Pretty Fancy Girls

Here is Hazel Basil (our little nickname for her) at 5 months.

She is still a little peanut but is starting to seem so big to me.

She is really starting to go after everything and of course put it in her mouth if she can. She really loves her feet, other peoples' hands and is desperately trying to get the phones out of our hands.

I feel very lucky that I get to spend so much time with this little lady. She took to sleep training like a champ and loves to eat. So pretty much following the footsteps of her older brother and sister. People keep saying they've never heard her make a sound but if she is in the mood she is one talkative little girl. Just what this family needed, another chatterbox!

Here's Hazel with her little friend, Avery. Avery is about 4 weeks older than Hazel.

Such cute girlies. Got to love all the chubby cheeks.

I was looking at Chamaine's blog and she had a picture of her toes and Ellie's toes painted and looking very cute. I thought that was a fun idea so the other day I decided to paint all the girls in the house's nails and try to take some fun pictures. Here are Pepper's cute little toes.

Being her super girly self she also wanted her fingernails painted.

Let me just say it is not easy trying to keep little ones to stay still and not smudge up their nails. Luckily, she understands the "suffer for beauty sake," concept.

Painting Hazel's tiny little toe nails was challenging but I CANNOT handle how cute her toes look these days! She thinks they are pretty fantastic too and is even more eager to get a hold of her feet these days.

It was not easy trying to take pictures of all our different size feet without another adult around. Cody has been out of town for most of the past two weeks so Morgan was my only helper.

Morgan did not quite get the concept that his hands would be in the picture. Oh well, I appreciate his willingness to help on such a seemingly silly idea. I thought he would want his nails painted too, because he has in the past, but he insisted boys don't paint their nails. My little man is really growing up!

My favorite!

Pepper and I.

On Monday, Morgan and Jack didn't have school so Heather came over with the kiddos to hang out and enjoy some down time together. Gwendolyn loves babies, especially live ones, and kept trying to hold and take Hazel places. Such a big girl, at least she thinks so:) Hazel looks funny in this picture but Gwen is super cute.

And lest this post be WAY too girly, here is a picture of the handsome boys to balance things out!

St. Patty's Day and Pirate Carnivals

The Thursday before St. Patty's our local moms club took a tour of a new organic grocery store, Earth Fare, that opened up in town. It was fun to see what they have to offer and their philosophy on food. Here they are about to make some instant natural peanut butter for us to taste. On Thursdays kids eat free in their prepared food section. All you have to do is pay $5 for something and all the kids with you get a big ole organic healthy meal for free. Yes, please. Guess where we have eaten the past two Thursdays?!

Friday morning moms club had a St. Patrick's Day themed craft get-together. Pepper was excited to paint and get messy and to play with her friends.

Finally, the big day arrived and we spent St. Patty's at the park with Daddy having a picnic and feeding the fish. All week Pepper and Morgan were waiting to wear their matching shirts.

These two are just too cute sometimes.

Pepper sporting some festive attire herself.

The water in the creek is super disgusting but throw some bread in and it gets very interesting.

There are some monster, nasty looking fish that come up from the deep. They start jumping over each other to get to the bread. It is crazy and very entertaining but still kind of gross at the same time.

Hazel just being chill and taking it all in as per usual.

A friend from church told me about a Blue Heron nesting ground near us when I told her how much Cody loves birds. So last Sunday afternoon we took the kids for a drive to check it out. Cody thought we'd see a few nests somewhere but had no idea how amazing it would truly be. This picture is just a small sample. There were at least five huge trees full of birds. AMAZING!

There was a little plaque across the street that explained about the birds. It said that the males come first and start building nests trying to lure in the ladies. Once the females arrive the males keep bringing them sticks until they decide to get together. Fascinating.

The babies arrive some time end of April beginning of May. So I guess we will have to go back to check that out as well.

This Saturday, Woodland Preschool had its annual fundraising carnival. The kids have been so excited for this day and even though Daddy is out of town we still had a great time.

Heather was the brainchild behind the carnival this year and made it a very fun pirate themed event. All the kids got a loot bag and treasure map when they arrived and all the games had a pirate theme. Heather is also Ohio's Outstanding Mom of the year so she wore her hugely awesome, sparkly crown and sash for all the kids. Such a great smile.

My kids spent quite a lot time in the bouncy house, especially near the end when I was busy trying to make sure we were not outbid on our silent auction baskets. Pepper didn't get a nap on Saturday and worked out pretty hard between the bouncy house and dancing while Zobopago played. She started falling asleep in my arms watching a movie around 5pm and was begging to go to bed around 6. I managed to keep her awake and hold her off but this girl crashed fast and slept in late. Maybe getting rid of her nap isn't a horrible idea:)

The cutest pirate ever!

Hazel was a trooper and just hung around in the Ergo for most of the time. She did jump up and down in my lap for most of the concert. Then she gave up and went to sleep because once again I was taking too long at the silent auction. But no worries, we prevailed much to Cody's dismay. I bet you next year he will make sure he is not out of town for this!

Acting Classes and Beautiful Weather

This is has been a really mild winter and now it is turning into a really warm spring. So we have tried to take advantage of the opportunity to be outside. One afternoon the kids decided to try to climb the tree in our front yard.

Pepper of course had to be lifted in but she had fun with it.

Morgan is turning into such a big kid on me!

Since January, Morgan and Pepper have been taking acting classes every Saturday morning. Pepper was in a Mommy and Tot class while Morgan got to go to class by himself. On March 10th they had a little showcase to show the parents what the kids had been up to for 10 weeks.

Here's Morgan hanging out with his classmates waiting for the showcase to begin.

Before Pepper and I went on with her class the teacher had us all rehearse what we were going to be doing. During that Pepper didn't want to participate and was being very whiny and shy. I was dreading what she would do but I gave her a little pep talk and told her that daddy would be taping her so we could show everyone. Well, daddy didn't realize he was suppossed to make a video but he did take a ton of pictures so here's a taste of what we did. To begin we played the mirror game.

Pepper plopped herself down in the middle of the stage area and immediately won over the crowd. She did everything she was suppossed to do and was super adorable. Of course I might be slightly biased:)

Next we sang a counting song about apples falling off a tree.

Then we did a pantamime about planting appleseeds and turning into growing trees.

Such a big girl.

Next up was Morgan's class. His first teacher had a baby half way through the classes so Teacher Steve took over. Morgan had a blast every week and after seeing what they had been up to I can see why.

As soon as I upload the video I took, heehee, I will share it.

Pepper and her teacher, Miss Miranda

Here we are enjoying another mild day.

I love how when kids go to the park anyone they start playing with is their new friend.

I have really enjoyed this winter but must admit I am worried the summer is going to be brutal. Hopefully, I am proved wrong. But here's to being outside and exploring new talents.