Updates

 I realize I haven't been doing a lot of blog posting recently, but when I just went to upload lots of pictures in order to catch up, I realized I haven't taken hardly any pictures the last few weeks!  Oops!  I need to get better about that.  Anyways, here is what I've got.

We had a few hail storms in April-all of which happened either during nap time or after the kids went to bed at night.  The only time the hail bothered either of them was when Addie was awake during nap time (had never fallen asleep).  She just wondered what was making such a loud noise.  Other than that, neither child seemed to hear it.  And believe me, it was LOUD, and lasted quite a while each time!  Both kids LOVED eating the hail, though, which is what they are doing here:

 It was beach night theme at Awana last week.  We went with it!

 We had some friends over to play, Abigail and Madilyn:

 I mentioned above how Addie did not fall asleep for her nap one day.  That is our new normal.  The days that Addie DOES fall asleep during nap time are extremely rare.  Thankfully, she is proving that she can handle it, and doesn't have meltdowns too often before bedtime approaches.  However, Addie still has to have "rest time" in her room for 2 hours each afternoon while her brother naps.  She obviously stays pretty busy in there, as you can see in the picture below.  That particular day, she had taken most of the shoes out of her closet and put them in her bed.  She also opened her top dresser drawer and took out lots of hair rubber bands, brushes, nail clippers, sunglasses, and nail polish-not good since she decided to pain one of her own fingernails in bed!  There were also lots of baby dolls in bed with her as well as plenty of jewelry.  At least I had 2 hours "off"!

Even though I don't have the pictures to prove it, we have stayed fairly busy.  I took Addie with me on a day trip to Charlotte for my soon to be sister-in-law's bridal shower in late April.  It was a really fun trip and I'm glad Addie was able to come with me-she was very shy (as expected) but loved every minute of it (except when we stopped at Chick-fil-a to eat and there was not only a person dressed up as a cow, but also a dog mascot and a clown-not good for my daughter!). 

I also took the kids strawberry picking last weekend, and really wish I had a picture of that.  I thought the kids would have a great time picking strawberries since the plants are easy to get to and they love strawberries.  I was wrong.  They love to EAT strawberries, not pick them!  When I first started picking, the two kids just watched me.  They didn't seem interested in picking.  Then, I asked if they wanted to try one.  Yes was the answer.  Once they realized they could eat them, that's all they did.  I have no idea how many strawberries each of them actually ate, but it was a lot.  Levi really went to town.  He never actually picked a strawberry off of a plant, though, he would just eat them straight out of the basket I was attempting to fill.  With how quickly he was eating them, though, it took a while to finish!  We had a blast and will be back next year, though!

Updates on the kids (for anyone interested-there are no pics here):

Addie is growing up so fast, it seems.  She has picked up on little sayings she hears and ends up saying some really funny things these days.  For example, on our way home from something the other night she told us, "I'm really tired from all this daytime."  Or, when Daddy cleaned her up with Levi's rag she said, "That's really confusing Daddy."  We were recently talking about her friend, Addisyn, and how her baby brother will be coming soon.  I asked Addie, "Do you think baby Dylan will have hair?"  Addie's response: "Yes, do you think he will have eyes?"  I replied, "I sure hope so!"  Addie still talks about heaven a lot and who she can't wait to see when she gets there.  She also thinks every Friday is Good Friday (ever since Easter).  I guess that's not such a bad thing since we end up talking about Jesus dying on the cross pretty much every Friday now.  Lastly, Addie has somewhat of an understanding of the days of the week.  She will ask what day it is, then she relates that day to something.  For example, if I say it is Monday, she will say we are going to the library (story time is every Monday).  Or on Wednesday, she knows she gets to go to Puggles that night.  Every day makes her think of something.  We better stick to our schedule!

Levi is our sour patch kid (that is Bob's description, but I think it's a good one!).  He can be pretty sour, but through that sourness, he is so sweet.  You just have to get to it.  Levi is EXTREMELY opinionated.  He knows what he wants and if he doesn't get it, he lets you know he's not happy about it.  He is very grateful when he does get what he wants and never forgets to say thank you.  Levi is still working on the whole talking thing, but is getting much better at mimicking what we say.  He is even starting to count (I think he made it to #6 the other night).  Bob and I might be the only ones who realize he is counting, but that is okay for now.  He still signs some, but not a whole lot.  He loves to play outside, and one of his new favorite things is to water the garden.  Hopefully our plants will grow soon!