Recital!

Oh recital this year. I'd be lying if I said it wasn't one of the more stressful weekends of our year so far. It's stressful without a 4 month old who won't take a bottle so this was challenging. I was also a room parent 2 of the 3 nights. I just kept telling myself, "next year will be better!" We got through it and Nolan was pretty good for the most part and most importantly, the girls had FUN!

 Emerson was in 3 dances this year, "You Should Be Dancing," her tap routine, "Minion Mambo", where they dressed up like Minions, and her acro routine "Let's Party."  Easton danced one tap routine to "Groove and Boogie." They both did great and slept WELL at night!  Grandma and Grandpa Wood, Uncle Cole, Aunt Sarah, Fisher and Baby Paige and Uncle Chris, Aunt Courtney and Vivian all came down and stayed in our house.  It was cramped but so fun having everyone all under one roof.

"Step clap, step clap, step clap, step clap."

And pose!

Baby Paige and Red Oak

We have a new niece! Paige Blakely was born May 12, exactly 14 weeks after Nolan.  I never had cousins this close in age so I'm so excited to watch them grow up together.  Ryan went up to Des Moines with the girls to meet her, I stayed in town with Nolan to go to a funeral.  :(

Ryan said she's teeny tiny and really, he'd never held a baby that small.

Ryan always has hotel points to use so they were fancy and stayed at a place with an indoor pool to swim.  We Skyped so I could get in on the action.

Then a few weeks later, Ryan's grandma Skahill passed away.  It was sad but we knew we'd get to see all of the Skahills which haven't all gotten together since 1999 so that was a silver lining I suppose.

Nolan meeting his great Grandma Annie for the first time.

Great Grandpa Wood and Annie and their great grandkids (minus Fisher.)

I think Grandma Wood was pretty happy having all 6 of her grandkids under one roof for the first time.  She's got 6 under 6!

Uncle Chris

And Aunt Courtney meeting Nolan.

Geri's 6 brothers and sisters.

And all of the Skahills, pretty cool to see our families growing.

Almost summer!

Oh, the things these girls find outside. They love all things slimy, creepy and crawly. Easton found this guy in my mom's backyard one day...

...and then decided to bring it with us when we went to get Emerson from school.

The many faces of Nolan.

A great Saturday night just hanging out at home.

He's liking the activity mat more and more these days.

I'm officially old, taking pictures of my flowers.

Bedtime

Easter

Easter weekend this year was great, the Hoyts came into town so we got to catch up and have some fun.

Katie organized an entire egg hunt for the kids and they LOVED it and got lots of good stuff. Nolan chose to sit this one out.

Katie meeting Nolan for the first time.

We went to church the next day and actually got a decent family picture afterwards.                      

I say 3 is the new 2.  :)

Then we had another Easter egg hunt at Jonathan and Amber's after lunch.

She spotted a huge egg they each got one of.

Such a good baby...  Hard to imagine he'll be toddling around at the next one!