spring & summer updates

8+ months pregnant and here's some fun highlights I gathered....

 Easter Egg hunt at the Averills

Massanutten with the Devries

Noah's memorable Mother's Day surprise at school.

 Chloe in short hair has given me life back.  Baths are so much less painful and I just love the bob :)

practicing

When it's quiet, something's up. I had just gotten a pedicure and done Chloe's nails. I was doing laundry when I got a whiff of something.  I shouted, "Eli!", heard the bottle drop, ran downstairs and there he was proud of his toes. He see's me and says, "Like Mommy's!"

We went to the beach for Memorial Day weekend with the Averills. While we were there we got to spend time with the DeCarlos, Rohwer's and Loftness's. We couldn't have had a better time!

More trouble. This time I found him behind the couch playing with a stick of butter.

 Jimmy Cone after the pool

 :)

First S'more and & first kid to like it the first time.

 I don't want to forget how you love to walk with your hands in your pockets. 

My ballerina & her sweet friend, Kaelyn.  Their friendship started at babies and here they are.

Eli sayings

Eli, being the 3rd, has definitely picked up talking the quickest and anytime he has a chance to put a sentence together, he does.  Things we love to hear you say...
"Look, Chloe wake up!"
"Tata coming, tata make ijja" (a special breakfast)
"shh, Daddy working in office"
"read a book he-ah (here)"
"Mommy do-dit"
"Gracie, come out!"
And our favorite when you shout it cheerfully, "I did it!"

question of the week

I was telling the kids that Grace is getting bigger and she's going to be ready to come out in a couple months. As Noah is staring at my belly, he gets this perplexed look on his face and asks, "Mom, is Jesus going to use 'the Force' to take Gracie out?"  "Ummm something like that,"  I responded.

Goodbye Winter, Hello Spring

Spring is here! We wrapped up the winter with strep, ear infections and the flu, but overall it was actually one of my favorite winters minus 2 trimesters worth of  nausea and vomiting. We had a blizzard and you guys LOVED being in the 3 feet of snow that we got.  Eli had a hard time because he didn't want to wear boots and insisted on crocs so he couldn't stay out too long. It was a great week together being indoors playing games, watching superbook, reading, pillow fights and drinking lots of hot chocolate. You guys did awesome playing together building forts and  just enjoying each other...

2016 Blizzard

 the Jedi training continues

 Happy Valentines day to me & Chloe from Noah :)

 Eli preparing his wiping skills for Grace's arrival

 Daddy and Chloe fell asleep on the couch and Eli was trying to convince me he was "seeping"too

You 2 wanted me to get this picture of you :)

Helping Tayta make Auntie Susan's bday cake

Reading in your train tent

A Cherry Blossom! Yep, there was only one tree that blossomed while we were there and we walked the Tidal Basin just to get this picture. 

Disney World

We did it. We took you guys on a long, fun, exciting and exhausting trip to Disney.  You all had so much fun and I think we hit your maximum potential for fun each day. Mom-Mom and Grandpa came with us, and since Tayta couldn't join us, she gladly took Eli for the week. We were so grateful! We started our trip with what I think was our highlight, breakfast at Cinderella's castle. Chloe met Cinderella immediately along with a few others princesses during our meal.  I don't think she knew how to react and we had to work on transforming her shocked face into a smiley one through out the trip. Noah's highlight was probably Hollywood studios where he encountered Darth Vader face to face and enjoyed the Star Wars adventures. Noah was fearless and rode every roller coaster at the parks and enjoyed the thrill. I wish I could have ridden too, but it was way too early for me to go into labor.  My favorite night was at Magic Kingdom where we all enjoyed the parade, castle show & fireworks. We also took a trip to Legoland, which I think would have been more fun had we not been in Disney for so long. I think you guys were simply pooped, but we made the most of it. And on our last evening there we celebrated Grnadpa's birthday at Olive Garden.  It was a great week, yet it was great to come home too. Eli was so excited to see us come home, and I wish I had captured the moment he saw Chloe & Noah on video. 

Oh and another highlight came after our breakfast at the castle:

Mom: Noah, so who's your favorite princess?

Noah: You are!

Y

Kylo Ren unsuccessfully tried to talk Noah into going to the dark side 

Grandpa sitting on a bench made of 800 recycled milk gallons :)

Legoland...

Not many good guys for Noah to get pictured with :(

Happy 75th birthday Grandpa!