And Other Things

I'm really behind on updating this, so there are several posts from today. Keep reading below this one to see what's been going on. Besides everything below, we've been having some fun things going on around here. We have had some beautiful weather lately, which has prompted some trips to the park. The kids enjoyed it, although my daredevil, Emma, was hesitant at first on both the swings and the slide. It must have been a while.

We have been continuing our movie/sleepover Saturdays. The kids recently found the princess bath toys that Emma got from Aunt Kelli and Uncle Rick for her birthday last year (they had been in our pool toys). This has inspired them to want to watch the princess movies that I've had for years instead of just the 'boy' movies. We've watched Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White now. I think The Little Mermaid might be next. The kids really enjoy getting to sit in the basement and have popcorn (we've also been watching a movie when we drive to P&G for diaper studies since we've been doing it weekly for a while now - gotta love free diapers). Since Emma moved into the big bed in her room, we have had two successful sleepovers and one unsuccessful sleepover. The unsuccessful one was when we kept the crib up and let Ryan sleep in it, but had to cancel it when there was too much running around. The next week, Ryan told Emma to stay in bed and she mostly listened. This past week, he told her the same thing, but she climbed in with him (we took the side off the crib to make it into a toddler bed). I just had to sneak in a take a picture of them sleeping together in there! Half way through the night, Emma moved back to her bed - they were tired afterward, but enjoyed it.

This week, we're going to Nana's house during spring break since Kris is travelling. This will be the first time they are sharing a room there. Should be interesting.

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.