Easter

Happy Easter to all!

I tried to explain the concept of Easter to Ava and Carter earlier this week. I don't think that telling them that Jesus died because they are naughty was the right tact to take. Ava seems a little traumatized that someone died because of her misdeeds. I'm going to need to work on my explanation.

We started our Easter Sunday off with a basket hunt. Apparently the bunny needs a little work since all 3 baskets were easily found. Ellie's was even stealthily hung from a hanger in the coat closet and it was the second place she looked!

The treats in the basket were well received despite there only being a few things in each.
Reasons:
1) the Easter Bunny quickly detemined that filling four baskets is not cheap. Hope he/she warns Santa so he can start preparing early!
2) The bunny waited until the day before Easter to purchase basket items and did so with #1 and #2 along for the trip. Talk about a sneaky bunny! The cart went along the Easter treat aisle and since the bunny had on a big, baggy sweatshirt, the goodies were quickly grabbed and hid in the nest of fabric between arm and body. When #1 and #2 were not looking, the items were quickly dumped in the cart and hid under the frozen veggies. The bunny is so tricky that when #1 asked if she could get a little animal toy in that section, the bunny asked which was her favorite and then said "no". #1 placed it back on the shelf and walked away. The bunny snatched said animal up and added it to the arm pile!

After spending 30 seconds hunting for baskets, we went to church where Carter proceeded to humor the family in front of us. The child has no volume control and no filter. He was able to see the large cross in front of the church with Jesus on it. This bothered him as he couldn't understand why Jesus wanted to be on the cross. Jake told him that Jesus was napping. I couldn't catch all that was being said in the exchange between father and son but I'm guessing it was amusing based on the movement of the shoulders from the woman in front of us. I heard lots of "why" questions and I'm sure that despite her children being grown, she was able to relate!

Following church, we enjoyed a delicious dinner with Papa, Grandma Debbie, Amanda, and Tony. The bunny hid baskets at Grandma's too so the kids got to find those. We followed up dinner with a big nap at home and spent the rest of the beautiful evening outside.

All in all a great day!

Dance Party

We love to have dance parties. It's a great way for us to get out our sillies and Mommy uses it as a chance to listen to grown-up music. It's a win-win for us all.


Depending on the song selection and if we get to watch the songs on tv versus hear them on the radio, we may even do some break dancing!

Spinning is another signature move. You just can't go wrong with spins.

Here's a video of us getting down to one of our favorite songs.

You'll also be able to see Carter's signature dance move, which we have dubbed "crazy feet".

Enjoy!

Random Snippets

There's been much I've been wanting to post on lately but I don't seem to have as much free time as I'd like. Anyway, here's a quick snapshot of all that we've been up to around here recently. I love that these two are so close. So close that they have to lay next to each other on the couch when they first get up in the morning. And no, they don't wear pajamas to bed. If we can't get them to wear clothes during the day, do you really think they'd wear clothing to bed?!

Not quite sure what was going on here but am guessing this is her form of exercise?!

Carter got some new kicks. His first bonafide pair of Nikes! The dude is now rocking. He picked this pair out himself. They are a little too big as Nike doesn't make half sizes in the toddler size and we decided to err on the side of too big versus just fit so that the shoes will last into the fall. It's been a learning experience for Carter as he does occasionally trip over his clown feet but he loves the shoes so much, it's worth it to him!

This baby loves her nightly bath! I've always been big on a bedtime routine but she's the one who started demanding the nightly bath already. She gets fussy in the evening but the minute you take her into the bathroom and start filling her tub, she calms right down. It's hilarious to watch her in the water as she lifts her toes in and out of the water, wiggles her hands around, and has even started lifting her butt up off the rest spot so she can float!

My multiples group had its spring sale the end of March. I took four large totes, three small ones, and several bags and random large things to sell. I brought home one large tote worth of stuff, much of it being clothing that will sell in the fall since they were more for colder weather. I sold $612 worth of stuff and 77% of my stuff! I've sold at the sales since the twins were born but it's always been random things that the kids either outgrew or a thinning out of the toys and books we have. Since the last baby is here, this was the big clothing clean-out. I can't wait until the fall sale to finish clearing out the boy clothing and start making progress on the girl clothing! And yes, that one tote is full of hangers. We have to hang all the clothing to sell it and the really smart people rifle through the hangers taken from the sold clothes so that they don't have to hunt down hangers elsewhere. I actually ended up filling the larger purple tote with all my hangers when I was done sorting through everything! Don't think I'll be needing hangers for a long time!

Ava has started wanting to sleep in Ellie's room with Ellie. We only permit it on the weekends since Ellie has school during the week and needs a good night sleep. Ellie isn't always a fan of having Ava in there with her, but when I went in later one night to peek at them, I found this. Don't think she minds too much!

I've been working on my photography skills. The entire time in Georgia I bemoaned the fact that I have a plain boring camera and can't do much with it. My mom told me to start working on my composition and improving the shots I can take with my little point-and-shoot. She found it hilarious that I didn't know what composition is yet want a $600 camera. Anyway, I started playing with my camera and found that it does have numerous settings and things I can change so while my photos won't be nearly as awesome as they would be if I had a DSLR, I will work with what I have now so when I do finally get my dream camera, I'm ready for it.

That's basically everything around here in a nutshell. Hannah slept from 9 pm - 5:45 this morning. I hope it wasn't a fluke and we can replicate it every night from here on out! I'm also waiting to hear if I won the classroom lottery to chaperone Ellie's field trip. They get to go see Annie at the Children's Theater and as I was thinking about getting tickets and taking her to it myself, this would be a great way to do it. They only need 5 chaperones and at least 10 parents volunteered so it is now up to the fates to decide if I get to go. I should know this afternoon! I hope I'm lucky enough to get picked as Annie was one of my favorite musicals growing up.

Have a great weekend all!

Hannah in Savannah

Hannah and I went to Savannah to visit my parents for a few days last week. The weather was beautiful, sunny, and around 80 each day. We left on Wednesday, explored Savannah on Thursday, enjoyed Tybee Island on Friday, and flew home on Saturday. A quick trip but a great little getaway. Hannah was awesome on the plane. She slept both of the long flights between Minneapolis and Atlanta. She was awake on both of the short hops from Altanta and Savannah but as that is only 30 minutes, entertaining her was a breeze. Hannah even decided to work on sleeping long stretches at night while we were there and did a 6 hour stretch two nights and an 8 hour stretch the other! She was a great travel companion and since she doesn't yet speak, it was a relaxing break from the other three who have been stretching my patience to the limits as of late.

Hannah and Grampy on River Street

How she spent most of her time while we poked into little shops and boutiques

Hanging out at City Market stretching her legs after being stuck in the baby bjorn for several hours

Sleeping soundly with the ocean breeze at Tybee Island

Hannah didn't like when the sun shined on her face so this was the solution

Peek!

My future home

When I finally win the lottery that is. House like that would only set me back a million or two

Tuckered out after her long day at the beach

Me and my sister and other brother, Madison (left) and Gus (right)

I had a great time visiting my parents and getting a break from the demanding duo and their tween emotional sister. We haven't made it down their way since July 2009! The twinks turned 2 that fall and that is when they are required to have their own seats on a plane so its been easier (and cheaper) for my parents to come this way instead. It was nice to see their house again, really explore Savannah (Jake and I have gone down there ourselves before and Jake's exploring extends only from one bar to the next. With my mom, I was actually able to go in all the little stores and galleries that I've wanted to!), and catch up with the replacements. My mom seemed shocked that Maddie and Gus remembered me. How could they not?! I'm the greatest big sister there is! I even put all resentment for being the new apples of my parents' eyes aside and spent some quality time with them. I used to laugh at Jake's mom for treating her dog like a child but it stopped being funny when my parents started doing it too. I hope Jake and I never reach that point in our lives!

(photos look interesting for a reason. i will explain in a future post)

Two Months Old!

It's hard to believe but Hannah is now 2 months old. She had her check-up last week and had to have three shots and an oral vaccine. Hannah weighed in at a whopping 12 lbs 3 oz (85%ile) and is 22 1/2 inches long (60%ile)! This girl has been doing some major growing!

She is super cute and is now smiling up a storm. She has also started "talking" and will coo a whole conversation with you. I'm not quite sure what she is saying but she throws some smiles in there while she's chatting so I assume it's all good! She loves to be held in a standing position and has really good head control already.

Our little baby girl just keeps growing and getting bigger! So bittersweet!

Ava Marie Photography

It all started when Ellie whipped out the old digital camera I gave her to take pictures (play with). Ellie's been carting it around every where with her which caused the good ol' green eyed monster to display itself in Ava. Ellie, being the great sharer that she is, won't let Ava touch her camera. So Ava found my camera (the good digital camera, mind you) in the drawer and started taking her own pictures.

A rough start but once she figured out that her thumb didn't need to be in every picture, the quality improved. All the more reason for us to invest in that fancy schmancy digital camera I want!