Easter in Rochester

After having Easter at our house, we headed to Rochester to see everyone and have Easter dinner. It was lots of fun - we played with cousins, went on an Easter egg hunt, had a delicious dinner and enjoyed spending time with everyone.

Miss Leah had a photo shoot on the steps in her pretty dress. What a sweet pea!

Once all of the kids arrived, everyone searched for their Easter baskets. Leah found hers!

So did Cameron. He was excited to see Easter eggs with coins inside and also some candy.

After everyone found their baskets, we headed outside for an Easter egg hunt. Michael did a great job hiding the eggs - easy ones for Leah, medium ones for Cameron, and harder ones for Jason and Nicholas.

Leah liked walking around finding her eggs and putting them in her basket.

Cameron and Poppa on the lookout for some eggs.

Another egg for Leah

Cam scoops one up along the fence

Michael's favorite hiding spot - can you find the egg in this picture?

Sweet boy Cameron finding another egg

Leah with her haul of eggs, all filled with candy that she can't eat (more for Mama and Daddy!)

The Easter Egg hunters - Cameron, Nick, Leah and Jason

Happy Easter!

Easter at Our House

On Sunday morning, we woke up at our house and snuggled in our bed for a while. Then Cameron remembered that it was Easter and immediately asked to go downstairs and look for eggs and his basket.

Cameron cased the joint before heading out on his hunt for eggs and basket. Leah had no idea what she was doing, so she just headed for the toys.

Time to look for eggs! In Cam's words, "the easy ones" were for Leah

Leah was very excited to find out that the Easter Bunny put puffs in her Easter eggs!

Cam found his eggs too, and was very glad to see that the Easter Bunny did not put puffs into his - instead he got jelly beans!

More eggs, woohoo!

Leah found another egg too, after a lot of encouragement. She was not interested in finding more eggs, all she wanted to do was sit there and eat puffs out of

Eggs!!
Cameron and Leah with their baskets. As I am writing this, I realized that we don't have any pictures of Cam and Leah finding their baskets. Maybe we have video. Anyway, Leah's basket was hidden under the piano bench and Cameron's was hidden under a table on the far side of the couch.

After we found our eggs and baskets, we got dressed and ready to go to Rochester. Leah looked adorable in a dress that Mama used to wear when she was little.

Miss Leah

Before we headed out to Rochester, Cameron wanted to read some of the books that Leah got for Easter. Mama and Cam cuddled up to read the books and ended up reading all eight of them!

One more Easter post to go!

Easter at Nana and Poppa's

On the Friday before Easter, we went over to Nana and Poppa's for dinner. First we had some delicious dinner, kranzkuche (home-made bread with jelly on it). Then it was time to look for Easter baskets.

Leah on the lookout for hers (although, considering this was her first Easter, she probably had no idea what she was on the lookout for)

What's this?

Easter baby with her basket. The ears lasted for about two seconds before she ripped them off her head. Very cute though!

Since Cameron is a big boy, his was hidden in a much more difficult place. After looking all around the family room, dining room and living room, he started to get frustrated. A clue from Poppa (one of their favorite hide-and-go-seek hiding places) led Cameron in the right direction though.

Yay, my basket!

Both kiddos checking out their baskets. I was trying to get a picture of both with the bunny ears on but couldn't get them to wear the ears and look at the camera at the same time.

Another attempt at a bunny ear picture

We gave up trying to get the ears on Leah and Mama put them on instead!

Leah: Twelve Months Old!

Leah turned twelve months old last Sunday. She had her one year checkup today. Our poor baby had to get four (!!!) shots and then had to get blood drawn. She cried a bit but mainly just looked outraged that we would subject her to such mean torture! Here are her stats:
Weight: 19 pounds, 4 ounces - 19th percentile
Length: 28 1/2 inches - 29th percentile
Head: 45 centimeters - 45th percentile

Leah fell asleep on the family room floor!

One of the most striking things we have noticed this month is that, all of a sudden, Leah understands us and can do what we ask. The other day I was in the mudroom looking for one of her shoes, so I called out, "Leah, where is your shoe? Bring Mama your shoe!" I peeked out the doorway and saw her crawling over to her car seat, climbing up on it, grabbing her shoe (that she had presumably hid in there!), and bringing it back to me. Then she sat down and held her shoe near her foot! It is really awesome and gives us a taste of what is to come.

Leah has been doing fantastic this month with her sign language. It must go along with the new understanding that she has when we talk to her. Her best signs are "more" and "thank you" - especially "Thank you", which she does without being prompted. She can also do "please", "all done", "eat", and "milk". We are working on "help" and "drink" too. It has been fun for Cameron too, who has taken back up the sign language. He loves to show Leah how to do her signs.

Leah has become so mobile! She doesn't quite walk yet, but she is SO CLOSE! She has taken a couple steps when we send her back and forth between us, but doesn't seem to interested to do it on her own. She can stand up without holding anything and gets a very proud look on her face every time she does it. She also RUNS behind her push toy. She definitely understands the concept of walking, just doesn't want to do it on her own quite yet. Soon enough, I am sure.

Leah loves to be outside. She likes to be carried around in our arms and check out the world. She has a walker that she loves to go in, especially enjoying running down the driveway. She is happy to sit in her stroller and just look around, but also loves to crawl on the ground and feel the dirt/grass.


This past month, Leah had her first Easter. She did a great job finding her eggs and her basket, and loved doing both. More about Easter in a separate post though.

And of course, Miss Leah had her big first birthday this week. Of course, that will be a separate post as well.

Leah Kate is One!

Our sweet baby turned one year old today. I can hardly believe it, this year has really flown by! We had a party for Leah today, which was lots of fun. Here are just a couple of pictures - a better post tomorrow or the next day, when I am not so tired from partying!

Leah was not in the best mood today because she didn't take good naps. Hence, not the most excited or happy baby, but here is she with her own little cake.

She ate very daintily, picking off little bits of frosting and cake.

Hey Mom, this frosting is pretty good!

Leah, ready to open presents. Check out her adorable birthday shirt, made especially for Leah by Jaime. We love it!

After the party was over, Cam and Leah played in one of Leah's gifts - a sandbox from Nana and Poppa. They both loved it and got filthy. I can see lots of fun evenings playing in the sandbox in this summer!

Happy 1st Birthday Leah, we love you!!!!!

Abby's Third Birthday Party

Last week we went up to Rochester for Abby's third birthday party. It was at a bounce house play place called Kango Play. They had tons of cool toys and play places, and we all had a really fun time.

There was a big area where the kids could ride on cars and tricycles. Leah took a ride in a little car and she really liked it. When her butt was on the seat, her feet couldn't reach the ground, so she had to stand up and walk the car along. She loved it though.

Walking around with Daddy

Cameron riding one of the trikes

Some of the trikes didn't have any pedals, so we put Leah on one of those and pushed her around on it. She really liked that too.

Kiddos on bikes! We took a bunch of pictures of them together but couldn't get one where both were looking and smiling. Here is the closest we got.

I like to ride my bike (especially because my feet don't touch the ground) !

Smile!

After playing for a while, it was time for dinner. Dinner was pizza! Abby enjoying it.

Cameron ate it like a champ too.

Leah really enjoyed the pizza the too.

She liked it so much, she finished a slice and asked for "more". Here is Leah doing her sign for more - she signs it as a finger pointing to her open palm.

Yum, yum, Mama delivers the requested pizza into Leah's mouth!

A close up of the amazing desserts that Jaime made. Delicious cupcakes with chocolate cake lollipops. Sooooooo good.

The birthday girl with her cupcake! Gotta love the little hat that Jaime made for Abby too, so cute!

Cameron obviously enjoys the dessert!

Sweet smiley Leah girl!

After dinner and cake it was time for opening gifts. The kids all formed a circle around Abby and hovered while she opened presents. Here she is, elbow deep in wrapping paper.

When gifts were done, we headed back out to play. The place where we rode bikes before was now a roller skating rink. All of the kids wanted to check it out. Cam did really well - it makes us excited for him to use his rollerblades this summer!

Well, he did well most of the time. Tim caught him mid-fall in this picture!

Abby ready to skate

Cam hanging on for dear life

Cam and Bridgette skating together - yet another photo to add to the file for their rehearsal dinner when they get married some day!

After Cam was done skating, it was time for some games. Skeeball!

Cam had trouble getting the ball all the way up the ramp into the target. More than half the time, the ball came rolling back down the ramp. He loved it anyway.

A very nice employee gave Abby a huge handful of tickets that she had cleared out of a game that was stuck. Abby was super excited to get them! Also, this picture shows off Abby's gorgeous outfit, which Jaime made!! So cute!!

The play place also had a climbing structure up above everything. Cam loved climbing around up there.

Tim took Leah up there too and she LOVED it. She is a nosy little monkey, so she loved being able to look around at everyone from up above.

It was a great party and we had so much fun. Happy 3rd Birthday, Abby!