Lots of traveling since I last wrote! After Archer's birthday, Jonathan went on his annual Canada trip with his longtime buddies and had a lot of fun. It's such a great group. I took the kids to Eugene for some extra help. We had a fun time with both sets of grandparents and were able to see my sister's family too. Archer made the switch to standard crawling and started walking all over the place with a push cart. It seems like with his gross motor development is so sudden. He goes from no attempts to mastery in a couple hours. He has funny little skills now too. One of my favorites is when he senses we are getting ready to leave, he pulls my shoes out of the shoe bench and he starts trying to put on his own shoes. He has turned into a real bookworm too. He doesn't seem interested in his toys anymore, just looking at books and trying to climb.

And he keeps trying to escape.

One morning, I heard Quinn calling from her bed, "Mom, come see this!" repeatedly. I'm always surprised by what I find.

I taught her how to say I Love You in ASL and she wanted me to see that she had gotten both hands in position and balanced her panda on her head. Wow.

Quinn and I went to a pinterest-worthy birthday party the Saturday before Easter. Our neighbor girl is interested in volcanoes right now, so the party was a volcano theme complete with a dry ice volcano cake, erupting volcanoes for each guest to decorate, and a live concert by the amazing Red Yarn. Quite an event. We also did a neighborhood Easter egg hunt and Quinn and I made empty tomb cookies. They may not sound appetizing, but they are just pecan meringues that are hollow inside. The recipe steps go along with Bible verses and the Resurrection story. It seemed to really make the story come alive for Quinn and I definitely plan to make it a tradition. We tried to host a potluck for our home group people, but it didn't work out this year so we just had a quiet, simple Easter Sunday.

This past weekend, we went to Eugene for my niece's birthday party. She was such a cheery little birthday girl.

We also saw my sister's new house - we are so excited for them! And we saw my dad throw out the first pitch at the Oregon Duck baseball game. 

Otherwise, we've just been enjoying the nice weather when we can and having fun together. Quinn's rope swing is truly magical right now with the cherry blossom petals falling.