I am so thankful that God has blessed me with these two amazing kids.

But we all know that getting a picture with two kids looking at the camera is quite the challenge.

Silly girl, this is what she does to Bryan to melt his heart all the time.

In order to get him to smile we have to take a crazy one. Who isn’t up for some fun!

Love them!

Last weekend Finley was sick so we had decided to take turns going to church. Bryan and Deacon went Saturday night and I went on Sunday. When I came home I was greeted with these signs all over the house.

I had to collect them all to solve the riddle to find out what my present was.  I had a great helper.

In the end, it was a day at the spa! Every mom’s dream, or at least my dream day. Bryan stayed at home on Wednesday while I went to the spa with Christina for a massage, manicure and pedicure and then a late lunch.

I am so thankful that he was not only willing to do that but that he truly appreciates what I do.

We spent most of the day at home just hanging out, but we ended the day with getting out of the house to go for a walk.  Love these two.

Bryan went above and beyond what I deserve this Mother’s Day but I am grateful for everything he did to make it special.

Deacon and Daddy ready to go.

Bryan was shocked when he turned down cotton candy and all the other vendor food, so when Deacon requested a “gift” instead Bryan was willing. Apparently Deacon wanted the Tinker Bell version but they finally agreed on Mickey Mouse.

Such a fun night for the two of them.

You are wearing mostly 6-9 and 9 month clothes. You wear a size 3 diaper and 1 or 2 shoes.

You are still a great sleeper and we are so thankful.  You sleep 11-12 hours at night.  You take a good morning and afternoon nap.  Sometimes you like to sneak an extra afternoon nap in.  You take the best naps in your own bed.

You nurse mostly every 3 hours, except for in the morning you will go  4-4.5 hours.

You are eating 3 meals a day.  This week I started giving you yogurt in the morning and you love it.   Then you eat 4 cubes of a mixture of fruits and vegetables for both lunch and dinner.  You aren’t too picky and if you don’t seem to like a certain food I mix it in with one of your favorites and you don’t seem to notice.

You love to say, “mmm” while you eat.

In the last week you have started eating Puffs.  Your doctor said at your 6 month check up that we could try them.  We do break them up into smaller pieces but you don’t seem to have any problem picking them up and eating them.

I started introducing you to the sippy cup very early just for sips of water after your food.  You are now a pro at drinking out of a sippy.  You still don’t drink much water and enjoy playing with your cup.   More than anything you like throwing it on the floor.

You still only have 2 teeth and you know how to use them.  I have been the victim of your biting habit more than I like and it seems as though you only like to bite me.

This month you have been working on crawling.  For a few weeks you would get up on your hands and knees and rock back and forth.

Then a few nights ago you took off, slowly, but you did it.  Of course the first thing that motivated you to move was Deacon’s Legos.  You love going into his room and playing with his toys.

If we set something out and you want it you will get to it any way you can.

It is only a matter of time.

This week you make a big step at becoming a Daddy’s girl.  He went out of town and when he came home, you could not get enough of him.  You  already know how to work him.  You tilt your head to one side and reach out your arm and I think it melts his heart every time.

This week you tried to stand up in the bath tub.  You are constantly trying to pull up on things but that was the first time you had actually stood up.  I’m not ready for that yet!

You love your walker and the freedom that it gives you to go where you want.  You have recently discovered that you can open drawers, and reach things when you are in your walker.  When I tell you no, you give me a sweet, innocent look like I am crazy for telling you no.

You love your toys.  You are so great at entertaining yourself.  I can sit you in your room with some toys out and you will play for about 30 minutes.  Recently I have started putting a basket of toys in front of you and you like to get the toys out and put them back in.

You are so full of personality!

We love you so much sweet girl.

It is amazing how fast 7 months have went by.

Finley and Deacon at 7 Months

Finley was all dressed in her Cardinals get up to cheer on her big brother.

Warming up before the game.

Ready for the game to begin!

Fielding

Love this!

I am quite certain he jumps more than anyone else.

Cheering on the boys.

They all swarm the ball every time it is hit.

The goal every time is to get the ball and throw it to 1st base.

Daddy helping him get his helmet on for his 1st at bat.

On 1st base, ready to run.

I love how they all line up waiting for the ball to be hit.

And then the race is on.

I am having issues getting these videos to post, but it you click on this link and the next page that it brings up you should be able to watch them.

Deacon’s 1st at bat.

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Running the bases.  He feels the need to slide every time he gets to home plate, even when his dad tells him not to.

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Finely is a crazy person in her walker, she will run you over…especially if you have food. On this particular day she felt the need to pull this chair around.

Deacon is a Lego fanatic.  I am amazed at some of the things he comes up with.  There have been several instances where I think Bryan has helped him build something to find out that he did it all on his own while Bryan is at work.  He definitely has his Dad’s engineering brain.

We have had several birthday parties lately and here is Deacon with his best buddy Reed celebrating Reed turning 3!

He has a rough life doesn’t he.  Here he is “resting” after school while watching a movie he picked out.  He is a little addicted to Red Box.

We still have a lot to do around the house and Bryan is in charge of hanging things on the wall.  For some reason he doesn’t seem to like when I take this task on myself.  Deacon of course loves to help.

Proudly showing off Finley’s mirror.

During the week we have 2 days that Deacon doesn’t have school and those days are usually filled up too.  Recently we had a day where we stayed home all day and I loved it!  Deacon loves to play games so we played several games and Left, Right, Center is on of his favorites.  And yes, he dressed himself.

I’m not sure when it happened but it seems like overnight Finley became so big.

She has been up on her hands and knees like this for a couple of weeks rocking back and forth, but now she is actually starting to move…and I am so not ready for this!

I hope to post pictures and video from Deacon’s baseball game soon.  3 year old baseball is so fun and entertaining.

The back deck seemed fitting for this since we have two huge rabbits behind our house.

Easter morning the kids, or at least 1, was excited to see what the Easter Bunny had left them.

Once Finley found her chocolate bunny she was entertained for a good 30 minutes trying to get into it.  This may mean that she has my love for chocolate, which would also explain why a 6 month old got a chocolate bunny…so I could eat it!

In no time Deacon was headed outside to hunt eggs.

Finley found an egg too.  She was quite entertained just shaking it and hearing the change.  Her brother wasn’t too fond of her having one of HIS eggs because she is too little.

After all the eggs were found it was time for Deacon to open them all up.  At our house the Easter Bunny puts change in almost all of the eggs to minimize the amount of candy.  And as much as Deacon loves candy he actually likes getting change better to put in his piggy bank.

Here he is checking out his findings.

This year was the first year that we have not went back to Illinois or had my family here for Easter.  We had some friends who do not have family here in Arkansas either so we decided to host Easter lunch at our house with 3 other families.

I of course didn’t get many pictures, but after lunch we had an egg hunt with a ton of eggs for 6 kids.

We are so blessed to have such great friends and it was so great to celebrate Easter with these families.

We had a great (and busy) Easter weekend!

Our church had services on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We had planned to go to church on Sunday because we were working in the kids area on Saturday and Bryan is usually doesn’t get home around the same Friday night service was starting. Then Bryan suggested taking off early on Friday so we could go that night instead. We knew Sunday would be packed and they were asking people to go on Friday if at all possible. I was surprised and thankful for how full it was on Friday night.

Deacon has been wanting to wear a tie like his Daddy, I had told him he could for Easter and he was so excited. Finley had a handful of dresses that she could have wore for Easter and they were all pink of course.

On the way to church Friday Bryan commented that he wasn’t a big fan of my color coordinating/matching clothes. But he agreed that he would do it just because he knows I love it! True love!

Saturday morning we were up bright and early to prepare for the church Easter egg hunt. Our goal was to have 15,000 eggs and we had almost 2,000 on my dining room table that I was happy to get out of my house.

At 9:00 we started “hiding” the eggs. Deacon and the other kids helped put them all out.

Then it was finally time to hunt!

The Easter Bunny made his annual visit to the Egg Hunt and as you can see Finley was super excited!

The Egg hunt was a great success this year and we are so thankful for every person who had a hand at putting it on. We have an amazing Events team that put a lot of work into these events to make sure families enjoy themselves.

After being out at the park for 5 hours I realized I had done a great job at keeping Finley in the shade but Deacon’s face was a bit red, woops…parenting fail. Put the sunblock in the car for the summer!

After the picnic we came home, put the kids down for naps got a few things ready for today and then we were off to church again. Bryan and I worked the 7-12 month room. This was Bryan’s first time working in child care and we had such an easy night. I think he thinks I am crazy when I say that we will have 10 crying babies in that room. Deacon had so much fun that when Bryan went to pick him up from his class he told him he wasn’t ready to go yet and to come back later, so he did.

I am going to end here and will continue with out Easter weekend in another post before this gets any longer.

“Our proof is scarred on hands that bled, That we were worth every nail”

Today we are thankful for God’s grace and mercy who sacrificed his son so that he could have a relationship with us. He is always ready and waiting on us, he has already paid the price we just have to make the choice to come to him.

My fear with Holidays such as Easter is that our kids will get so wrapped up in the glamor of Easter eggs and bunnies that the true meaning will be lost or over shadowed. So the other day when we were talking about Easter eggs I asked Deacon if he knew the REAL reason that we celebrate Easter to which he exclaimed, “Jesus is Alive!” as loud as he could. My Mommy heart was jumping up and down saying, yes, yes he is getting it!

I love these two even when it is nearly impossible to get a picture of the two of them.

This year he did most of it on his own.  He wrote on every single egg I think.

And was super proud of them.

He gently put them in the cups.

And even pulled them out.

Adding the finishing touch…lots and lots of stickers!

He is very proud of his eggs and I am very proud at how well he did.

Here are her stats:
Weight: 14 lbs 15 oz (26%)
Height: 27 in (88%)
Head: 16.5 in (31%)

At Deacon’s 6 month appointment he was 16 lbs and 27.5 inches.

In 2 months she gained 1 lb but grew 3 inches. Her Dr says she is growing great and is a perfectly healthy and happy baby. The last part was true until her shots.