{To Be Young}

Another sunny, spring day brings another opportunity for friends and fun.  This time, my dear friend, Tricia, brought her boys over for a picnic and some play time in the back yard.  

Olivia thinks EVERYTHING Aiden does is the most hilarious thing she's ever seen or heard.  She giggles uncontrollably when he talks, and follows him around like a puppy.  On the other hand, I think Cole has quite the crush on Olivia.  What can we do, right?  There's just something about those Chretien boys!

Cole giving the camera his best half-smile.  Could he be any cuter?

They were getting no where fast.  Liv was so frustrated that she couldn't push the tricycle in the grass!

Cole showing us his best balance beam performance, and getting up some serious speed on the trike.  Look out!

Ah, playing house :)

We told them to laugh like something was really funny...

I love this one!

Best Buddies!

{A Monthly Update}

It's that time again!  Time for me to drag my darling Brynn outside and take a boat-load of photos of her because she is now 10 months old!

Some of you who have been following along for a while now might think "Hey, I saw the 8 month photos and now here's 10 months.  Where are the 9 month pics?  Did I miss something?"  

The answer to this would be, no.  You didn't miss anything.  I completely dropped the ball and misplaced the onesie stickers for a good long while.  I thought they were gone forever, but I was lucky enough to come across them while cleaning the other day!  Yay!  

Enjoy this little glimpse of my beautiful Brynn.

She's a little bit of sunshine.  She's a smile to light your days.

She will steal your heart and keep in with her warm, endearing ways.

She's my precious little daughter, with a sweetness from above,

Who will fill our years with laughter and our lives with lots of love.

                                                                        -author unknown

 She's showing us that she's 'SO BIG!'

Everyone showing us they're 'SO BIG', and Brynn looking very confused :)

Here's what B is working on this month:
-  She is becoming very verbal, saying 'baba', 'mama'. and 'dada'.
-  She can clap her hands, wave goodbye, and shake her head 'no'.
-  B is pulling up on everything and cruising.  She's taken a few spills, most recently falling face first into the corner of the end table.  We still have bruise on the cheek to remind us of this accident :(
-  She's eating things like yogurt, cheese, pretzels, and animal crackers.  She can pretty much eat what we eat, cut up into very small pieces.  Most of what she feeds herself ends up on her chin and shirt, but she's getting good practice putting food into her mouth!
-  Her little personality is showing more and more every day.  She's a feisty one!
-  We are going through serious separation anxiety issues right now.  I know this is only a phase, but we can't even leave her in the nursery at church anymore!  I'm hoping this passes quickly :)

{He is Risen! He is Risen, Indeed!}

This Easter was interesting, to say the least!  I spent months combing the Matilda Jane Clothing buy/sell/trade boards on facebook for the perfect, pretty, frocks for both my girls.  I was so pleased with my purchases, I just couldn't wait to get my girlies in their adorable dresses for church on Easter Sunday.  The first few photos below are Brynn in dress #1.  That's right.  I said, dress #1.  It has adorable bunnies and ducks on the green apron and I was in love with it as soon as I saw it.  At least we got a few photos of her in the dress before our afternoon got...umm, yucky!

We all work up feeling pretty blah on Sunday morning.  The girls had been battling head colds and were super congested for a few days prior.  It hit my like a ton of bricks on Easter morning.  But, I put on my happy face and got everyone ready for church :)  You can tell in the pictures, Brynn's nose is a little red, and she was cranky - no happy, smiling baby that day!

In all, Brynn threw up three times over the course of the day.  When I went in to get her from her nap, right before we went outside to hunt eggs, she had a blow-out diaper - I'm talking, the kind where poop is up her back and all over the inside of her dress (hence, more than one pretty dress that day!).

Luckily, the Easter Bunny had enough foresight to bring her a few pretties in her Easter basket, so we just threw one of those on her before we hunted eggs.  

Whew! 

My girls before church.  This is dress #1 for Brynn :)

She look so grown up!

Hunting for Easter eggs!

I may have failed to mention that the Easter Bunny left the eggs out in the sun too long and the chocolate goodness inside them just didn't hold up.  This added to the joy of the day for us.  Retrieving the candy from the eggs was messy work!  What's one more thing that could go wrong?  

At this point, all I could do was laugh.  All the thought, time, money, and preparation in the world can't make a holiday go smoothly when you're dealing with children (and forgetful adults). 

Here is Brynn in dress #2, courtesy of the Easter Bunny :)

She shook every egg to try and figure out what was in it. 

The look so happy, don't they?

                     My girls.

On a day like this, it could have been really easy to lose sight of the important message we were celebrating that day.  Easter is the cornerstone of what we believe, as Christians.  The resurrection of my Savior validates my faith and gives me so much hope for the future.  Sometimes I just cannot wrap my human, finite brain around the fact that I am so loved that Jesus made such an astounding sacrifice for me.  Amazing!  

So, no, the day didn't go as planned.  But, that's okay!  We had so much to be thankful for, and we have so much to look forward to.

{A Play Date}

Yesterday we had the opportunity to take advantage of yet another b-e-a-u-tiful spring day.  It had been a while since we had visited Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead in Overland Park, so we headed across the state line to spend the afternoon with Sarah and her ball-of-energy kiddos.
Olivia has so much fun playing with Abby.  She is one of the few girls her own age we know, and she loves following Abby around - trying all the daring things Abby does, that she would never think to do on her own.  I think it's so good for Liv to have someone like Abby around to challenge her and get her outside her little comfort zone sometimes!
We saw goats, cows, horses, chickens, geese, and ducks!  Olivia loved the animals - she told me when we got out of the car that she wanted to see donkeys and chickens!  She also called it Old McDonald's...so, we'll have to work on that one!

Abby made friends with a baby goat.

The best part of the whole day for the girls was probably the strawberry ice cream cones!  Thank you, Sarah!

Abby loved the spray park, but Liv wasn't so sure :)

Brynn showing us that she's "SO BIG!"

There wasn't much love from the camera for Jake or Brynn this time around.  They were stuck in their strollers while the big girls ran around and played.  Next time, though.  I promise!