Babnick Easter Egg Hunt

Every year our friends the Babnicks have an Easter Egg Hunt for all their friends and family. Last year we weren't able to go, so we were excited about being able to take Katelyn this year. They have a great house with bunny's, horses, chickens and ducks.... as you can imagine Katelyn was in animal heaven. She LOVED checking out all the animals, especially the baby ducks and chickens. My friends Christine told me that she bought the eggs and rented an incubator and brought them to her classroom so her students could take care of them and wait for them to hatch. Awesome!! I am going to do this with Katelyn and Brayden when they get a little older. I know they will love it. Katelyn had such a great time at the Easter Egg Hunt and found tons of eggs around the yard. I'm so glad that she was able participate in this hunt as we missed out on the last one. 

Katelyn loved the baby chicks or as she called them chickies.

Story time. We began with a story about Jesus's death and resurection.

Brayden even got in on the action.

This little baby chickie just sat on Katelyn's lap as she ate some of her Easter candy. He didn't even try to jump away. It was too cute watcher her sit there chillin with the baby chicken.

Picture time with the bunny. This bunny was amazing, he just sat there while the kids took turns taking pictures with him.

Katelyn even got to feed the Babnick's horse. The horse tried to give her kisses, but I think it scared her because after it happened she was done visiting with the horse.

All in all it was a great Easter Egg Hunt! Thanks Babnicks for the invite, can't wait till next year so Brayden can go hunting for eggs too!

Welcome Baby Jacob

Our good friends Rosh and Rachel had their baby boy, Jacob, this week. He's absolutely adorable! Kyle and I got to visit them and see the baby yesterday morning. So precious!! Since we had the kids Kyle and I had to take turns going in and visiting Rosh, Rachel and the baby, but I did manage to get a couple pictures. It's been so exciting to watch their family grow and I know they are going to be great parents to baby Jacob!  Congrats guys!

Brayden is 4 months old

Kids Klub Easter Egg Hunt

I'm so sorry family and friends. I know I'm terribly behind on blogging. I have no excuse other than I'm exhausted from moving and unpacking. However, it's going to be worth all the time an energy when we have our friends over for my 30th birthday party. Yes you read correctly, I'm turing 30, but that's a whole nother blog post in itself. Last Friday Katelyn and I headed down to Mission Viejo for the Kids Klub Easter Egg Hunt. It was so much fun!! Of course Katelyn pooped as we were getting in the car, thus causing me to rush back inside to change her diaper, which in turn resulted in us arriving late for the egg hunt. As I pulled into the parking lot I saw all her little friends scattering around picking up eggs. I immediately felt bad for Katelyn. She was going to miss out and how was mommy going to explain why she had an empty Easter basket and everyone else had eggs. Instead of turing around and driving home I decided to unload the car and we would still have lunch and play at the park with her little friends. As we walked up to the group the hunt was just concluding and one by one her little friends came up to her and began putting eggs in  Katelyn's basket. My heart broke, what a wonderful gift to have such great little friends. Even though she didn't get to hunt for eggs, Katelyn walked away with about 8-10 eggs in her little basket. Thank you friends for making the day so special!

Rice Cereal

Tonight Brayden tried rice cereal for the 1st time. He did such a good job! I think he might've even swallowed a couple of bites. I'm not sure how well I'll do being consistent with this, but there's no rush. I think with Katelyn I was always so excited for the next thing, I forgot to relax and enjoy each stage. So while I did give Brayden rice cereal tonight, I don't feel that same urgency to make sure he picks up this new skill right away. I want to enjoy each moment with him because he's getting so big so fast.

Getting ready for rice cereal

first bite... yum!

Brayden's 4 Month Wellness Visit

Yesterday I took Brayden in for his 4 month check up.

Weight: 15 pounds 13 oz. 

Height: 24.5 inches

Brayden has started drooling a lot lately. He's getting ready for those teeth to come through. Hopefully I still have a couple more months to go. Nursing and teeth don't always bode well together. Brayden is doing great during tummy time. He can push up off his hands and hold his head up while looking at his surroundings. He is tracking frequently and will even turn his head when he hears a familiar voice enter the room. Brayden loves colors and enjoys napping in his swing in the morning while Katelyn and I get ready for the day. Right now we're working on sitting up because every time we try and have him relax on our lap all he wants to do is sit up. He is very strong.... even the doctor made several comments about his strength. Poor guy did have to have his vaccination shots, but he handled it like a champ and only cried for a couple of minutes. I was also given the go ahead to start Brayden on rice cereal. We are loving every moment with our little man. Katelyn especially loves her buddy and kisses and hugs him often during the day. She has even made him crack up laughing. It's the cutest, most adorable thing I've ever seen.

Thanks for your continued prayers for our little one. He is such a joy and I feel so blessed and honored to be his Mama.

The Ice Cream Man

A couple days ago we introduced Katelyn to the ice cream truck. It drives around our neighborhood during the week... we can hear his from around the block. While this won't be an often treat, we thought Katelyn would enjoy it. Thank goodness we have a cute white picket fence that locks in the front yard so when she hears the truck she doesn't attempt to go find it herself.

Swing, Swing!!

After we bought our new house, Kyle's parents surprised the kids with a brand new swing set for their new backyard. It took Kyle and I several hours to put it together, but it was worth every minute with one glance at Katelyn's face when she saw it. Since she was at Papa and Gigi's house for 4 days while we moved we were able to get it put together before she arrived. She loved it!!!! I can't wait to have play dates in our backyard.

Thanks Papa & Gigi.... we are already putting it to good use. 

Love, Katelyn & Brayden

Tummy Time

Sweep, Sweep

Our little helper, doing her part to help get her new home ready for move in this weekend.

Rocking the Bumbo

I can't believe my little man is big enough to sit in the Bumbo chair. Feels like just yesterday he was just a tiny little thing, and now he's sitting up so well.

Update on our new home

We are excited to say that we finally closed escrow last week. March 4th to be exact. AHHHH!! I can't believe we are finally home owners. God is so good!!! All the time!! This past week the painters have been in the house painting and the floor guys arrive tomorrow to buff, stain and seal the floors. We are a day or two behind schedule, so Kyle and I will move the kitchen and dinning room in on Friday because there are no wood floors in the kitchen and then we'll move everything else in on Saturday. The house is looking amazing and we've been taking lots of pictures. I'll post a slide show of before and after pictures once we have everything finished. Thanks for all your continued prayers as we embark on this new chapter of our lives.

Love, A

Lunch with the Thomas' & Markos'

Sunday afternoon we had our good friends the Thomas' and the Markos' over for lunch at the new home. They hadn't met Brayden yet and so they were excited to get some time with our little man. He was all smiles and coo's, flirting with the girls. I can't wait till Ashlee and Madeline have little ones so all our kids can run around the yard playing together. *hint, hint* Get to it girls. Then I can make you some stylish Rags to Stitches accessories to carry around. It's been so much fun showing the house to our friends even though it's not completely finished. It's hard to believe that we're finally going to be completely moved in by this time next week. Even Katelyn's excited, every time we get in the car she always wants to go to, "our house."

Brayden flirting with Madeline

Ashlee and Chris

Goodnight Moon

I used to read the book "Goodnight Moon" to Katelyn when she was a baby, but as she's gotten older she's picked out her own favorites that we read together. Yesterday she was sitting in the Bumbo, a chair she is much to big for and often gets stuck in, reading "Goodnight Moon." As she's reading she's flipping through each page one at a time and waving "night night" to all the animals on the pages, I had to get a few pictures. She a little smarty pants figuring out that the book was about saying goodnight, especially since we haven't read it in the last year. I'm constantly amazed how toddlers are able to observe in books things they have learned about their environment.

Friendships...

A little less than a year ago I blogged about our friends, The Fransz's, felt God was calling them to move to Georgia. The headquarters' for Mike's job is there and they felt that moving would allow Mike to have an office to work out of, and for them to buy a home. I know this was a tough decision for them, but there is so much blessing that comes with following God's direction for our lives. This week Jessica returned to CA with her daughter's Ella and Savannah for a visit. She is such a good friend and has done an amazing job making sure to visit all her friends while she was here. I was so excited that we were able to meet up at the our new house, enjoy some lunch and watch Katelyn and Ella run around the backyard. They loved spending time together, running around the yard laughing and screaming. Brayden and Savannah being less mobile, played on a blanket and watched their sisters running around.

This is my FAVORITE shot of the girls. Who knew that the rundown, old fence on our side yard that was built in the 50's would make such an amazing backdrop for a picture. Can you tell that I'm going to be using it a whole lot more? I might have to loan my backyard out to photographers.