Lately

This post is a bunch of random pictures from around here lately.  Most from my phone...it's just much more handy than my big camera!

April 18- we had our first fire of the year.  Which means first s'mores of the year too!

Nora was too busy taking bites to smile :)

Handsome boy!

April 19- Atley got her first taste of avocado!  She liked it!

Leaning in to take a bite!

Trying to pick some of it up.

April 20- Atley got her first big girl bath!

She's a fan of more space!

April 21- Ethan had a book/art fair.  He was really wanting to go, so I went with him.  It was fun, walking around the school halls looking at all the students' art.  And then we found 2 books to bring home at the book fair!

We found Ethan's fish in a bag!

April 22- We discovered that Atley loves toast sticks.  She will mush them up one after another!  Also, Nora loves to make her hands hot (see photo below) and fell asleep on my chest :).

Gnawing on her toast

"I just squeeze them really tight, like this!"

This is very rare :)!

April 23- Atley and Max

Atley loves to watch Max.  She thought it was so funny when he licked her hand!

April 25- Story time with Daddy

Nora wasn't very interested in this story ;)

April 27- Smiley Atley

She has started wrinkling up her nose when she smiles.  It's so cute!

Visitors

Saturday afternoon we had some very special visitors!  One of my best friends from long long ago was in town to speak and share about her family's mission work in the middle east.  Elizabeth and her husband Hap (and their 5 kids!) have been over seas for a little over 3 years and are back for the summer on furlough.  I'm so happy they are back.  It's been 3 years since we've seen each other and between the two of us, there are 3 new babies!  Elizabeth had twins, Abigail and Abram, in December and they were the only ones to make the trip to Decatur.  My kids were happy to have visitors, but missed the 3 older boys!  We had a great time catching up and eating dinner together.  The kids had a blast playing with Hap and I got to snuggle 2 sweet little babies while my sweet baby looked huge!  

Ethan, Atley & I, Nora holding Abigail and Elizabeth with Abram.  The next time we get together, there will be 3 more boys in this picture :)!

Hap giving Ethan his last pony ride!

Nora's pony ride

Hap wanted to try his keffiyeh on Jared before speaking at the church on Sunday.  He looks good, don't you think?!

6 Month Check-Up

We had Atley's 6 mo check up this morning.  She is doing well and growing up!  She had to get 2 vaccines today :(, but she did well with them.

6 Month Stats:

• Weight:  17 lbs 2 oz (55%)
• Length:   26 3/4 in (75%)
• Head:      16 3/4 in (50%)

She went crazy for the paper on the exam table!  She loved it and kept trying to eat it.

Too busy to look up!

Chewing on her taggie made by Grandma Terri

Sisters!

Easter Sunday

What a beautiful Easter Sunday we had here!  We started the day checking out Easter baskets before getting ready for church.  Then went to church to celebrate our Risen Jesus!  Since there were no classes for school-aged kids, Ethan got to come to "big church" with Jared and I.  I love having him in there on occasion.  And he's becoming quite the reader, so he was able to sing along with us, with the words up on the screen. 

First up, Easter baskets!

Nora is excited about their new movie

Ethan loved playing Scrabble!

Happy girl with her Easter goodies

Atley's first Easter!

Before church, I snapped a few pictures of our kiddos in their Easter finest :).

Ethan and Nora

Love these 3!

Silly girl ;)

Mr. Handsome

Happy Easter! Jesus is ALIVE!

I never got around to making a menu and shopping for an Easter dinner...so after church, we went to Texas Roadhouse!  It was delicious and fun!  And Atley got her very own seat at the table :)!

Our side of the table!

Nora and Daddy- she always chooses to sit by daddy

While Atley was napping, we decided to throw together a last minute egg hunt for Ethan and Nora in the backyard.  They loved it!  

Coming down the hill, ready to hunt!

Nora's first egg!

Silly boy...checking out the content before putting it in his bucket :)

Looking for more!

Nora got one!

And another!

Climbing the ladder to get to one

She's so cute!

Time to open them up!

Happy kids = Happy parents

Candy, snacks, money AND a coupon for ice cream!

Mini Golf

The mini golf place opened up for the season recently, so we decided to go yesterday.  It was so fun!  Nora did much better this year and actually played all 18 holes and Ethan, of course, loved it!

Such a good big brother!

Hanging with the flamingos

Good putt, Ethan!

Daddy, helping Nora

She was so excited every time she hit the ball in the hole!

Ethan got a hole in 1!

And I got back to back holes in 1 :)!

Sitting pretty on the peacock

I love these two, so much!

We finished our fun outing with some fro-yo at Cherry Berry!

Atley Meets Food

Since starting rice cereal and oatmeal with Atley, we've introduced peas, green beans, mum mums and puffs!  She isn't overly excited about food, actually.  She tolerates it and will eat it, but doesn't get excited.
First up, peas...  (March 31)

Let's see...

Not sure...

And a big fat, no thank-you!

Since peas were a no go, I broke out the mum mums!  She enjoyed them!

Much better :)!

I will admit, I made the peas and I don't think I got them smooth enough for her.  There was gagging involved.  We decided to try some Gerber-made green beans the next time (April 2).  She was much more into those.  She even finished half the container.  

Happier girl with green beans

Atley got some puffs in her Easter basket, so we tried them out tonight.  She enjoyed trying to pick them up and get them off her fingers.  

Checking it out.

Got it!

Tasty

This baby girl is growing up way too fast!