Happy Easter

He Is Risen...He Is Risen, Indeed!

We were able to celebrate Easter day with lots of special family time. We enjoyed brunch with Linnea's great-grandma, and dinner (and an Easter egg hunt!) with Brian's family.

We hope you had a blessed Easter as well, celebrating the resurrection of our Lord!

In anticipation of Easter, Owen enjoyed his first experience with coloring Easter eggs!

Thanks, Safta (Grandma Julie) for the cute "My First Easter" outfit!

Special time with Linnea's grandma ("great-gran" to Owen & Ava)

Enjoying time in Grandma Pam's beautiful back yard, getting ready for the Easter Egg hunt!

Ready for action!

Hanging with Papa G. (Brian's dad) and watching the "hunt". She'll love participating next year!

Ava 10 Months

Ava is 10months (well, actually 10 1/2 months now I guess!) She weighs about 15.5lbs and is a bundle of energy! Ava smiles easily and loves to laugh. She does a silly quick-breathing through her nose with a big toothy smile when she's excited. She babbles & squeals, claps, signs "all done" and lifts her arms when she wants to be picked-up. Ava loves to hug & snuggle, crawls like crazy and walks along furniture. Her favorite toys are anything that can go in her mouth. She especially loves her colorful whiffle balls, her stuffed owl and little stuffed bear rattle. She has 4 teeth along the top and 2 on bottom. She takes two good naps each day and sleeps well through the night (6:30pm-6:30am). Ava is really enjoying the transition to finger/table foods - liking most things that we offer! In particular she enjoys yogurt, fresh fruit (like pear & banana), crackers & bread. This month brought another first - one that we actually would rather have avoided, if possible. A big cold spread through our family, and unfortunately Ava got her first ear infection. She was a trooper, and thankfully the cold is behind us and we're all healthy again.

With Ava getting much more active, keeping Ava still for her monthly photos is getting considerably more difficult!

What we've been up to!

I cannot believe how far behind I am on my blog postings! In an effort to catch-up, below are a bunch of photos to highlight what we've been up to so far this year. In a nutshell, we're both keeping busy with work - Brian now in tax season and Linnea has traveled more for work in the last couple of months than normal. We're involved with regular weekly activities at our Church, Owen is in swim lessons and a music class, and Ava will start Gymboree classes next week! We also enjoy lots of down-time at home just playing and being silly! And once this winter weather wraps-up (what is the deal with snow in March?!) we are looking forward to spring and lots of outdoor fun!

January Photos:

What can be sweeter than a baby fresh out of a bath and wrapped in a cozy towel!

Enjoyed a great weekend with Linnea's parents at their place in Black Butte to celebrate the New Year holiday

(Thanks, Esther, for the awesome homemade hat! So cozy and so cute...I mean handsome!)

Owen teaching dad how to use the iPad :)

Ava enjoying lots of new experiences with food. And Owen is a great helper!

Eight Month's Old

Lots of fun during a visit from cousin Landon (and his parents, of course!)

February Photos:

Watch me crawl! So excited!

Sibling silliness :)

9 Month's Old

Having so much fun at good friend Madelyn's 3rd birthday party!

Using a sippy cup!

Sorry Ava...so much of our baby gear is blue from having Owen first. But girls can like blue too, right?! :) Oh well, her girly wardrobe definitely makes up for the boy themed baby gear!

March Photos:

Owen loves wearing a band-aid, whether or not he needs one :)

Totally into dinosaurs - and knows them all by name!

On The Move

I can hardly believe it's been a month since our last post! Unfortunately just before Christmas our laptop broke and we were out of commission until just this last weekend. But we're back up and running (thanks, Keith, for all your help!) and for our first post of the New Year we're happy to announce that as of TODAY, Ava is crawling! She's been up on all fours for several weeks so we knew it was just a matter of time. Check out the video clip below to see her new moves! And stay tuned, more blog postings to come :)