small toys to fit in a basket but here is what I got for him -

A Laugh & Learn Lantern toy, frog hand puppet, soft bunny doll, soft bunny book, a few other books, monkey bath toy, socks. And I think I will go get a few new binkies now that he is really starting to love his binkies!!

Leah's basket (my shopping for her can get out of control really quick hehe) -

Snow White ballerina doll, Melissa & Doug stamp set, modeling clay, a few princess books, Pinkalicious book, preschool workbook, stickers, glitter crayons, magic marker coloring book, princess paddle ball, wind up bunny, light up bouncy ball, tiny chocolate bunnies, Snow White pez, Hello Kitty bracelet, socks.

Easter rivals Christmas for my favorite holiday! I LOVE springtime, the colors, baby animals, warmer sunny weather, flowers, etc. We are really hoping for the sunshine this weekend so that we can do our egg hunt outside!!  And I got my kids the CUTEST coordinating outfits to wear! :-)

Weekend

Well thankfully Leah is much better. Still not 100% but a LOT better than last week.  Her fever broke on Friday and then that evening she started eating a little bit. That day she took a 4 hour nap and then a few hours later went to sleep for another 12 hours!  Saturday she was a lot better.  Ugh that was the worst thing ever to see my baby that sick! And to try to keep my other baby away from her to keep him healthy!! 

Snow on Friday! Crazy!

When Leah started feeling a little better I named off like every food in the kitchen to see what sounded good to her. She chose a corn dog and a pickle! Weirdo!!! :) And yes she is wearing her Santa jammies from Christmas :)

We had a low key weekend to make sure Leah took it easy. Saturday morning I dropped both kids at my mom's house while I went to get a pedicure! It was the first one I have gotten since my due date, July 31st!! It was awesome and a much needed hour away! We stayed home the rest of the day and in the evening participated in Earth Hour. It is a fun way to teach the kids about conservation of energy and the importance of being aware of how we need to take care of our planet. We played some games and had candles lit and along with turning off the lights, we shut down all of our other technology for the entire evening.  I want to try to convince Dustin to have our own Earth Hour more often, like at least once a month!!

This pic was staged but he stood there for several seconds before losing his balance! Noooo stop growing!!

Sunday we just went to breakfast and ran a few errands before coming home.  One nice thing about Leah being sick was she has been going down for naps and bedtimes so EASY!!

Today it is sunny and beautiful outside! I loaded the kids in the stroller and went on a walk to one of the playgrounds in our neighborhood. Again, Leah got so tired in just the little amount of time we were there. She asked to take a nap when we got home, poor thing. She had fun swinging for a little bit and I am sure the fresh air was good for her. 

 WHY were we the ONLY people at the park on such a nice day???

Morning nap as mommy got some exercise taking the long way home from the park

Leah and Carter are both napping right now in their beds! I love when all the stars align and they go down easily for naps at the same time!

Almost made it.....

Well, it happened. Leah got the flu for the first time. :-(  We almost made it through another whole flu season without getting sick at all. On Monday after dance class I could tell Leah was probably coming down with something since she wasn't acting quite right. Then Tuesday morning she woke up with a cold but still nothing terrible.

At one point she went to her little table to color and I got excited that meant she was feeling better, but nope it lasted about 10 minutes before she went back to the couch.

When she woke up on Wednesday though, she had a high fever, chills, lethargic, tummy ache, no appetite, etc. This is the most sick she has ever been and it breaks my heart to see her like this.

We have watched pretty much every kid movie and show that we have. My coffee table is laid out with a bunch of different snacks in hopes that something with look good to Leah and she will eat. She even turned down ice cream. That's never a good sign.  The only thing she wants is cold water so at least I know she isn't getting dehydrated. I have no idea where she picked up this bug. I tried so hard to keep my family healthy and am so disappointed that this happened, like it is my fault or something....It's weird because I was looking back through blog posts and was reminded that last year in March she got sick too!

Today she is a little better but still not eating hardly anything. She will take a bite of something and then say "Yuck" and stop eating. Sigh.....but at least I got her to smile!

Well I hope she fights it off soon and that Carter and I continue to avoid it. My hands are literally cracked and bleeding from washing them so much. Trying to keep Carter away from where Leah is has been hard too and a few times they have both been screaming for me at the same time. So hard!  Hoping my next post is to say we are all healthy and happy again!!

Carter - 7 Months

This has been a big month for Carter! He seems like he is growing and looking older every day!  Just a few days ago, his first tooth popped up! He had one night of fussing a little more than usual and then the next morning I noticed the tooth! I really hope he has as easy of a time with teething as Leah did. She showed minimal discomfort throughout the process which was so nice!

Carter still isn't that into eating solid foods. So far he has tried apples, banana, avocado, pear and carrot.  He liked carrot so far the best.  Not sure if he actually liked it the best or he is getting used to new textures. But he actually opened his mouth for the spoon and ate several bites - no gagging! Yay! And he is still exclusively breastfed.

Wrong end of the spoon bud :)

I gave Carter a big piece of really ripe pear to chew on!

First taste....doesn't look like he liked it but he kept putting it in his mouth!

Love that face!

Last night he slept 9 hours in a row for the first time. But most of the time he still wakes up usually once around 4am and sleeps until around 8 unless sister wakes him up earlier.

He is bigger and stronger and wanting to crawl so bad! He will push way up while on his tummy and then kick his legs and put his arms out like Superman trying to propel himself forward. Not too much longer until he figures it out I think! He is also starting to hold onto my arm when I hold him. And he gives the wettest slobbery kisses on my cheek :-)

He is sitting up sturdy now and doesn't topple over very much. It is nice being able to set him down so that he is can play with his toys and look around. I can't put him in the bouncy chair anymore unless he is super tired and will just lay back. And even then I have to make sure his straps are on tight!

Still such a smiley and happy baby. As long as I am nearby or holding him, he is very content for the most part. He is sooooo obsessed with his big sister!  He LOVES watching her play. If she starts laughing or tickling him he will start laughing too. It is my favorite thing EVER to watch the two of them interact!!! 

St. Patrick's Day Party!

This morning we hosted our annual St Patrick's Day party! Lots of little kids in our house, but lots of fun!

Mini photo shoot of my cuties before their friends arrived - 

Then we prepared for our friends to come over -

Coloring station

I tried to have healthy party snacks. I did a couple of fresh fruit rainbows, snap pea puffed chips, tortilla chips, guacamole, and Leah's requested green food - pickles. Oh and I put out a pitcher of water with rainbow cups. And guess what? Not one kid asked where the cupcakes, cookies, juice, candy, etc. were!  Can't go wrong with fresh fruit! :-)

 All the kids!!

Carter and his buddy Greyson

Look at that absolute chaos, haha! Fun times! Can't wait until the next party!

House Projects

Since we have been spending so much time at home, I have started being annoyed by a few things in our house! The wall in the living room was painted a reddish brown color when we moved in. At the time it was fall and went with our fall season decor. But now a year and a half later it was driving me nuts. It was too dark, especially during the winter when it is dark outside too. So last weekend my hubby painted the wall the new color I picked out.......

Ugly wall before.....

Daddy won't let me paint with the BIG brush by myself!

Yay helping with the little brush is fun too!

And.........our new living room!!!  I love it so much! So light and bright! I also got new pillows for the couch. Now I just need to decide what to put on the wall to the right of the tv......A photo wall, a shelf for decorations, some sort of wall art??? 

Another thing that has been annoying me since we moved in was our oven.  Back at our condo we had a flat top oven which is so nice as far as cleaning and looking nicer.  The oven here was older and black with the coil burners. I could not keep them clean looking! And also our fridge and microwave were stainless steel so it never really matched!  So last week we had this new baby delivered.....

I love it! So much nicer, especially since I have been trying to cook more :-)

I also recently got a new down comforter which we have been wanting for years!

And in the bedroom I also took down some dark blue curtains that the previous owner had left and they went with our old bedding so I left them up.

Making those little changes really made a difference in brightening up my house for spring!!