Life Lately: April Edition

 Well, April is behind us. We've been to a wedding, a gender reveal party, Easter get-togethers, Bunko, and birthday party after birthday party after birthday party. It's honestly a blur. 

We started our month as we do every new month by celebrating the girls' next milestone. This time is a big one! HALF A YEAR!! I just...how did this happen already?!

Camp Lollipop (Stephen's parents chose the names Lolli and Pop for the girls to call them; since she keeps them for us at her house 4 days a week, we call it Camp Lollipop :) ) took a few relaxing days earlier this month while Lolli wasn't feeling great. It didn't look like our girls minded laying around in their big comfy bed watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, haha. 

We've had our fair share of rainy and stormy weather the past couple of months. Nobody likes hearing a hospital full of iPhones start alarming simultaneously with tornado warning alerts. 

The girls are becoming sisters, and all that entails....the fighting included. 

Stephen celebrated his birthday in the middle of the month. We snuck away for a fabulous dinner date in Nashville together!

While the girls were just fine at my sister's house. Our nephews jump on any and every chance to be around the babies. 

Easter came and went in a flash. I mean, really, I don't even feel like it was just a few weeks ago. We celebrated at my grandparents' house the day before Easter as usual with a huge family meal and egg hunt. We attempted a cute family pic, and well, this is the best we got. And yes, that's the same shirt Stephen wore in the previous picture. 

Easter Sunday morning, was a hustle and bustle, and I think I've learned my lesson for next year. Start the day about a half hour earlier than normal. Holidays just need extra time for photos and whatever traditions are called for. (i.e. seeing what the Easter Bunny brought.) 

After church, we grabbed a pic with my cousin Blake and his daughter, Avery. She is 2 months older than our girls and we loved that we all showed up with the same Easter Baskets! 

And yes, Stephen's wearing the SAME shirt...ahhhhhgain. You pick your battles. 

We wrapped up Easter Sunday with lunch at my parents and a couple of the cutest photos the girls have made yet. Oh, my heart! 

I bought their Easter dresses off of Zulily; both were about $20 each. The quality was great for both dresses and the embroidery work was so pretty. Their shoes came from Old Navy, on sale I paid about $15 total for both. All in all close to $40 on their first Easter ensembles..for twins...girl twins...that ain't bad folks! #babygirlclothesarenotcheap

Mae Parker has been my shopping buddy this month. Not intentionally, it's just worked out that she's been the one I take with me. I can't say I mind the alone time I get to steal with this one. 

Meanwhile, Amelia is fiesty as ever! Many days this month, I've caught myself saying "she is bouncing off the walls today!" The girls received these Minnie Mouse themed onesies and tutu's for a shower gift. Since we were going over to my sister's for Colin's birthday party with his friends, I decided to deck the girls out in their "party tutu's". I'm not a frilly mom AT ALL, so this was all quite the stretch for me. 

Colin chose a sleepover party with a few friends this year instead of a big party. He made sure "the twins" were invited and held off on blowing out his candles until we got there. A house full of kids, screaming, hyped on sugar...we stayed for maybe 30 minutes before we headed back home. 

On his actual birthday, which was last Friday, the girls wanted to send a special message to their cousin on his big day! 

We wrapped up the month celebrating Colin one more time with just our immediate family. We went out to dinner and then enjoyed the boys' traditional ice cream cake. 

Sweet cousins. 

Riley and Colin's other grandma has this tiny wooden student desk, that she's had for years. The boys had their pics made in it when they were little and Colin insisted that the girls have their pictures made in it too. We all thought it was so sweet he wanted them to share in this chair's tradition!

And now, I realize these pictures are out of order. Oh well. Along with Easter Sunday, the girls had continued their weekly Photo sessions. 

Since I post these as a "Happy Sunday Friends & Family" post on Facebook each week, I've been told we need to keep this chair until their 18. Something tells me they're going to care less about having their picture taken every Sunday morning when they're oh say, 12, 13.

This month, we started using our high chairs. Which these things are a HIT. Amelia and Mae Parker both love sitting in them and they're great eaters in these chairs. I wish we would've started using them sooner!

My aunt and uncle brought over a special delivery Saturday afternoon. Last week, I posted on Facebook asking if anyone had one of this sit to stand learning tables they're ready to sell. My aunt called me as soon as I got to work and told him her dad (she's my aunt by marriage) wanted to buy the girls a new one. He had told her he so enjoys seeing their pics I post each week on Facebook and he wanted to get them a new one to have that was theirs. Now. Let me just say, that I started crying right then and there in my office that morning. It was just the sweetest, most unexpected gesture from someone that we know but not necessarily are that close to. To know our daughters are bringing joy to others that we don't know about...it was just so touching. 

I hope I won't be repeating myself later this week in the girl's 7 month blog post, but I'm sure I will some. That's ok. THIS girl....WOW!. 

I came home from work one Tuesday after proclaiming, "Tonight, Amelia is sleeping in her crib." Ask me how many nights she had slept in her crib before that night? Zero. How many times have we attempted her to sleep in her crib at night? Zero. Two nights in a row she was the most restless I had ever seen her in her Rock and Play and like a light bulb epiphany moment one day and realized  that perhaps she just needed more space. We put her in her crib that night and she's slept there very night since. I swear she is the happiest baby when she wakes up in the mornings! 

With the help of my friend Amy, we tackled alot of outside work this weekend. We dug up plants and flowers, planted all new flowers, made flower boxes, and took on two trips to Lowes in as many days. MP loved looking around at all the flowers and being outside with us. 

And that's a recap of our Life Lately in April! The girls are seven months old today!! I'll have their monthly recap up (hopefully) tomorrow. They are something else!