Pic.A.Day {4.20 - 4.26)

 You know me! I love taking pictures of Spring Blossoms!

 We took the girls to Aunt Patty's to see Jaiden and the baby sheep.

 These two only like chocolate chip cookies sometimes. They must get that from their dad.

 This is Alya's "show me your teeth face" // Lyla does the best funny face lately!

 Rather than have them follow me around the house screaming, I let them relax with a movie and a bowl of popcorn.

Sometimes, when you have two of everything, and Dad gets the girls dressed for church, they end up with two left shoes on their feet.

Pic-A-Day {4.13 - 4.19}

I don't have much to say this week...it's just been an average week for the most part. Except that I think the girls -- mostly Alya -- are ready to start potty training. She still has quite a few wet diapers, but she mostly uses the potty for the other stuff. It's pretty exciting! But a little scary! I have obviously never potty trained a kid before. And call me crazy, but I think I want to skip the pull-up part of potty training...we'll see how it goes. It just makes me wish I had done some other things a little differently. The girls still take binkies to nap and at bedtime, and I have been thinking of trying to get rid of them for a while now. I kind of wish I had already done that, because I can see them regressing in the potty training department when I try to take binkies away. I could be wrong and stressing way too much -- like it seems like I always do, but it's just a concern I've had the last little while.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy my pictures this week!

 Spring blossoms on our apple tree. I love them!

 Stickers provide endless amounts of fun! // Babies + pig-tales = adorable!!

 Apple blossoms covered in snow - I hope we get apples this year.

I know putting them in front of their "show" for breakfast does not win me the "Best Mom" award, but sometimes ya gotta do what ya gotta do!

 Playing in the sink and practicing drinking from a cup means SOAKING wet clothes.

 watercolor painting is another new favorite. We made birthday cards for Aunt Kaci and Grandpa this week, and now the girls walk around the house asking to "paint" all the time.

pic-a-day {4.6 - 4.12}

Spring is here!! I think!? It seems like one day it's 70 degrees and the next day it's snowing. It's a little strange! But we've still had fun!

 cuddling with Daddy - both of them rarely do this voluntarily

 blowing bubbles is probably their favorite thing to do

 like I said: one day snow // one day sun

 smelling the flowers (Alya) and chasing balls

 there's something so beautiful about spring blossoms - I love to photograph them

 spending some time out doors (we actually did this Saturday - but I didn't take pictures on Sunday...)

dinner by campfire (again - this was actually Saturday...)

Easter Weekend

We went up to Idaho to spend the weekend with Matthew's family. The girls had a really busy weekend! We took them to Baby Animal Days in Wellsville and they were so much more interested in the chickens, ducklings and chicks than they were with any other animal. I guess they also really liked the horses!

The girls were able to eat at the table for the first time! They really loved it! It makes me wish our chairs were taller so that they could sit at our table like that. One day, I guess!

We really enjoyed the flowers blooming around their yard! We also took the girls on their first four wheeler ride over the weekend, and despite how they look in the picture they had a lot of fun! And so did their dad and me!

I bought the girls some notebooks for the girls to color in while we were driving, and I was surprised at how much Lyla enjoyed coloring in it. Crystal showed them how to draw fish and that is all they want me to draw in them! Lyla especially is really getting into the scribbling and coloring on every page. I really love it!

The girls had so much fun dying Easter Eggs, but it was much easier for them to use their hands rather than the spoons. They were pretty colorful between the dying of the eggs and all the coloring they did while watching conference! We tried an Easter Egg hunt, which the girls enjoyed...Alya more so than Lyla...but I think it's because Alya helped me hide them!

I hope you all had a very Happy Easter!

Pic.A.Day {3.30 - 4.5}

For Easter weekend, we went up to Idaho to visit Matthew's family. The girls had a lot of fun! They love to see Grandma and Grandpa. Grandpa got some little fish stuffed animals from work to give to the girls and they absolutely loved them. I think more than any of Matthew's family thought they would love them. They love all things fish right now, though. They love "Finding Nemo" and whenever they pull out their notebooks to color, they pretty much only want us to draw fish for them. We took them to Baby Animal Days in Wellsville, and Matthew's mom noticed that while all the other kids were carrying around stuffed bunnies and chicks, Lyla and Alya were carrying around little fishes.

Nana sent a package, complete with packing peanuts - they provided many minutes of fun

 Sometimes they are best friends -- I even catch them hugging each other more lately

 Lyla holds up sheet music and sings // Alya helping me make cookies

 They got to pet baby ducks and hold baby chicks at Baby Animal Days

 Tulips in the spring time at Grandma and Grandpa's house

Happy Easter -- the girls loved dying eggs, but using their hands was easier than spoons -- and Alya LOVED hunting the eggs

we're going to the zoo

So, the last Wednesday in February (and throughout the winter) the zoo does a free admission day. I planned with my sister and mom kind of last minute to meet up with them to go to the zoo on the 25...of February. Because it was so last minute, my mom wasn't able to get out of work, but Judi was able to take the 25th off. At about 11:30 the night before the girls and I would head up north, my sister called and said "we're going to the zoo in March, right?"

 

It was pretty comical!

So on March 25, we took Lyla and Alya to the zoo!

We had so much fun - the girls LOVED seeing all the animals. Alya was mostly interested in the rooster that was running around. She chased it for quite a while, and kept yelling "cock-a-doodle-doo!!" It was so cute!

They rode a carousel for the first time and were unsure of it at first, but then they both were pretty heart broken, and cried and cried when they had to get off.

They also got to ride the zoo train. Every time we saw the train go past while we were exploring the zoo, we had to stop what we were doing and they would pump their arm while yelling "choo, choo!"

I am pretty excited to take them back to the zoo! Matthew said he would take us back this summer and I am definitely going to hold him to it! It was so much fun! 

pic.a.day {3.23 - 3.29}

I was able to take the girls to the zoo this week, and we had so much fun! However, while I took many pictures of our zoo trip, I took very few pictures of the rest of the week, so for this weeks "pic-a-day" I am just going to use pictures from the zoo...

...I will also do a separate post focusing on the zoo!



 

 Why not use Mo as a seat while eating snacks!?

 I love how she's looking at him! // Daxton and Lyla - I think it's safe to say she likes him

 She kept petting the lion cub and saying "baby"

Auntie Kaci and Alya driving the boat // a little runner (I love her shadow!)

New sunglasses and a new elephant friend