Spring!

After all the long winter days of being cooped up inside the house, I love the nice spring weather. Here are some of the things we have been doing this spring.

Picnics

We had Sophie and Aida and their Mommy and Daddy over for a picnic!

 We had a picnic one night at the park. It was still a little chilly but so wonderful to be outside!

And always fun to be able to swing after eating!

Painting

One of Maddie's very favorite things to do is to paint. We painted some Easter Eggs to go in the bowl on the kitchen table.

Girls Day with Macie

Chris had a conference one Saturday, and Max and John Miller had soccer games all day Saturday. So we went to JM's first game and took Macie to lunch and home with us. She painted Maddie's fingernails and toenails. Maddie loved every minute of it as you can imagine.

We even used the baby doll bath tub as a tub for Maddie's feet for the pedicure!

Walking Girl

Emalyn is took her first step the beginning of April! She took her own sweet time, but she has taken off now and walks everywhere. Mama is loving every minute it!

Playing at the Playground
 We have loved walking down the street to the playground!

Although Emalyn's not sure how she feels about the big slide.

Maddie's Spring Sing

Waving to us as she walks by.

Dying Easter Eggs 

We had Maddie's sweet friend Caroline from school over to dye Easter Eggs.

 Easter Egg Hunts
Emalyn got her first ear infection the week before Easter, so we missed the Easter Egg Hunt at the Taylors and at church, but she was fever free by Friday for the playgroup Egg Hunt at the Young's.

 The chaos begins!

 Maddie fully enjoying being the oldest one at the Easter Egg Hunt!

 Finally standing up by herself and taking more steps each day!

 Emalyn's favorite thing to do at Carrie's house: play her piano. 

Saturday morning we had an Easter Egg Hunt at Mimi and Grand D's house.

All of the cousins with a new addition: baby Jackson! Hard to believe that Emalyn was the baby in Macie's lap last year!

5 Years

Amidst all the Easter Egg Hunts, Chris and I celebrated our five year anniversary. I am amazed at how quickly time has flown. I feel like it has only gotten more fun with each year! I am so grateful to be married to my best friend and to have him by my side in the adventure of parenthood.

Easter Day

Easter Morning

Emalyn was in no mood for pictures Easter morning.

But Maddie was hamming it up!

Easter Sunday is one of my favorite time to take pictures. My very favorite family picture before Emalyn was born was from Easter Sunday. I love looking at my friends pictures from Easter Sunday. So of course, I had built up in my head that I was going to get a great picture of the girls in their Easter Dresses. Ha! Here is what I got instead:

 Emalyn has discovered her bow is in her hair, and Maddie is imitating John Miller's "angel face" (that he makes when he is in trouble) :). Not exactly what I was hoping for but it captures our life right now none the less!

After church, we went over to my aunt and uncles house. They have a playhouse in their backyard that the girls loved!

The girls playing with my cousin's little girl, Eloise. She is 3 months older than Emalyn.

 Although Emalyn and Eloise, my cousin's little girls,  were not to keen on sharing the rocking chair. And let me tell you being the second child, Emalyn does not back down without a fight!

 My mom tore her meniscus that morning at church, so she was confined to the chair. Emalyn crawled up into her lap to get a few "baba" (as she calls her) snuggles.

After lunch, they had an Easter Egg Hunt.

 And Maddie was off...

 Emalyn was content to sit and watch.

 Maddie getting Miss Caroline to help her go through all of her candy.

Then it was home for naps and round 2 at my aunt Lee Anne's house.

She had gotten Easter Baskets for the girls and my little cousin Bailey.

Tommypop & Chris making sure Emalyn got a least one egg!


My grandmother G with Emalyn.

Uncle Tee & Miss Caroline spotted another one, and Maddie and Bailey were off to get it.

Maddie very excited that there was money inside the eggs!

And here we go....

Here is my attempt to catch up on what all has happened in the Camp household since February!

 We celebrated Bebe's birthday!

We played in more snow!

 Emalyn was not a fan of Maddie pulling her in the sled.

Valentine's Day Playgroup

The girls in their Valentine's Day shirts. 

In March, we drove up to Chicago to visit Danette and Steve and their two children. Danette babysat for me from the time I was 9 months old and has been like a aunt to me, esp since her little girl is only three years older than Maddie. I forgot to take my camera, so I am waiting on the rest of the pictures from Danette, but here is a quick glimpse from the highlight of the trip: American Girl Doll store.

 My mom with Emalyn, Brooke, & Maddie. Danette got them matching outfits from Gymboree. 

Emalyn got her very own Bitty Baby. Her favorite thing was throwing it on the floor!

After taking their picture and getting Emalyn a doll to sit beside her, we were off to lunch. Each baby doll had their own high chair and plate & saucer. 

Wow! It was overwhelming to me, let alone for a three year old to try to decide what she wants in a two story store! We were all worn out by the end. 

Okay, so I just got through February and March, but at least that is a start! More to come later...

Maddie in the Sweet Cece's Video!

We were in Sweet Cece's (a local frozen yogurt place) in February, and a guy Chris had gone to church with growing up was filming a video. And Miss Maddie made it in! Thanks to Lauren Hayes for stumbling across it! 

Sweet Cece's from John Moessner on Vimeo.

These Days..

I am amazed at how much my girls changed day by day (and especially since the last time I blogged! - there is a February and Spring Break update hopefully coming soon). We have officially entered into the world of knock, knock jokes with Maddie. She has no idea what it means, so half the time when I say who's there, she makes up a word or she will say Bentley Camp and then just laugh and laugh. She is at such a fun age. It is amazing what a different a few months makes, 3 1/2 is seems to be much easier than 3. She seems so big to me right now. She talks nonstop and will catch me off guard every once in a while with a word like impressive. Tonight she was building a tower out of juice boxes and looked up at me and said mom isn't this impressive? She loves drawing and cutting out pictures. She spent her rest time today cutting paper into small pieces and then gluing them onto her picture. Whatever entertains her! (And gives me time to catch up on laundry!)

Emalyn is still not walking! It is killing me. Playing outside is so hard with a baby who is crawling, every little rock and leaf goes straight into her mouth. She is good about handing me any little piece of dirt from the floor inside, but outside is a whole new territory. And she does the crab crawl just like Maddie did, so she drags her leg across the aggregate, which either results in torn pants or scrapped legs. She is pulling up on everything and will walk if she is holding my hands, but no steps on her own yet...we are waiting anxiously! Her favorite new word is "boom" and she loves to say it as she throws her pants off the changing table when I am changing her diaper. She is getting a few more words. She is using "mama" more these days (and Chris often gets called mama too). She calls my mom and Millie both "baba" and starts saying baba as soon as we pull into either one of their driveways. She loves to say "duh, duh" for dog. And loves to do the sounds for a dog and turkey. She doesn't say the word "no" but she has got the head shake down pat....there is no doubt what she means. And the funniest is when she sees a cookie or a cupcake, she says "Oooooh," she is definitely my child.  Her two favorite things right now, are crawling up Maddie's stairs and grabbing a snack and crawling to her high chair to let me know she is hungry.  She has Maddie beat in one category: she has a mouth full of teeth...she is working on tooth # 12 right now. Hopefully she will catch up in the walking and talking categories soon. :)

But my very favorite thing right now is watching them see each other for the first time each morning. Emalyn's whole face lights up, and she usually squeals with delight. Maddie usually runs to give her a hug. Maddie cannot get enough of her. It makes it all worth it!

Go Packers!

A dad of one of the little boy's in Maddie's class this year plays for the Green Bay Packers. So they made signs two weeks ago at school wishing him good luck. And Maddie is very excited to watch Cruz' daddy play tonight!

And here is another picture of her from school, playing in the snow.

Saturday Attire

I pick Maddie's clothes out the night before she goes to bed, so in the morning she can get dressed by herself (and so we don't have meltdown over what she is wearing for the day). But on Saturday's usually it doesn't matter what she is wearing (not to mention I am worn out by the end of the week), so I let her pick out her own clothes. Here was her choice today:

I was pretty impressed! 

It has been a long few weeks in the Camp household. I had been battling a cold on and off for three weeks after Christmas that turned into a sinus infection and strep throat. Two rounds of antibiotics, and I was better just in time for us to make a trip down to Atlanta last weekend. We had so much fun seeing family, catching up with friends, and a much needed night out with the girls. Anna flew up from Tampa, and Margo drove in from Birmingham, and we had a fun day with Abby. And I am so thankful for time out of the house, especially since we returned home and ALL of us got the stomach bug throughout this week! (Hence why my sofa cushion cover is drying on the banister in the picture of Maddie from this morning).  We are all finally feeling better today. We have done a lot of laundry and a lot of cleaning, and hopefully our house is finally sanitized!

Here are a few pictures from the trip to Atlanta. 

 Maddie with Nana Camp & Aunt Jan (Chris' grandmother & aunt)

 Breakfast with the Donalds, Cahills, & Sutherlands.
Definitely a little different than when we lived in Atlanta (Maddie was the only baby). Now there is Mary Stewart, 16 months, Mary Frances (at home taking a nap), 8 months, Charlotte, 15 months, Maddie & Emalyn (and the Donalds are expecting baby #2 in June). I'm so excited we are planning on going to the beach in September with all the babies. Going to be an adventure, I'm sure!