Easter

This was our first Easter as a family of 4! And what a wonderful celebration!

While Henry stayed at home to practice bottle feeding with Daddy, Rhiannon and I went to the Phi Mu (my sorority) Easter Egg Hunt at Brenau college in Gainesville. This is our second year attending this hunt. It's local and always fun to see friends from college. Rhiannon got her picture taken with the Easter Bunny. She also gave him "five" and made him hop with her. She got her face painted like a bunny. And of course she hunted for eggs. It was a really cold that day but with some warm clothes and the sunshine, we didn't freeze.

Giving the Easter Bunny a hug.

Next was the second annual Easter Egg Hunt at my parents house. I organized this for the first time last year because as a child, I grew up with a huge egg hunt at our house for the neighborhood kids and my cousins. I have a lot of fond memories of those egg hunts and I wanted my kids to have the same experience. So, we invited our cousins and some friends that live locally. We have lunch, play outside, and then have the Easter Egg Hunt. It's so cute to see all of the kids together and we enjoy spending time with family and friends.

Rhiannon's future husband, Hudson a.k.a "Huddy"

Rhiannon's BFF Kate and her Mommy, Michele.

All of the kids! And a handful of Mommies. . .
Henry hanging out with aunts and cousins. Aunt Beverly (far left), her daughter Whitney, my cousin Damon's wife Mandy, Aunt Peggy (who was Henry's snuggle buddy for the event) and her daughters Kristy and Mandy.

This picture is of my girlfriends Heather and Jessica and our kids. This year with 5 kids, last year we only had 4. Heather is pregnant and due in July so next year, we will have 6 kids! Heather's son is Colton, and she expecting another boy. Jessica's kids are Hudson and Isabella.
Here are our kids last year.

I love this picture. Kate and Rhiannon were looking in their baskets instead of at the camera so I told them to look up. And they looked up. . . at the sky. Isabella thinks they're crazy.
Rhiannon and her Daddy.

On Easter morning, the kids saw what the Easter Bunny brought them.

As you can see, Henry was really excited about Easter.

We got ready and made our first trip to church with the 4 of us.

After church, we enjoyed lunch at my parents house.

And then that evening, we went to dinner at Russ' parents house. What a blessed holiday with family and friends. Happy Easter!

Crains on Tour

This was weeks ago. During the days of Henry's refusal to sleep at night. One morning, after one of his better nights, we decided that we needed to get out of the house. Let's drive to the mountains!

So, we quickly packed up the kids and headed north.

We stopped in Cleveland at Creekside Deli. This is a favorite or mine and Russ'. We used to eat there quite a bit before we had kids and would spend the day "chasing waterfalls" in the mountains. When we were dating, these spontaneous trips to the mountains were quite frequent. One of our favorite waterfalls to visit was Helton Creek falls. So we decided to take the kids there after our fantastic lunch.

Henry was sleeping well that day. As long as the car was moving. (That is no longer the case by the way. . . now he hates the car. . . and screams round trip until he has worked himself into a sweat and soaked his clothes and car seat. . . but that day was fabulous).

Here are some pictures from our adventure.

Rhiannon hiking with Daddy.

Henry hiking with Mommy.


My sweet girl!

Helton Creek falls is actually a double waterfall. I'm sure this is not the correct terminology but it is one set of two different waterfalls. One above the mountain from the other. This is actually just the upper falls. The lower is just as faboulous.

Me and my kids. Henry is tucked into the Moby wrap. He slept soundly throughout our hike.

We had such a nice day and it was a much needed outing for all of us. Russ and I both are out on maternity/paternity leave for another month so we hope to have a few more of these family outings. Time is going by too fast! But this has been such an awesome experience for us to both be home with our kids all day for these last few weeks. It will be so hard for us to go back to work!

Play Date with Kate

One of my sorority sisters and good friends lives 5 minutes from us here in Gainesville. And our girls are only 8 months apart. So, whenever we have the opportunity we try to get our girls together for a play date. They play so well together and it's so cute to hear their conversations. Little people talk.

So last week I took both Rhiannon and Henry over to see Michele and Kate.

Here are the girls making "pretty music".

And here Kate and Rhiannon are having tea. Kate got a tea set for her birthday. She just turned two in March.

Henry hung out with Michele.

After playing a while inside, the girls decided they needed some outdoor fun. So we put on swimsuits so that they could play with Kate's water table. This is a new bathing suit for Rhiannon that I just bought a few weeks ago. She has recently had a big growth spurt and this 3T bathing suit was too small! She has jumped from wearing 2T to 4T!! In bathing suits anyway. That's just not right! My baby girl is getting too big too fast.

Here are the girls in their swimsuits. So cute.

And here they are at the water table.

And Henry chilling outside.


What a great play date. Thanks to Michele and Kate for having us over. We're looking forward to many more!

My sweet kids

I just wanted to share some pictures of the kids.





Isn't that the cutest thing you have ever seen? He looks as big as she does! Also notice that she insisted on having the burp cloth on her shoulder!

The men in my life!

Just because pigtails are cute.

This picture just about summarizes our household. Rhiannon screaming. And Henry fussing. I love it.

6 weeks old. Almost a smile. . .

There we go. Hey sweet boy!

Henry setting his "piggies free"

I thought she looked so big in this picture. She now climbs up the ladder by herself. And I don't have a panic attack each time she does it. I promise to be better with Henry. . . maybe.

Curious George Live in the ATL

On my due date, we decided to purchase tickets to Curious George Live at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta as a treat for Rhiannon. We knew that the baby would be about 6 weeks old and thought it would be nice for Rhiannon to have a night with just her Mommy and Daddy. Rhiannon loves Curious George and she had been looking forward to this for weeks.

So on April 1, we made the trip.

Let me first say that I was surprised at how much easier it is to leave a second child than it was to leave Rhiannon when she was an infant. Poor Henry!

We arrived in Atlanta and had dinner at a cute little pizza place a block away from the Fox. The internet said the place was kid friendly. I'm not sure what that even means since they didn't have high chairs or boosters. But on that night, it didn't matter. Every table had toddler or preschoolers. Everyone was going to see George!

Here is Rhiannon checking out downtown.

And with her Daddy in front of the Fox.

Our seats were fantastic. Aisle seats on the 6th row.

Rhiannon was so excited. Look at her face here. She was squealing and clapping so loud when it started that the woman in front of us turned around and laughed.

This was Henry's 4th attempt with a bottle. When I called home after his first feeding, my mother said that he had refused it and pitched a fit. Luckily, he was hungry enough to take the 9pm feeding. And I still had to nurse him when I got home. What a piggy!

All in all, it was a successful night. It was fun to see Rhiannon so happy and Henry had a successful evening without his Mommy although I couldn't wait to get back home to him.

We're looking forward to taking both kids next year!

What I have learned today. . .

Life with two kids. What did I learn today?
Outside family photos + 2 years old recovering from being sick + 7 week old baby = not fun for anyone.
I doubt we got any pictures at all. We tried for 30 minutes and then left. It was very much a wasted morning and I truly thought about just leaving my 2 years old in the field.
Just kidding. Sort of.
If there are any pictures to share I will do so.
What I have learned? Stick to the studio pictures and bring a leash or a cage for the toddler.

Spring Photo Shoot Sneak Peak

I haven't seen all the pictures yet. And we're going back on Monday for some outside shots. But, here is a sneak peak of what we have so far! The pictures were done by Whitney Hendrix of Simply Elegant Phtography. She rocks!