Big shot

I seriously cannot believe that my baby is growing and changing so fast. She can scoot all around the room in the blink of an eye. And she's sitting up and balancing so well. She's such a big shot.

Egg dying and hunting

We dye eggs every single year. And I love all the pretty colored eggs sitting in their cartons ready to be hidden away. I was excited for Ingrid to get in on the dying action this year. But I knew she wouldn't like getting dye on her hands. That girl doesn't care too much for a mess. We tried using kool-aid this year (thanks for the idea Amy!) and it worked pretty good. Ingrid couldn't wait for the eggs to dry because she wanted to put stickers on them right away. She did so good until a little spot of dye wouldn't come off her wrist. Then she practically gouged a huge hole out of her arm trying to get it off. So instead of a little spot of dye, she had a huge scratch. Needless to say, her dyeing days were done after three eggs! Amelia and Elise were all about the eggs and they did an excellent job. Liv hung out in the exersaucer, bouncing away in her bunny socks. The girls exchanged their gifts to each other and played the night away. Earlier that day, all the girls went to the egg hunt down on the square and Ingrid got her picture in the paper! This is the second time that girl has made the news. This time she was on the front page. I didn't have my camera at that egg hunt so no pics from me. I have plenty of photos from our family hunt on Easter Sunday. The girls had such a great time running around looking for eggs. Amelia was so fast I only have one pic of her! I've never been much of an egg hunter, so I'm glad it's the girls' turn!

Easter Sunday

I seriously have 21 blog posts that I need to write. We have done so many fun things and I have so many wonderful pictures. I am finding it so hard to fit everything into a day. School this time of year is so draining. Physically and emotionally. And this is with an EXCELLENT class. I love my class so much. I wish I could loop with them throughout elementary. But I can't...And I'm sure I'll love my next class too. But, back to the subject at hand--Easter Sunday! We had a fabulous Easter celebrating our risen Savior!! Ingrid and Liv are too young to understand the significance of this sacred holiday, but I pray that they hold it close to their hearts always. We started the morning with baskets from the Easter Bunny! Both girls got new books underneath their baskets. Ingrid got a Snow White lego set to add to her collection, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse coloring book, Hello Kitty bunny, another stuffed bunny, squishy ball, sticker set, and candy. Liv got the same stuffed animals, squishy ball, and a new toy with numbers, lights, and 40+ songs and sounds. They were so excited! Liv sat up all by herself for the first time on Easter morning!! (It looks like I'm holding onto her, but she really did it by herself.) Since then she's gotten really good at placing her arms on the ground and balancing for long periods of time. Ingrid helped her figure out her new toy. After looking at our baskets, we had an Easter breakfast and got all dolled up for church. We let all the girls stay in big church with the family and they did really well. Mom got Amelia, Ingrid, and Elise similar dresses for Easter Sunday and they looked so adorable. There wasn't a dress in that style small enough for Liv, and I had already purchased her precious little dress with the ducks on it. Derek snapped some pics of the girls before we ate our Easter lunch. The girls started a little dance party. Elise got a glimpse of Derek and ran to get a close-up! Ingrid and Amelia kept dancing their hearts out. Egg dying and hunting to come!

5 months old

Dear Liv Riley,

It's hard to believe you have only been in this world for five short months. I feel as if you've been a part of our family since it began. You are such a joy. You smile and laugh so much. I love to see your eyes light up and your dimples shine. You love to listen to Ingrid and Daddy talk and play. You seem mesmerized as you sit in my lap and soak in everything around you. You are getting very strong! You love to stiffen up your body and legs to let me know you prefer to stand up. You are getting good at sitting up, however. Your balance is pretty good and you can sit up on your own for 15-20 seconds before you start toppling to one side or another. You can roll over both ways. Actually, you can roll all over the place. You are very mobile. You can be off your pallet in no time flat. You are working very hard on getting up on your knees and crawling. You can scoot/crawl backwards quite a long distance. This makes you furious, because you keep getting farther and farther away from whatever toy you are trying to reach. And when you are mad, I'm quite sure the neighbors can hear you. You have such a loud voice! I hate to hear you cry, so I will quickly scoop you up and try to soothe you and calm you down. You are still dealing with some gas/tummy issues that make you upset at times. This breaks Mommy's heart. I hate when you have painful cries. I kept thinking it might have something to do with what I was or was not eating, but now you are strictly on formula and you're still having the gas pains, so I know that wasn't it. Mommy got super sad when you stopped nursing. I loved that bond we had and the closeness it provided. I tried so hard to make it last as long as possible, but I ran out of milk for you. I could only pump once each day at work and I couldn't keep up my supply. You were getting very angry when you nursed, because you weren't getting full. I'm very thankful you take your bottle well, and your formula for that matter. But I'm still sad my breastfeeding days are over. Especially when I'm making a bottle in the middle of the night. You are sleeping a little better. We are on the same sleep routine as last month. I lay you down between 8:00 and 9:00 in your crib. You sleep between 3-5 hours and then wake up to eat. Sometimes you go right back to sleep and I put you in the sleep and play beside my bed. More often than not, that nighttime feeding reenergizes you and you are wide awake and ready to talk to Mommy. This makes Mommy very tired in the morning. But it's all so worth it Liv Riley. I love you with my whole heart and I cannot imagine a single day without you. You are definitely the sunshine on a cloudy day. I love you so!

Love,
Mommy

Church Egg Hunt

Ingrid's first Easter egg hunt was at our church. It was a community-wide egg hunt and they had it broken down into very specific age brackets. This was really good for Ingrid, because there wasn't a ton of kids in her division so she could go at her own pace and still find quite a few eggs. She LOVED finding the eggs but she wanted to open each one as she found it. She would open the egg and declare "There's something in it! CANDY!" each time she found one. It was so sweet. She and Elise and Leeland were all in the same category. Amelia was off with the big three year-olds! Derek held Liv and she watched all the chaos. It's hard to believe that she will be running around in the big middle of it all next Easter! Both Amelia and Leeland won a door prize before the hunt began. It was uncharacteristically hot that Saturday, so we were all sweating the death by the time the egg hunt was over. And it was just 11:00. We went to DQ for an early lunch and called it a great morning.

Catching up and Catching my breath

We have had extremely full weeks and weekends over the last few months. Many memories have been made and I've had so much fun. But, I am tired. A good tired, but tired nonetheless. I have nothing major going on this week so I hope to catch up on some past events and catch my breath a little bit too. This weekend we celebrated Easter and my mom's birthday! We took tons of pics and I'll get to those sometime....a good goal would be mid-May. haha. I laugh, although it's probably true.

A couple of weekends ago, Derek and I took the girls to a church fundraiser. It was a rec building full of bouncy houses! They had a room set up specifically for kids four and under too. Ingrid was super shy at first and didn't want to do anything. I did a few of the big things with her half-crying/half-laughing. The big slide went super fast! I was glad I was hanging on to Ingrid tightly because we definitely got some air! She started warming up a little and did some of the big things with Derek. Then she was ready to try out the little play area again and did great the second time around. Darren and Cole went with us and it took Cole a little while to warm up to the fun too. After an hour, we had to pry Ingrid away, with the promise of a happy meal and Darren let Cole stay until the fundraiser ended. The girls wore their Wisconsin gear from Ryan and Lauren. It was perfect for the occasion! It's getting a little easier to take both girls places now that Liv is a little bigger. I still feel like I've completed a marathon when we get home though!