Happy Easter!

We have been celebrating Easter for 2 days around here! Our church hosted a big Easter Egg Hunt yesterday. And it was such a beautiful day for an egg hunt! We took Leah's talking eggs with us and put them near other eggs so that she could "find" eggs with treats in them! At the egg hunt there were lots of other fun things to do, too - face painting, crafts, bounce houses, balloon animals, putt putt golf, and pony rides. We took advantage of a few of the events that we thought Leah would like.

Leah liked petting the soft bunny

She really wanted to get to those little peeping chicks!

Leah did NOT like riding the pony, but she stayed on it because Daddy was right there with her

Just because we didn't want to leave Rebekah out of the pictures!

Today we had our own little Easter Egg Hunt at home.

Leah's egg hunt all ready to go!

Found her Easter basket!

Yummy jelly beans

Rebekah says, "Next year, I'll find eggs. This year I'll hit the animals on my bouncy seat and watch"

 Leah still doesn't understand why we leave plastic eggs on the floor or why we want her to find them, but she does enjoy the candy that is inside of them! Maybe someday she'll get it! In the meantime, we have fun with it and always include our special egg. It's the only egg that is empty and for a good reason:

 He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. (Matthew 28:6)

Unfortunately, we don't have any pictures of our girls in their Easter dresses! I know I'm a bad mom for not taking pictures before changing them, but it was a rainy Easter day here and we will all be wearing the same outfits on Mother's Day, so I figured I would just get some good pics then. Just picture a very cute coordinated family in your mind. We looked good, trust me!

First Trip to the Lake

In October my parents moved out of south Florida (Hallelujah!) and up to a lake house outside of Knoxville, TN. We have been too busy (having a baby!) to visit before this past week. ODU was on spring break, so Stephen had a week of no students (one of the benefits of being a college professor)! We decided to make the 8 1/2 hour drive to the new lake house and our girls did great!! Leah has always been a great traveler and Rebekah slept most of the time, so we had a pretty peaceful trip. We had a great time relaxing and enjoying being at the lake. We can't wait for summer when it will be warm enough to enjoy being in the lake!

Happy at the lake

Grandpa and Nana with the girls

Sitting down by the water. This summer we'll be watching kids splash and play!

Daddy and his girls relaxing in the big chair (aren't they cute in their coordinating outfits?!)

No offense to Nana and Grandpa, but one of the best things happened at the end of the week. My Aunt Mary Lynn was going to drive over from Hot Springs, AR (from the other lake house) to see us and meet Rebekah. I was so excited that she was willing to do that and was thrilled to see her. But, those 2 sisters kept a big secret from me... My cousin Amanda and her 3 kids came with Aunt Mary Lynn! Amanda is like a sister to me and when we get together, its like no time has passed, so I was SOOO happy to see her. And it was my first time to meet her youngest, Camden, so it was just a special time.

Aunt Mary Lynn (Aunt Nana) and Abby with Rebekah

Amanda and Rebekah

The 2 Nanas and (some of) their grandkids

Meeting Colton and Introducing Rebekah

We were so happy to have Andrew spend his spring break with us this past week. We fell back into our routine of last year where he pretty much takes over responsibility of "his child" (Leah). We miss not getting to see him all the time and we felt very privileged that he chose to spend his free time with us. It also worked out that he got to meet his newest niece - Rebekah:

And, Sarah was nice enough to have our newest nephew in time for us to make a quick trip up to D.C. for all of us to meet Colton (and for them to meet Rebekah):

While in D.C. we couldn't resist going and visiting some of the sights. Stephen just finished reading the book the movie Lincoln was based on, so we decided to go see the Lincoln Memorial on this beautiful morning:

Guess who's 2 months old!

I wonder who?

Ohhh... It's me!!

Rebekah Joy is 2 months old! Sometimes it's hard to believe it's already been 2 months, and sometimes I feel like she has been here forever. I know they say having 2 kids is way more than doubling your work, stress, etc. and I guess maybe we'll hit that point in a few months when she becomes mobile. But, for right now we are enjoying our sweet girls: establishing routines, getting to know each other and starting some sisterly bonding. Now, when they are close and Leah hears Rebekah cry or coo, she reaches out to touch her. And Rebekah really likes to watch her big sister play. We are looking forward to watching that relationship continue to grow and are continuously thanking God for blessing us with another little girl to be best friends with our special Leah. We are starting to get into a good routine and are beginning to establish our napping schedule. Rebekah likes to sleep in her cradle, but wants to be rocked almost to sleep before being put down. She loves to be talked to and enjoys having eye contact. This is something new for us (obviously) and we are having to remember to actually look at her. She is starting to smile a lot and I think it won't be too long before we have our first giggles. (Leah will love this as children laughing is one of her favorite things to hear!) Rebekah is our precious bundle of joy! (BTW "Bundle" is Rebekah's official nickname)

Precious face. Wouldn't you want to look at that all day?!

She has started sucking on her pointer finger (like her Uncle Joe)

Sweet smiles while snuggling down to sleep

Saturday Morning Photo Shoot

I got a new lens for my camera for Christmas and I am still trying to figure it out. So, this morning I did a little shoot with my cutie to practice. Here are some of my faves:

What a precious little bundle of joy!

Fun with the Fam

Since it's been so long since I last blogged and I'm not sure when I'll become regular or consistent with it, I figure I might as well post a bunch of pictures of what's been happening in our house in the last few weeks. Here's what's happening around here: 

We celebrated Valentine's Day. Both girls wore their "love"liest clothes and we forced them to hug for a picture. As you can see, it wasn't so bad. We even got Leah to put her arms around Rebekah!

 We have spent a LOT of time lounging! Leah climbs all over, but Rebekah and Daddy pretty much snuggle the whole time.  

 Some day soon, we'll need to teach Leah about the "bunny hole". Maybe she'll stay put!

The classic picture of the older sibling smiling while the younger cries. Makes you wonder what Leah did to Rebekah!

Leah loves riding on Daddy's shoulders and jumping!

5 weeks old and starting to get good at holding her head up. I love her crazy hair sticking out all over the place!

 7 weeks old and now she is a pro at holding her head up. She can look all around and check out the world around her!

 Hi, I'm a cute girl!

Leah likes to help her sister by pushing the swing. What a good big sister!

The difference 7 weeks makes...

1 day old - coming home from the hospital

7 weeks old - going for a walk

She's a little bit bigger!!