Cute as a button

Not much has been happening here at the Cook Household. Nick has a new boss, so he is once again the Aide de Camp (General's Aide). He was not supposed to be in this position since we have orders to move, however, Fort Riley has failed to hire an aide to replace Nick yet. So, Nick is working really long hours and we don't see him much. He has spent the last several days in Washington D.C. with the General. We miss him terribly, but the upside is that he was able to scout out some neighborhoods to narrow our house search. He's coming home tonight, and the kids are really excited to have their Daddy back.

The house showings have seemed to slow down now that spring break time is over. I'm relieved that I don't have to keep loading the kids and dog into the car and finding someplace to entertain everyone for an hour. But, I'm starting to get a little nervous that we haven't sold it yet. It's only been six weeks, but we need to leave here by the first week of June. Our real estate agent is really optimistic though, so we are keeping our hopes up for now.

Adeline is growing like a weed. She sleeps and eats lots and is generally a very content baby. During an awake period the other day she was making the sweetest faces. She and I were snuggling on the couch, so I decided to grab my camera and take some photos of her. I'm finding it really hard to take many photos these days. Something is always going on here at home. But here are a few new ones.... Enjoy!

We still can't decide what color her eyes are. Benny's were blue from the start, and Sophie's were dark brown from day one. Adeline's seem to change by the day or the light. Just when we are convinced that they are a lighter shade of brown, there will be a day when they look really blue. I guess time will tell.

Benny has been an especially good helper lately. He often holds Adeline for me in the morning. This gives me a chance to do some dishes or feed Sophie her breakfast without having to put Addie in her bed or baby bouncer. She loves the attention, and Ben is so cute with her.

Sophie does ok with Adeline. I have to really watch her because she is constantly poking at Addie. She tries to give Addie her baby doll bottles. Sometimes she covers with blankets or gives her a rattle. Her intentions are good, but it still makes me nervous. Lately she is fascinated with Addie's mouth, especially when Addie has a pacifier. Sophie is constantly pulling it out and then exclaims "Uh oh, Baby's mouth, Baby's crying". More often than not, Sophie is playing with her baby dolls and mimics what I do. The other day I walked into the family room and found her holding her baby on the Boppy pillow. It was so sweet.

More sweet moments to come!

Easter

Our Easter Festivities started off with egg dying on Good Friday. At first Ben only wanted to use three of the colors, but finally decided to use most of them. I was really impressed when he wanted to dye some eggs red. His reasoning? He said the red dye represented the blood of Jesus. I guess he has been paying attention at church! We started the egg coloring after Sophie was in bed. I feel a bit bad about it, but we were all exhausted from two house showings (aka cleanings), and I just didn't want to deal with any more messes than I had too. She'll have here chance next year.

Our eggs turned out great, although of course we couldn't get Ben to try one.

The next morning was the St. Xavier egg hunt. Grandma and Big Pa were able to join us and see the kids hunting for eggs before they headed home to Michigan. Since our church hosted the event at a local park, there were a lot of familiar faces and kids from Ben's school. Of course Ben's best friend Nicky was there, and as usual they never left each others sides. Ben managed to pick up lots of eggs and treats and even won a kite in the raffle following the hunt. He can't wait for a warm and windy day to fly it!

It didn't take Sophie long to master the art of picking up eggs. Nick helped her a little at first, but then she got the hang of it. It was so cute watching the under three crowd searching for eggs. There was more than enough to go around, and the parents had to help the kids pick up the last bits of candy.

After the egg hunt, Sophie enjoyed a Tootsie Pop. She was very pleased with her stash of candy.

On Easter Sunday Sophie arose first which is unusual, so we decided to wake Ben so the two could hunt for eggs together. The Easter Bunny delivered lots of chocolate treats as well as a few small toys and books. We tried to keep the focus more on Jesus and less on the Easter Bunny. The Easter Bunny even brought chocolate crosses instead of chocolate bunnies! Ben is absolutely infatuated with the two eggs of silly putty he received. Sophie just loves her new marker set and wants to color all of the time.

After our fun egg hunting, we cleaned up for church. The kids both wore their new Easter clothes which they also wore to have their pictures taken a few weeks ago. (Those photos will go out with the birth announcements.... sometime!). Ben helped pick out their matching duds on a trip to Topeka earlier in the spring. He insisted that we buy him the tie that matched his dress shirt. It is the first time he has ever had a tie, and to our complete surprise, he actually wore it and didn't complain one bit!



Later in the afternoon, we joined our friends Jennifer and Christian, and their daughter Taylor for a great dinner at their house. We dined on smoked brisket and lots of other yummy things, and the kids had a great time playing together.

I hope you all had a blessed Easter!

Sophie's 'Happy' Day

Finding the time to blog has been a bit difficult lately. I thought I would have more time to catch up over the last week, because my parents were visiting, but somehow I managed to do less. Hopefully, over the next few days I can play catch up and get everything up to date.

Sophie turned the big 2 on March 31! On her actual birthday, we celebrated with a nice dinner, a few presents, and of course some chocolate cupcakes! I had taken both Sophie and Adeline to Walmart, our first real venture out, the day prior. I let Sophie pick out the cake mix, frosting, and cupcake papers. Much to her brother's delight, she picked chocolate cake and frosting. She very much enjoyed her cupcake, but didn't get nearly as messy as I had anticipated. I guess she is growing up!

She opened her presents that had arrived in the mail from both sets of Grandparents, as well as a new Vera Bradley purse from Mommy and Daddy that matches Adeline's diaper bag. She was thrilled with her new clothes, and the purse that promptly became her baby's diaper bag. It's so funny to watch her play. She's filled the purse with a play bottle, rattle and plastic spoon. Bitty Baby also received a birthday outfit which Sophie wanted her to wear right away.

We had to save her big present for the small party we were planning for Sunday. Sunday was also the day we were having our first open house, and we didn't want too many playthings out for everyone to see. Saturday my parents arrived to help for a week, and to meet baby Adeline. Sunday evening Sophie was able to open the remainder of her gifts. She received the sweetest little play cottage. It's made of fabric that covers a metal frame. There are two halves that push together to make a house. Inside, it came with a stove and some kitchen accessories. We have a few more things to go with it, but are waiting until after the upcoming move to put them together. The house has curtains and a door with a mail slot and is really just too cute! She and Benny have had a blast playing 'house' together. Benny pretends that he is the husband, and Sophie is the wife. It's really sweet.

After presents we had a treat. Ice cream cake! We sang Happy Birthday again and Sophie was thrilled. Nick tried to teach her to say Happy Birthday, but all she'll say is 'Happy'. Now, every time she sees a cake she exclaims 'happy'!

And really, she is the happiest little girl. I can't quite believe that she's two years old now!