Smiles all around

Today has been a wonderful day and it's only 3:oo. We haven't even gone to swim class yet! We invited some friends over today to play. Since we all have 2 kids now, we create quite the crowd. It's always a good time and today was no different.

We don't have any pictures of the moms. I guess the kids are just cuter. But for those of you who don't know I met Shelly and Lindsay at the mom's group through Goshen Hospital when our oldest kids were babies. Lindsay has Addie who turns 2 on Monday and Reese who is 6 wks old. Shelly has James who is 2 and Lauren who is 5 months old. So here we are 2 yrs later getting the biggest kick out of our kids who love playing together. When I went to group for the first time I had no idea I would walk away with the friendships that I did. Life is great!

The oldest kids had a great time running around in the yard playing with dirt, chalk and each other. There were a few tears shed, but that is to be expected. There is nothing more fun on a warm day then water. They had fun with the watering can again and again poor Abbey was watered. After a while Morgan asked for the sprinkler. Why not? They were already plenty wet from watering the chairs, chalk, Abbey and each other.

The sprinkler was a big hit. At one point I asked Morgan if the water was cold. She looked at me and said "Yes - you have to turn on the hot." James had to leave early so he missed out on the sprinkler. We will have to pull it out earlier next time.

Adrienne - 3 months

Adrienne is 3 months old today. Where has the time gone? As you can see she is a very happy girl. She gives away her big smiles to almost anyone who talks to her. She especially likes the attention of her big sister Morgan. She loves it when Morgan talks to her and gives her kisses and of course that makes Morgan feel extra special. She is also cooing a lot. That started a couple of weeks ago. I can't get enough of that. She can be entertained for a while both looking in the mirror on her play mat. If she is fed and rested she will also sit in the bouncy seat almost long enough for me to eat a meal! :) She is still sleeping quite a bit during the day. She usually takes one longer nap of 2-3 hours and then several shorter ones. She only takes 5 minutes to nurse which is wonderful. However she is a stubborn girl in that she has decided she won't take a bottle. I'm not sure where she gets the stubbornness from since neither Dave or I have that in us. :) All in all she is a blessing and brings joy to us everyday.

Where you go - I go

Here are the little sisters. They are really good sports about being carted around. Reese is 6 weeks younger then Adrienne so she still does a lot of sleeping during class. Adrienne usually likes to watch Morgan swim. I'm glad we both have pretty chill babies. It makes the whole process pretty easy.

Swimin' like a fish - almost

We have been going to swim classes again this spring. The classes last 30 min. and we go 3 times a week. We just finished our 2nd week. We have one more week to go, and it is going to be a sad day for Morgan when she understands that they are over. She loves swim class. The first day of swim class I had been telling her about it all day. I told her that after her nap we would go get Daddy at his work and then we would go to swim class. So we went through the whole bedtime routine and soon after I closed her door and came downstairs I heard her door open. I looked up the stairs and there she was holding her swimsuit "Now can we go to swim class?" I had to keep from laughing and sternly told her that she had to actually sleep first.

This year as the classes go by she is doing much better about going under. There is still a bit of drama. But with each class the crying is less and less. These pictures show one of their new "drills". They stand a few feet from the side of the pool, Dave counts to 3 and gives her a nudge to the edge. The idea is that she goes under and "swims" a bit on her own to grab on the the side. She really loves the classes and is doing well. It is extra fun that her friend Addie is also in the class with her daddy. Of course that makes it nice for me too since Lindsay (Addie's mom) and I get to hang out with our babies on the sidelines. :)

1st up at 9:00?

It is 9:12 on Saturday morning and as I write this everyone else is asleep. Can you believe it? I can't. Adrienne has slept a 8 hour stretch the past 2 nights and it's wonderful. The first night I woke up on the hour for the last 3 because I couldn't believe she was sleeping that long. Last night I only woke up 1 time. Do you think it will last? I hope so, but am trying not to get my hopes up. But even more shocking then that is that Morgan slept in until 9:30 yesterday. I actually went in to check on her then and ended up waking her up. I was a little nervous since she has been waking up at 7 or 7:30. I guess swim class wears her out. The last person still sleeping is Dave. That doesn't surprise me. He has to get up early everyday for work and tends to stay up later then me. So why wouldn't he sleep if his girls let him. So here it is Saturday morning and I woke up on my own, feeling quite rested at 9:00. This hasn't happened for a long time.

4 steps to a 2 year olds perfect morning

Stir/play with brownie batter.

Cover your hands and pan with butter.

Lick the bowel, spoon and anything that may have some batter left on it.

Eat a brownie with milk before 11:00 am.

FYI we did wash our hands before the fun began. :)

Happy #5 Theo!

Saturday afternoon we headed to Theo's house to help him celebrate turning 5 years old. Morgan was very excited to sing Happy Birthday. It's always exciting to see what kind of cake the boys are going to have. Heidi makes the coolest 3d cakes. This year was a snake - glad I didn't have to do that. Theo's friends did a number on the snake earlier that day at his 1st party. I hate snakes, but this one was pretty tasty!

Theo got some really fun stuff for his birthday. They had fun playing with some of his new toys. He also got a slip-n-slide. Hopefully Morgan will be able to help him use that once it is a bit warmer out.

Can you feel the love? This isn't the clearest picture, but you get the idea. On most days there is plenty of love between these cousins. It's a lot of fun to watch them play. However, the other week we had a play date that did NOT have a lot of love. I think both Morgan and Adam were both feeling a lot like a stereotypical 2 year old that day. So it was reassuring to see them have so much fun together again at Theo's birthday party.

Adrienne got her share of love too. Both Adam and Theo like to stop playing for a few seconds to check in on her and give her a little kiss.