April Activities

I love April flowers! It is so beautiful here in Kentucky. I feel like I've been indoors a lot trying to figure out how to take care of a newborn and toddler, but we have managed to get out a few times.

This was taken after our first outing to the park. The motorcyclist parked next to our car and offered to let Ethan sit on it and then asked where my camera was so I could take a picture. :) 

We bought a double stroller this month so I could take these two to the zoo and other places. It's a pretty cool stroller that will hopefully get us outdoors more often now.

We made it back to our favorite library for story time and enjoyed a nice day at the park afterwards. Miss Susan did storytime with Ethan when we first moved there and he was only 4 months old.

Ethan has his first dentist appointment. They just checked his mouth and counted his teeth but he was brave and did a great job.

Thanks to the dentist, Ethan got a purple bouncy ball that is now loved and used whenever he can find it. :)

Here is the update on Lydia. She had her 2 month appointment on April 20th.

Weight:   10 lbs  3 oz  (32%tile)
Height:    22 1/4 in   (43%tile)
Head:       14.8 in    (19%tile)

She's healthy and doing well. She eats well and has started sleeping even better at night with only one middle of the night feeding. She is the most smily when she first wakes up, makes adorable cooing sounds, is very alert and pays attention to us moving around the room. She has also started trying to use her hands more.

7 weeks

7 weeks

8 weeks

Caught a smile at 8 wks

Ethan and Lydia after church

I think Ethan is still a little jealous of Lydia's toys. :)

We also had a fun family outing to the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden to see the amazing tulips. I love tulips and loved seeing the gardens!!

Family trip to the zoo

I also got to attend Time Out for Women here in Cincinnati last weekend. The convention center was only 25 min. from my house. I went with Sonny Hall, a friend from church. I enjoyed listening to the speakers and to David Archuleta perform several numbers. I left Lydia home on Friday and had her with me all day Saturday. Fortunately Sonny and her mom were more than willing to hold her whenever I needed a break. :)

Sarah, Sonny, and me with David Archuleta singing in the back.

Not a great pic of Lydia, but at least you know she was there. :)

Easter Weekend and Lydia's Blessing

I love Easter time! We had a great time celebrating it. On Monday for Family Home Evening we watched a couple of short videos on the Resurrection and made Resurrection Rolls. I had never even heard of this idea before, but ran across it on an article from the LDS Church website. It was a fun activity that I look forward to making a tradition.

Primary Easter Egg Hunt

Jason's parents were also there for the week of Easter and we loved celebrating with them too! We dyed Easter eggs, went to our church Easter Egg hunt, and had another Easter Egg hunt at home. Ethan loved finding the eggs. It was fun to see him get so excited about it!

Ethan just opted for holding the eggs in the dye so he came out with green hands by the end.

 Saturday was a really nice day outside so we drove to Riverfront Park along the Ohio River and enjoyed the sunshine. Ethan loved the big slide and kept going down over and over again! He was wearing slick pants and got going so fast that Jason literally had to catch him at the bottom as he flew off.

Grandma, Grandpa, and Ethan going down the slide with Jason waiting at the bottom

 On Easter Sunday we blessed Lydia at church. It was a very special day and Jason gave her a beautiful blessing. I'm glad that Jason's parents were able to be there and we missed a lot of family that we wished could have been there too.

This is my favorite picture of Lydia in her dress!

I love Grandma's smile in this picture. For some reason it just captures the joy of having a new baby.

Melody let us borrow one of her blessing dresses from when Charlotte and Kate were blessed. So Lydia and Victoria will be blessed in matching dresses. Lydia at 6 weeks

Lydia and Grandpa catching some zzzz's together :)

Ethan enjoyed all the play time with Grandma and Grandpa Burningham

Monday morning Grandpa sawed a limb off our tree and helped level the dirt in our front yard. Ethan was only too willing to help!

Mowing the lawn with Grandpa

Cute 4 week picture of Lydia

Home with Lydia

Welcome Home Baby Lydia! Thanks to some kind friends that brought meals, and the help of my mom for a couple weeks, we made it through the first few weeks alright.

Loved the flowers, cake, and dinner from the Hymas Family. We're so grateful for their friendship!

I feel like this is life unedited. The front room starts looking like an all-purpose room, serving as the toy room, bedroom, living room, etc. You can see how cooperative Ethan was for this picture since he was supposed to come sit by us. :)

With a little perspective, Ethan now seems huge! When did he get so big? When we had a 5 lb baby to compare him to.

My two cute boys! :)

Ethan loves to tackle daddy. It's a favorite past time now.

This represents how we all feel.

 My mom was in the trenches with me staying up late at night to help with Lydia and taking care of a very active 2-year-old during the day. Thanks for Grandma, Ethan learned several nursery rhymes like Humpty Dumpty, Hickory Dickory Dock, and Baa Baa Black Sheep. He also learned a few dance steps and read probably hundreds of books with Grandma. Ethan got to go to the playground a few times, to the library, and played downstairs crashing cars and practicing dribbling and shooting the basketball for countless hours. Mom and Grandma also sewed and tied a twin sized Cars bed cover/blanket for Ethan's bed.

Looking at pictures on mom's phone

Ethan loves his new Cars blanket!

Relaxing in the sun on the swing for a few minutes

I think this is a cute funny picture--Ethan looking all funny and proud and Lydia looking at me like "Mom, are you going to do something about this?" :) Lydia is wearing a dress that all of my sisters and I wore as babies.

Library play time

Playing with Doc and Sheriff

Playing with the water in the sink has also become another favorite past time.

Lydia at 3 weeks