St. Patrick's Day and Easter!

It's been awhile! I need to play catch up. These pictures are going to be out of order a little bit but that's ok! We have been meaning to make something to measure the kids with for a few months now but even though we bought everything we need to make it we just haven't. So when I saw these measuring tapes at Hobby Lobby I scooped them up! I'd still like to eventually make one and then just transfer everything over to it but these work for now. And please excuse the angle of the pics, the kids look shorter than what we measured but I can assure you they are correct. :)

Dawson measured in at just under 41 inches.

And Ashlynn measured in just under 34 1/2 inches.

This picture totally looks like she's shorter, but she's not... I looked back at how tall she was at her two year checkup, which we scheduled a month late so it was only about a month ago, and she was 34 3/4 inches. I think our measurement is more accurate because I don't think she was as still at the doctor's office.

Here are some pictures from St. Patrick's Day. We had green pancakes for breakfast and a green lunch, too.)

I love my little stinkers.

Getting everyone to smile at the same time is nearly impossible, however, we did all start cracking up laughing. :)

That is one of my favorite pictures. I feel like it sums up our life. It's not perfect but we make the most of it and have as much fun as we can while in the process.

Fast forward to Easter-time. I made the kids a special Easter lunch a few days before Easter.

The day before Easter we let the kids color Easter eggs.

I used sharpies to decorate a couple of eggs for the kids.

 The Easter bunny came! The kids got beach towels, swimming suits, bubbles, and sidewalk chalk. And a little bit of candy.

The Easter bunny hid 52 eggs! There was some plastic eggs some of them had dollar bills in them and some of them had m&m's in them. Ashlynn loved those ones the best. She would shake the eggs...if she heard something she knew it was the good stuff and would sit down on the floor and enjoy her candy. She didn't get into finding the eggs too much but when she did find one she'd hold it up in the air and yell "my got it!" I love it.

Dawson LOVED finding all of the Easter eggs!! After he found them all he hid some for me and I found them and then I hid some from him and he found them.  It was so much fun watching him get so excited about finding them and searching for more.

Here they are checking everything out.

This is the only picture I got of either one of them dressed up that day. Oops! They both looked very nice.

This is just a random picture that I like. Ashlynn was acting like a kitty-cat.

She often acts like a kitty or a puppy and she stays in character for a good 5 minutes. She won't even talk if you ask her a question, she'll just meow or pant (depending on if she's a cat or dog). Gosh she's cute! When she isn't acting like a cat or a dog she talks SO much and SO well!! The other day at breakfast she said "up so high mom" and I asked her what she was talking about. She repeated herself and I asked her what was up so high and she said "I love you up so high mom." Awwwwww!! Happy tears!! Me and Daws often say things to each other like "I love you to the moon" or the stars or whatever so I'm pretty sure that's where she learned it from and I love it!

She's been without her binky since her dentist appointment over a month ago. It only took a few days before she was just fine without it. And she's been in her toddler bed for a few weeks now, too, and she goes to bed with no problems. She's growing up so much!!

Dawson is doing AMAZING with his reading lessons. There are quite a few words that he doesn't even need to sound out anymore, he recognizes them when he sees them. He likes to try to spell things, too. He'll randomly ask Dave to help him sound out and spell words. He's learning about quotation marks and periods right now and what they mean. Tonight he read this short story:

The cow sat on a little gate. The cow said, "the gate is hot." She said, "I hate hot gates." She said, "I will run now."

I LOVE watching him learn and listening to him read. I'm so proud of him.

Today is April Fools! I didn't do much but I did tell Dawson it snowed a TON and when he looked out the window to see I told him April Fools. He thought that was pretty funny. Then he fooled me... he told me I didn't find Easter eggs yesterday and then he said "fooled you!" *lol* I thought it was pretty funny. Yesterday I also made some sugar cookies and cut them to look like fries. I gave a few to the kids with dinner and told them they were fries... they were both happy when I told them April Fools they're cookies! :)

Sheesh, that is a lot of holidays that we've celebrated recently!! I don't remember the beginning of the year being this busy. I guess before kids these holidays just weren't ones we celebrated much. Now that we've got kids and at least one of them is old enough to really understand and celebrate it makes me want to celebrate and do my best to make it fun for us. :) Have I mentioned I love my little family? Because I sure do!