Boys having fun

We are lucky to have two incredible little boys.Both are growing like crazy and I'm a little crazy trying to keep up with them. Eli is 7 1/2 months, and still just as huge as ever. We didn't post it, but he was 23lbs and 28inches at 6 months. Although slowing down, he's still big and growing. But he is wearing 18-24 month clothes and quickly closing in on his older brother. In the past week or so, he discovered crawling (well, scooting forward) and loves being mobile. He is constantly on the move, turning off the computer or chewing on power cords or eating any crumbs we haven't quickly grabbed off the floor or eating shoes. That's a pretty complete list of Eli's favorite things to do. Our friends Boyd and Allison sent Eli's 1 year birthday present early (and it's a good thing, too!) so pictured below is Eli in is birthday present BYU shirt. 

Caden and Eli often get each other laughing, and I love to just sit back and watch them go at it.

 Our boys in BYU blue.

 Yes, that is a choke-hold on Eli. It's a good thing he's big.

 Our handsome little man

 Doggie pile. Poor Caden often gets squished like this. Maybe soon we'll start alternating and let him be on top sometimes.

Strawberries

So, I had a hard time believing it, but apparently it is the middle of strawberry season here. I seriously feel like we missed a couple of months when we moved from Cincinnati to Atlanta. It is still taking some adjustments. We went strawberry picking last Saturday. This year, Caden loved it, although we had to repeatedly teach him that green strawberries were not good to eat. He helped us fill up our buckets and with Dad's encouragement filled up his belly with berries. Eli was happy to watch the proceedings, but his budding skills are making him a little less content to just sit and watch.

Easter Festivities

Easter was only a few weeks after we moved, so lucky for us we have some great friends that invited us to join them for some fun Easter festivities! The week before, Taylor and Kristen M had us over (well, technically it was Taylor's parents) for an Easter egg hunt. It was Caden's first hunt, and he was all about it, particularly when he figured out the eggs were filled with good things. At first, he only wanted blue eggs, but he later branched out.

Taylor helping Clark out.

Eli letting us know what he thinks about the situation.

I think Eli wanted in on the action, too. At least, he wanted to help enjoy the goods.

The day before Easter, one of the moms here organized an Easter party for all the kids in playgroup. We did an Easter egg hunt at the park, we frosted cookies and had an awesome little brunch.

I know I'm a tiny bit biased, but this kid is ridiculously good-looking!

Caden on the hunt.

Caden loves the frosting almost as much as he loves sprinkles.

I'm pretty sure Caden's favorite items were the matching blue bouncy balls, but the noisemakers and other little toys were also more of a hit than the chocolate.

Crocketts come visit

After my sister left, we had a couple of days without any visitors, then the Crocketts came to visit us on their way to the beach for Spring Break. They came on General Conference weekend, so much of our time was spent inside, but we did go out Sunday morning to a tree preserve near our house. The kids loved running around in the woods and throwing rocks in the water. Us adults loved the beautiful early April weather!

It's hard to get 5 little ones to look in the right direction, especially when there is a line of parents in different directions trying to get kids to smile!

Our Cute Boys

Family in Georgia

We were so lucky to have Grandma R with us for a week, and then Aunt Laura for another week. It helped us (me especially!!) with not only all the logistics of moving, but helping us transition from one home to the next. It was nice weather in Cincinnati when we left, but it was record high in Atlanta (mid 80s in March), so we were frantically trying to find our shorts and t-shirts and packing our sweaters back up. Unfortunately for Gma and Laura, we didn't really get to go do anything fun, but we sure enjoyed having them!

At our new favorite (and closest) park. We had been taking a bunch of photos and Caden was past done at this point.

Move to Georgia

In the middle of March, we packed up and left Cincinnati and headed to Atlanta, GA for Jess's next work rotation. Definitely not my favorite thing in the world- packing and moving- but we had help from Grandma R and Aunt Laura which made it a whole lot easier (as well as the countless friends who helped out on the Cincinnati end). Jess survived driving the truck and towing one of our cars overnight after packing the truck all day (and then spent the next day unpacking. Superman? I think so), and Grandma R, the boys and I had a not-so-bad 8 hour drive. Caden handled the move pretty well, although the night Jess drove off in the truck his world kind of collapsed and he had a rough time. Both boys loved seeing Grandma and getting extra love and attention from her. Caden was not happy to drop Grandma off at the airport, but was thrilled when Aunt Laura "magically" showed up and came home with us for another week of family fun.