Easter 2013

Christ, the Lord, is risen today. Alleluia!

Sons of men and angels say, Alleluia!

Raise your joys and triumphs high, Alleluia!

Sing, ye heavens, and earth, reply, Alleluia!

Church Easter Egg Hunt

Today we enjoyed our church's Easter egg hunt. This was our second year attending this fun event, and I knew Tuttle would want to participate in all the activities this year! Gram and the Horton family came to celebrate Easter, as well.

We started the morning off with the pony rides. Last year Tuttle was not interested, but he could not wait to be a "cowboy" this year. This made Gram very happy because she grew up riding horses.

Next Tuttle visited with the Easter Bunny. I think this tradition is pretty creepy, but Tuttle did not hesitate to climb up into his lap.

Sweet Siblings.

Gram was so helpful holding Maggie the entire morning. I was able to snap a million pictures, and Jay helped Tuttle with all the activities.

Finally it was time for the big event! I decided to put Tuttle in the 3-5 age group, so he could hunt with Connor and because he is so big compared to 1 and 2 year olds.

Tuttle was eager to find his first egg, but he immediately started to open each egg to discover what kind of prize was inside. We had to encourage him to keep hunting before all the eggs were grabbed up!

Tuttle found a bunch of eggs and loved examining them with Daddy. He stuffed his mouth with every piece of candy he could find! :)

Thank you for joining us, Horton Family!

I just heard some hopping in the living room and discovered that the Easter Bunny has already come to our house. He seemed to like the carrot snack Tuttle left for him :)

Happy Easter!

Aren't You Supposed To Be Napping?

P.S. 

I use my tongue for balance, too. Like mother, like daughter.

Easter Fun!

While Ellie had her one year checkup this morning, the babies and I treated ourselves to breakfast at Dunkin' Donuts, Tuttle's favorite! Even Maggie tasted a few bites of a munchkin donut. :)

We have enjoyed a couple Easter activities this week at home. Yesterday we made Daddy a card to take to work. I think it turned out so cute!

Today we completed the traditional egg dying project. The girls played with some of the paper decoration parts from our kit while Tuttle and I worked on dying the eggs. I stuck to only four colors: red, yellow, blue, and green. Tuttle had a blast and especially liked the eggs with the names on them.

Maggie is still determined to stand up almost all the time. I missed her pulling up, but I caught her standing at the train table and the playroom couch this morning. One of the nurses predicted that she would walk by 9 months. I guess we will wait and see!

I just love this little boy to the moon and back.

We are looking forward to a big egg hunt and church this weekend. I know some babies who are also excited about a visit from the Easter Bunny!

 

Happy Easter!

Mini Vacation and Major Milestone

Jay and I had been looking forward to this past weekend for a while now, and it finally arrived! We both took Friday off and loaded the car for a kid-less mini vacation in Athens. We stopped in Madison to drop the babies off at Grandmommy and Grandaddy's house and headed to Athens to stay at Granny's house. We could not wait to sleep A LOT and eat at several of our favorite Athens restaurants.

We spent Friday afternoon napping, watching mindless televison, and grabbing dinner at Inoko Express. Yum! We talked about going to a movie, but we decided that uninterrupted lounging and sleep took priority.

Saturday we slept in until 9:30am! I had a Facetime date at 11:30 to wedding dress shop with my best friend, Zanna, in Florida. I love modern technology!! She found the most amazing dress, and I cannot wait to watch her strut her stuff in May! Next we drove around Athens a little bit and met some old friends at Aqua Linda for lunch. We had not seen Brandon and Laura in three years, so we had a lot to catch up on, especially the new arrival of their beautiful baby, Lily! :)

With very full stomachs we headed back to Granny's for some relaxing. I took a three hour nap which was HEAVEN! Then we headed downtown for dinner at Last Resort. Although we had to wait about an hour for a table, it was well worth the wait, and we enjoyed a delicious meal complete with dessert from Celicia's bakery (who made our wedding cake!).

My Favorite Athens Dish: Last Resort Praline Chicken

(It was presented much prettier, but I realized I wanted a picture after I had already dived in!)

Then we met up with Carrie and Jason for drinks at Trappeze Pub. I was very impressed that we were out after midnight! :)

Fuzzy Picture, Great Memory

After another morning of sleeping in, we were ready to snuggle our babies! The weekend was perfect and really allowed us to recharge. I am already looking forward to another weekend of hubby time! :)

Sunday I reminded Jay that he needed to lower Maggie's crib. She is obsessed with standing and had been attempting to pull herself up the past several days. It was a good thing the crib was lowered because as soon as I put Maggie to bed, she stood up unassisted! Big Girl!!

Happy Monday!

Happy Eight Months, Maggie Ruth!

Margaret Ruth Thorne has been a part of our family for eight months now.

At eight months, Maggie

• eats 5-6 times a day (with an additional night feeding). She eats 3 six ounce bottles and baby food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. She usually eats one jar for breakfast and lunch and two jars for dinner.
• is starting to become somewhat picky about food. She does not like carrots or peas and even rejects veggie mixes that include peas. She absolutely LOVES yogurt!
• wears 6-9m clothes and 6-12m clothes
• goes to bed about 7:00-7:15 and still wakes up once to eats a 6 ounce bottle anywhere from 11pm-2am.
• still enjoys her bear lovey to snuggle with at night or naps
• has stared to only take half of a 15mg Prevacid tablet each day, and we are about to try every other day.
• still takes a 30-45min nap in the swing in the morning and takes an afternoon nap in her crib for 1-2 hours each day.
• started to CRAWL last week and can successfully move into a sitting position from her back or tummy
• wants to spend all her time standing up by holding onto something (a table, the couch) and can pull herself up to her knees on her own
• still enjoys her door bouncer and exersaucer, but she is completely content playing with toys on the floor. She entertains herself very well.
• has two bottom teeth! :)
• has some interest in table food, but still is not 100% sure about the texture. She has tried chicken and green beans.
• still has a smile that lights up the room!
• frequently takes a bath with Tuttle now and loves every second of splashing around.
• has completely stolen our hearts!!

 We adore you, Maggie Moo Bear!

** This was the first month that the picture was difficult to achieve. She discovered her sticker and wanted to move into a crawling position every time I put her in the corner of her crib. Our little girl is on the move! :)

Springtime, Standing, and Storytime

Just like everyone else in Atlanta, we have been soaking up the warmer weather! I take the babies outside every chance we get. Tuttle always naps later than the girls, so I am itching to load up the stroller the moment he wakes up. Sometimes I cannot stand it and wake him up early! :)

This past weekend we spend some time in the yard with Daddy. Our neighbors stopped by for a little visit, too. I absolutely love our neighborhood and all the friends we have made.

Maggie is officially mobile now. She is starting to piece together moving her hands and legs at the same time to crawl, but she can scoot and pull herself to a toy if she gets determined enough. While she is mastering the crawling skill, she is getting ahead of herself and really prefers to stand up and hold onto something for support. I think her crawling will be VERY short lived before she is cruising/walking. She is an over-achiever already! :)

She can pull herself to her knees unassisted. 

 

I think Maggie especially loves being at the same level as her big brother.

Speaking of standing up, Tuttle is now obsessed with peeing outside. He will even tell me inside that he needs to go to the potty and then insist that he finds a tree or bush outside. At what age does this turn into indecent exposure? :)

I have mentioned that we go to storytime in past posts, but I wanted to be more specific about this new found treasure. I was looking for a storytime after the New Year that would be a regular activity for Wednesdays. I had been disappointed with the Barnes and Noble storytime, and our local library has very sporadic vacations, and I could never keep up with whether or not they were meeting. After a couple times of loading three babies into the car and arriving to an empty library, I knew it was time for a different location!

I decided to try out the Doraville library location. We absolutely LOVE it and have been back every week for several months now. The librarian reads about 6-8 books, and Tuttle is glued to the books the entire time. After reading, she always has a craft planned for the kids. Some of our favorite crafts have included a kite, a paper snake, a calendar for Daddy's office, and a fish counting activity for Dr. Seuss' birthday. The girls are entertained with toys and snacks, so they are so good and happy the entire time, too. We look forward to storytime every week!

Jay and I are very excited about a getaway to Athens this weekend while Tuttle and Maggie stay with Grandmommy and Grandaddy. I cannot wait to sleep past 7am!! :)

No reason for the last two pictures. I just find her so darn cute!!