The Tragic Egg Dying Party

We did have to pull out the Baby Einstein to keep her happy.

Grace and Lyla came over last week to dye Easter eggs. Each girl got two and a half dozen eggs to dye and they loved every minute of it. Elye watched from her high chair the whole time. It is amazing how attached they become to their eggs after spending all that time creating them. They played bird with them upstairs when they were done.

The tragedy came when Grace was carrying her and Lyla's eggs down the stairs. The basket tipped and their eggs went tumbling down the stairs. It broke most of the eggs and her heart. She cried and cried and cried. I thought we were going to have to go buy more eggs and have another egg dying party, but she somehow got past it and moved on. Even with the tragic ending it was a fun afternoon.

Easter Hunt at the Ezell's

The Ezells have an Easter egg hunt for the church every year. This year the weather was beautiful. It was a little chilly in the morning, but it warmed up and felt great. I meant to get a family picture, but Larry had to leave early for baseball and I forgot to get one before he left. Maybe next year. Reesi had a blast playing on their amazing playground, hunting eggs, and eating her Easter basket lunch. Of course, I think the candy was her favorite part.

11 Months

You were trying to get away, your sister was trying to hold you back, and you ended up crawling down the hallway with your booty in the air.

Elye, at eleven months you,

-love to clap. You clap all the time. When I get you out of bed, when I smile at you, and for no reason at all.

-have a top tooth poking through.

-are boycotting baby food. You will pretty much only eat your cereal in the morning and sometimes your soy yogurt. Your favorite finger foods are banana, strawberry, noodles, rice, black beans, and green beans.

-have figured out how to use your sippy cup. You can tip it up on your own and you can drink out of a straw.

-still have no interest in walking. I can't convince you to use your walker.

-have stood on your own for about 5 seconds. However, you are such a cautious baby that you slowly crouched back down to the safe ground.

-have become a wiggle worm on the changing table.

-throw up when you have to take medicine. We spent three weeks, three doctor visits, three antibiotics, three shots, and tons of towels full of throw up to finally get rid of your ear infection.

-are learning some sign language. You will do milk, but you also do milk for all done and you say, "ba, ba" (all done). You have done more a few times mimicking me.

-are super fun because you will mimic lots of things.

-give love(hugging) and kisses but, mostly to babies or baby dolls.

-love the stairs. Our temporary baby gate is our big sofa chair pushed in front of the stairs. It looks great from a decorating standpoint! (ha)

-have learned how to turn around and back down the stairs.

-love this spring weather and wagon rides. When I bring you in you scream!

-drink around four eight ounce bottles a day.

-still take two naps. Two or more hours a piece on a good day.

-sleep from 7:30 to 7:30. Thanks to daylight savings we finally got you to sleep past 6:30!

-are the happiest baby. You smile at everyone who passes by and your Sunday school teachers say you are the happiest baby in the class, clapping, patting the table, and smiling.

-weigh 17 pounds and 5 ounces.

Six Years

Reesi, at six years old you . . . .

-are the sweetest girl. Every time I talk to your teacher she tells me how tender your heart is.

-are still pretty obedient. However, you have your moments. Like last night on the way home from the mall: You were supposed feed Elye one noodle at a time so she wouldn't fall asleep on the way home. Instead, you just plopped the whole container in her lap and let her pull noodles out and throw them all over her car seat. When I finally figured out what was going on you showed no remorse. You just laughed and laughed. That is until we got home and I made you clean every bit of it up. You didn't think it was so funny then.

-are a plant lover. You have been saving seeds since last fall waiting to plant them for this spring.

-are a slow worker in school. That was the main issue in our last conference.

-still show no interest in sports. We tried to talk you in to softball this spring. You just said, "Next year." I wonder what your answer will be next year?

-can do push-ups better than me! Your daddy has been making you do push-ups and sit-ups before bed on most nights. You're so proud of yourself.

-still love to sing and now you have become quite the dancer in the car.

-wear Grace's hand-me-down "heels" everywhere you go. You love them.

-weigh 37 pounds and 6 ounces - 8th percentile

-are 43.8 inches tall- 25th percentile

Finishing Up Spring Break

The girls and I finished up our spring break at my parents' farm in Indiana. Julie and Easton hitched a ride so it was good to spend some time with my new baby nephew. I think Reesi still thought she was in Florida because she spent most of her days in her swimsuit. She also made the world longest straw. She was so proud and asked me to email the Guinness Book of World Records. She even told her teacher at church that she was going to be in it and the first thing she asked when she woke up the next morning was if they had replied to tell us that she was in. I hated to disappoint her, but she took it pretty well. She just went on to make the world's shortest straw.

I love the backs of babies' heads. Elye was so sweet with Easton. She would give kisses and hugs.

I think Easton looks just like his dad in this picture.

One of her sweet kisses.

Florida

Over our spring break we spent a quick four days in Florida with Lesli and the boys. Unfortunately, Jeff is still stationed in New Mexico and now it has officially been a year since we've seen him! We were supposed to leave Friday night, but due to Elye's ear infection that wouldn't go away we had to hang around for her last Rocehpin shot. So we arrived around dinner time Saturday night. We went to our favorite bar-be-que pit, East Coast Bar-be-que (I think that's the name?). Elye enjoyed the live music bopping back and forth in her high chair, while Reesi enjoyed spending our quarters on their junk machine.

The next day after Elye's morning nap we headed to Pensacola. We stopped at Tommy's Sno Balls on the way and Elye got her first taste of a sno ball. I hadn't planned on giving her any, but when she saw everyone else enjoying it she screamed until I gave in. Then she kept screaming between every bite because I couldn't get it in her mouth fast enough! We stopped at the beach for some quick shell hunting. It was so windy, which made it pretty chilly, so we didn't stay long. Next stop was Pensacola for the Naval Air Museum where Reesi decided she was going to be an astronaut because she loved their freeze dried strawberries. Before heading home we ate at Surf Burgers and ended the night in the kacuzzi(I know I need to tell Reesi that it is really a jacuzzi, but it's one of her last words that she says wrong.) at Lesli's.

Day Three we went putt-putting, got crab legs for dinner, and Larry and I went to see Shutter Island while Lesli watched the girls. The last day we had lunch on the beach, played in the sand some, and then headed home. We hated that our trip was so quick, but that's the beauty of baseball season! It was just nice to have a few days away to see some family.

Elye did not like the flash.

The stroller wouldn't stroll very well on the beach, but it was nice to have somewhere to put Elye so she wasn't eating the sand.

Reesi was so excited about the beach. Notice she's the only one with her suit on. She didn't seem to notice that it was freezing.

Austin, Parker, and Lesli

The best family shot we managed.