Recent cuteness

Our kids love to be outside. Sydney was this way from day one, and Collin is no different. Sydney also loves to watch Randall cut grass, and Meme witnessed this while she was visiting and decided a lawn mower was a perfect Easter gift. She was right!

 

Collin was all smiles yesterday playing outside. He is the happiest little thing :)

 

These last two pictures are from today before church. We bought this lavender tutu during our trip to Georgia last summer, but this is the first time she's wanted to wear it. So sweet!

3 Months & School

Today, Collin is three months old! We were able to take a few pictures before we left for school this morning.

At three months old, Collin is a sweet, sweet boy. He is a fabulous eater and sleeper (11 hours straight most nights!), and his fussy ways early on seem to be long gone. He smiles and laughs and is generally content with life. He doesn't mind the constant attention from his big sister, who continues to LOVE him to pieces. She calls him "lil buddy" which is just so cute.

 

 

 

Now in his second week at Fayetteville Montessori School, Collin has adjusted very well to the new routine. Sydney loves going to his building to drop him off and she can't wait to pick him up at the end of each day. It's a longer routine with double drop-off in different buildings, but we've settled in well. He's napping, eating, playing ... and apparently is one of the happiest babies in his class. Our transition was only easier because of our love for Ms. Jan, Sydney's former infant teacher who was so happy to get a 2nd Strickland baby! We also love the other teacher, Ms. Carol, and the sweet afternoon girl, Ms. Chelsea. Sydney enjoys seeing Ms. Jan every morning, too. She tells her something each day that I'm sure Jan is thrilled to hear. Ha! This morning, it was all about the caterpillars and gerbils in Syd's classroom. Today, as we were leaving, she said "Bye Ms. Jan, Bye Collin, Bye little buddies!" I guess that was the easiest way to address the two other babies she didn't know. Haha.

Here is each of their first days with Ms. Jan (who is now an honorary member of our family as far as I'm concerned!!) I think the kids look alike in these pictures. I change my mind everyday on whether or not they favor.

Easter 2012

Our Easter morning was lots of fun! A few Easter bunnies visited the kids (Bunny Grandma, Bunny Meme and Bunnies Mom and Dad) :-)

I thought the kiddos looked so cute this morning before we left for church!

Our favorite babysitter, Stacia, and her family invited us to visit their church today, and we really enjoyed it. They had an Easter Egg Hunt followed by their contemporary service. It's in Farmington, which is the school district we are in, so I like the idea of having the kids get to know kids they would be in school with... we plan to go back again soon.

Stacia will have her first babysitting gig at our house with both kids next weekend. I think she already likes our newest addition, so it should be just fine :-)

Egg-cellent Day

Yesterday was a really warm day and we planned to go to an Easter Egg Hunt in Farmington that some friends told us about. There were 40,000 eggs and it felt like almost as many people - haha! It was behind the elementary school Sydney will attend, assuming we are in our same house in August 2015. Crazy to think about that.

This crowd photo is just of part of Sydney's age-group (0-PreK), and you can see it was more of a run out and grab than an actual "hunt" --- still lots of fun and she got into it! They had face painting and photos with the Easter Bunny, but she opted out of those activities :)

Last year it rained on Easter and we did a little hunt in our living room. She wasn't really old enough to take to something like this, so this was her first real Easter Egg Hunt.

After the hunt, we had to play on the playground. We were hot by this point, but Sydney was quite happy to swing on the big girl swing sporting Daddy's shades. Good luck to us the next time we try to get her in a  "baby" swing.

Don't worry - Collin was there, too! He spent his time chillin out in the shade with Meme :)

And here's just a cute photo I had to include here from earlier in the morning when he woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed. He's been regressing some with his sleep --- waking up a couple of times a night to eat. I promise you he isn't this cute at 3 a.m.! Haha

I'm so thankful to have a phone that takes decent pictures. I can't believe how often I forget to take my real camera places, and it's a great back-up! These were all taken with my phone. Technology is so amazing.