Springtime

Our family hit lots of big milestones this spring!

• In May Matt had his LAST DAY working for the Army and started working for Accenture (fully remote)! We have been looking forward to this for over SEVEN years. We LOVE having him around so much more and the work-life balance is amazing!
• I became an employee of Carebook (instead of a contractor), got a raise and have started working with a new team since the CoreHealth merger!
• Luke finished potty training!! And he's registered for preschool in the fall.
• Lydia is two weeks away from finishing Kindergarten AND can read beginner Bob Books!
• Elise started eating solids and pulling up to standing on everything
• We've lived in our beautiful house for a year now and love it even more than when we moved in.

Here's a big photo dump of the last 3 months as we head into summer!

Luke on his very first day of Nursery! 
It was delayed by almost a year because of Covid

Lydia giving her first-ever talk in church! 

Watching / listening to a thunder storm

Picking up a conked out Elise (and Luke) from the gym's Kid Zone

A Daddy Date to Shoofly Farm!

Easter Sunday with the Andelins

Elise's first Valentine's Day!

A quick picture before heading off to church

The 3-mile loop

Lydia has been into writing me love notes recently and it's the sweetest!

Elise rocking the shirt Gma Trudy got Lydia in California, 
and the shoes Sarah sent from Nike Amsterdam when we found out Lydia was a girl!

Every weekend when Soren is visiting next door
these three play in the back yard for hours

Last snow day of the year in March

Snow on our magnolia

Amberlie and I went to see The Lion King
in Richmond and it was stunning!

Admiring the first signs of spring

Elise all wrapped up!

A bunny in our yard just before Easter

All 3 on the swings!

Matt teaching the young men how to BBQ!

Lyd and I took a trip to Trader Joe's to stock up on flowers for
a build-your-own-bouquet bar for Khand's baby shower!

I threw a baby shower for Khand!
So, so fun and it turned out great.

The bouquet bar was absolutely perfect!

When Luke put himself down for a nap :) 

Grandma and Grandpa came to visit at the end of March :) 

Luke and Grandpa Mark on the train at Short Pump Mall!

For Dad the highlight of the trip was a stop at Cabella's with Luke. 
I truly haven't seen him so excited in years 😂

Grandma Trudy walking Barkley like a champ

Hanging out with Henning and Odin (and Marta not pictured) the day before they 
flew back home to Norway. We enjoyed getting to know them while they
were stationed at Ft. Lee!

Bethany came to visit!!
She did two days at our house and then we went to DC for a quick overnight girls trip.
Lifelong memories!

She brought Lydia and Luke the most incredible play dough kits! 
She is so thoughtful and an excellent gift giver.

We took Bethany on a pretty walk through Maymont 

Smithsonian

Dinner at some trendy fun place, bar seating bc it was packed

The White House

And we also explored Georgetown before she had to head out! 
Miss her already

Easter egg hunt at the lake

The Andelins came too!

At a different Easter egg hunt at the lake. 
We went to 5+ egg hunts this year haha

The Elise-ter Bunny

Dying Easter eggs! 
I really tried to hype up Easter this year, just like last year. I think it's the most important holiday of the year and deserves just as much recognition than Christmas, if not more! 
"There would be no Christmas without Easter." 💗

Easter morning! 
Luke diving right into the chocolate as usual 😊

The Easter Bunny left an egg hunt in the yard :) and some very cool 
shoes for Luke!

Easter Sunday church.
I was exhausted, can you tell?

Lunch Bunch with Marvel

This girl loves to eat these days!

When the weather started warming up, 
the new blow up pool came out! An instant hit.

Toddler play group met at Shoofly Farm one week! 
It was adorable and so fun

Luke's favorite part by far was meeting the real-life version of his stuffed bunny 🥰

Lyd was sure to take field notes. 
This one said "bunnies are cute" with a drawing of a bunny.
She said it was so she didn't forget. :) 

Friends at the end of their rope :) 

Ten months old

At 10 months old, Elise loves to crawl everywhere, pull up to standing, and eat solids!

Yard work with a baby

We discovered a Cardinal nest in the bushes right behind the shed! 
We checked on them every day and loved watching them grow. 
They were only in the nest 9 days before flying off!

In a bush across the yard even before its feathers were fully grown in. 
Amazing!

One day Lydia cut a chunk out of Luke's hair, so Lauralee came over and 
gave him his first haircut. He looked so grown up after!

Helping Mom roll out pizza crust!

At a school friend's birthday party. Lots of these recently!

Playing outside before school one day

Elise is getting big enough to play with her siblings! 
So fun to see her get in on the action. 

I haded over the home office to Matt on his first day with Accenture. 
My congratulations gift to him was noise-cancelling headphones - a necessity
working out of a house with 3 little kids. :) He uses them all the time.

Waiting for Matt to come to the car before church

Matt's new WORK FROM HOME setup!

Elise's 9 month checkup (at closer to 10 months!)
- 71st percentile for height
- 68th percentile for weight

Turtle sighting in our back yard!

Lyd took this picture of me during the school day morning rigamarole 

Play date with Brooke and her kids at Romp 'n' Roll on a rainy day

Mother's Day!
I got a robot vacuum as requested and my life is forever changed. Honestly I can't 
believe I was still vacuuming my own floors in 2022.

More back yard play, always

Repping USC for 'favorite team' day!

Chilling on the laundry pile

Elise, cruising along sofas and ottomas everywhere :) 

This Brown Thrasher bird made a nest inches outside our living room window

This book came to life, literally "Outside [Our] Window"

Lydia and I went to Eliza's senior performance at the high school!
Lyd was starstruck to know someone on the stage. :) 

Luke copying Dad :)
"Look! I mowing the yan! Rrrrrrrrrrrrrr!"

Dad of the year!

Bring on summer!