Happy Easter!

We hope that everyone had a great Easter. The kids really enjoyed it. We're still playing 'hide the egg' games here. I'm wondering how much longer I need to keep the plastic eggs out. Anyway, we dyed eggs this year (we forgot last year) and had a good, if quick, time of it. We had beautiful weather for Easter Sunday which made it great for the Easter egg hunt at church. Here are pics of our dying, Easter and egg hunt!

Nick's update

Just wanted to include a couple new pics of Nick. He is growing so fast. He even had his first boo-boo! Kris put Ryan's truck into 2nd gear while we were gone. Ryan is still getting the hang of it though. He clipped in the back of the legs while I was walking and carrying Nick in my sling. So we both went down. Luckily, Nick had a hat on. He scraped his head on the inside of it when we fell getting a scratch.

He's becoming a very smiley child. He loves to have people talk to him. He's learning to play and enjoys looking at himself in the mirror. He's rolling over well. He gave me 3 nights in a row of sleeping 8 hours straight (and it was when Kris was out of town - how nice for me), since then he is back to 6 hours. He's also getting his first tooth and drooling up a storm.

Doug & Sheri's Wedding (and other stuff)

Two weeks ago, we travelled out to PA for Kris's cousin (and Emma's godfather) Doug's wedding to Sheri. It was a beautiful wedding. We had a great time. The kids especially loved the reception. They loved the dancing and now want to bang their forks on their plates at all meals. They weren't great at the wedding itself, but it was beautiful and we made it through. Here are pictures from the wedding.

We also got to celebrate Nana's birthday while we were out there since my parents were invited to the wedding also. We celebrated the next morning at breakfast before they had to head out to the airport.

Before and after the wedding, we stayed at Kris's mom's house. The kids loved getting to see Grammie and playing with all the toys there. Plus they love to relax on her couch as you can see in the pictures.

Grandmama's 80'th Birthday

A few weeks ago, I travelled to MI with Nicholas for my grandmother's 80th birthday party. A lot of the Knoll family was there. As always, we were very loud and rambuncious. It was great to see everyone there and they were all very happy to get to meet Nicholas (and sad to not get to see Ryan and Emma). The trip was nice and relaxing for me to not have to be yelling at anyone! Here are a bunch of pictures from the party.

Kris had Ryan and Emma at home. They had a nice and relaxing weekend also. Because they are building houses on either side of us (I can't wait for them to be done) Ryan and Emma have a lot of dirt to play in. Here are some pictures of them and the boys across the street playing.

Happy St. Patty's Day

Hope everyone had enough green beer to keep them set until next year. Over here, we settled on having A beer, which was good enough for me.

We've had a busy few weeks over here, between doctors and dentist appointments, teacher meetings and playdates - whew. We are exhausted. And it won't calm down for a while. Last week we had Kindergarten registration. What a step to know that your oldest is getting ready to go to school for real! And to know that your life will be tied to the school calendar for the next 20 years or so.

We've started having movie nights and sleepovers (Ryan in Emma's room). They love the movie night and we're finally starting to watch all of the Disney movies I've collected over the years. Ryan and Emma love the popcorn and being able to eat it in the basement. They tend to get bored a little shy of the ending, but have made it through. We've been trying to get them accustomed to sleeping in the same room and have had three sleepovers and one botched one. The first took them 1.5 hours to calm down, the second 1.25 hours and the third .5 hours. The last one was botched because Emma had moved to the big bed (see below) and Ryan wanted to sleep in the crib. But a lot of climbing and running around was happening and it was called off.

Today, Ryan had his tongue clipped. We have been waiting to get this done, but wanted to do it now and take advantage of all the speech therapy coming our way (we jus started back at Children's hospital). He did really well from what Kris said. The dentist showed how Ryan could now push his tongue out of his mouth. Ryan struggled for the first few hours afterward because we had to put gauze in to mop up the blood and make sure nothing stuck. But once that stopped, he stopped complaining - especially after the lunch of ice cream, pudding, baby oatmeal (who would have guess he would think it was cool). This afternoon, he was back to normal and enjoyed playing outside.

Emma's update is that she is now sleeping in a big bed. And not just a toddler bed or twin - no a queen bed. She looks so little in it. We've had a few nights of her crying and sleeping on the floor, but we tried to put her back into her crib and she climbs right back out. Oh - all this was spurred by her climbing out and opening the door (the first time for that too) and joining me downstairs! That was last Friday. Since then she's gotten more used to the bed and has not really given us any problems. She is talking up a storm and wants to know what everything is. She loves asking questions, especially if she already knows the answer. We just realized that her hair is finally long enough to put in pigtails and ponytails, so she enjoys getting to pick how we do her hair.

Nick is becoming a happy baby. He does pretty well through out the night, but isn't sure when to sleep during the day yet. He will need a nap schedule established for him soon. He's smiling now and becoming a little entertaining. Not really doing much else though. We just moved him up to 6 month clothes and are enjoying dressing him up.

Easter 2010 Pictures

I, along with my mom, took the kids today to get their Easter pictures taken. They all did a great job. Some cajoling was necessary and no one wanted to miss their choice of treat at the food court. But they did beautifully. Everyone looked great! Thank you to my mom, I wouldn't have been able to do it alone!

Nick's 1st Pictures

Here are some pictures from Nick's first trip to the JCPenney's studio! He's so cute. Can't believe he'll be two months old in a few days.

We've been doing some experiments around here. At all our parents houses, we are running out of room to put the kids in individual rooms (had to happen eventually). So we've been trying to get Ryan and Emma accustomed to the idea of sleeping in the same room. We've made a big deal of it by having movie night with popcorn. And then let Ryan sleep in Emma's room. They think it's hilarious. The first time we did it (two weeks ago), they stayed up for an hour and a half talking. This past week it only took them an hour and 15 minutes to calm down. So I'm hoping this week it will be only an hour. If I could keep Ryan in the bed instead of running around, it probably wouldn't take so long. So here's hoping.

Not much else. Snow days are moving to warmer days this week. Ryan has to sign up for kindergarten next week. My mom and Robin are here to help with the kids while Kris is in PA for Doug's bachelor party. We're trying to schedule Nick's baptism. And I finally got to go back to the gym. Kris wants to run the 10k at the Flying Pig and wants me to do it with him, along with my sister and his brother (and anyone else who wants to join). So I need to get in shape! Should help lose the last few baby weight pounds. Took 6 months with Emma and a year with Ryan. I'm hoping for 4 months this time around!