April photos...

Noel doing a little "Kung-fu" hand shuffle.
BIG GIRL--5 weeks old, and holding her head up!
Owen showing off his pearly whites for the camera!

"milk-drunk"

SO many rolls...bath time is a little more work with this one.

Pudding is a very serious bed time snack around here!

(Nice photo dad, even caught a big drop falling into his lap in this one!)

This one is for Grandpa Brand; Owen was eating bacon with strawberry jam on it. (The toast and eggs were previously eaten, or it all would have been there in one bite!)

April flew by. Seems like Noel is changing day by day, from no crying to getting her big girl cry, from bobble head to holding her head up all by her self! She's talking tons now (oooh's and aaas's, nothing fancy!--although she totally accidentally said da-da, but it was total fluke, not intentional, I'm not counting it, I refuse...I'm working on ma-ma, it's got to be first this time!--a girl can dream, haha). Other than that Noel is doing great, she's sleeping pretty consistently through the night (8pm-5am); which makes for happy days for mommy!

In a short two weeks Owen will be 2, and everything that comes with it, terrible two's are in full force around here. Owen is throwing blocks, yelling, talking back, and of course the favorite word "NO" is being thrown back in our faces all the time! Oh man! This year Owen's birthday falls on Mothers Day too; which is fine, he's the reason I am able to celebrate Mother's day, so why not share that blessed day! Love my little monkey man!

For Owen's first birthday I made him a turtle cake, this year I'm feeling equally adventurous and will be making an elephant cake! Yay! Fingers crossed it turns out!

I have my check up with my OBGYN this week and Noel has her next doctors appointment next week. I'm eager to get "cleared" off of light duty, and equally as eager to see how big Noel is now, compared to her 2 week check up! She's wearing 3 month clothes now and won't fit into most of her hats, with out me letting out the cuff. Owen was loosely measured with a tape measure and is almost 3ft, just a few inches shy, he's also weighing approx 27lbs, still a light weight at two years old! Tall and skinny just like my brothers were at his age too! Owen has his 2/2.5 year check up in June; I think we'll talk to the doc then about the Nevus Sebaceous/birth mark on his scalp, and when to proceed with surgery. Eric and I agreed that we want to do it before school starts, so what ever steps we need to take before then, we'd like to talk to the doctor and what ever specialists are necessary before making the big "when" decision--how much time off work to take care of him, etc. How invasive will it be, all sorts of questions.

Owen is really into running, up and down the hallway, up and down the hills at the park, every where! If he's not running he's jumping. Jumping across the driveway, up and down the hallway, haha, all the time. He's pretty impressed with his ability to jump and run, and we encourage it. Like my mom said to me just the other day, "you never know, that may pay for college some day"! Fingers crossed haha!

Lots of events going on in May, June too! Graduations and weddings!

This summer is going to be busy and fun!