The latest news...

 We celebrated Easter early this year because Jeremy was on shift on Easter--James and Ellie loved their new shoes and puzzles that make animal sounds! 

 

 Then they got to open a BIG box from Grandma in Hawaii!!  It was so fun for them to dig into the Easter baskets, toys, clothes, and candy from Grandma!!  They especially loved the bunnies and light up frogs and chicks!!  THANK YOU Grandma!! You are the best!!

 Then we dyed some Easter eggs with Daddy...

 Jeremy went to work and Grammy, Pop Pop, and I took the kids to our twins group Easter Egg Hunt.  There were over 200 people there!! It was super fun!  The funniest part about the whole day was James and Ellie were both having an EPIC meltdown having to wait to go get the Easter eggs.  They just wanted to get out there and start grabbing the eggs.  So they finally said we could start and James bolted stright across the field, didn't pick up a single egg, and climbed right up the slide and playground equipment!! My mom tried to coax him back with the easter eggs and candy and he wanted nothing to do with it.  Meanwhile, Ellie and Pop pop were hunting eggs and she gathered up a bunch but just kept opening them and dropping the stuff and just wanted the EGGS!! Silly kids! 

We LOVED our new sand and water table from Grammy and Pop pop!! We spent the rest of Easter at their house playing outside, going for another Easter egg hunt and eating some yummy dinner.  We got to see Kelsey and Matt too.  But we were sure missing all the family we didn't get to see. 



So this video was for Jeremy so he could see the easter egg hunt, but I thought all the out of town family might get a kick out of it.  James was quite the little egg finder!!  He packed his bucket full!!  Ellie figured out that there were bunny shaped marshmallows in the eggs so she was stopping and stuffing her mouth full of like 5 or 6 marshmallows and would have done a lot more!! 

More than anything, Ellie loves books.  She loves being read to and has a pretty long attention span.  She also adores her baby dolls.  James likes books but he really enjoys figuring out how things work, stacking blocks, playing with cars and trucks and tools or climbing up things.

 Here is our spaghetti boy!  We are in booster seats at the table now and working on table manners....it's going AWESOME, can't you tell?

Ellie has olives on her fingers...its one of their favorite things now because we sing the 5 little monkeys song and we put them on our fingers!

 

Playing with my phone...

Rocking out to some sweet tunes.  James and Ellie definitely have a way of communicating with each other.  They understand a lot and have said some words that we understand too.  They fight at times but mostly they love playing with each other.  They laugh and play and have a grand ol time!  






 Since Easter we have had some really beautiful days so they have been spending a lot of time outside playing while I have been gardening.  We are expanding our garden and almost doubling the size this year!! And we are remodeling part of our house!  What a project!! More about that to come...While Jeremy and Pop Pop are remodeling James and Ellie have loved their new kites from the dollar bin at Target!! 

 

And playing on the slide we borrowed from Grammy and Pop Pops house.  

 

So the remodel--we are building out our playroom into a bedroom so that both kids can be downstairs with their own bedroom and shared bathroom.  For phase 2 we are going to make the downstairs bathroom a full bathroom with a bathtub for the kids which will entail some demo and new tile and flooring.  I'm so thankful for a hubby who is so handy and a pop pop who comes and helps us work on it!!  Thank you guys!!   
This is the new half wall and it will also have a pantry in the kitchen. The second picture is the full wall, closet, door, etc. 

 They also like to help me in the kitchen when I am making dinner.

 We have had a ton of snow too!! This bunch measured 13 inches!! And it kept on coming...but no snow day for me. 

I can't tell you how thankful I am for such loving, rambunctious, happy, silly kiddos...they make me smile.  Each phase has challenges but each phase has new things that I love.  They are healthy and growing well and learning so much each day!! I can't believe they are 19 months old today!      "Bye-Bye"