Bring on the heat

We have had our fair share of rain lately and at last we are welcoming summer and the opportunity to play outdoors again. We had our first pool day today. When Harper wasn't trying to drink the water, she loved floating around. She is definitely going to be our little fish. Hadleigh took her time easing into the water, but eventually had fun swimming with her dad. Hopefully as the summer progresses, Hadleigh will gain some confidence in the water and we will have 2 little fish on our hands.
May has been busy for everyone. We started it off with a family bout of the stomach bug---not fun at all! Christian headed to Nashville for a golf outing with some college buddies and nearly got washed away with all the flooding. I wrangled up the courage to leave the girls and headed to New Orleans for a relaxing girls' weekend. Of course they survived without me and had a blast getting spoiled by Christian. The girls have been to the drive-thru zoo, a baseball game, the park, the Farmer's Market, a concert at the Botanical Garden, the pool, Rick's Bakery, and several trips for ice cream. Needless to say, it has been a busy several weeks but thankfully, we are all sleeping well for the most part (with the exception of during thunderstorms).

Marlee and Harper chillin' (literally) in the pool.

Caught by surprise!

Scarlett and Hadleigh at the Farmer's Market

The girls at the baseball game

Hadleigh wouldn't get near Diamond Hog, but Harper had no qualms about it. Not sure who the random boy is who jumped in the picture!

My girls on Mother's Day

Kangaroos in Arkansas...

Adriene and Harper preparing to see some animals.

April means...

Time for the Spring football game, Doc's Birthday, trips to the park, field day, and lots of birthday parties. As usual, the month has flown by. Both girls are doing great. Hadleigh's social calendar has kept us busy. She has had several princess parties this month, which she LOVES, and has finally decided she loves the big inflatable bouncy things. It's near impossible to drag her away at the end of the party! Her school had a Family Fitness Day, which was essentially a field day for toddlers. She showed off her long jump, relay, and hula hoop skills and got to play in a real police car. The kids all had a blast and even Harper loved cheering them on. Harper has had a rough month, first with a ruptured ear drum and then a double ear infection. She is on the mend though and hopefully we can keep those ears healthy from now on. She is crawling all over the place now, pulling up a little, and has been eating lots of table food with her 4 teeth. She has played in the toy kitchen more in the past week than Hadleigh ever has. She loves taking the food out of the baskets and putting them back in again. She is definitely an organizer. Baskets and containers can keep her occupied for a while! Her sleeping patterns are still unpredictable and she frequently ends up sleeping in our bed. She's a great sleeper once she's cuddling with me, which I really don't mind:) Maybe once her ears are all healthy again, we can get some more long, peaceful, sleep-full nights.

Football time...

Maddie and Hadleigh enjoyed exploring the Discovery Museum in Little Rock together.

Doc's birthday bash...

Fitness Day...

Party time...

Park time...

Easter

We had a wonderful Easter at home this year enjoying the beautiful weather, a great church service, fantastic friends, and lots of yummy goodies. We haven't put much emphasis on the Easter Bunny yet, so Hadleigh really didn't have any expectations for the day except that she kept shouting "Jesus is alive!". She did love hunting for eggs, though she wasn't in any hurry to collect them. She opened each one before moving on to the next. Between doing this and the fierce wind blowing her basket over several times, it took her quite a while to fill her basket! Harper loved gnawing on all the eggs (and her first piece of ham) and watching the kids run all over the yard. She's been working on her top teeth so has been a bit on the cranky side, but nothing that a little cuddling won't cure!
Here she is sneaking into Hadleigh's basket looking for something she can fit into her mouth!

My attempts at Easter pictures after church...

The perfect picture--minus the raised hand. She never raises her hand for anything, why now?!?!

Swinging while watching the ongoing egg hunt.

Do you think she can make it down the slide with all her eggs? Um...not even close!

Fighting the wind

Before you judge our hideous yard, the weeds provided the perfect hiding spot for eggs!

Marlee and Hadleigh looking for any forgotten eggs.

Good Buddies!

Another successful year of Easter egg dying

March Madness

March has been a whirlwind of traveling and fun. We continued the tradition of attending the SEC Basketball Tournament. This year it was in Nashville which meant we could drive, visit family, and meet up with some old friends. We started the trip by stopping off in Kentucky to visit Grandma and Jack. The girls loved being on the farm and spending time with family. Hadleigh was especially fond of the cows. She wanted nothing to do with the sweetest, friendliest Golden Retriever, but she would have crawled into the pin with the cows if she could!
After a quick visit, we headed down to Nashville to watch some basketball. Christian and I went to the single game Arkansas played while Gammy and Pops enjoyed cheering Kentucky to a championship at the rest of the games. Hadleigh was, of course, coached to cheer "Go CATS" which she proudly did and still will blurt out during any given sporting event. She also referred to Kentucky as "Popstucky". I must admit that I was completely satisfied that Arkansas only played one game...that is about all I can tolerate in one weekend and it meant I could spend more time shopping!
After our mini-vacation to Nashville, we headed down to Little Rock for a visit with Christian's family. Christian and some friends competed in a BBQ competition on Saturday down on the river. It ended up being a beautiful day and their team, The Mighty Fine Swine, turned out some fabulous ribs. Even though they didn't walk away winners, they had fun and are already planning out the next competition. Hadleigh and Harper enjoyed playing with their Little Rock friends and especially loved staying with their cousin Landon. Hadleigh and Landon entertained us all with concerts each evening. Landon would play his clarinet and Hadleigh would dance around. She thought it was the greatest thing ever and I must say, Landon is a pretty talented musician! Our weekend ended with us coming home to 12" of snow on the ground. It was the craziest, most unexpected thing. Luckily it melted pretty quickly, but of course the daycare thought it'd be a great excuse to close:( Anyways, we are finally back to spring weather and hope it is here to stay.
Here are the March pics:

Lining up to race to the cows.
"On your mark, get set, GO!"

Completely intrigued with the cows. Here she is waving goodbye to them.

Grandma getting her "Harper fix"

Impromptu photo shoot on the farm

Hanging out with Landon. She is way too cool to be getting her picture taken---can't you tell!

Harper is still working on her "scooting".

Entertainment time

Hadleigh and I went to see Storytime Live with Dora, The Backyardigans, Wonder Pets, and Ni Hao Kai Lan. She was anxiously awaiting Dora, but when Moose A. Moose came out, she jumped into my lap and tried to hide. She eventually warmed up, and ended up singing and dancing along and didn't want to leave when it was over.

Finally some warm weather which can mean only one thing...playground time!

And of course, the month wouldn't be complete without spending time with Scarlett and Adriene.