Happy Easter

I am sitting here on the couch after a very busy and wonderful Easter Sunday exhausted! Exhausted, yet so very grateful for my family and so many many things in our lives. We had a special weekend with Stacy's mom here and my mom also spent Easter with us. Just a few snapshots of our Easter Sunday....

Here are the girl's Easter baskets before they were hidden. Maddie helped Bella find hers this morning and then she set off to find hers (which was a bit more difficult to find).

So tough to get a picture of my girls with Bella always wiggling to get down and 'walkie walkie" as she puts it!

Kisses between two sweet sisters

We had to move the Easter egg hunt inside because of the rain...here Bella found a few eggs in her princess car

Maddie spotted an egg in the plant...

Putting all her eggs in her basket

My man...who I adore!

Family shot...

Mom and Maddie

I even broke out my good china for dinner....I think this is only the second time I have ever used them and I love it!

Bella running around got the giggles before dinner....

Bella between both grandmas that love her so!

Easter Eggs

Had lots of fun with the girls today getting Easter Eggs dyed and ready for Easter tomorrow. Maddie decided to make tie dye eggs...although I was skeptical at first they turned out really cute!

Mixing up her colors with vinegar

Wrapping her egg and getting ready to "tie dye" the eggs

Bella's first attempt at dying an Easter egg...the old fashioned way!

Daddy is helping out

"Here is my egg mama...so pretty!"

Traditions

I have been MIA for a bit...We have had one sick baby in the last few days. Well now that we are on the mend I had time for a blogpost about traditions!

I LOVE traditions...old ones and new ones. Here are some of my current favorite traditions in our family.

Planting flowers in the yard with my girls

Grandma came over to help us plant flowers... to be honest I know hardly anything about planting ANYTHING! My mom on the other had knows everything about gardening...now that we have yard I want this to be one of our new traditions. Planting in the yard with grandma and the girls.


Grandma singing with my girls is one of the oldest and most favorite traditions to witness.



Bella loves Grandma singing too!

A new tradition....making Ukranian perogiey's with Grandma Judy. Maddie loved rolling out and cutting all the dough and then filling them all and watching Gradnma Judy boil them. I enjoyed eating them! YUMMM

They did an amazing job making us dinner and I am going to have to follow this cooking tradition because it is one of Stacy's favorite foods!

16 months

Yesterday you turned 16 months Bella...I cannot believe I am even typing that. Time has just flown by...in a way it seems like you were just born, but then again we cannot remember you not being a part of our family. At 16 months you are a ball of energy! We find that you get bored easily and like to be entertained. When you go out and about you want to walk by yourself and are not shy with anyone!

You love many things right now. You are talking up a storm and repeat pretty much everything we say...in fact you are ALWAYS talking. "I love you" and "Bye bye daddy" are some new things you are saying. You also love saying "No No doggie!!" You like to add an "EEE" sound to all of your favorite words such as "juiceeee" "walkie, walkie" "sissyyy" etc...etc.... You love being held all the time still...and like when we "cuddle" on the couch or in the rocking chair. You still love books and have many favorite stories.

Your favorite foods right now are blueberries, turkey, noodles, bananas, and toast. You still love your bunny and sleep with it every night. You are finally sleeping in your own bed all night long and have even surprised us and slept through the night without a peep several times. Yay!

We love you so very much and get so much joy from you! You are our special baby and mama, daddy, and sissy just love holding you and being with you all the time.

Here are some more of your favorite things at 16 months!

"Pretty" is one of your favorite words and you like all things pretty!

You love your baby dolls and like putting them to "nigh nigh," pushing them in the stroller, rocking them, and reading to them.

You love being outside!

Little Gym is still one of your favorite places to be

You adore your big sister and ask for her first thing every morning!

You love opening the cupboards and getting out all the bowls to play with while mama is cooking or cleaning up

You ask us to turn the music on for you and you love dancing around

Balls! We love you Bella and think you are one of God's greatest gifts and blessings!

B-A-N-A-N-A-S

Due to Bella's food allergies she wasn't able to have bananas because of a reaction when she was 7 months old...however she had some the other day. FINALLY! She LOVED them... Well she was unsure at first but, you can tell how she feels about these bananas by the look on her face.

Here she is checking out the texture of the banana...very cautiously

She was still unsure of this new food on her tray so she decided to waste some time and feed her bunny some of her cheerios....so nice to share Bella!

"Yummmy mommy...I love these things you call bananas!"

She was so pleased...she even kept doing her sign language for "more" bananas! This may be one of her new favorite foods.

Visit to the New Library

I love libraries. Some of my best childhood memories were spent in libraries....piling up books in my arms to check out. I have always loved books and loved to read...devouring every book I can. I spend less time reading now than I would like....but I want my children to love reading and going to the library. I hope to help them create special memories of the library like I have. Sooo...we spent the morning at the new Milton Library. It was AWESOME! They have a wonderful children's section....

Bella found some books to read....

And a few toys to play with

This was the only picture Maddie would let me take of her...she was too busy reading through all the new books and didn't want to pause for her mom to snap any more pictures.

Bella played with some puzzles....

Then we read some more books

and we left with this awesome "Baby Packet" that has a bunch of books and music for babies...I love this idea. It was a successful trip to the library...both girls got some great selections to read at home and even some great FREE movies. I really love that you can get free movies at the library. We would most definitely recommend going to visit the new Milton Library!

Rainy Spring Break Date

Max....(otherwise known as "Mac" to Bella) came over for a play date the other day! It had been way too long since these two had seen each other. They had lots of fun! After they left Bella kept going to the front door and asking for "Mac" to come back over.

Max liked the shopping cart, but Bella couldn't understand why she couldn't get in and have him push her around.

They had a little break to rehydrate....

Max had fun and was full of smiles.....

So was Bella....

Hey, these two even did a great job of sharing... Thanks for coming over Max..let's do it again really soon.

Table Time

Today is the first day of spring break and the weather is terrible so we are basically staying indoors. We started the morning off with some good quality table time

Bella was so proud to sit at her table like a big girl and get out the crayons.....

She spent about 15 minutes dumping the crayons out....

Then putting them back away again.....

Finally some scribbling time.....

Sitting at the table reading her book.