Lillian - 6 Months

During all the Easter festivities, this little cutie turned 6 months!

She's getting more and more interactive and is pretty content as long as she can see what everyone is up to.  Lillian's not very concerned about rolling over, but every once in a while if she sees a toy just out of reach, she'll stretch and twist to try to get it--but usually she only makes it to her side.

She's pretty determined to set her own sleeping schedule.  The 'cry it out' method isn't working with Lillian, this girl can SCREAM and this mama can only take it for an hour, then I give up and get her. The good news is, this week she's only been waking up once a night, but two weeks ago she had a stretch where she decided she needed tending to three times each night.  That was not a fun experience, but hopefully it won't ever reoccur!

She likes playing with her toys, being held, being sung to, and giggling at her silly sisters.

Lillian's First Experience with Solid Foods

Lillian started trying out solid foods a few weeks ago.  So far she doesn't like: rice cereal, sweet potatoes, and squash.  But she will inhale: pears and prunes.  I'm definitely not digging the prune diapers, so hopefully she'll find some more favorites soon!  Ha ha!

Nothing really epic happened the first time she tasted rice cereal, but I thought it would be fun to document the different expressions she made while experiencing a new thing.

Easter Sunday

On Easter Sunday, the girls wore their matching 'twirly' dresses and I had the privilege of conducting the choir for the Easter Program.  I was grateful to be a part of the program, leading up to Easter Sunday I spent a great deal of time reflecting on the life of Christ and reading what is recorded about Him.

Then on Sunday Evening, two different people showed up on my doorstep with flowers to thank me for conducting the choir!  I have never received flowers for doing my calling before!  Ha ha!

Our family also did evening devotionals from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday where we read scriptures about the Savior and the girls got to pick pictures to display.  It was so wonderful to sit down as a family and talk about the Savior and why His Life is so important.  We got the devotional outline and pictures from this site.

We are so grateful for our testimonies of Jesus Christ and how, through Him, we are reminded of the good we can do on Earth, of how we can improve, how we can repent when we make mistakes, and how we can be lifted when we fall short.  He lives.  And because He lives, all things are possible.

Church Easter Egg Hunt

Our Ward held an Easter Activity where the kiddos got to play games, make crafts, and find eggs.  So needless to say, it was a hit!

And this cutie was just excited to tag along for all the fun!

Easter Bunny

The Easter Bunny visited our home Saturday morning and surprised the girls with a pretty epic marble tower, complete with new marble pieces AND hidden eggs!

 Hylie giving Eliana 'clues' to help her find Easter eggs

Hylie loves to help with decorations for all the holidays.  Pictured on the left are some fun things we put together...pictured on the right is the result of Hylie 'perfecting' them throughout the holiday, ha ha!

Easter Eggs & Cookies

This year a friend of mine let me in on a great find: fake, paintable Easter eggs!  I found them at Wal-Mart and hope that they are there EVERY year.  I LOVED them!  And quite frankly, so did the girls.

I remember last year when we were dying hard-boiled eggs, we were on constant watch that Hylie didn't crack any eggs and didn't even consider letting Eliana decorate them.  Then, once Hylie was done dying her eggs she was so disappointed that they stayed in the fridge, out of sight.  Ha ha! 

Once these puppies dried, the girls were able to play with them to their hearts content.  I thought they turned out super cute!

We also made a few sugar cookies for the girls to decorate.

We've learned pretty quick that when it comes to decorating, everyone gets their own personal dish of frosting and we keep the rule of, "If you decorated it,  you eat it!"  Ha ha!

We decorated them in two sessions--the girls got to quickly decorate (and eat!) one cookie on Monday night for FHE--here's Eliana in her typical night-time attire: unzipped footie pajamas.

They were excited they got to decorate more the next day...I just didn't get pictures of all the finished cookies before they were all eaten!

Chicago Bull's Game

Two weeks ago one of Geoff's co-workers surprised him with two tickets to the Bull's game against the Detroit Pistons.  Luckily, I was able to secure a baby-sitter for Hylie and Eliana and Lillian came along for the adventure. It was exciting to experience the United Center and feel the buzz all the Chicago fans have for the Bulls!

Geoff also surprised me with a nice dinner at one of the restaurants in the arena--it definitely did not disappoint!

Lillian seemed to enjoy being in all the hustle and bustle and I was glad that the only time things were loud was when the team was being introduced.

In addition to the game, it really is something what all is done to keep the audience entertained every second you are inside the United Center--live music, different contests, and constant freebies were everywhere!

Geoff and I loved our unexpected date and can check off yet another Chicago 'bucket-list' item!