Disney Day 1: Magical Airplane Ride & Magical Kingdom

We had a wonderful day of firsts as we took off on our first trip to Disney. We stayed at a hotel next to the airport the night before our flight and the kids were so full of excitement watching the airplanes come in knowing they would have their first ride the next day that they were literally jumping for joy! Collin looked like a little kangaroo he was so excited and jumping all over the place. I think the airplane/airport was just as magical for him as Disney World was.

The boys were so happy about their matching airplane shirts.

My four sweet babies!

Suckers are out, we're ready to fly!

The girls' row.

Our little airplane lover couldn't wait for the plane to take off!

He even studied our aircraft....

The plane had a lot of empty seats so we spread out a little bit and Eva really enjoyed getting to sit by herself  some.

Grandma and Benjamin doing what they love, playing games together.

Daddy's boy!

There are few things sweeter than a baby hug!

Eva was getting restless near the end of the ride and was very interested in the kids' suckers. So we gave it a try. It ended up being a big mess as she liked playing with it, but I think she enjoyed her first sucker.

After our magical plane ride, we made it to Magical Kingdom!!!

This was the first time the kids saw any characters and they were in such awe.

Collin didn't hesitate to run up for a close-up view!

After doing some fun rides all together, Benjamin went with Daddy and Grandpa for his first roller coaster ride....Space Mountain! I thought they were crazy for taking him on it, but he ended up loving it! While they were having their fun, we took the other kids to the new Dumbo area where they have a big top full of things to climb on and play with and Anna & Collin had a lot of fun.

Then we rode Dumbo!

Then it was time for a very magical moment....Collin got to meet his beloved Goofy. He has loved him since he was one and used to call him Da-dog. It was so cute seeing him meet Goofy. You could see the awe and love and joy all over his face!

They enjoyed one more snuggle. I told Goofy that he was Collin's favorite and he made a heart on his chest and pointed to Collin to tell him he was Goofy's favorite too and then he pulled Collin onto his lap to show he was going to keep him. It was a very magical moment for our little monkey!

Then we met a feisty Donald.

Afterwards, I let the kids pick out their Mickey ear hats and got their names on them. They also got to meet Tigger and Pooh and enjoyed several more fun rides and shows and then we finished the night off with an amazing firework show. It was a wonderful, magical first day!

Crawling & 9 Months

While Benjamin and I were at bible study, Eva was being entertained in a room FULL of toys just by her sister, brother, and a water bottle and Dave said they had so much fun!

Dave shouldn't be trusted with the heating pad.....he fell asleep on it with no shirt on!

Some beautiful crawling pictures of sweet Eva. She loves her new found skills!

Eva played for awhile in her "birthday suit" on her 9 month birthday and was so happy, I had to snap some pictures. It's a good thing I did, because she wasn't feeling cooperative when I tried to get her monthly pictures. She loves this little comb!

Hi!

She spends some time every day pulling up on the rocking chair. She is really into this chair!

Anna came and tried to help with Eva's month picture and played peek-a-boo to get some smiles for me.

She had another wonderful check-up and is growing great. She was 19 1/2 pounds (60th percentile) and almost 29 inches (95th percentile).

At nine months little Evie is getting more and more personality. She is crawling with more skill every day. She pulls up to her knees like in the above picture and has even gotten to her feet a few times. Her eyes seem to be getting brighter and brighter. Still no teeth. Sleeping great at night and so-so for naps (only two short ones usually). Is starting to be bored with her baby toys and wants to explore what else the world has to offer. Loves, loves Mum-mums (little baby wafers) and will shake with excitement and anticipation when she sees the package. Loves to clap with you and talk/squeal back and forth with someone. Dances all the time. Doesn't miss anything....I love how she will look around whatever is blocking her view to see what's going on. Has developed a serious case of "the moms" and won't let anyone hold her if she can see me...which can make the days challenging but is a HUGE blessing to be loved so fiercely by such a sweet pea!

The kids have developed a love (or an obsession in Collin's case) of Peter Rabbit. There is a new show on tv and we have a collection of Beatrix Potter's books that we've been reading. To mix it up a little, Benjamin and I started a unit study on it and are creating a lap book of all that we learn/activities we do about Peter Rabbit/Beatrix Potter. He really likes it! Here he is working with unifex cubes to plan a new garden for Mr. McGregor since Peter keeps eating all of his vegetables  He even wrote an awesome apology letter for Peter and explained his new garden.

Eva's Baptism

What a special day! Our sweet Eva was baptized at our wonderful church and with loving family members who made the drive and shared a great day with us!

Love the way they lovingly gaze at each other!

Isn't she adorable?!?! :) Miss Evie-bee is getting harder to pose and photograph as she wants to crawl away all the time.

Love this one of the three kids watching (that's the top of Collin's head on the bottom). We have a lot of kids in our church family and so they see baptisms every few months and were pretty excited that it was their sister's turn!

Our wonderful Pastor Steve has now baptized all four of our babies! (Wish you could see sweet Collin here too, but know he was there and enjoying the moment with us.)

Eva's morning nap is during church so she didn't make it through the service, but we still caught a family picture.

We had a fun time (with beautiful weather!) with our family and enjoyed a picnic and the kids had a grand time playing with their cousins on the playground. Then it was cake time!

I tried a new recipe and made a pink lemonade cake. The kids loved that it had a cross on it and Eva's beautiful name.

I even let Eva have her first bites of cake. She was a fan! She also liked raking her fingers in it.

It was a truly beautiful day celebrating our precious little Eva and praying for her heart to be filled with Jesus!

Easter

We had a wonderful Easter together. First up was our church's Easter egg hunt. Collin disappeared right before and we almost missed it, but thankfully someone found him and we got out there just in time. Here they are ready to get started....

....and they're off! (Dave always has them come down to the end so they have lots of space to get eggs since there are so many kids there. Sneaky, sneaky!)

Collin's happy with his basket-full!

Benjamin filled his as high as it would go.

Anna did great running around filling her huge basket. She was everywhere!

The Easter Bunny came!

Oh, the excitement!!!

We had to wake little Evie up for her first Easter. She was pretty out of it while watching the kids go crazy over their baskets.

She was wide awake though and more than happy to go through her basket!

We all enjoyed watching her discover all her gifts as she loved pulling things out of the basket.

The kids loved their cute little chocolate bunnies.

Trying out her bow and bath toy she found.

All dressed up for church!

Daddy and his girls.

Our very blessed family!

Us enjoying some time with Eva on her first Easter. :)

After church we went to a restaurant that offered kids eat free for the day and enjoyed a nice quiet lunch together. I grabbed a few more pictures there since it was pretty out.

Her siblings were too exciting for her to smile at the camera, but she was definitely smiling!

Our beautiful girls!

And sweet, handsome boys!

Eva had a grand time in her high chair at the restaurant. She rocked back and forth and laughed and loved sharing my soup.

The girls again, at home without their sweaters.

We had fun coloring eggs and did something new this year too. We prepared marshmallow Jesus' with spices and buried him in a crescent roll tomb and then after they baked, the tombs were empty because Jesus had risen! It was a really fun thing to do with the kids and they tasted super yummy too!

These aren't from Easter, just a couple cute Eva moments. Benjamin and I do a bible study on Mondays and  when we got home, we found Daddy enjoying sleepy-time snuggles with Eva. This is a very rare treat as Eva never sleeps on our shoulders, she only prefers to be rocked in the cradle position. Also, now that we've done cry-it-out we don't rock her to sleep anymore. Dave was a very happy Daddy!

Eva had been rocking back and forth on her hands and knees for weeks. After all of her hard work, she figured out how to crawl this week. It is THE cutest little staccato, deliberate crawl!! (I'll have to get some pictures as I only have video so far). The next day she pulled up onto her knees like this. I told her that was a little too much to do all in one week, but she was just proud and excited. Her face when she looks for your praise of her accomplishments is priceless!

Ta, da!!!

I also keep forgetting to record on here that she has her first word that she recognizes. For the past month, she knows what kitty means. I ask her, "Where's the kitty, kitty?" and she looks until she sees Pepper and then gets the biggest smile on her face and coos with delight. It's one of my favorite things to do with her! She also really loves peak-a-boo, especially if you put her blankie on your face and then she pulls it off which leads to delightful squeals of joy. She is so much fun!!