17 months

Belle hit some MAJOR milestones during her 16th month of life.  First of all, her first top tooth FINALLY decided to come through (that makes a grand total of three whole teeth).  As a result, she is done nursing. And last but definitely not least, she is consistently sleeping through the night.  Wow, I wasn't sure if any of those things were actually going to happen, but they did! Huzzah! 

She has become quite the handful as of late.  I admire all of you who so gracefully handle parenthood with more than three kids.  Time for a nap...

Easter

Easter Best

 Painting Eggs

 Easter Egg Hunt and Brunch

 The Dad's being manly as they hide the eggs.

 And, they're off!

 Belle's friend found all of the eggs for her.

 Trying to figure out how to get the eggs from the tree.

 My favorite picture from the day.

 Bear and Bug chowing down on their loot. 

Our friend offered to take some Easter pictures of the kids with baby chicks.

 Belle did not like being left alone with the chicks. 

 So we took them and away and Belle wondered, "Where did they go?"

Finally Walking!

 Belle finally decided she was ready to walk.  I have loved prolonging her "babyiness", but am so happy she is moving around on her feet rather than her hands and knees.  Bug walked at 14 months, Bear at 14 1/2 months and now Belle at 15 1/2 months.   It has been adorable watching her waddle around the house.  She is happy to be able to carry things from one room to the other and is finding all sorts of mischief in drawers and cupboards now.

 

Bear Turns Four

Bear celebrated his fourth birthday this week.  He has been looking forward to it for months.  Here he is posing with his presents yelling, "I am FOUR!"  He's modeling the new Ninjago shirt he picked out to wear to his special birthday celebration at preschool. (I personally don't like character clothing, but if it makes a kid happy, why not?!)

He was allowed to open his presents from Grammy and Pops at 8 am.  While they played with the gifts I made one of Bear's favorite breakfasts, puffed pancake.

He loved the viking set they sent him.  He could battle good guys vs. bad guys all day...and all night if we let him.

 

After lunch he opened the rest of his presents.  Both of the boys spent a long time playing with the Playmobil set from Gigi and Poppi. 

I know I have mentioned before how PERFECT Bear's preschool is.  I am so sad we won't be here for him to go next year.  A knitting group from the church where he goes to school made a "Lovey" for every kid on to have on their birthday. 

Bug pretty much thought it was his birthday too. 

Bear chose to eat dinner at the Crave so he could get a hot dog and applesauce bucket.

Then we went to one of the kids favorite places, Lost in Fun. 

I am kind of over/don't have enough time, to make fancy cakes these days, so Bug picked out and assembled this Dino Lego set to put on Bear's cake. 

We had a great day celebrating our sweet, kind, funny four year old.  We love you Bear!