lately

As I was uploading some pictures today, I realized that I have lots of pictures to share from the past couple of weeks.  These are mostly just day-to-day playtime and attempts at getting cute pictures of all the kids, but since we print this blog as our scrapbook, I want to make sure to include them.  So here's a little bit of what we've been up to lately.

These were just from a random day, but I loved the girls' outfits because their shirts say "one of a kind"...so we took some pictures!

Emily

{totally in a picture-taking mood on this day!}

sweet Caroline

And what kind of photo shoot would it be without a non-matching brother jumping in the middle?

{although I shouldn't complain about his clothes...at least he is wearing clothes this time!!}

peek-a-boo, Emily!!

Miss Caroline LOVES to stand!

    

 Actually, they both love it, and they're both officially "cruising" everywhere now!

ladies...

In other news, the girls are comfortable enough in the big bath tub for triple baths now!!  I need to get some more pictures, or maybe a video, of this fun nightly event.  Everyone LOVES it!

We celebrated Matt's birthday on the 21st, but unfortunately he was out of town for work....so Will took a picture wearing Daddy's crazy neon shoes and holding his birthday card.  Such a ham!

And on one of the warm days last week, the girls wore some sweet new spring outfits {thanks, Websters!}, which of course meant I had to take their pictures again.  Come on....chunky baby arms and legs were visible for the first time in months!!!  Who can resist?!

Caroline was more in the mood for pics this time...  

But I think Emily still wins the award for happiest baby at picture time!  :)

Later that same day, I still had the camera out and realized that I never really take pics while the kids are playing.  And I want to document that, because I know that soon these sweet days of playing all together will be replaced with more school days, older kids who are easier to go places with, more activities, and less time hanging out at home in the playroom.  It's bittersweet...because this phase can be tough on days when I need to get something done or run an errand, but I really and truly do love just hanging out and loving on these adorable children.  They grow up too fast, and I know I'll miss these slower-paced play days when they're gone.

The girls LOVE the play kitchen and food!

Yes, I put ridiculous bows on their heads that day.  But to be fair, they DO have hair...you just can't see it because it's exactly the color of their heads!  But I know...clearly still too early for clip-in bows.

They love standing at the lego table.  I think Will liked it better when they couldn't do this.  ;)

{C has the light pink bow and E has the dark pink one.}

Sweet Will!

cheese smile

tickle monster!!!

Does this girl look like she has an ear infection?  Moments after this gleeful game of naked peek-a-boo, the wheels CAME OFF.  But it was fun while it lasted!

And finally, some pics of the girls sporting their Rangers gear on opening day!

This one cracks me up.  It's a much more accurate picture of real life with twins than the ones where they both happen to be sitting up and looking at the camera! 

Caroline {on right} was way too wiggly for pictures, as you can see.

But Emily indulged me and sat for a few!

What fun!  We are excited for spring, nice weather, short sleeves and baby feet, long walks outside {which we did this afternoon!}, Rangers games, and some pool days in our future!  

happy easter!

Happy Easter!!  We had a blast this Easter, and although the girls are too young to really understand the holiday, they still had lots of fun playing with eggs and spending time with family.  {despite the fact that we found out on the day AFTER Easter that they both had ear infections!}  It makes me so excited about future holidays as the kids grow up and can really have so much fun celebrating together. 

We started the celebrations early in the week by talking to Will about the meaning of Easter and Good Friday.  He was so cute, and would ask every morning if Jesus was back yet.  He was so excited on Sunday morning...about Jesus AND the Easter Bunny!  :)

We dyed eggs on Saturday, because we knew that Sunday would be too busy to squeeze it in.  Will used this activity to showcase that he is, in fact, 100% little boy.  He started out so careful and meticulous, but as soon as he realized how fun it was to crack and smash the eggs, things got a little bit interesting. 

Concentrating on pouring the water into the cups.

Still being super careful to delicately dip the eggs.  I think he may have thought they were raw eggs at this point, so he was making sure not to break the shells or splash the dye.

and then....

See the crack in the blue one?  He accidentally dropped it down into the dye cup, and we heard the shell crack.  When he picked it up and saw that the shell stayed stuck together but was all smushy and crackly, his egg dying mindset changed completely!  What had been an activity of decorating pretty eggs became a game of cracking the most shells and making the biggest mess.  And when the wheels came off, they really came off.  At one point, he crammed three smashed eggs into one cup...such a boy!

Ripping an egg apart to inspect the insides.  Look at his hands....he abandoned those little wire egg holders immediately and just dunked his hands in!

When he saw the yellow yolk inside, he yelled, "oooo, mama!  cheese!!"

lovely...

Maybe a little rough around the edges, but I loved our Will Hawkins original eggs!!!

{the cracks sort of gave them a spiderweb effect}

On Sunday morning, the Easter Bunny came to visit!

Will checking out his new books {and a pre-breakfast lollipop!}

{emily}

{caroline}

sweet girls!

Emily was very expressive with her eggs!

    

Some of our amazing and creative friends gave Will some special jelly beans that he planted in the ground....and guess what?  On Easter morning, they had sprouted into lollipops!  {Luckily each jelly bean was able to grow multiple lollies because I'm pretty sure Will ate all of the jelly beans and only planted 2 or 3.}

After the girls' morning nap, we headed out to enjoy the rest of the day with our family.  We had a late lunch with my parents and dinner with the Hawkins side of the fam.  We tried to take a few family pictures outside at my parents' house, but with three hungry, distracted kids and a very eye-squintingly bright day, we weren't super successful.  And by that, I mean that we never got one with everyone looking at the camera, but I think that may be fairly normal when you have a 3 year old and 1 year old twins.  :)

We definitely walked into a neighbor's yard to sit on this bench...

It does crack me up that we were never able to all look at the camera, but somehow we got one with us all looking at the exact same spot over to our right.

Oh sweet Em...over it.

Happy Easter!!

We also had some pre-Easter pics taken of the kiddos.  With three kids, it has gotten even HARDER to pick my favorites when our photographer sends me the gallery!  Here are the ones we loved most.  :)  Enjoy!

{emily}

  

{caroline}

Mimi came to help us wrangle kids, but we didn't attempt a picture with her until it was a little too late for the girls.  Still an awesome picture though!  ;)