Practicing with the camera

I've been experimenting with our camera trying to figure out how all the buttons and features do. Most of my pictures haven't turned out, but I got some fun ones today. My favorite is the one above. It's been snowing off and on today- nothing that sticks, but I thought it would be fun to take some pictures of Heidi in it (as always, she's my most willing model).

And here are some fun shots of Natalie getting a story from her dad. She's been really interested in books lately and loves to point to the pictures and try to turn the pages.

Easter

Our kids know that Easter is about much more than bunnies and eggs and that the Easter Bunny is pretend, but they were still very excited about doing an egg hunt. Natalie and Heidi don't wake up until about 8, so the early-rising boys had to wait for quite awhile for the fun to begin. I knew this would happen, so we decided not to hide any eggs until later in the morning and their Easter baskets were in our room hidden under a blanket. They got their baskets once the girls awoke, but we ate breakfast before they all went upstairs to let Austin and I hide the eggs without peekers.

Trevor was very excited for these paints

And Heidi was so happy to get her first pack of gum. We are pretty strict with gum to avoid the potential messes and have been extra strict with Heidi because of her hair and because she tends to be a little more care-free than her older brothers. She chewed gums about 24 times yesterday and was very good about throwing it away once she was done.

Natalie was just excited for all the things she could get into

We spread some eggs on the rug and told everyone those were Natalie's. Everyone understood, but the first thing Trevor did was try to get all the eggs on the rug until we redirected him to some other eggs and let Natalie loose to play.

Leif got all the eggs on the trampoline before I could even get a picture.

I didn't think Natalie could open the eggs very easily, but while I was outside, she got a robin's egg candy and enjoyed it thoroughly!

Asher and Leif were most excited about getting money in their eggs. (They have their hearts set on a remote control car). Unfortunately for them, there were only $9 in all the eggs and we made the three oldest share it equally. (Trevor was happy to give away the dollars he found in exchange for some teddy grahams.) (And yes, that coin is a Canadian $1)

And here are all the little darlings dressed up!

14 Months

Our gorgeous little lady is now 14 months old. She is getting more independent, although she still loves to stick with mom quite a bit. She still hasn't walked (as predicted), but she does stand up all on her own for a few seconds at a time. She gets very excited about it and shows her pride with raised eyebrows and a huge smile. If Austin is in the room, she looks at him to check if he's watching her. She cruises around by hanging onto furniture, pushing along a giant exercise ball, or using a little walking toy that we've had forever. She loves to dig through book shelves and get as many books as possible down before she is caught, loves to explore cabinets (I've figured out how to lock most of them with rubber bands) and is interested in most anything her older siblings are doing.  She still only say "mom" and "dada", but she babbles a lot and its clear that she understands much of what we are telling her. She's just at a perfect age where I wish she's stay forever: She sleeps through the night, takes good naps through during the day, is super snuggly, can eat just about everything, and is as sweet as can be! I'm trying to get better at using the nice camera Austin bought me almost 5 years ago, so I was playing around with taking pictures of her, hence there are quite a few: