Awesome April

April started with two beautiful babies! 

Allie's BFF and her family welcomed sweet baby Ryan! I was lucky enough to go see them at the hospital and Allie met him the following weekend. Hailey showed Allie the baby and then they quickly went off to play! 

We were so very excited to welcome Hannah Farhi to the world on April 6th. We've been waiting for this day for so long and are so very happy for Libby & Phil! 

Jake & Allie are excited to meet honorary cousin Hannah and Jake and I had fun with our art project to welcome her! 

We had a super fun play date with Allie's friend Mila and her parents Ash and Anita. Who knew an old baby bathtub was such good entertainment.   

The lego collection continues to grow...how long does this phase last? 

Allie started swimming lessons and LOVES it! She went right into the pool to her teacher Ms. Judy and she went underwater twice during her first class! I think she's going to be our little fish!

Jake's bottom two front baby teeth were wiggling but didn't want to come out. Meanwhile his grown up teeth were coming in quickly. 

He was amazing and the dentist was impressed. Jake made sure his tooth fairy pillow was ready to go and the tooth fairy was generous! Before the tooth fairy could come the lego fairy dropped off a little gift.  

We celebrated Bubba's birthday with dinner on his actual birthday and he had two very willing volunteers to help him enjoy the biggest plate of fried ice cream I've ever seen.

We were so excited to have a visit from Auntie Rachel!  She came just in time to celebrate Bubba's birthday with a grown-up night out downtown. 

We loved getting some PJ playtime with Auntie Rachel and having her here for Passover.  

Jake found the biggest apple ever during our Passover shopping. What a shame we weren't shopping for Rosh Hashana. 

We loved having Allie's "boyfriend" Josh and his family join us along with Bubba and a friend of his and of course Auntie Rachel for Passover Seder. It was slightly chaotic but in a great way. A highlight was definitely the finding of the afikomen and the presents that followed. 

And certain little people really loved the flour-less chocolate cake and chocolate covered matzo was a huge hit!

I wonder if Bubba knows the term "photobomb"?

This is how we potty! We're still working on potty training but we're making progress.

Allie's still loving swimming class! She now practices swimming every night in the bathtub. 

Post swimming class love for daddy!

Jake discovered "selfies"

Allie loves helping in the kitchen and was super excited to break up matzo for matzo brie!

It was school picture time for Allie and for as photogenic and gorgeous as she is her pictures continue to not be that great even though I still buy them. 

Even though 1/2 the class and poor Michal aren't necessarily looking great in this picture it was too funny to not post and you can see Allie's adorable tights.

The Green Phantoms also had their team pictures taken. Coach Daddy and Coach Morgan did a great job with these kiddos. 

Allie had about a zillion days off for Passover. We opted to not pay an additional $750 for 5 days of holiday care and with a few playdates and help from Bubba...we made it! Thanks to Mila and Penelope's parents (and babysitters) for having Allie. 

As soon as Allie went back to school and things were almost back to normal I went off to Dallas for my organizations annual conference. I was pretty excited to go to conference not pregnant, nursing or sick! That's a win right there! Alex did a great job keeping things running at home and Bubba pitched in on Allie duty during soccer practice and the game. Exhausted as I was after conference I was so happy to be home to my lovies. 

Sunday morning I took Allie to her friend Brooke's birthday party. Allie was super excited to go to Brooke's big girl (4) party.

Totally in the zone!

We're excited for May and have some fun celebrations and trips planned! See you next month!

March Madness

We started the month with ten 2-year olds coming to play at our house for the morning. We had been planning on a Turtle class play date at the park but it was rainy and the temperature dropped about 30 degrees in the span of about an hour. 

Tea party with the girls!

As if the little turtles weren't enough, next Jake had his friend Miles from his kindergarten class come over that afternoon. I'm pretty sure we had something else that night too but was so exhausted I can't remember what it was. 

Allie has benefited nicely from this season of soccer. She really loves the sisters of some of the players on Jake's team. Mia and Gali are both older and wiser at 3 but Allie loves being with them both! Mia is beyond sweet with her and she bonded with Gali over Peppa Pig during a team dinner! 

We took a long overdue trip to Houston to see Alex's grandmother, Lisa and her boys and Noonie & Papa! I did a very poor job of taking photos during the trip. Sorry!

After seeing Alex's grandma, we then headed to Lisa! Thanks to Rosie (Lisa's nanny who has known Jake since he was a little baby and was excited to have a girl around) we had a grown up night out at the Rodeo. Somehow we ended up at the Usher show in a suite and it was pretty awesome!

Cartoons and cuddles....Just missing Drew.

I don't know how we missed pictures with Noonie & Papa but we met them for breakfast and then went and hung out with them more back at their house. Jake & Allie think they're magic because they always have presents!

After we got home from Houston we went to meet Uncle Warren and Bubba for dinner. Warren was in Austin for SXSW (music and interactive festival) for work. It was a quick but very nice visit. 

Even though she sure is cute with her bee and butterfly, I could do without having to wash these creatures off her face. Mom's love face paint...Not!

For Jake's spring break he attended a week long soccer camp. He did a great job and loved every minute of it. I was especially proud of how he was excited to go even though he didn't know anyone or any of the coaches. Love my big boy!

Let's face it, Purim is really a wonderful excuse to get another wear out of Halloween costumes.

We met the Lozier's for dinner at Waterloo on Friday night. It was a nice night and the grown-ups got to have a drink and the kiddos got to play outside! John & Jake were much to focused on eating (and a passing bee) to smile for the camera. 

The girls on the other hand were all smiles but that might have something to do with the ice cream!

Allie and I met up with Hailey and Mollie for a morning playdate at the new Whole Foods. 

Meet Baby Baby Baby. And yes, that is her full name. 

We've been promising fish to the kiddos for at least a couple of months. It's either really great or really horrible parenting but it's been a godsend. But...we finally had to give in and make good on our promise. 

Watching the transfer

And we have fish!

Meet Chicken Nugget (left) and Spaghetti, pronounced by Allie as Pasgetti. Each morning we've had them I'm thrilled to see them swimming around and not floating!

*I'm happy to report that at the time this blog was finished and sent both fish were still swimming!

After two-weeks off for spring break the Green Phantoms were back in action. Jake had a great game and scored a couple of goals! I love my little soccer star so much!

Ready to kick off!

My soccer star sharing a post-game snack with his biggest fan! 

Sharing a post-soccer snack

It was a decent start to March Madness with Oregon beating BYU and then facing Wisconsin. Unfortunately for me this battle of the Diller girls goes to Rachel. We went out to watch the games with Texas fans Mike & Mollie (aka Hailey's parents) and had a really fun night despite both our teams losing. 

On Sunday we celebrated our friend Gordon's birthday with a wonderful child-free (thanks Bubba!) brunch at Moonshine. Then after a whole week of crying for Allie and vice versa we let the besties have their fix! 

After soccer pictures, Jake met up with us just in time for ice cream. Smart boy!

Tuesday has become Bubba & Jake day. Bubba picks up Jake at school which Jake loves and there might be ice cream involved!

I was out of town for a night for work and apparently Bubba, Alex, the kids and Baby, Baby, Baby had a rockin' night out.

Daddy loves his Allie so much he fed her Peppa obsession with a backpack all the way from England!  

Jake's obsession remains legos and particularly the mini-figures that come with the sets. 

In the count down to Hailey becoming a big-sister we saw the Gray's for the third Sunday in a row. They love each other so much we can't keep them apart. Allie and I went to breakfast with Hailey, Mollie, Mike and Grandpa Gray while Jake and Alex were at a birthday party. 

Feeding their babies while waiting for breakfast

Jake and Alex were out a basketball game. Jake loves it! It's a shame it's unlikely he'll go pro. While the boys were out, Allie and i met up with Bubba for some shopping and then Trader Joe's. Bubba was excited to show Allie the little shopping carts at Trader Joe's and I'm just always happy to just be at Trader Joe's.

Our birthday shout-out for March goes to Aunt Judy! We love you!

Happy April!