Project 365 ~ April

After the medical craziness, April was a nice change of pace with just a few simple blood draws here and there.  With all positive increases in platelet numbers!  Woohoo!  I did miss a few days during April, but I really love having this record to go back on to see what all we accomplished during the month.

And so...here's our month in review!  

We went for several walks around the neighborhood...

Nora had her first belly to back roll...and it might have startled her just a bit...

We celebrated 4 months with Nora...

I successfully planned the Easter egg hunt at our church...

and we spent Easter Sunday celebrating with family...

Nora sat in her high chair for the first time...but no food yet...

Elyse introduced Nora to the excitement of red wagon rides..

And we took a few comparison shots--Elyse 4m2w on the left & Nora 4m1w on the right!  Twinsies!

Elyse was constantly her silly self...

Hubby got his girls dressed up in their Cardinals gear for the Opening Day @ Busch Stadium...

I went back to Zumba for the first time in over 6 weeks, and it felt amazing...

This  girl showed a bit of the "trying 3s" and we had some rough days, but we seem to have worked through it...

Nora experienced the joy of the the jumparoo...and loved it!  

We did more belly to back rolling, but haven't quite figured out how to do back to belly.   

We ate our fair share of ice cream, and with sprinkles of course! 

I planned a girls' night out and we had a fabulous dinner just hanging out and laughing.  A LOT.  

 Nora kept smiling.  All the time.  

Mamaw planned a perfect princess party for Elyse.  For no reason other than just for fun!  Decorations, cake, crowns, capes, and heart shaped grilled cheese were all included!  

We realized Nora was maybe getting a bit too big for Elyse to hold her on her lap.  

Just before her 5 month birthday, I ventured out with both girls' to Target and birthday shopping for Hubby.  We survived and we all napped well that afternoon!  

 Cousin Jackson got to see his precious Baby Nora...

& Gigi dressed Nora with some funny looking leg warmers aka socks when the weather was a bit more cool than we had dressed her for!  

I won some cool mom points when we had a picnic lunch on the playset!  

And I cherished some full-lap, full-heart moments reading with my girls on my days off...

To end the month, we found out that the next baby in our family will need more blue than pink...my brother & his wife are expecting a baby boy in October!  Poor kid, he better learn to love baby dolls & princesses too!  

Easter 2015

Well I just realized that I uploaded all of our Easter pictures last week, but never actually finished the post.  We had quite the busy Easter weekend, which will probably remain the case for many years to come!

We started things off on Saturday morning with our Easter Egg hunt at church. However, things were a little different this year because...I WAS IN CHARGE!!!!  Along with another lady from church and several volunteers, I organized our hunt this year which included 4000 eggs, a couple of bounce houses, a complimentary hot dog lunch, and some various Easter games.  Along with our church family, we also specifically invited some ministries in the area that reach out to single moms.  I have to pat myself on the back just a tad and say that the event went off wonderfully! Sure...there are a few things I would have done differently, but overall it was a great success!

After the event at church was over and all cleaned up, we headed to Hubby's parents' house for a quick Easter celebration.  We had another egg hunt for the kids, and then we spent most of the afternoon just hanging out and enjoying the sunshine!  

I do have to admit that in many ways I completely failed at Easter this year.  Well...at least when it came to doing Easter stuff.  With all of Nora's medical drama, March just flew by and the last thing on my mind was pulling out all of the Easter decorations and filling every day with Easter-related fun.  However, I did manage to buy a few jelly beans that I had Elyse plant...and guess what?!?  They grew into suckers!   She totally thought this was amazing and it literally took me all of 2 minutes!

I did also manage to fill the girls' Easter baskets (not new matching baskets as I'd hoped...but there's always next year).  For Nora we included a swimsuit and sun hat, a couple of new headbands, and her very first bible.  And for Elyse we included a swimsuit, new flip flops, bubbles, sidewalk chalk, a new jump rope, headbands (which she hates), and just a touch of candy.  We definitely lean towards the practical side of things for Easter baskets.

Before church we actually managed a timer-taken family photo with everyone actually looking at the camera...and I was also able to manage a couple of father/daughter & mother/daughter shots!  You might recognize the girls' Easter outfits from Nora's 3-Month photo shoot...hey, I can't waste that much cuteness on just one photo shoot!

After church we headed down to my parents' house for the annual family Easter gathering.  The weather was pretty much awful, but we did manage another group photo, some dance party shenanigans from Elyse, and even a quick Easter egg hunt outside.  However, our darling, prissy, princess was more concerned about a few raindrops that were on the plastic eggs than she was about the candy actually hiding inside.  Silly girl...we're seriously going to have a "who cares if we get a little bit wet or dirty" intervention.  It's ridiculous.  Really.