Spring Photo Shoot

We met Rene (the same photographer we've used since Anna was born) at Eden Park a few weeks ago for a most amazing photo shoot. The flowers were gorgeous, the weather was perfect, and the girls were, surpisingly, angels for 2 1/2 hours of photography. It was all well worth it as I'm sure you'll agree when you see the results. Rene specializes in children's photography which explains why she can capture such amazing moments on film even though her subjects should be revolting from "working" overtime. Enjoy and be glad that you don't have to narrow the choices! http://www.studio-pics.com/morethanwords/index.php?gallery=Zumbiel

Mini-Vacation

We took a small trip to Cumberland - to Matt's family's place - last week for two nights/three days. We did not go boating out on the lake, but rather just stayed around the house. Anna and Megan had a great time exploring. Anna learned some new "tricks" including fishing and riding a bike with training wheels. Surprisingly, she was very interested in fishing. It was really cute because she would take the pole as soon as we threw it out, immediately reel it in, check if she caught a fish, and then in the sweetest voice say, "Awww, no fish. Maybe next time we'll get one." And then the same thing would be repeated about 15 times. Each time brought just as much excitement at the final reel to see if a fish was caught. What a nice lesson about hope :) We all had a nice time away and the girls loved spending time with their cousins.

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die." ~ John 11:25-26.

Happy Easter!

We celebrated Easter by first decorating eggs with Anna on Saturday night. She had a blast doing "arts and crafts" and really got into choosing colors and decorating her eggs with eyes and mouth stickers. At one point she had two eggs talking. She told me it was mommy and daddy. All of a sudden she had the eggs kissing and making kissing sounds. Then she moved the eggs so that their "eyes" were touching and said, "Hey Mommy. You and Daddy are giving butterfly kisses." Yes, so cute; I know.

We let the girls see their Easter baskets first thing in the morning. Anna helped Megan and fed her the yogurt melts that were left in Megan's basket. We went to Mass at Saint Patrick's, enjoyed a fun first annual Easter egg hunt in our front yard, had naptime, and then headed to the Blaze house for a small dinner. Beautiful weather, beautiful family, a great holiday weekend!

The First Annual Zumbiel Easter Egg Hunt

And Finally, A Relaxing Family Evening

Happy Spring!

Wow! Has it really been four weeks since I've posted?! Spring is upon us and good weather means little time indoors or in front of a computer....

What have we been up to....Our days lately are spent outside, playing around the house or at a local park. We've gone to the zoo only once and are waiting for spring breaks to be over so I don't lose any children in the crazy crowds. I've really been looking forward to playing outside now that Megan is walking. It's working out pretty well. She loves to explore and run all over the place. At playgrounds, it's a bit overwhelming with two kids darting in two directions, but we're managing okay. We met about 5 of my friends and their kids last week at a park. In theory, it sounded like a fun morning with my girlfriends, but chasing kids meant no real conversations. So although I get to see my friends sometimes, it's truly full time mommy for me even if we're out enjoying the sunshine.

(We're fortunate to live near this great park. You can see our neighborhood in the background of the picture with the two girls. We walk up here a lot.)

Developmental updates:

Anna

- She completed 8 more weeks of Parent and Child swim lessons and loved it.

- She is speaking in complete sentences more and more which is really funny to hear. She uses words like "maybe" and "probably" which just adds to the amazement of watching her grow and knowing that her little brain is processing everything!

- We're not sending Anna to preschool, so to get a "classroom" element into her routine, we've started going to some library classes pretty consistently. Our favorite is Mr. Joel's preschool singing class http://www.joelsings.com/music.html. You should check it out - this guy is fantastic and you will LOVE his cds. Even Megan asks for his song called "Popcorn" by sitting in her carseat saying "pop, pop, pop" until I turn it on.

- Anna sings songs spontaneously which is so fun to hear. She picks a song and makes us play it over and Over and OVER again while I'm driving. Some past favorites: Tiffany's I Think We're Alone Now, Mercy Me's I Can Only Imagine, a song called I Lost My Socks and Shoes by Mr. Joel and her current favorite: Abba's Mamma Mia. Matt just loves listening to that one for an entire car ride....

- She thinks the funniest thing to say is "stinky butt". She inserts it into her speech, and especially songs, any chance she gets. For example, "A, B, C, stinky butt " (insert roar of laughter) or "Twinkle, twinkle little stinky butt"....she definitely gets her sense of humor from her Daddy.

Of course, I could go on and on with all the fun things Anna is doing. This age is unbelievable for growth and personality development. It's wonderful!

Megan

- She has 3 teeth on top and 3 on the bottom. She has three molars coming in.

- Megan is a climber! She is fearless and will venture to the top of almost anything.

- Her signing has exploded. She probably recognizes about 25 right now and can do about 10. The other day I was at Babies R Us standing in front of the diapers. She started doing the change diaper sign for the first time. Of course I was shocked and started praising her like crazy just like any proud mama would do. She knew she did something special and wouldn't stop doing the sign. It was pretty cute.

- She is really trying to talk a lot. She says Anna all the time, Indi, Baw Baw (Grandpa Blaze), ball, milk, treat (for Indi), night-night, bath, book, choo-choo, Angie (our stroller class teacher), and more.

- It is quite amazing to watch a little baby's brain soak everything in. I know we went through this with Anna, but it is crazy to witness her understanding of language. The other day, I was talking out loud and said "Megan, what did you do with your other sock?" (she had one on and one off). She walked out of the kitchen, into her room, opened a drawer, pulled out a swim suit, and underneath was the sock she had pulled off and hidden...simply amazing!

Jennifer

- Yes, I have my own developmental update. Guess what, I ran my first Half Marathon on March 28! It was in Lexington through the Horse Park. Matt ran right beside me the entire race and Jonathan smoked us but cheered us on at the finish line. Although it rained, and sometimes poured, almost the whole race, I was very happy that I accomplished the feat of running 13.1 miles. I overcame pain and mental anguish to finish strong. I can't believe that some people keep running another 13.1 miles to complete an entire marathon....By the way, I still think that natural child birth is a much greater test of mental and physical endurance :)

FYI: I just signed up to run the Cincinnati Flying Pig Half Marathon on May 2. I won't say I'm addicted yet. I really just want the experience of no rain....hopefully.