Cora is 10 Months!

10 months old on Easter?  Sounds like an eggs-tra special day!  ;)

Cora enjoyed celebrating with cinnamon rolls for breakfast!

And smiled sweetly for her Easter/10 month pictures:

Here are some stats about Cora at 10 months old:

-Weighs about 22 lbs and is about 29 in long

-Has turned into a HORRIBLE sleeper!  She's been getting up several times at night again for the past few weeks and it's killing us.  Often she needs a bottle to fall back asleep.  Oh, how we miss her sleeping through the night.

-Wears 12 month clothes and size 4 diapers

-Has 4 teeth - three on bottom and one on top

-Crawls and pulls herself to a stand on anything she can hold on to

-Says two things, "Hi!" and "Dada".  Still no "Mama" :(

-Loves her blankie - still sucks on it when going to sleep and loves to cuddle with it; she's even started to try to steal Abigail's when she find it on the floor (which does not go over well with Abigail, who is also attached to her blanket)

-Has started to wave and it's adorable!

-Drinks a 6 oz bottle of formula every 4 hours on average, plus I've discovered a way to sneak baby food in (she won't let me spoon feed her), in addition to the table food she eats - I stocked up on reusable squeeze containers and she'll drink baby food out of those, as long as I let her hold it herself

-Loves to play with all her sisters' toys

-Lights up like crazy when Andrew comes home!

-Is super ticklish, especially in the middle of her upper back

-Has started to scream when she doesn't get what she wants, which is usually to hold my phone - she's kind of obsessed with it and knows the FaceTime sound and gets really excited when she hears it

-Still very particular about who holds her and freaks out if it's not Mom or Dad

Maybe she learned to say "hi" from her shirt??

Cuddling blankie!

This girl basically has all of us wrapped around her finger, and she knows it!  We love her to pieces!

Ranch Day

2nd annual Ranch Day for the Lubbock Smiths!  Unfortunately, as mentioned, it fell on the day before Easter, but the girls and I still made it!

We picked up our maps/tracking sheets before heading out!  They had to complete 6 ranch activities and ranch history/science lessons as "ranch hands" to earn their pay!

We headed straight for horseback riding first this year and luckily, the line was very short!

Abigail even braved going this year!

Eve and Halle both rode Lily:

And Abigail got Peanut!  She was so cute and brave!  She did great!  First time on a horse!  (Not including ponies....)

Halle riding Lily like a champ!

A quick view of the sheep before our next activity....

....rope making!  I helped Abigail a bit, but the other two did it all by themselves and they did great!

You had to twist and twist and twist until your rope was complete.

Next we did a mini rodeo.

Roping steers: 

barrel racing:

More lasso practice!  Everyone got a turn to ride the horse and the calf.

Learning the ropes :)

And, of course, bull riding!

Next the girls each made a leather bracelet, pounding their own designs into it.

I didn't take pictures at all the history/science centers, but at this one, they learned about quail feathers......I think it was quail?  

Finally finished, they reported their work and received their pay!

Heading to the "store" to spend their hard earned money!

They each got to pick one treat and one toy - happy ranch hands!

And cool owls on the way out!

Until next year, Ranch Day!

Happy Easter!

Our Easter celebrations lasted for a week this year!  Lots to celebrate when it comes to the Resurrection of our Savior!  This is the happiest time of the year and we make sure to celebrate all out!

Halle and Abigail got to do an egg hunt at the park for play group with all their friends from church:

Then the next day, Thursday, I subbed in Halle's preschool and she got to do another egg hunt!

At school that day, Eve did a sight word egg hunt and she had to find all the eggs with the word "see" on them:

On Friday night, we made Resurrection rolls with the girls for the first time.  Basically, you use a marshmallow to represent Jesus' body, "embalm" it in butter, sugar, and cinnamon, wrap it in linens, (crescent roll), then place it in the tomb (oven).  While baking, the marshmallow melts, absorbs into the roll, and when the rolls are done, they are empty - just like the tomb!  Having never done it, I was a little nervous - I didn't want to destroy anyone's faith if the experiment didn't work as expected.  

It mostly turned out, though.  The marshmallow was indeed gone, although without that to support the weight of the rolls, they basically collapsed.  Still tasted yummy, though!

Saturday was a very busy day - we had Eve's soccer game at 9, an Easter brunch/egg hunt with friends from 10 - noon, then I took the girls to Ranch Day (will be a separate post) while Cora napped and Andrew did school stuff, then when we got back, he went and helped a family from church move.  

The girls loved the egg hunt!  That never gets old!

Cora found her first egg!

We had a super fun surprise that afternoon after Ranch Day.  The doorbell rang and when we answered it, we found this:

The girls we so excited!  Eve searched everywhere for clues as to who did it, but was unable to find tracks or anything ;).  She couldn't understand how anyone could get away so quickly!  (We found out the next day it was a family from church because their daughter is Eve's friend and confessed to her.)  Such a fun idea and maybe something we'll have to steal in the future!

That night before bed, the girls picked out grass for their baskets and left them out of the Easter bunny!

And boy, did he deliver!  Abigail was shocked in the morning to find that her basket was missing!  She kept telling Andrew, "It's missing!  It's missing!"  

It didn't take her too long to find it under the bathroom sink, though.  Actually, I think Eve found everyone's basket this year (except the Mom/Dad's), then "helped" her sisters find them.  

Cora was very excited to find her basket behind the couch!

Halle's was up high in the storage closet!

And Mom and Dad's was baked in the oven!

It took Eve a while to find hers.....behind the food storage buckets!

All dressed up and ready for church!

Sweet Easter girls!

That afternoon, we did ANOTHER egg hunt, because no matter how many we do, I always insist on doing our own, too.  I usually do it indoors because their are so many fun places to hide them!  Cora's were on the living room floor.

And most of my pictures of the hunt turned out blurry, the girls were racing around so quickly, except this one.  Can you guess how much candy they have now after 4 or 5 egg hunts???

I went a little overboard on rolls for Easter dinner when I quadrupled the recipe....they all got eaten eventually though!  We had crock pot ham, Nauvoo potatoes, rolls, and cheesy broccoli, with lemon cheesecake for dessert.  

We had been so busy on Easter weekend, that we didn't dye our eggs until the next day as part of Family Night.  

Besides a couple of minor egg cracks, the coloring went off well!

Then we did egg wars when it came time to start eating them!

And the girls really enjoyed the peeling part, as well.

And that was our Easter!  Lots of fun things to do to remember and celebrate the Savior and His Atonement and Resurrection!  We love Him and are grateful for what He does for us!