Date night with Daddy a few weeks ago.

Harbor Inn Seafood.

Crab legs.

Love.

I know this video is low on action and long, but some family might enjoy watching the little dad in his efforts to get somewhere. 

I put several things on the floor that I thought might motivate him to crawl. 

Interesting choice, when you hold it up to a fresh bottle of milk and a pacifier. 

If you can make it this far, around 2:08 I zoomed in and it's a cute close-up of our baby boy. 

 Hank's first time in a swing like this.

He liked it but I could see him getting nervous a few times when he was going too high. It's amazing to think of what it would be like to experience things like this for the first time. That's how almost every day is for him. What an awesome thing to witness, too! :)

My sweet, sweaty, red-faced 4-year-old butterfly. We're going to play hard this summer!

Last week the girls and I hosted a Fresh Beat Band Dance party in our living room. 

We really like the show on Nick Jr...it's cute, goofy, and all about music! Possibly an embarrassing confession: I could watch an entire episode with them and be entertained :)

We didn't do anything fancy, just put up some balloons and got some inflatable microphones and guitars, and I made a "Groovy Smoothie" for a snack break.

We also printed off some Kiki, Marina, Twist, and Shout coloring pages for a coloring break. 

After about 4 or 5 songs, we had to take a break because I was so out of breath. It was definitely an eye-opener for me about needing to get in shape :)

Several weeks ago I downloaded the songs from the show on iTunes, so we played only Fresh Beat songs and the girls went wild. It was so fun to see them excited.

To be honest, we did have a few moments of drama about sharing the guitars. And a few moments of someone getting stepped on and crying. Or someone being shy or embarrassed and sitting out to watch. Such is the season of young girls.

But overall we all had a great time!

About halfway through this video, you can hear Vivian scream, "This is my favorite part!!" And I smile every time I see the end where Kate is playing her guitar.

 Yes, this blog has turned into baby Hank's blog.

I know I've been posting lots of pictures of him lately, but I couldn't pass up this opportunity (8 months old today) to take some more.

This is fresh out of the bathtub, folks. New pjs and everything.

Notable things happening for him these days:

Crawling. He can pull himself to just about anywhere he wants to be. I think he will be on the go in a few days or at least a couple weeks. Baby gates are going back up!

Laughing. He thinks it's hilarious when the girls jump up and down. He laughs every time Aaron tickles him.

Eating finger foods. Going slowly with this one, but he and I are both ready to be out of the baby mush food stage. He is getting the hang of picking up small pieces of food (loves puffs and yogurt bites) and getting them to the mouth.

Sleeping. He is sleeping all night, but waking a little too early...working on it! Starting to drop the 3rd nap.

Wheezing. He has another cold this week. :(

Anticipating familiar events and places. The routine is paying off because I can see the wheels turning in his little head...he knows when we're getting ready to do particular things.

Patty cake. Claps his hands when I start to sing the song!

 I hate this is blurry but I love his grin here.

Always soaked with drool!

 "I don't know what to think of these sisters!"

 ...like it's his job.

Little man loves his crib. And bedtime. And tummy-sleeping. And pacifiers.

And I love to peek in on him! I snuck in tonight to get these pictures.
I am thankful for heavy sleepers in this house...they take after me :)

 Last night I had Aaron transfer pictures from his phone to the computer. Some of these are pretty old (maybe even starting from November), and they're definitely out of order, but I wanted to include them here anyway so that we can keep all our pictures together in the same place!

 Gramme came over one weeknight to read a bedtime story to the girls. 

 He probably took this one Saturday morning recently. I am including this because it's a sweet reminder of how he almost always cooks breakfast together with them on Saturdays, not because I am trying to welcome any judgement about her being on the counter...

 Before Christmas I went out on a Sunday afternoon to shop for presents and decorations. He took the girls outside to climb trees while H was napping.

 Sometimes we stop by the shop to visit him at work, and most of the time they just stay in the car so that he can come out and say hello, but occasionally they go inside to the office. This day they are enjoying some brownies that I think Tasha sent with Joey to work that day :)

 This must have been at the end of November or beginning of December...Mommy cuddling with her babies on a Saturday morning, all still in our pjs!

 We have had a Wii for several years (Christmas gift from mom and dad, thanks!) but didn't really know how to use it until recently...we bought Just Dance Disney version and it's perfect for them because they love to dance.

Of course they asked me to dance with them and I had no choice but to oblige :) 

Oh, I can't lie. We bought the Just Dance 4 for us too because I think it's so fun. With permission from some girlfriends I'll do another post to explain how it all started.

A couple of weeks ago we had a beautiful snow on a Sunday. I took them down to the shop the next day for some playtime in it with Daddy. More railroad tracks, ha!

Hank and Presley stayed home from the Christmas parade back in December and I took this picture of Destiny with them. So sweet! Can't wait for them to be great friends!

P.S. They have both changed so much since then :) The Lord is faithful to grow these babies up!

We had fun teaching V and K a little intro to skiing.

Thanks to Tasha for coming out to watch and get some videos of the action!

Joey is with Kate but you can hear Aaron's voice, and then you see me and my dad with Vivian.



This one is longer, but also sweet. A little interview with Kate is in there.
First, it's Joey, Kate, and Aaron.
Uncle Michael makes an appearance.
Last, Papa, Vivian, and I show up and V is doing the pizza pretty well!



And here are the grown-ups on our tried and true slopes. Joey wanted to make a video to show Tasha since she has never been before. In this video: Joey skiing down, Michael and Dad standing nearby, and Stephen on his snowboard. Stephen and Michael both alternate between skis and snowboards but mostly snowboard.


Okay, one last video from Saturday night of our trip when we went tubing. Kate went a few times but decided it was too fast for her (read: screamed in raw terror the entire way down), so she sat and watched with Tasha. Vivian had a blast, though, and couldn't get enough!

 Here they are all smiles, but towards the end it all changed when Mattie was knocked in the face by another guy's elbow :(

 Aaron's view of the concert was blocked by this tall guy in front of him. 

It was frustrating for him because he's always used to being the tallest. 

Won't forget this!

Poor communication left us with a hot hotel room (we didn't want to turn the air on because we thought they didn't want it, and they were thinking the same thing. But we were all so hot!).

Went through Richmond on our way back (although it's not on the way at all...not sure how that happened?!) and called Stephen and Michael at the last minute to have lunch with us! Great surprise!

Name that tune on the way home.

Awesome, hilarious friends!

Absolutely couldn't wait to see the kids again and were overjoyed to pick them up and give kisses.

We were ready!

Aaron has had several afternoons last fall and this winter of friends coming over to shoot guns at the back of our property.

This was taken New Years Day.

We had a wonderful Resurrection Sunday this year. It was rainy so we missed the sunrise service, but our worship at church was full of truth and joy. We are so thankful for Pastor Nick and his faithfulness to preach and shepherd our church family. We are amazed at how the Lord is growing us in the faith. We love to celebrate the power of the resurrection to bring life to our souls. And what a gift to have children in our care to pass along the good news that Jesus lives and is mighty to save. 

We rested in the afternoon and then had friends over to play with the girls and have dinner after they went to bed!

The girls wore rompers from last year...they were way too short, so we passed them off as capris and it worked as a solution for a mom who hasn't been spring shopping yet. For me, I was happy to remember the bridesmaid dress that I wore for Megan's wedding. And hmmmm I am so thankful that boys are easy to dress :) Aaron had already changed clothes when we thought to take a picture later in the afternoon.

We had parent's visitation at her ballet class last week!

 Let's smoosh his face...

 Tickle!

"Mom, what have you gotten me into?!"