Just trying to catch up on blog postings. Here is a quick recap of April. Hannah turned 4 months on April 1. She started rolling over from her back to tummy the day after she turned 4 months. I can't blame Mary Catherine anymore when I look up and Hannah is not where I left her. Excuse the scratch on her forehead. She started sucking her thumb and often misses her mouth and scratches herself.

Annual Easter egg hunt in our neighborhood
Mary Catherine takes her afternoon nap on our bed; however, she decided that she wanted to give Hannah's bassinet a try. I had left our bedroom to put Hannah to sleep and when I came back to lay Hannah down, Mary Catherine was sound asleep in the bassinet. So as you can see, I laid Hannah on our bed while Mary Catherine took her nap in the bassinet.

Sleeping Babies

Before leaving for Oklahoma for Easter, we attempted to take pictures of the girls with blue bonnets. I never imagined that it would be so difficult. We were all ready to go but Hannah started getting fussy so I put her in the swing and she fell asleep. Then Mary Catherine was getting hungry because it was close to dinner time. So we took her dress off and let her have a snack. By that time it was getting late, but we packed up and went anyways. We didn't get any really good pics of the girls together but I guess we have next year.

Blue Bonnet Pictures

This was our first year to go to Oklahoma for Easter since we've lived in Austin. Andy was able to take the Friday before and Monday after Easter off to make it a long weekend. Friday morning we went to the Omniplex with Auntie M and Grammy and then spent the evening with Andy's parents. Saturday, we celebrated Mary and Paul's engagment. Aunt Hailey (Joey's wife) made the cutest matching t-shirts for the girls so we had to take lots of pics. On Easter morning, Mary Catherine hunted for eggs with her cousins, Molly and Avery. We had a great time celebrating Easter with are families!

Before the Party
Easter Morning at Grammy's House
Andy, Hannah and I drove home Monday afternoon. Mary Catherine stayed in Oklahoma for a few days with Grammy and Auntie M. I was really excited to have some one-on-one time with Hannah and Mary Catherine was really excited to finally be the center-of-attention again. It worked out great!

Lucy and Hannah
These are some pics of Hannah and Lucy together. Every time I turn around Lucy is cuddled up next to Hannah while she is napping. At night, Lucy will sleep under Mary Catherine's bed until Andy and I go to sleep. She is very protective over the babies.

Since I have fallen behind in posting on the blog, I am just going to post the highlights for the month of March.

Hannah Clare turned 3 months March 1. Sorry for the naked baby pic but she was in a great mood and I just started snapping pics.
Sister Rose (my great aunt from Toledo, Ohio) showed up for a surprise visit! She flew into Oklahoma to see my parents and then drove down to Austin with my mom and sister. Paul, my sister's fiance, also joined us from Corpus Cristi for a fun weekend. We had such a wonderful time visiting. We miss her very much. Here are some of the things we did while she was here.

We had a picnic at our favorite park.

We hiked Mount Bonnell and then headed to a peacock farm.
And we did a lot of holding and cuddling babies. Hannah loved Sister Rose as you can see by her giggle and smile.

The following weekend, I had my first day back to work (March 14). My mom and sister headed back down to Austin again to help Andy with the girls for the big day. We weren't sure how Hannah and bottle feeding would go so we wanted to make sure that someone was here to help out with Mary Catherine just in case Hannah occupied all of Andy's time. Well, it turned out that Hannah was an expert.
Grammy stayed the rest of the week and Mary went down to Corpus Cristi to visit Paul. As you can see, Grammy brought Mary Catherine some yummy cookies. I have never seen her so happy before. I guess I would have been too if my mom only gave me one cookie a week. Thank you Grammy!
Grammy was still here on St. Patrick's Day. We thought about going to an Irish festival downtown but decided it would be too crowed and noisy for Hannah. So we decided just to grab some dinner at Chili's. Here are some pics we captured out in front of the restaurant.

Every Friday during Lent, I pack tuna fish sandwiches and we met Andy at a park near his work for a picnic. This has become a family tradition for us. Our neighbors (Hope and Ryder) decided to join us during their Spring Break. Here are some pics of them on the swings.
At the end of the month, we took Hannah to Sea World for the first time. Now, Mary Catherine has been going since she was in the womb but she was still really excited to show Hannah all of the sea animals. Mary Catherine kept saying, "Oh, how cute. Sissy, look." and "I wanna go see something else." We are season pass holders so we will be taking many trips back to Sea World if anyone wants to join us.
And finally just some fun pics of the girls while hanging out at the house.

out there and maybe some fathers. I found this prayer in one of my prayer books and I wanted to share it with everyone.

In My Laundry Room

As I carefully fold my sheets,
Smoothing out the wrinkles,
Bringing corner to corner . . .
Lovingly, I think of You, my Lord.

The pile of laundry seemingly grows beside me,
As I strive to keep up
With this never-ending chore.

But, in my laundry room . . .
I thank You, my dear Lord,
For loving me and allowing me
To serve You in my family.
*From Catholic Prayer Book for Mothers by Donna-Marie Cooper OBoyle

Last night was my first night to leave the house alone since Hannah was born! I went to a mom's fellowship meeting at church. I can't explain how great it was to leave the house empty handed. Now what you have been waiting for . . . how did Andy do with the girls alone for the first time? Understand, I was only gone for 1 hour 45 minutes. Andy said things were going fairly well until I called on my way home and talked to Mary Catherine. She was so excited because she "helped daddy give Hannah a bottle." But when I hung up, she got really upset and started screaming/crying. Hannah then got really upset too and started crying. Now here is the kicker . . . Lucy (our dog) got up on the couch and started howling. Poor Andy. All three of them crying. Now if you are home with them all the time like I am, this is pretty normal. I just always have to laugh though when Lucy starts howling. It really adds humor to the whole situation.

So when I pulled up, Mary Catherine came running out of the house crying (because she "wanted mommy") and holding Hannah's bottle, and Hannah was just hanging out in Andy's arms. Apparently, Mary Catherine was so fascinated by Hannah's bottle that she wouldn't give it back to Andy (note: this was the first time that Mary Catherine has seen Hannah get a bottle). I guess it was okay because Hannah wouldn't take it anyways. What a night for Andy! This was just a little practice run before I go back to work in two weeks. I will let you know how that goes.

Since it was so hot today (90s), I filled up Mary Catherine's little swimming pool and let her have some fun in the backyard. We jumped on the trampoline, splashed in the pool, and made mud pies. We even got some "real" candles out and stuck them in the pies so that we could sing Happy Birthday to Auntie M, Lucy (our dog) and me. We had a lot of fun and played for almost 3 hours. Hannah finally joined us at the end but by then the battery on my camera had already died so I didn't get any pics of her.