Outtakes

So here's our cute little family picture. When my good friend Annie Beth saw it, she asked how pictures we had to take before we got this one. Well, it was several and my mom (probably because it was my birthday) very patiently continued to take pictures until she got one with both girls looking at the camera.

Now Brian and I were totally oblivious to what was going on, but apparently there was a reason the girls weren't looking at the camera. Check out our outtakes:

Poor Molly! She didn't even complain--she's such a good big sister!

Happy Birthday to Me!

I seriously can't believe it's my birthday again. I'm getting closer and closer to the big 30! I had an amazing birthday this year! First of all, I felt 100 times better than I did last year on my birthday. Last year I was in the first trimester of my pregnancy and sick everyday. This year I'm not pregnant and I have another special little person to share in my birthday fun! Yesterday, Brian took half the day off of work so that we could go out--just the two of us! We had such a nice day! Then today we went out to dinner with my mom and then to SAS Cupcakes for dessert. Molly had talked about getting a cupcake for Mommy's birthday all day so she was quite excited! I couldn't have asked for a more perfect today--the weather was beautiful and I got to spend the day with my family!

Swimming in April!

That's right! We went swimming during the first week of April! It was in the low 90's today, so I thought I'd make the best of it and take the girls swimming in our baby pool. Molly was beyond excited so we started getting ready for our little swim. It kind of took awhile to get ready....

Putting on bathing suits: 15 minutes
Filling baby pool with water: 15 minutes
Bringing water to a boil (to add to the freezing hose water): 12 minutes
Locating the sunscreen that I hadn't seen since last summer: 10 minutes
Lathering two babies up with sunscreen: 10 minutes
Gathering up toys and towels: 3 minutes
Having the girls pose for some pictures in their matching suits: 3 minutes

Total prep time for our swim: 1 hour and 8 minutes

Molly sitting in the water: 2 minutes
Molly splashing in water: 2 minutes
Molly putting all of the toys in the water: 2 minutes
Molly throwing all of the toys out of the water: 2 minutes
Rayna deciding that any water cooler than bath water is too cold: 2 seconds

Total time in pool: 8 minutes and 2 seconds

Oh, well....I guess that's the way it goes with little ones! We dried off, ate dinner, and went on a walk. It was still a great evening!

Happy Easter!

We had a wonderful Easter Sunday. Our church service was awesome and both Brian and I got to sit through almost all of it for the first time in several months. Molly stayed in her class the whole time and Rayna only needed me once for just a few minutes. It was awesome to get to sit in the service with Brian on Easter Sunday.

We started Easter off with Easter baskets. Molly was very excited about all of her goodies, and Rayna was very excited about eating her basket! :-)
How adorable are the girls in their Easter dresses? Both dresses were baby gifts for Rayna. Yes BOTH of them. One of the sweet ladies from our church, Francy, gives baby gifts to the older sibling rather than the baby because the sibling ends up passing it down so you get more use out of it. How great is that?! The other one came from one of my previous students. I thought they both looked precious!
This afternoon, we went to Nana's for Easter dinner. Aunt Marie brought Molly several Easter crafts, so Molly did some of those today. She LOVES art and had a really good time with them. It was a beautiful day, so we also spent a lot of time playing outside. What a lovely day!

Easter with the Hineses

Brian's family came for a visit today. They brought Easter baskets for the girls and Molly went on her first Easter egg hunt. Aunt Marie hid the eggs, and Molly was very excited about getting to look for them. She was SO funny--she would find an egg, open it, put the candy in her basket, and leave the "shell" on the ground. Anytime we would try to get her to put her eggs in her basket, she would say, "Dat don't go in there! Candy go in there!" Grandma finally convinced her to put eggs in one basket and candy in another. Then we went out to lunch and Brian took his family on a tour of North Carolina Farms. It was such a fun visit!

5 Months Old

Rayna,

You are five months old! What a fun five months it has been! You've had a busy month this month.

The weather has been nice so we've been spending a lot of time outside. You love to swing on the baby swing on the swingset. And you don't mind going high! The higher we push you, the happier you are. You like for everyone to push you on the swing, but especially your sister. You think it is so funny when she pushes you and just laugh and laugh.

You spent the night away from home for the first time this month. We went to visit your Uncle Will and you had a great time. You slept in the pack-n-play like a champ and did pretty well on the car ride.

You LOVE to be carried in the sling. No matter where we go, you are very happy with Mommy or Daddy carrying you in the sling.

You love being held and cuddled and you are such a sweet baby girl! We love you!

Happy Birthday, Uncle Will!

We made it!! Mom and I successfully took two very small children to another state and back! We had a great time with Will (aka Billy) and squeezed tons of fun stuff into the few days we were there. We went for Will's birthday and it was nice to get to spend a few days with him. The highlight of the trip for Molly was definitely going to Ripley's aquarium. She is still talking about all of the fish!

The girls did SO well! Molly traveled very well thanks to the Nichol's DVD player (I'd love to know how many states that DVD player has been to--this is our third trip with it!) Rayna did really well into we got stuck in traffic on the way home. She wasn't happy that we weren't moving and was very glad to get home.

I wasn't sure how the girls would do going down for bed tonight since they've been so off schedule, but they both went down without a peep. I think they were exhausted and just happy to be in their own cribs!

I took an absurd amount of pictures on our trip (imagine that!)--here are just a few: