Easter outfits

I forgot to get pictures of the kids wearing their Easter outfits a few weeks ago so we got all dressed up again to get some pictures in front of our pretty tree (and to go to church). Here's the best one, Leah was cold so she has a scowl on her face and Abbie's eyes are closed but aren't their matching dresses so cute? I love Porter's little matching vest and khakis too.

Here's a much better one of them inside on the couch, aren't they the cutest things ever? I love this picture so much I've printed a couple copies and sent them to relatives, framed some 8x10's, put it on my blog header (see above), and made it my new desktop background. I just can't get enough of my sweet babies!

A few more of Porter in his first church outfit. He's so handsome and such a smiley boy!

Trying to get some laughs out of him

Don't you just want to squeeze him? I do!

I looked out the window and what did I see?

Popcorn popping on all the trees! Spring is finally here, I'm so glad! It's warm and the flowers in our garden are up and the tree in our front yard is blossoming. It's the one week of the year that our tree is beautiful! Here are some of my attempts at photography to capture the beauty:


Pretty maids all in a row

Here's the progression of the tree blooming. This was taken April 21st:

A couple days later, April 25th:

At it's peak, April 28th:

Just up the street from us are a whole row of pretty white trees that bloom at the same time every year. Beautiful!

A huge magnolia tree, Abbie loved these huge flowers and wanted to take a bunch home. They are kind of strong smelling trees, though, a little too much for me. I'm kind of glad I don't have one of these in my yard but can admire it and then walk down the street to my house.

Jump City

We watched a friend of our's two boys last weekend and to get all their wiggles out one day we went to Jump City, a fun bounce house place. All the kids had the best time and it was a lot of fun to watch them climbing and sliding. Jared even got in on the action and got a good workout following them around.

Ready, set, GO!

Again!

Climb, climb, climb!

Porter at 5 months

Porter is getting so big! He is such a great baby, he smiles and coos and talks all day long and sleeps and eats pretty good too. We try hard to get him to laugh and every once in a while we get a little chuckle out of him. He loves to suck on his hands and blow raspberries and he also loves to grab his toes and can roll over from his tummy to his back. He even turns in a circle while on his back sometimes, I don't know how he does it but every once in a while I'll leave the room and when I come back, he's in a totally different position and I'm like "How did you get over there?" His sisters still love him to pieces and he is such a joy to have in our life. We love our little Porty!

He looks so old in this picture, sitting up and everything

A big smile from my cutie

Another picture? Really, Mom, how many do you have to take?

More smiling

I love kissing this face

Check out these cheeks! Don't you just want to squeeze them?

Blowing bubbles

In some new duds, a hat and booties we got as gifts that match this outfit perfectly

I think we should charge double for pictures with a cutie like this!

Any takers?

There's my thumb, I've been looking for that!

My two favorite men in the world, Awww!

And he makes breakfast, even better! I totally lucked out on this one!

I love you, honey, don't kill me for putting these pictures in!

Zoo Trip

We've had gorgeous spring weather lately so we decided to go to the zoo before it got too hot and it was perfect! I've never been one who likes the zoo, it's always too hot and smelly and usually the animals are all hiding out in the shade so you can't see much anyway. But this time it was in the 60's and sunny so I really enjoyed it and so did the kids. See for yourself:

We saw turtles (real and fake)
Snakes (this one's fake, don't worry)

Seals, this one came right up and was staring at Abbie

This one came and bobbed up in the water right in front of Abbie and Leah, so cool!

The girls loved this round window with an awesome view of the water

We also saw polar bears, brown, and black bears

The girls loved this ice wall where they could stick their hands in the "bear" paw prints

How I spent much of the day. It was great, Porter stayed happy and he helped keep me warm!


Porter loved the snugglie and cuddling with mom. I love his cheeks!

The cool fountain that the girls loved throwing money into

I don't know what Leah was doing here, I just thought it was cute so I took a picture

One of the highlights of the day, getting ice cream at the food court

We saw lots of other animals, birds, reptiles, etc. and it was a perfect day and time of year to go, I think it was my best zoo experience ever!

Stopping to smell the roses

Here are my three babies today in an impromtu photo shoot. Their hair isn't done and they aren't in matching clothes but they are just as beautiful to me as ever because this is what they look like in real life. I love when they are all smiling and together in a picture, mostly because it doesn't happen very much because usually one of them is either napping, crying, running away, or throwing a tantrum. But this morning was a good moment. Leah asked if she could hold Porter for a minute and if I would take a picture of it and at first I almost said no because I had breakfast to clean up and diapers to change and phone calls to make and a million other things to do but she seemed so happy and really wanted to hold her baby brother so I pulled out the camera and was just going to take one or two but then Porter was cooperating and Abbie wanted in on the action too so I kept snapping away and got the picture above.

For the picture below, Leah was so happy to be holding Porter all by herself since I usually have Abbie hold him when I do sibling shots. Even 5 months later she's still so proud to be a big sister!
Good thing I stopped to "smell the roses" and take some pictures today so I'll remember these days of soft baby skin, little chubby hands, pudgy bellys, and big blue eyes. I love my babies!
Here are some more pictures of the kids together that I took a couple of weeks ago. They love hanging out with Porter on the playmat and helping him with tummy time.