Easter!

Well, first off, if you want Easter to seem like a super long day, get up at 5:30 for a sunrise service!  The worst part, besides having to wake up ourselves, was waking up the girls.  There is just something super unnatural about waking up a sleeping baby.  We tried to keep Emily sleeping but she woke up and then stayed awake in the car and during the service.

Our sunrise service was held about thirty minutes outside of a town on a grassy hill, a knoll as it were.  We brought Haley's Dora lawn chair and she sat pretty nicely for most of the 1 hour service.  We let her watch the Ipad towards the end with the volume down.  At one point David looked over and she was just starting to put the volume up.  He quickly grabbed it but not before the words, "now Elmo needs one more dollar to make three dollars..." interrupted communion.  Oops.  It's too bad Elmo's voice is not more pleasant.  After the service we came back home for a couple minutes to grab our breakfast casserole and to feed and change Emily.  Haley wore her Easter dress with leggings to the sunrise service but Emily just wore her pajamas so we had to put her in her dress.  Then we headed to church for the brunch.

There had been a lot of LeTourneau students at the service so I was kind of nervous that we wouldn't have enough food but there was plenty.  Haley ate a chocolate covered donut and a bunch of strawberries.  After she finished that she had a glazed donut.  Emily got passed around during a lot of the brunch.  Haley's friend Chloe was there, Emily's baby whisperer, and she hardly left Emily's side, it was so sweet.  We ended up staying over two and a half hours.  It was nice to sit and talk and hear everyone's Easter plans.  The weather was super nice during the service but it started pouring during the brunch, which was held inside at our normal location.  The roof of that place must be tin or something because it got super loud in there a couple times.

We got home around 11:30 and we let Haley stay up and play a little bit until noon.  I fed Emily and then put her right to sleep, she was so tired.  Haley slept almost three hours and Emily slept over three.  David and I read some Robinson Crusoe together and then I took a nap.  Not going to lie, I can't remember anything he read.  I got up when the girls woke up and got started on dinner.  We invited the Creechs over to have Easter dinner with us.  We were so sad not to have Aunt Rin with us this year, I just tried not to think about it most of the day.  It was not near as fun without her!

I made potatoes Au Gratin, corn bread pudding, ham, and pineapple sauce.  I made a berry pudding dessert yesterday so that was just sitting on the fridge ready to go.  David made yeast rolls and they turned out great.  Sarah brought a green bean casserole.  Everything was all ready to go at 5:45 and by then Emily was ready for another nap.  It worked out because then we could eat in relative peace.  Haley ate most of a roll and then asked for cheese.  Oh brother.  She ended up eating a lot of cheese actually.  After dinner we cleaned up and had dessert and then just talked.  We had told Haley that she could watch Dora after dinner so David turned that on for her and she stayed glued for the most part.  At one point she was yelling to use the potty so I went to help her.  She was standing right in front of her little potty but she hadn't gotten her pants down in time and had had an accident.  I felt bad but she didn't seem too rattled by it.  I just took off her pants and let her go bottomless for a while.  It worked out because later I saw that she must have used the potty sometime on her own at one point, there was some pee in it.

The Creechs left around 8 and as soon as they did we pulled out the Easter eggs!  I had wanted to do an egg hunt for Haley but I thought it might be easier once the Creechs left.  David put Haley in her pajamas and I hid 15 eggs in the living room.  Then we brought Haley to the steps and said 'go!'  She did pretty well and only needed help finding the last couple of eggs.  Then we let her eat some of the candy and then read her some books and put her to bed.  I had gotten Emily up right before the Creechs left since she obviously thought she was out for the night.  We fed her some dinner and put her in some pajamas and then she and Haley went to bed.  They went right to sleep.

Haleyism:
This morning David went in to wake up Haley.  He started by taking her covers off and he said, with her eyes closed, she immediately grabbed the covers and put them back.  Oh my, a glimpse into her teenage years!

Emilyism:
Bonnie Mason's parents were at church with us this morning and her Father works in the medical field and he was marveling at Emily's blue eyes.  He said since my parents both have brown eyes, the chances of me carrying the gene are 1 in 4.  Since David's mom has green eyes, his chances for carrying the gene were 1 in 2.  So, I'm guessing that means that Emily's chances for having them were 1 in 8?

This is terrible but I forgot to get a family picture today.  I know, I know, no pictures of us in our Easter attire, it's terrible.  I think we are going to wear the same thing next week and get a picture then!

Hunting eggs

Cat like flexibility

How many eggs can you see?

I'm laughing because when Haley leaned down to get the egg she tooted

Happy hunter in this one.  Oh my, I look pregnant too but I promise I am not!

I think that was Daniel's basket last year

Mommy with her girls

Happy baby

Eating candy

Tag Team: pre-Easter festivities

Friday was kind of a busy day.  Our church was doing an outside Good Friday service at noon and we had volunteered our yard.  The service consisted of six stations where people did scripture reading and the whole group moved from station to station throughout the yard.  Anyways, we woke up around nine and David got up and went outside to fix a pile of dirt in the backyard and he found that a tree had fallen over during the night!  It was an old dead tree that he’s been keeping his eye on for a while.  It’s way back in the backyard, not even close to the house, so we were just waiting for it to go.  Well, it fell sometime Thursday night and had broken into a bunch of pieces and was scattered throughout the backyard.  Fortunately it was so rotted that when it fell, most of it broke into smaller pieces and we could carry most of it and put it to the side.  It was a fairly easy clean up job and it only took David, Haley, and I about an hour to clear it up.  We left the bigger branches for David to chainsaw later.  Haley was thrilled to be helping.  She carried smaller sticks and logs and put them on the pile just like David and I were doing.  David made grimaces as he was carrying heavier logs and Haley kept asking, “daddy, are you okay?”  She was pretty concerned.  Emily played in her exersaucer while we worked.

After cleaning up the tree we came in and took showers and got ready for the day.  People started arriving just as we were finishing.  Most people arrived about ten to fifteen minutes before noon which worked out well because it gave us time to fellowship a bit.  After the service everyone was supposed to leave in silence so we had to get all of our conversation out of her systems.  Emily was getting fussy as the time for the service approached so I ended up putting her to sleep in her crib and then putting the monitor outside in case she woke up.  I'm sure no one minded the subtle white noise in the background... 

The service was barely over thirty minutes long so Haley had no trouble walking with us and staying quiet.  She kept picking flowers and messing around with sticks.  I had fed her lunch right before so I think that helped too.  As soon as the service was over I put Haley down for her nap.  I probably should have let her stay up longer, I forgot that she had slept in so late.  She didn't end up falling asleep until after one.  David went out to borrow Jon Creech's chainsaw so he could finish doing the tree.  Emily ended up sleeping about three hours and Haley slept two.  Emily woke up a couple minutes before Haley and once they were both up, we had a snack and then went outside.

David was afraid that Haley would want to help him and he was concerned because of the chainsaw but he needn't have worried.  She was perfectly content to watch him work from the safety of the picnic table.  She does not like loud sounds and the chainsaw was no exception.  We sat and watched him work for a long time.  At one point we tried on our Easter dresses and Haley decided she loves hers.  Mimi got it for her and she must know Haley's tastes exactly because as soon as I got it out she said, "me wear that."  She ended up wearing it for a while until she wanted to sit in this swing thing we have and she couldn't do it with a dress on.

David ended up working on that tree until after six.  We just stayed outside and kept watching.  Around six I came inside to start dinner.  Emily was getting fussy so I put her in the swing to sleep and then I turned on the Dora movie for Haley.  Then David came in and showered and we all had dinner.  After dinner we ran out to Walgreens to get some Easter candy and some detergent.  Walgreens was having a great sale on laundry detergent.  We also picked up the movie Lincoln from Redbox.  When we got home we put the girls to bed and then David and I watched Lincoln.  We should have looked at how long it was because that movie was almost three hours long.  It was pretty good though.  Then we went to bed.  Dave is going to blog for today...

We had baths Friday morning too

Still waiting for the blues to change...

Haley turns away when I get the camera out.  She was digging around in the dirt with that trowel...in her Easter dress

Sisters

I forced her to let me take a picture.  

She finally let me take the dress off so she could sit in here

Watching Daddy

Daddy working.  That cross was used for the Good Friday service.  You can see the tree that broke, I guess that's a little more than a stump left

This is all the stuff we piled up

I'm gonna write about today and Katelyn's gonna wrote about yesterday.
We woke up this morning (Saturday) and decided to take the girls out to the park for a little while.  We got up and ate breakfast and then headed out to the running trail.  We didn't have that much time since we had some people coming to weatherize the house at noon.  We ran about a mile with the girls in their strollers and let Haley play on the slide for a little while.  She also wanted to ride the swings for a bit.  It really wasn't that great of a day for the park since it had rained during the night and everything was wet.  It was kind of a shame since it wasn't that hot and it was kind of cloudy.  While we were at the park it began to clear up a little but got darker again once we got home.  As we were driving home around 11 the guys called to say they would be there soon.  Basically what happened is that last week Gwen, our neighbor, came by and introduced me to this guy who was there weatherizing her house.  She said she just called the number on the bottom of her electric bill and they referred her to this company who inspects your house and like seals it up with a big fan to tell where the leaks are or something.  Sounds like a scam until they tell you it doesn't cost anything because SWEPCO, the electric company, bills you each month and puts it into a fund for this type of thing.  Now it REALLY sounds like a scam!  Just kidding.  Basically the gas company...uh, uh, electric company pays these guys to come out and do this because it supposedly saves energy.  Anyway, they called and it was good we were heading home early because they got there well before noon.  I read Haley some Curious George while we watched the guys work.  Haley called both of them "Daniel" since they were both brothers (pronounced brothas).  They worked pretty quick and other than getting stuff a little dirty, I think they did a pretty good job.  They seemed really nice and I kind of wondered if they were Christians, at least one of them.  Emily ate lunch and began her nap while they were finishing up.  Haley ate after they left.  Then it was about 12:30 and we wanted to go to the Longview High School practice field because we saw some signs around town advertising a helicopter Easter egg drop.  Haley didn't really want to eat her pizza (by the way she requested pizza for lunch so we baked one up) until we told her that afterwards we would go see candy and a helicopter (which I explained was like an airplane).  She really wanted to go and reluctantly ate a piece of pizza.  What a crazy baby.  Then we got Emily and drove over to the high school, which is less than half a mile away.  We got up to the loop and saw the parking lot was super full, so we just parked there and walked across the street.  By this time it had gotten a little sunny and it was pretty warm.  There were two people dressed up as Easter bunnies dancing around.  Haley liked watching them.  Basically, one of the churches in Longview, Motion Church, put on this thing for the community.  There were bouncy houses and a hay ride and some cotton candy machines in addition to about 2500 people.  We saw two girls there that we see at the gym and they had T-shirts on from the church, so one of them was explaining it to us. Motion Church is about 2 years old and was started by a youth pastor from another church who was tired of seeing young post-college age kids leave the church and not come back.  She said it caters to 20-35 year olds.  We could tell because most of the people were young.  Also, a guy from the church walked up to me and I kind of recognized him and he kind of recognized me.  We couldn't figure out where we knew each other from until he said he had worked at KRS which is the hangar next door to mine at the airport. He told us last year they did it over by their church and only had like 400 people.  They were not expecting this many and had run over to Walmart to buy more eggs!  We also kind of randomly saw Richard, a guy from our church who works at the Longview News Journal.  He told us that his boss was like "No, don't go, it's not gonna be that big." and he told her "NO, I need to be there to cover it!"  Haha, this is breaking news in Longview!  Anyway, they had used police tape to block off one large square divided into quarters.  Each quarter was for a specific age group of children.  I took Haley over to the 1-3 year olds square as the helicopter neared.  It was fun seeing them dump eggs out of a helicopter.  Haley liked watching.  We were probably 4 rows of people back from the front  of the police tape.  When they said we could go in, we tried to go in behind everyone in front of us and I was kind of sad for Haley because I did not see a single egg on the ground.  I told Katelyn (who held back with Emily) later that some kids had like 10 eggs.  I thought that had it not been outreach but a more Christian crowd, people probably would have told their kids to share their eggs with those who had none.  Still, a lack of eggs for a child who's main food group is candy is an easy compromise for having people from all areas and socioeconomic backgrounds of Longview together in a church sponsored event.  While Haley and I were making our way back, I saw a lady holding two girls tightly to her who were crying.  She was saying something about losing her other girl so I asked if I could help.  I know too well the fear of losing your child!  She described the girl and I looked around.  I found a girl matching the description who was looking around as if lost.  I asked if she was looking for her mom and she said yes.  I tried to find the mom from before and couldn't. I thought "of course it's gonna work out that way!" Before I knew it, a different mom came and grabbed this girl and took her away.  I'm pretty sure they thought I was a creep.  I was holding Haley so I feel like that helps.  How many little black seven year olds in purple jumpsuits can there be?  I guess at least two!  Then I went to find Katelyn.  By that time, there were like 20 kids at the main tent with the MC looking for parents.  I felt a lot better and figured anyone with half a brain, parent or child, would end up there.  Then we went home and put Haley down for a late nap.  Emily stayed awake and I went outside to continue trying to section off a felled tree whose diameter at the bottom was more than two feet with a little 18 inch chainsaw.  I'm glad to not be a lumberjack.  Dr. Mason came by to pick up the cross we had used for Good Friday, and we went out to Target.  After a brief stop at Walmart, we went home and ate dinner before going back out to Chic-fil-a for some dessert and to let Haley play on the playground for a while to tire her out so she would go to bed early.  We have a sunrise service tomorrow so we gotta get to bed.

Haleyism:
I took Haley over to see the Easter bunny and the first thing she pointed out was his shoes.  I guess she thought it was an actual bunny and she was super confused about why it would be wearing black sneakers.

Emilyism:
Emily was not impressed with the helicopter.  She actually seemed annoyed by it.

Fireman on a Ladder

Emily at the park

Haley and Mommy

She did not need that coat...

Meeting the Easter bunny

We need some smiling lessons for these girls

Haley and I are in there somewhere looking for eggs

Heading home.  I love how Emily is holding on

It's a good thing Haley is small, I think Emily is taking up more than her fair share

She was pretending her flip-flop was a phone

Haley's friend Chloe is the baby whisperer

Tuesday night Emily slept all the way through and did not wake up until 7:30 on Wednesday morning.  She slept a solid 11 1/2 hours, we are just pushing for that magic 12!  I ended up feeding her and then laying her next to David while I took a shower and she fell back to sleep.  Then I had to wake her up to go to BSF, poor boo.  Haley, Emily and I all headed out to BSF and David left for an overnight in Beaumont Texas.  I had volunteered to watch the children's workers children while they listened to the recorded lecture after the normal BSF time.  I know that is kind of confusing but basically it just means that we stayed an extra hour at the end and packed a lunch.  There were only four children that we had to watch, in addition to my two and there was another lady signed up to help with her little boy so it was a pretty easy gig.  Most of the time was spent eating lunch and taking children to the potty.  

After BSF we headed home and I got a text from David telling me that his plane had broken and he would be home later that afternoon!  We were so excited that he didn't have to be gone overnight.  It was pretty cool actually because when we were praying the night before I asked God to 'break the plane or something' so that he wouldn't have to be gone.  It's just a lot easier to have David home on Wednesday nights because it is the night of our church potluck.  

I put the girls down for naps when we got home and David got back while they were sleeping.  Once they woke up we went to Wal-mart to pick up a couple things.  Then we came home and played outside until it was time for church.  Haley ate one and a half pieces of pizza at church which is a lot for her.  I ended up putting Emily in with Haley's class because she was being so loud with the adults.  Dr. Mason was sitting behind us and she kept catching his eye and laughing out loud.  After church we took the girls home and put them to bed right away.  They were so tired.  Emily actually fell asleep on the way home so we kind of had to wake her up, get her ready for bed, and then put her to bed again.  I was just going to let her sleep in her clothes but she kind of woke up anyways.

THURSDAY morning the girls and I had Bible study and David had to go out to the airport for a bit.  Haley seemed to have a wonderful time during the study.  She kept walking through our discussion group holding random toys and smiling real big.  At one point she walked through with a handkerchief on her head, she is a little weird.  Emily did not enjoy Bible study quite as much.  She started out doing great but was definitely getting tired towards the end.  I was standing up and holding her and trying to feed her but she just wanted to  sleep.  That baby will not eat when she is tired, she just gets mad when I treat to breastfeed her.  Finally it was time to go so I put her in her infant seat and she literally went right to sleep.  We ended up staying another fifteen minutes or so.

I had invited a new girl from church over for lunch after Bible study so we hurried home.  Her name is Chelsea and she and her husband just moved to the area.  We had them over for dinner a couple weeks ago so this was just kind of a follow up lunch.  I made BLTs and had yogurt, berries, and granola for parfaits.  Chelsea is a teacher but has just started subbing every so often since they moved here so she has had a lot of downtime.  She said she really appreciated me having her over because I guess her husband is not real talkative and she loves to talk.  She ended up staying until four!  I put the kids down for naps after lunch and she was still there when they woke up.  It was a good visit.

After Chelsea left, David and I loaded up and took the kids to the gym.  Haley had not woken up particularly happy and I think she needed a change of scene.  It's amazing what a couple minutes away from home can do for that kid.  She perked right up as soon as we left the driveway.  David and I ran together and then did some weights and then picked up the girls.  The workers said they were great and it seemed to knock the attitude out of Haley because she was much more pleasant.

As we were heading out I got a call from Melanie Watson asking if I could pick up her daughter Chloe from school.  It worked out pretty well because we were already in the van so we just swung by there on our way.  Haley was pretty excited to see Chloe, they are pretty good friends.  After we picked up Chloe we went by Smashburger to get some burgers.  We and the Caldwells had a coupon to Smashburger so we had decided to use it at the same time and eat together.  Smashburger is fairly near our house so we decided to just eat at our house so the kids could play.  We picked up our burgers and learned that they no longer accept coupons on cell phones so it really was no deal at all, haha, oh well.  We'll have to print it out and use it again before Sunday.

We set up dinner outside at the picnic table.  Emily was in the exersaucer and the four girls all sat on one side of the picnic bench with Amanda and the rest of us sat on the other side.  The girls probably sat and ate for maybe two minutes and then they just started playing.  Haley and Chloe came and got chicken nuggets every so often so I figured they ate enough.  Around 6:45, Amanda and I headed out to pick up Ella and Chloe for our little Bible study.  David stayed home with all three of the children.  He later recounted his experience to me:

First I fed Emily some pears, she ate a ton of pears.  Then I put the Dora movie on for Chloe and Haley and I just hung out with Emily.  Emily was not being very good, she kept fussing and crying.  Then Chloe asked to hold her.  I thought it was a bad idea but I just let her hold her anyways.  As soon as I handed Emily to Chloe, Emily stopped crying.  Chloe then held Emily for the next ten minutes at least and Emily didn't cry the whole time.  I knew I should take Chloe home but it was just so easy for me since she was taking care of Emily.  Finally I loaded everyone up and took Chloe home.  Then I stopped by McDonald's on the way home to get a milkshake for Haley and I to share.  Then we came home and I put the girls to bed.

So there you have it folks, David pawned his baby off on a 2 year old and it actually worked out for him, haha.  Chloe's little sister is baby Claire, the miracle baby with trisomony 18.  When I got home the girls were sleeping but fortunately they each woke up once so I did get to see them before David and I decided to go to sleep which is about now so goodnight!

Haleyism:

We are trying to teach Haley to say 'excuse me' when she wants our attention but we are already in a conversation.  I think maybe we should just try to teach her to not talk to us when we are in a conversation instead.  She is a little too persistent.  

Emilyism:

Emily ate some chicken nuggets tonight.  Well, I'm not sure how much actually made it into her stomach but she was really working on one.

SPECIAL NOTE:  My roommate Julianne Feenstra gave birth to a little girl this afternoon!  They didn't know what they were having and I was really hoping for a girl so I am SUPER excited!  Her name is Carrington Joy and she was 9 lb 3.5 oz; you think that is big, her big brother came out 11 lb 2 oz!

Haley, Evelyn, and Lucy were sitting on poor Owen at church on Wednesday

Chloe and Haley hugging Emily

When Chloe wanted to hold Emily she would clap her hands twice, and then reach her arms out for her.  It was seriously the cutest thing ever.  Now Haley has started clapping when she wants to hold her, haha.

You know, just hanging out

 

Monday and Tuesday

Yesterday was a typical Monday for the most part.  Lucy came over in the morning to play with Haley for the day.  They were initially happy to see eachother but it didn't take long for them to start fighting over toys. Haley kept taking toys from Lucy basically and Lucy gets super offended and yells and screams which makes Haley want to take them away from her even more.  Haley loves getting a reaction out of Lucy.  Lucy started taking things from Haley then and I felt like I was constantly breaking up little baby catfights.  I decided to feed them lunch early to see if that would help.  David was home so he grilled some hotdogs for lunch.  Once Haley and Lucy had eaten they were so much better.  

They played nicely until it was time for naps.  Emily and Lucy took naps but I actually kept Haley up because we had small group at our house in the evening and I needed her to go to bed by seven.  I turned on a Dora movie for Haley and she was super excited to be skipping her nap.  Lucy slept about two hours and Emily slept around three.  David was super efficient.  He cleaned out the shed and mowed the lawn.  Once Lucy woke up we did snacks and the kids played while I made dinner for small group.  Amanda came and picked up Lucy around four thirty or so and then Haley went outside to help David finish the shed.

Our small group started arriving at six and fortunately Haley was still holding it together.  She actually didn't even seem that tired, I was starting to get worried.  I had made a dish called cheesy pizza dinner for supper and the other couples in our small group brought salad, bread, and dessert.  Haley was really on her best behavior, it was super nice.  Especially because Emily was not quite as easy.  She was definitely ready for bed but I wanted to wait and put her and Haley down together.  Plus I didn't exactly want her going to sleep before seven.  Haley ate a good dinner and then crawled around under the table for a while.  I guess most parents would not consider that to be a kid's best behavior but she wasn't really messing with anyone and I think most of us forgot she was under there.  We just kind of ignored her to be honest...

After dinner I took both girls to their room and put them in their pajamas.  Then I put Haley in her bed and fed Emily and put her in her crib.  I was in the room maybe a total of five minutes and when I left Haley was already asleep!  Poor little poo was pretty tired after all!

I can't remember how Emily did last night at all.  I think she woke up and I put her paci in and then I fed her when she woke up again around 7:15.  She went back to sleep then and I ended up having to wake her up for MOPS.  I guess we could start putting the girls to bed at seven and not have to worry about them waking up early because even Haley slept past eight which means she slept over thirteen hours!  I slept in a little past my alarm so David got up and helped me feed the girls and get them dressed, thanks David!  

Haley did pretty well at MOPS.  She went right into her class without crying but she was pretty sad when I picked her up afterwards.  The workers said she just started crying when other kids were getting picked up by their mommies.  Emily was out of control at MOPS.  It would have been a great meeting for her to just sit back and fall asleep because we had the mentor mom panel today.  Each table at MOPS has a mom there who is an empty nester or almost an empty nester as a reference for the young moms.  Once a semester all of those moms answer questions and share advice about anything, mostly parenting issues though.  Emily must have decided this was not a meeting she wanted to miss.  She kept cooing and babbling and messing around and finally I just took her out and put her in the nursery.  I haven't been putting her in nursery because it helps out for me to have her in the meeting because her class is super full.  However there was a girl at my table who was absent and so I knew her son wasn't in the class so they had to have at least one spot open.  I knew it was bad when I was trying to breastfeed her (anything to keep her quiet, haha) and she laid back so her head would be outside the hooter hider and then started smiling and cooing at the moms sitting behind me.  It was her first time in the nursery at MOPs but I am hoping that it will not be the last.

After MOPS we came home and fed the girls lunch.  Both of them were pretty desperate for naps so I put them to bed right away.  Haley did not eat much of her lunch, she was too cranky I think.  This came back to bite me because she woke up after only an hour and a half because she was hungry.  I heated up her macaroni and cheese from lunch and she ate some and then I tried laying down with her in our bed but she wasn't interested.  Emily ended up sleeping just under three hours and as soon as she woke up we headed to our neighbor's house, Nana Francis.  

Haley was all excited to go, mostly because she thought I was saying Hannah (as in baby Hannah, one of the new babies at our church) even though I kept trying to emphasize the n, NNNana.  When we got there we were quickly disappointed because Nana's son, Victor, answered the door.  It is actually his house so we usually see him but Nana always comes to the door when we visit.  He said that she has not been feeling well and was in bed.  We were all pretty bummed, kind of sad actually.  We told him that we were going to make some Get Well cards for her and then headed home.  I had told Haley that she could have a brownie if she was a good girl during the visit so as soon as we turned around she said, 'brownie?'  I decided I might as well give her one, it's not like she doesn't need the calories or anything.

Once we got home I decided to redeem the time with some cleaning.  I was trying to sweep and mop the bathrooms and kitchen but Emily did not make it easy.  She kept getting sad so I kept switching her to new places to cheer her up but it would only last a couple minutes.  I quickly finished my mopping and then just held her.  She was perfectly happy when I was holding her.  David had been out at a meeting and he got home just after five.  When he got home we fed the girls a snack/early dinner and then headed to the gym.  I warned the gym workers that Emily had been clingy but assured them that she wasn't hungry since she had just eaten a bunch of applesauce.  When I picked her up an hour later they said she was a little more fussy than usual but had been fine.

It was after seven by the time we got home so we fed the girls some more dinner and then put them to bed.  Eight is usually on the early side for their bedtime but both of them had woken up from their naps relatively early in the afternoon so I knew they would be tired.  Haley apparently was not because she weaseled her way out of that room for another brownie.

Haleyism:

Tonight when David was reading the girl's devotional Haley was jumping in the crib and reciting the 'no more monkeys jumping on the bed' rhyme.  I know it was not exactly what she was supposed to be doing but it got my funny bone.

Emilyism:

We got a video of Emily saying 'dada,' see below.

I can't believe I forgot to say this about Sunday!  On Sunday, baby Claire came to church for the first time!  I had my camera along because Haley waved a palm branch for palm Sunday (forgot to mention that too actually.  Forgot to take a picture of it actually...) so I snapped a couple shots of baby Claire.  She is doing sooo much better!

A lady from church holding baby Claire.  Melanie Watson, the mother, is standing behind her holding baby Thiago, he was born about a month ago.

She loved the lights.  She is wearing an outfit borrowed from us.  Aunt Rin bought that oufit for Haley and Emily wore it home from the hospital.  It is a premie size but I think bigger than most premie stuff because Claire is about eight pounds now!

Melanie and baby Claire

Emily saying dada

Weekend update

Sorry I am starting to get a little behind on here, I'm going to make an effort here to catch up some.

SATURDAY we got up fairly early because our church had an egg hunt at the Caldwell's house.  The hunt started at 9:30 so we had to get up semi-early for a Saturday morning.  We pulled up to the Caldwell's house and realized that we had forgotten a basket for Haley to collect eggs.  Fortunately one of the families had brought an extra one.

It was a church Easter egg hunt so Amanda did have some Resurrection activities to go with the hunt.  We made some kind of tomb out of a croissant and did a craft activity with eggs that you are supposed to open up until Easter, kind of like an Easter Advent calendar.

Explaining the croissant thing.  You can see Haley sitting in the back paying very close attention.

A blurry picture of us waiting for something

After the Resurrection activities it was time for the hunt!

Haley caught on right away

The Caldwells have a big front yard so there was plenty of room

Hunting eggs

She found one!

That little boy is Haley's friend Cambell.  He is the pastor's son and has told David that he is going to marry Haley, haha. 

Running to get an egg

Family photo, someone was holding Emily for me

The little kids, Lucy was too shy to stand with everyone

The big kids had a separate hunt in the backyard

From left to right:  Evelyn Caldwell, Christopher Mason, Cambell Liebengood, Haley, and Lucy 

Love this one of Haley

All of the kids with a couple random adults.  David joked that it looked like all of Bonnie and Steve's kids since Ben looks pretty young anyways

Another group shot

Afterwards there were some refreshments

Haley found twelve eggs and then she was finished.  She could have kept going but she was too distracted by the candy.  Afterwards we hung out for a while and ate some refreshments and then we headed home.  Haley and Emily ate lunch and then we put them to bed.  I think Haley slept about two hours and Emily slept just under three.  As soon as they were awake we packed up and headed out to run some errands.  First we went to Lowe's to find a piece for the toilet which broke in the guest room.  They didn't have what we needed but the guy recommended that David just glue the broken one so he bought some epoxy.  The toilet is now fixed, everyone should come visit now!  After Lowe's we went to Wal-mart and picked up a couple things, I don't even remember what they were.  

When we got home I made some pound cake because we were having two couples from church over for dinner and games. One of the couples just got married this past June and the other couple is getting married this summer.  They had actually called us to play games and then we asked if we could do it at our house because both of our baby-sitters were busy.  When they arrived they told us that they were secretly hoping we would offer, haha.  This was especially funny because David and I kind of felt bad for making them have it at our house.  One of the couples brought pizza so we had that for dinner and then strawberries and pound cake for dessert.  We played a game called 'bang' and a game called 'Flashpoint.'  The Flashpoint game is a game where the players play against the board, it was pretty interesting.  The evening didn't start until seven so we fed Haley early and then turned on a Dora movie for her for the first hour.  Then David put her to bed around 8:15, Emily went at about 7:30.  The couples stayed until almost midnight, we had a lot of fun.

SUNDAY we didn't have any responsibilities at church so we didn't have to get up earlier or anything.  Haley and Emily must have missed the memo because Haley was up at 7:30!  I couldn't believe it because we usually have to wake her up for church.  Emily woke up at eight thirty which clocked her at a thirteen hour night!  She did wake up somewhere during the night with a stinky diaper so it wasn't thirteen hours in a row or anything.  

After church the Liebengoods had invited the Caldwells and us for lunch so we went there right after clean-up.  I had made two pound cake loafs yesterday for game night so I brought the other loaf and some strawberries for dessert.  I was a little nervous about how Haley would do because of her early wake-up time this morning but she ended up doing really great.  Emily got passed around for a while during lunch and then ended up taking a nap on the Liebengood's bed.  We ended up staying until 3 which was pretty crazy for Haley.  She tends to get silly when she is tired which I'm sure will be obnoxious when she's older but it's actually kind of cute when you are two.  The Liebengoods have a big dog which stays outside so Haley like to stand at their glass door and have staring contests with the dog.  A couple times she got nervous and said 'poo poo potty!' which basically just means, 'save me!'  

After lunch and good conversation we came home and put the girls to bed.  Then David ran out to grab a couple things and I cleaned up the house.  We actually had an eventful evening planned.  The women from church were going to a Francesca Battistelli concert and David had invited all of the husbands of the wives to come and grill with him.  David's had told all of the men to bring their own meat so all he had to do was take care of sides.  I decided to go out on a limb and take Haley along with me so David would only have to deal with Emily.  The concert started at six but the doors opened at 5:30 so we were meeting there at 5:15.  David packed a little lunch for us and we headed out as soon as Haley woke up from her nap.  I had held Emily off on her second nap a while so that she would sleep during some of the time that David had company.  She hadn't slept very long at the Liebengoods so she cooperated pretty well.  David said she woke up around six and was fairly easy for most of the evening.  David had three Dads come with their kids, he said it was a good time.

Meanwhile, Haley did super well at the concert!  She loves 'musica' and I had the Ipad along in case she got bored.  Well the concert was advertised to be from 6 to 8 but it actually went until 9 so we did get out that Ipad.  Haley went back and forth between watching the Ipad and listening to the music.  I think it went so long because there were three bands that opened before the actual performer.  Haley used the bathroom three times during the concert.  Well, the first time was right before the concert and the other two were during it but it wasn't that big of a deal because we were sitting towards the back anyways and there were a lot of people coming and going it seemed.  I'm not much for concerts but it was a lot of fun to just have time with Haley.  It is so much easier to have Haley by herself without Emily.  I think Emily is a pretty easy baby but I guess she's not easier than not having a baby at all!  We got home a little after nine and David and Emily were cleaning up, his company had left about thirty minutes before.  We put the girls in their pjs and they went right to sleep.

Haleyism:

We were in the restroom at the concert and a lady next to us sneezed and I said 'bless you.'  Then she sneezed again and Haley said, 'bless you lady.'  Haha.

Emilyism:

One night this weekend Emily slept through the night and didn't wake up until 7:30.  I can't remember which night it was but it was great!

Emily eating ice cream when we were out to eat on Friday night

Haley singing Hosanna

  Haley having a horsey ride