Easter

We invited some friends to do an Easter egg hunt with us in the courtyard of our apartment complex. The McFaddens came and we had a great time.  The kids loved playing on the playground and eating the candy in the eggs.

Nelli loved looking for the eggs and found 3/4 of them, while Damian and little Nelly were satisfied picking up two or three eggs and eating the candy inside.  We split up the eggs more evenly and Nelli got to eat a few jelly beans and was pretty happy about it.

I really liked that it was a sunny, fairly warm day for the end of March.  This egg hunt worked out great!

Woodland Park Zoo

We had a super fun afternoon at the zoo. These pictures illustrate our favorite parts.

Time on Daddy's shoulders:

 The orangutans:

 Warming her hands in Daddy's shirt:

 Falling asleep on Daddy's head (We thought this was hilarious!):

St. Patrick's Day 5k

Go Tay.  (If you look close you can see Scott, Tay's Dad, smiling big off to the left of the finish line.)

Taylor has started running again and Tyler is loving the idea of having a running buddy again. This was Taylor's first race in the past 4+ years and he really enjoyed it.

 It was a cool morning and the boys were both beat the rest of the day, but still loved that they did it.

Our New Addition

 



So, we're excited to announce our little addition coming in September. Tay wanted to keep it just between us for a while to really enjoy the news. I told him that I told Nelli already and he thought she wouldn't be able to keep it quiet. I thought otherwise until the next day when we left her with Tyler and Ali to babysit while Tay and I went on a date. We found out that the first thing she told them was that mommy had a baby in her tummy--that little snitch.  We started telling family and close friends after that.

 

Nelli has been already talking to my stomach and excited about how she's going to be a "big sister." She said that she's growing bigger and bigger and when she's mommy's size she's going to get married in the temple and then have a baby in her tummy.

 



Her nurturing/mommy kick has gotten more intense. We went to visit my friend, Debbie, who just had a baby and had him in a carrier.  Nelli thought this was the coolest idea and asked me to put her baby in her shirt...she wore the baby for 2 days, not even taking it out for bed.  We'd take it out to get her cleaned up and ready for the day, then the baby would go right back in her "carrier."  The amazing thing is that she would do everything like she normally would with the baby in there. She'd climb on things, play, read, give me big uncomfortable hugs, etc.  This girl! =)

 

A week or so we went shopping for maternity pants.  Motherhood had a "belly-to-be" that you could strap on while trying on the pants to simulate what you would be like at 7 months pregnant.  Nelli thought this was too good to pass up.  I love how she's checking herself out in the mirror...

Hammock

We had just finished doing our morning house clean up, when Nelli was asking to go swinging. She loves swinging and hasn't had much time on one since the rainy season began, so Octoberish. I got a stroke of genius and thought we could make one on the bar in her closet, it turned into more like a hammock and she loved it. I think we'll keep it up for a while.  =)

Happy Valentines Day

Gymnastics

Nelli started a gymnastics class in January for 1-3 year olds at Northshore Gymnastics in Woodinville. We've been loving it!  Coach Courtney sets up four or five courses for the kids to do, which usually include summersaults, balance beams, trampolines, and slides. The courses have been different every time we've gone.  I like that they offer the class every weekday and you just pay as you go, which I found was much better then the other gyms I looked into that you pay a membership fee and a course fee and you have to commit to a day and time.