Easter

Now that we have 2 kids, I've noticed that our holidays tend to be spread out over several days or even weeks. This Easter turned out to be a classic example. It started with a cute "Daddy Day" project carving and decorating mega-sized Easter eggs with our neighbor Elizabeth.

The next big event was the Easter egg hunt at the community center. They had bounce houses, face painting, balloon animals, and two playgrounds. We couldn't pull Sophia out of the bounce house until we promised the egg hunt was about to begin.
There were 4,000 eggs and it was all we could do to hold back the kids. Even Ally was excited although she had no idea why!

Sophia quickly learned to shake the eggs before putting them in her basket so she could decipher if it contained candy or just a sticker.

Next up was Easter morning. Between the Easter bunny and family, the girls made out pretty well.

The girls both dove into their gifts and were really excited. Sophia kept exclaiming "This is just what I wanted!" even when she hadn't figured out what the gift was yet!

After cleaning out their baskets, the girls instantly started checking out what the other one got. Ally chewed on Sophia's new chapstick while Sophia drew on Ally's new Doodle Pad.

(Drum roll please).....The Easter dresses!

We had an Easter egg hunt for Sophia, but she ran out of steam about half through. It should work out perfectly next year with Ally to help in the hunt.

We celebrated the day by hosting a brunch with "Greypa's" side of the family. Our oven broke the day before, but we were able to rig it just enough to get through the day and enjoy amazing food with great family. Sophia loved showing off her room and Ally's bottom never touched the floor.

And last but not least, we built a "bunny house" that Aunt Caity gave to Sophia. It was perfect because Sophia had been begging to build a ginger bread house for weeks.

8 Months

I haven't read the book "The Happiest Baby on the Block" but somehow I still ended up raising one! Ally is a seriously happy baby these days. Every time she makes eye contact with us she scrunches up her face in a huge grin. She also laughs all.the.time. Most of the time we have no idea what she's laughing at, but we can't help but giggle along with her. And she thinks everything Sophia does is hysterical.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uL29B3OopLk


She's babbling all the time now, and Will is proud that the phrase she says most often is "dada." She's not crawling yet, but she's getting closer by the day. We're constantly amazed how much trouble she can get into just by scooting, rolling, creeping and reaching. When she is sitting, she'll lean forward, push one leg behind her, and rock back and forth. It looks kinda painful to me, but doesn't seem to bother her at all.

She also likes to straddle our laps and rock back and forth. We can't help but laugh when she does this because it's impossible not to compare her to an amorous little dog!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQ4ZLmggweM
She can now hold a bottle by herself which has made life so much easier. We still snuggle with her during most feedings, but when we're in a hurry and she's hungry, it's really nice to have her feed herself.

Although she's still toothless, we've started giving her finger foods with every meal. I'm not sure who is more excited about this: Ally or Trent! And Sophia loves to help shovel cheerios and other munchies into her sister's mouth.

Ally and Sophia get along wonderfully most of the time, but towards the end of the day when Sophia starts getting grumpy, Ally often ends up being the target for Sophia's frustrations. Ally's only method of defense right now is hair pulling, but she's really good at it!

It's so strange to see Ally wearing some of the same clothes that Sophia was wearing when she started walking. They're such different girls, although somehow they both ended up with the same big blue eyes.

I'm not sure what the odds are of 2 brown eyed parents having 2 blue eyed kiddos, but I do know that we're incredibly lucky.

Snow Day

While Will was off of work last month, we finally had a day with no plans and no chain requirements, so we bundled up and headed for the snow. Sophia doesn't remember playing in the snow from years past, so she was really excited.

Ally...not so much. But these days she's happy no matter where she is (as long as Mommy or Daddy are in sight.)

The first order of business: snow angels. Poor Sophia has wanted to make snow angels so badly that she's been practicing on our kitchen floor for months. The sad thing is that there's usually so much Trent hair on the floor that it kinda works!

Next on the list was the snowman. The snow was so hard that it was near impossible to make one from scratch, but luckily Sophia was happy decorating a pre-existing snowman with Mr Potato Head parts.

There was also a pre-existing igloo, which Daddy and Sophia thought was the perfect place to eat their lunch.

And last but not least was the sledding. Sophia did really well climbing up the hill and holding onto the sled.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfstqd1xt0o

Despite my objections, Will took her to the top of the hill, and she actually came down asking for a bigger hill!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONOfxUmB2Aw

And Ally LOVED watching her big sister sled right up to her feet.

Birthday Part 3

After frantically calling all the parents of Sophia's friends with the new date and time for her party, we were pleasantly surprised that just about everyone was still able to attend. Sophia was excited to get the Disney Princess room.

While we waited for everyone to arrive, the kids all decorated a Tshirt for Sophia. She was also given a birthday girl crown and was proud to show it off.

She wasn't shy at all and loved bouncin with her buddies.
The kids were all fearless and had no problem climbing up the big slides...

...which were REALLY fast!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxqqDuU18Yo

Will had lots of fun beating small children and kept reassuring me that they loved it. (Notice there's only one kid left - can't imagine why all the others left!)

After what seemed like an eternity in the bounce room, we moved on to the game room. Yes ~ there is a game called Poop Hoops. Insert a joke of your choice here!

Ally even found someone to play with: a not-so-little 11 month old girl named Ellie.
Sophia LOVED the parachute games and couldn't hide her beautiful smile.

\

Next the kids headed to the party room for pizza and cupcakes.

Our party coordinator took her role seriously and was known only as Snow White
The kids got to decorate their cupcakes with candy, making awesome into even awesomer!

And yes ~ Will let Sophia blow out her own candles this time!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2V0obmXLS8

Birthday Part 2

Geema, Aunt TC and (the soon-to-be) Uncle Moises came up for the weekend intending to celebrate Sophia's birthday at her bounce house party. Unfortunately Sophia's temperature was up to 103 that night, so the party had to be postponed. Sophia perked up with all the visitors and still ended up having a fun filled birthday weekend. She proudly showed off her newly acquired bike riding and hopscotching skills. You'd never guess how sick she was!

Ally was very excited to see her Geema and even gave her a big wet kiss!

Ally rode her bike too, although she preferred to use it as a teething ring rather than a bike. It obviously isn't working too well since she STILL doesn't have any teeth!

Sophia got lots of presents, but at this point her strength was wearing thin and she was starting to look a little under the weather again. You can't tell from the picture, but she was super excited about the butterfly net and knew exactly what it was. Watch out butterflies!

She also got some gifts from Geema and TC's trip to Belize.

Aunt TC thought the alphabet puzzle may have been a little advanced for Sophia, but she aced it!

She had lots of fun decorating the fancy mirror that Geema got for her, and impressed everyone with her glitter glue skills.

Ally hadn't seen her Aunt TC since she was about 6 weeks old. Hmmmm...do I see a resemblance??

And Ally got to show off her favorite activity: rockin out to Yankee Doodle Dandee!
After the family left, my friend Jen and her daughter Mallery came by with another gift for Sophia: princess dress up accessories and art supplies.Although Sophia refused to say thank you (grrrr!), she obviously loved the gifts.