Easter was fun this year- Sloane was old enough we decided to dye eggs at home. She choose to make most of them pink and purple. The Easter bunny brought gifts for the kids this year. Soren got a water bottle for when he decides to actually swallow the food we give him. Sloane got a special doll. About 6 weeks ago we had borrow a baby from Bennett after playing at her house. Sloane ADORED this doll. She named her Julia and Julia quickly became top doll. We had two attempts of giving her back to Bennett and Sloane was a mess. I wasn’t sure what the solution would be when the exact doll appeared at Marshall’s. New Julia is a big hit and old Julia went back to Bennett’s with no tears. Plus-new Julia came with a bonnet and pacifier, so that was very exciting.

After some egg hunting at our house, we went over to the Lembo’s for an egg hunt outside, egg dyeing (also outside- good thinking), and some brunch. The day was grey and a little drizzly at time, which is actually perfect photography lighting- hence all the photos! Some photos are credited to Rach, but I can’t remember which ones any more……

G and Pa came for a lovely visit in April- the last visit before G retires! Because our place is a bit small, we rented a house in Portland for 4 nights. It was great to have extra space and more beds! The highlights of the trip were going to the zoo, Ga and Pa’s first time eating ramen, and Sloane getting to ride her scooter. We go to the zoo often and Sloane enjoyed tell G and P all her favorite animals and their names. We got to see a baby cotton top tamarin, which was adorable. Sloane got a scooter for Christmas and she rides it a bit. She was able to ride it 3 days in a row and it dramatically improved her skills. Though she did a slow crash into a restaurant wall right at a window where diners were sitting, twice. I was laughing so hard I almost dropped Soren.

Pa taught Sloane how to shake a hand and say how do you do. G taught Sloane how to smash the little man Pa makes with his hand and tries to tickle Sloane. Soren was a pretty good meatball through it all.

Oh, and Sloane got an ice cream cone!

We might be crazy. Scratch that- we are crazy! We planned a long weekend at the coast with our friends the second weekend of March and had a wedding to attend the fourth weekend in March. These were bookend weekends to my parents coming to visit- post coming soon….. All three weekends went well. I am amazed at how well our kids do with changes to routine and schedule. They can really roll with it.

Our first weekend was at Cannon Beach with the Wade and Smith-Crosby families. We all have 3 year old daughters with younger brothers. 6 adults and 6 kids in one house on the Oregon coast for the spring could be a mess, but we lucked out with gorgeous weather. The kids had fun spending a few days together because they usually only see each other for an hour or two. Sloane could play in the sand all day and we love hanging out on the beach so it works well. We got one night in of game playing for the adults and Telestrations was a big hit again. All three families are hopefully this will be an annual event!

Our second beach weekend was not as lucky with weather but was full of love and celebration. We were in Lincoln City to go to Jay and Mandy’s wedding. We had a cute little house with a gas fire place. Our friends, the Lembos and Booms were a few blocks away in condos with a pool so Sloane got the go swimming twice. The ceremony involved a muddy hike, dubbed muckity-muck by Sloane. She was not a fan of muckity-muck. Soren found it relaxing and fell asleep in the carrier. The ceremony was lovely and I think most people could hear it even though Soren did his screech/talking/singing through most of it. Sloane was enamored with Lila during the reception, and Soren captured the hearts of a few new people.

This winter I signed Sloane up for 5 weeks of soccer (Adam’s sport of choice) and 5 weeks of ballet (naturally to please me!) at the community center near our office. Sloane still does best with these short classes where parents are encouraged to participate. Both were a huge success. She loved Coach Dave who taught soccer. Adam mostly took her to soccer and Nini came to one class. She made friends with some of the classmates, which is fun to hear about. Teacher Sandy in ballet was very animated- telling stories, singing songs, and playing freeze dancing. I didn’t think I would be, but I was quite nostalgic and enjoyed seeing her in dance class. She is about the age I was when I started dancing. We signed up for another round of both classes for the spring.

This little bug turned 5 months old on February 23rd, then 6 months old on March 23rd. Little behind on the posts for this fellow as he is now 2 weeks past the 6 month mark. But get ready for some cuteness…….

A couple days before he turned 6 months old, I had to take him to the doctor because he had this horrible seal bark cough. Turns out he had croup and we gave him oral steroids for it. It seemed to help keep it from getting worse and really at this point, what’s another couple weeks of terrible sleep? At that appointment, he weighed in at 19.5 lbs! He will go for his 6 month well visit this week.

The theme of this age has been what can go in my mouth. We brought out the highchair and he sits with us for meals now. We’ve given him some bites of things- pear, applesauce, and avocado. He is not quite interested in actually eating the food yet, just playing for now.

Adam here- I meant to have this up a few weeks ago but better late than never.

It was an odd numbered year so that means Christmas on the west coast, and it as a White Christmas too boot!

It was a fun year, with the two Kiddos. Sloane was so smart and really got into the fun of the season. Soren started to be a smiley little guy, so he channeled the Santa spirit.  Sloane loved singing Christmas carols (Frosty and Rudolph were her favorite to sing, but she enjoyed listening to all of them and giggled to Dominic the Donkey whenever it was on).  Since her birthday was just a week before she was primed for present opening.

Sloane picked Christmas morning to sleep in, so the cousins were all ready to get started, but she made up for it with her happy little elf smiles and cute glee at the presents. She enjoyed helping to bring people their presents.

Darby and the Zips came into town for over a week, which was great as the cousins are great with each other and it gave Soren a chance to warm up and smile with each of them. The older cousins were great with Sloane and with Soren.

My Parents got us a session at JC Penny for some portraits… it was fun to get all dressed up and the kids liked that afterwards they got to have bubble tea. Here are some of the shots.

Sloane had fun with the food that we got to eat over Christmas. She tried crab on christmas eve, had shrimp, ate prime rib, and despite the fact that there were a number of treats and her tooth was still loose she did really well.

See some more pictures below of people holding Soren. He did great on his first Christmas.

We get to have a New Hampshire Christmas in 2018, which will be great (I just hope we make it through the flight in one piece with two kiddos)

Here is the beginning of our kids’ crazy friendship

He has grown almost 3 inches and gained 3 pounds in the past 2 months! He is a super smiley and giggly little one, more so than Sloane at this age.

On 1/24/18, he did his first controlled roll over from back to belly. He had done a couple rolls in December but they were single events and mostly a product of momentum. In the last week, he started to make it to his belly but his shoulder would not complete the roll.

The past 3 days he has consistently done a controlled roll from his back to his belly. He is very proud of himself when he does it. Sloane was an expert roller and had it down when she was just over 3 months old. It is a nice reminder that everyone is an individual and Soren will be his own little person. But that doesn’t mean I can’t do a little side by side comparison of photos for you all to enjoy the rolly polly nature of my babies!