"Bunny Bag Hunt"

Last Friday, Ethan had a 1/2 day and part of that day was a "Bunny Bag Hunt".  Jared took the day off, so I decided to go help Ethan's class.  I got there a little after some of the other parents, so all the bags were filled already.  All the kindergarten classes participate.  The kids each decorate a bag with a bunny and their name, then the parents donate candy, Easter eggs and assorted other items.  The bags are then filled and placed all around the playground at the school.  After all the bags were out on the playground, the kids came out and searched for their bag.  It sounds easy, but with 180 (or so) kids and white bags, it's difficult to find your own bag.  I walked around with Ethan and it took him a while to find his bag.  It was cold, but so fun!

Ethan with his buddies- Liam and Jaxson, waiting to get to the playground

No Ethan bag here!

Ethan and Jaxson running to find their bags

So excited :)

Found it next to that purple post!

Showing me his bag!

Silly boys

Atley is 6 Months!

Atley Jane is 6 months old today!  The time keeps going faster and faster, it seems!  She is such a joy.  And we can't imagine our lives without her.  We love you baby girl!

A few things about sweet Atley at 6 months...

• She is sitting all by herself (with pillows near by).
• She nurses 5 times a day with cereal in the evenings.  We plan to move cereal to the mornings and add a veggie in the evening very soon.
• She usually takes a decent morning nap (around 9:30) and a good afternoon nap (around 12:30).  She still takes a late nap, right before bed.
• 9 pm is her last feeding of the day and she typically sleeps until 7-7:30.
• She smiles all the time, but it takes a little more to get her to laugh.  She is ticklish most everywhere- her neck and legs seems to bring on the most giggles.
• She is very grabby!  Eating while holding Atley is getting more and more difficult.
• She still hasn't gotten any teeth, but seems close!  She is so so slobbery! 
• She loves playing with her toys and can reach out and grab anything that is in front of her.
• She is very content (for a while) to sit in a lap and watch everything around her.

We headed outside for her 6 month photo shoot!

Look at that sass!  Hand on her hip, posing already ;)!

Ethan still calls Atley "his girl"!  Such a sweet relationship they have.

My 3 biggest blessings!

Atley's 6 month well child visit isn't for a few weeks, so I will post her stats after that.

Weekend with Friends

Last weekend, our good friends (the Lloyd's) came for a visit from Chicago.  The weather was beautiful and we started our time off with a trip to Krekel's...and sat outside!  Between all of our families (Colliers, Lloyds, Taltys and Koskinens) there are 22 of us!  It made for quite the line up on the picnic tables :)!  After we finished lunch, we headed to the park.  It's so nice how well all of our kids play together!

YUM!

Best buddies!  Ethan, Brennan, Camden & Soren

Ethan climbed up to the top!

Ethan and Nora

She loves swinging!  And she's really good at it!

Love these girls!  (Erin, me, Emily, Jessica)

On Sunday, we all planned to go to the late church service and stay afterwards to eat lunch at the church (there are too many of us to go to a restaurant).  So, we ordered pizza, ate, talked and let the kids run wild around the church lobby and in the play place!
This was the only picture I have from Sunday.  Nora and Mayleigh telling each other good-bye.

Such cute girls!!

Around Home

So sorry for the lack of blog posts...We've been busy with normal, everyday life ;).  I have been active posting pictures on Instagram (so check there on occasion).  Anyway, I have a few pictures from the last couple weeks to share.

Nora D

So pretty!

Atley has been loving her exersaucer time lately!

Ethan still loves to hold his baby sis 

Something was funny

Atley and Ethan

Atley has been getting stronger and stronger.  Today she really showed off her sitting up skills!

Big girl sitting up all by herself!

She is growing so fast!

Snow...Round 2

We got another 8 or so inches of snow last night...on top of the left over 5ish inches from last weekend.  We braved the weather and made it to church.  After lunch, I bet you can guess what happened.  Yep, we suited up and headed out to play.  Ethan and Jared are going on 3 hours outside!  They have shoveled, made huge snow mounds, dug a tunnel through the snow, sledded, rolled around and threw countless snowballs.

Rolling around in the snow tunnel

Jared couldn't quite make it ;)

Ethan could!

Ethan & Nora with our new neighbors and friends, Zach and Elizabeth

Nora and Ethan on the snow mound

Atley's 5 Months!

Since Atley was born on the 30th of the month, she doesn't have a "real" 5 month birthday.  So, with this being the last day of February, I'm considering her 5 months old today!

• She is a happy girl! 
• She smiles and giggles a lot
• She loves to sleep- she still takes 3-4 naps/cat naps a day
• She sleeps from about 9pm-7:30am (yay!)

• She's content sitting in someones lap and looking around
• She's trying more and more to sit up on her own

• Looking like a tripod (this doesn't last long)
• And eventually folding in half ;)

• She loves rolling over to her tummy
• She won't stay on her back for long (except while sleeping)- basically rolls over immediately 
• She's a drooling, wet, teething mess!  (Notice the slobber above)
• She has found her toes (but only while getting a diaper change- since she doesn't stay on her back long enough)
• She is really getting the hang of chewing on anything she can get her hands on- but still needs a little help getting a hold of toys.
• She eats about 5 times a day (every 3.5-4 hours)
• Rice cereal is still her only solid food and she gets that around 8pm before her last feeding of the day.
• I forgot to weigh her today so I'll hopefully update soon ;).

We love you Atley Jane.  And are loving watching you grow and learn everyday!  Happy 5 months baby girl!!

Snow!!

We finally got some real snow in these parts!  We've been dying to get out and sled, shovel and play (ok, maybe not the shovel part).  We were forecasted to get 4-7 inches and ended up with 8.  8 inches of fluffy, beautiful, white snow!  I'm pretty sure half of that fell in the first hour and a half of the snowfall!  There were some HUGE flakes coming down last night.  Our good friends, the Koskinen's came over to sled and play this morning.  It was a fun time; even if I was only out briefly to take a few pictures- next year Atley and I will sled :)!

Jared and Ethan

Soren and Ethan heading down the hill

Rolling in the snow= Happy kid!

Nora's ready!

Josh and Kelton

He fell off his sled

She had a blast too!

Love this boy!

Nora, taking Daddy down the hill

The 3 sledders! (It was bright and this was the best I could get)

I love this girl!

Date Night Photos

Last Friday Jared and I went on a date!  Our church was having a babysitting fundraiser, so we dropped the kids off, made our donation and headed out!  Our MOPS program also had a fundraiser.  We had a photographer donate her time to take date night photos of couples in her studio.  Jared and I got some taken and I'm really happy with how they turned out.

I love this man! And I'm so lucky to have him!!

After pictures, we met our good friends, Brian and Jessica for a delicious dinner!!