{iPhone Rewind} :: April

We have a March Madness fan :)

Grandmas are the BEST

Playing with his toys, looking cute with his baby rolls :)

This little dude had some follow up shots, and he was pretty much all smiles the whole time. Those baby rolls come in handy for shots ;)

Just enjoying a beautiful sunny day

Eli has figured out how to blow bubbles and is doing really well with it {at least when he can remember not to touch the wand to his mouth haha}

My cutie girl

How can I NOT have a good day when it starts off with this smiling boy?? And yes: he really IS this happy all the time :)

Amazon diaper delivery day is an exciting day in our household. Eli and Maddie love playing with the diaper boxes. They push them all over the house, climb all over them, and use them as chairs. The possibilities are endless, and who am I to stand in the way of fun and imagination?

Happy Boy :)

Like father, like daughter :)

We got to celebrate our friend Cooper's 2nd birthday at the Watermark Tree Fort!

I'd say she's a fan of sour cream haha

Eat your heart out, ladies! #rollsuponrolls

We got to spend lots of time playing outside this month!

The Color Wonder markers are A-Mazing. 

Aiden wants SO badly to move. He is reaching for everything, desperately trying to will himself to move to things that are farther away from him.

He's not tired {he had just gotten up from a nap}; he's just super relaxed with Daddy :)

I have gone back and forth on whether Aiden looks more like Eli or Maddie. But I think it is definitely more obvious now :)

This was a happy day. I took my LAST Humira shot with citrate. The next shot I take will be citrate-free, which I think is going to be a game changer!

Eli and Maddie have really started pretend playing with food. They make me all kinds of yummy snacks to try :)

Haha. When you just really love granola bars :)

Eli and Maddie want so badly to help with Aiden...he's going to be one spoiled little brother.

Thankful for these sweet moments

This sweet pup tries so hard to keep up with the little ones...so she crashes hard and often.

How to exhaust a Grandma and an Uncle: let them play with 2 toddlers and a baby :)

Aiden is starting to feel the love for Sasha

He wants to crawl SO bad...but we're still working on it :)

Hehe

We celebrated Granny's birthday with a trip to the Crayola Experience!

Just because he's so silly :)

"A boy and his dog make a glorious pair. No better friendship is found anywhere." - Edgar Guest

Oh man, he LOVES broccoli :)

National Pretzel Day!

Today is National Pretzel Day! And since there's nothing better than celebrating a silly holiday with toddlers...I decided to make soft pretzels :)

We haven't made soft pretzels since we were first married. I decided to try a different recipe this time. Turns out, my dough making/rolling skills still leave a lot to be desired, but these actually tasted pretty good! I made the dough the night before, let it rise, then put it in the fridge overnight.

I thought I would make the pretzels when Aiden went down for his nap, so then they would be ready and warm for snack time. Doing that with 2 toddlers turned out about as well as you might expect. They don't quite understand the concept of waiting, so the time it took to roll out the dough, shape the pretzels, put them in the salt bath, and bake them...well, it was a long 45 minutes.

Not much to look at haha {pre-baking}

Anxiously awaiting the pretzels :)

But they were finally done, and the wait was worth it! Eli and Maddie loved the soft pretzels. And they loved being able to dip them in mustard. Fresh soft pretzels, right out of the oven... so yummy!

Happy National Pretzel Day! :)

Aiden :: 8 Months

Aiden,

My sweet boy, time is just flying by so fast! You are growing like crazy, and are basically gigantic, so your Daddy and I find ourselves trying to soak up as much of this "baby" stage as we possibly can. And that basically means extra snuggles whenever and wherever we can get them. I have a feeling that is going to get harder very soon, as you are on the verge of moving. And I think we won't be able to hold on to you very much, as you just want to be on the go all the time. But you will always be our baby boy, so you better just get used to the snuggles, because we will force them on you haha. We love you so much!

Love, 

Mama

AIDEN MICHAEL

Stats :: 25 pounds. Yep.

Clothing/Diaper Size :: you are wearing size 18 month clothes {I tried really hard to keep you in 12 month clothes longer, but your little belly just wasn't having it haha} and size 4 diapers {with size 5 overnight diapers}

Loves :: putting everything in your mouth, bouncing, eating

Dislikes :: waiting to eat, not being able to run with your brother and sister

Eat :: your eating habits are still about the same. you have a bottle when you wake up and before you go to sleep {whether that's nap or bed time}. I often wonder if cluster feeding is still a thing at your age, because you spend a lot of your afternoons basically drinking a bottle every 30-45 minutes. as best as I can estimate, you are drinking 35-40 ounces a day. you have started to get the hang of solid foods! most everything still has to be mashed up, but you can pound the solids haha. this month you tried plums, potatoes, green beans, mangoes, corn, broccoli, and the Happy Baby Teething Wafers. your favorites still seem to be peas and avocados, but you also have added broccoli to that list.

Sleep :: you are still sleeping well through the night, 8pm to 7am. for the most part, you have dropped the third nap, but every now and then still need it if your other naps aren't great. but most days you take a 1 to 1.5 hour nap in the morning, and a 1.5 to 3 hour nap in the afternoon. 

Play/Development :: you want to move SO badly! you finally rolled, but you just don't like to do that very often. with your brother and sister, as soon as I put them down, they rolled. you just don't seem interested in that. but you like sitting up. and you have been perfecting the butt scoot haha! you don't use your arms though; instead you just bounce up and down on your bottom and somehow seem to move from one place to the other, and pretty quickly too. you just recently started putting your arms out to try to crawl, but you haven't quite figured that out yet. you fall forward A LOT, which means you are on your belly, which you STILL don't like. but you're working on it! if you fall backwards, you actually have pretty decent ab strength to pull yourself back up; it's pretty impressive! you are trying to pull up on short things - toys, people if they're sitting next to you, etc.

Unique to You :: you are pretty much a creature of habit, little man. you are happy most of the day, except when you are hungry. and then you can really let us know you are unhappy. but once we feed you, you are back to your happy self again. you roll with the punches pretty easily, seemingly undeterred by changes to your routine or schedule {as long as you are fed!} you are starting to get a little more frustrated with your inability to move around, but we think it will only motivate you all that much more. because you are just so anxious to be running and playing with Eli and Maddie and Sasha!

The Shepherd's Treasure :: The Lost Sheep

For Easter this year, we started a new tradition with our kiddos. We first heard about The Shepherd's Treasure through a co-worker of Mike's; Mike actually works with the illustrator! We were not able to do the Christmas version {the original version} this past year, but when I saw that they have an Easter edition, I decided to give it a try. 

So what is The Shepherd's Treasure? Think "Jesus-centered version of Elf on the Shelf." Each day, we followed the shepherd on his quest to find his lost sheep. There's a card for every day, along with suggested ideas on how to "pose" your shepherd for your kiddos to find him. Each card reveals a different part of Jesus' journey to the cross. They provide a shopping list so you can have everything prepared ahead of time, but it was all super simple {many items we already had around the house}.

Full disclosure: I liked how most of this was really simple and the ideas for setting it up were included. It certainly isn't winning any Pinterest awards, but I like that. However, I was somewhat disappointed in the actual content. I didn't feel like things were explained well, and I found a few things worded in ways that I would do differently. So we might be re-writing the content for next year, and I will be scrutinizing the Christmas version more closely.

Eli and Maddie were excited to find their shepherd every morning. Sometimes they listed to the Bible verse/lesson, sometimes they didn't. Most days they fought over who got to play with "fill-in-the-blank." Some of the truths stuck, some didn't. We didn't name our shepherd this year, mostly because I got blank stares when I asked Eli and Maddie what they wanted to name him. Or they wanted to name him McCullough {which is Maddie's response to anything to do with a name haha}. But I think overall, with twin 2 year old toddlers {and a 7 month old!}, this was a success :)

Here is our journey with our shepherd this year {if you follow me on Instagram, this is just a recap of what I already posted}:

Day 1

Our shepherd received lots of welcome kisses and an honored seat at the breakfast table with Mickey and Minnie

Day 2

Eli and Maddie were excited to find their shepherd this morning, but were most excited about the donkey. Which was ok, because Aiden took a liking to the shepherd.

Day 3

We waved palm branches and sang "Hosanna!" {and then subsequently fought over who got to play with the donkey}

Day 4

There was so much excitement about opening the shepherd's egg to see/smell what was inside {a perfumed heart}. And then there were so many tears over holding the egg, the egg breaking apart, the egg being open, the egg being closed... But then we sang "hosanna!" and talked about how much Jesus loves us.

Day 5

Today was more somber as we talked about sin and how it makes God sad. So thankful for Jesus, and His display of love on the cross!

Day 6

We learned how Jesus washed the disciples' feet. We talked about Jesus humbling Himself and becoming a servant. And then I got to wash Eli and Maddie's feet.

Day 7

This particular morning, our shepherd was enjoying a feast with his friends. Which just made Eli and Maddie "hung-ee" despite the fact we JUST had breakfast haha. As we countdown to Easter, I am realizing this stuffed animal and toy recreation of Jesus' journey to the cross is just as much for me as it is for my kiddos. I'm thankful for these moments every day to stop and consider the weight and glory of the cross.

Day 8

Today we talked about Gethsemane. We learned that Jesus chose to trust and obey God even though He knew it would be hard. Such a big truth for little hearts.

Day 9

Our shepherd got a few owies on his journey last night. It reminded us of how Jesus was hurt on His way to the cross, and we talked about the sacrifice He made so our sins could be forgiven. Eli and Maddie were VERY upset that their shepherd was hurt. I pray that their concern over the stuffed doll will be the seeds to understanding the sacrifice Jesus made on their behalf.

Day 10

Today our shepherd was hiding behind a curtain to remind us of the "curtain" of sin that separates us from God. But praise Jesus that His death on the cross means we no longer are separated from Him! Eli and Maddie walked around today saying "Thank You, Jesus!" for this Good Friday :)

Day 11

We helped our shepherd out from under some rocks this morning! It reminded us of the BIG rock that was rolled in front of the tomb where Jesus was laid. And then we hauled rocks in our dump truck :)

Day 12 - Easter!

He is risen! Our shepherd found his lost sheep, and we are rejoicing that Jesus is alive! Heaven throws a party when one of God's lost sheep is found, so we celebrated with some fun spring toys and an Easter egg hunt. He is risen indeed!

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So our shepherd's journey is over for this year, and we may see him around again at Christmas. Happy Easter!