I spoke too soon!

Well, my last blog was entitled "Spring is Here," but it appears that I spoke too soon. Here are some pictures of the rapidly melting snow in our backyard. We actually had church canceled. I know all of you Michiganders are thinking we are pretty weak, and I sort of agree, but our church is out in the country and the roads did not get plowed very early, which is why they canceled (I guess).

The girls both REALLY wanted to go outside. I was less enthusiastic because I knew that under all that pretty snow was a layer of mud, but we did head out for a little while.

Sierra did not want to keep her mittens and hat on. She had to come in pretty quickly.


Haddie posing by our pine tree.

Spring is in the air

We were so excited to see our daffodils peeking out today!! It was windy and rainy most of the day, but we did find a little break in the weather to get out for a few minutes.

Haddie can't wait for the flowers to bloom.

Sierra loves coloring with her big sister.

Haddie loves to color and I love color wonder markers that only write on their special paper. We got some for vacation and had a few pages left over.

Sierra enjoying a snuggle with her daddy. She comes up to us now and asks to "suggle" (snuggle). It is really cute!

Cousins at last

Since Brendon and I are both the oldest in our families, our children have been the first on both sides. We have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of the girls' very first cousin and are happy to announce that he is here. Melissa and Lucas are the proud parents of David Gifford Hedding. He arrived on March 5 weighing 5 lbs, 4 ozs and 17 inches long. What a little peanut. He was about 2 weeks early. The girls were so excited to finally get to see him up close.

As you can see, Sierra was very interested in David. She loves babies and carries her own baby doll around the house constantly patting it on her shoulder. It is adorable.

Haddie was interested as well, but her attention span is short these days and she was more interested in climbing on the couch. Mom and baby are both doing very well and he is gaining weight steadily.

Enjoying the great outdoors

The girls had a great time playing outside today. It was a lot of fun, just the kind of day we have been waiting for.

This was after Sierra's nap so her hair was suffering a bit.

Haddie loved playing with Fat Louie, the cat up at the farm.

She is pretty big but very tolerant of Haddie's efforts to pick her up.

Preschool and an interesting morning

Haddie started preschool last week. We weren't necessarily planning to send her to a preschool, but the opportunity for this just kind of fell into our lap. She is attending a preschool at Metamora High School facilitated by a class of high school students. This has its ups and downs, I discovered when I observed on the first day. The students are learning themselves, so Haddie is a bit of a "guinea pig," but there are 16 high school students and 14 preschoolers, so there is a lot of individual attention and help. She thinks it is great fun!

The girls have started playing nicely together in the morning when they wake up, giving me a few more minutes before really "beginning the day." How nice, or so I thought until I came into their room and found this! Somehow, they had found a pen in their room and, as Haddie put it "decorated themselves so they were pretty like princesses!"

I had to laugh and take a picture and then we headed straight to the tub. Unfortunately, it did take a couple of days to really get it all out.

Sierra has been wearing pigtails lately. I love that her hair is long enough and she has been able to keep them in. It makes for some scary hair in the morning, though.

Here is Haddie all ready to go on her first day of preschooler. I must admit to having some nostalgia as I dropped her off today. It makes me so thankful for each day I have with her. She is such a blessing and I really do love being able to stay home with her.

Grandma came to town :)

Here is Sierra meeting her second cousin, Bailey. She certainly has grown since we saw her last. Sierra and Haddie both love babies and it makes me excited to introduce them to a new little sister. It is hard to believe we will have our third baby in 3 short months. The time has really flown!

Playing with grandma in the car. The girls loved having someone sit in the backseat with them (almost as much as grandma did, I think:)

Some big shoes to fill. Sierra found a pair of water shoes in my closet and had a great time clomping around the house in them. Here she is concentrating pretty hard. This is also right before we cut her bangs. They were getting pretty long. We are trying to grow everything out to the same length in back so we can do a few more things with it.

The last couple of mornings the girls have had "parties" when they wake up. Haddie sets up all the dishes and invites her sister (I get Sierra out of the crib) to share her party. It is so sweet to watch, and I have also enjoyed having a few minutes to myself in the mornings. What a blessing. After the time change, it seems much easier to have them up at 7 rather than 6. We are going to try to stick with the new time getting up.

Preggo Pic 23 weeks

Well, I had a couple of requests for pregnant pictures. I have to say that there isn't too much to see yet, but I am definitely "thickening" around the middle. Here is a picture of me at 23 weeks (a couple of weeks ago). Everything is going well, I am feeling baby move and we are getting more and more excited for this new addition to our family.

In more news, my sister is due March 19 and we are excited to welcome her little one as well. She is dilated to a 3, so we are waiting for news anytime. Please pray for a safe and healthy delivery for her :)

We had a shower this weekend and she is doing well.
Haddie had lots of fun helping. She was very good and sat quietly for (most of) the shower. She did a great job of entertaining everyone.