Easter!

A day or so before Easter Makenzie told me

"Easter is not all about the Easter bunny & eggs...it's about Jesus!"  

It makes me happy to know that at 5 she knows that candy, eggs and the Easter bunny are fun but it's not the true reason we celebrate Easter!  

This year Kenzie woke up pretty early....she was excited to see her basket! 

Jo had no idea what was going on but she was very excited to see her Elmo "mel-mo" balloon! 

Kennie's new Bella Sara dvd....

Going through big sister's candy :)

I love this face..she does it all the time!! 

Finding the eggs the Easter bunny hid...

Looking at Jo's new Baby Einstein books...

Silly little things...

All pretty and ready for church!!

I LOVE this pic!  

She's just too pretty. I can't take it! :)

The weather was beautiful so we went outside after church to take some pictures...

Then we went to my brother's house in Syracuse for the day.....

Easter egg hunt....

 Even Jo Jo found some eggs!

 Uncle Scott helping Josie :)

 And then the tackling started...   :)

 and this little red head stayed far away from the rough housing! :) 

The Easter Bunny

This year we went to breakfast with the Easter Bunny! 

Kenzie was excited to see him.  Josie wasn't a big fan at first....

 but in true Josie fashion she warmed up quickly...  

 ...and by the middle of breakfast she was running around playing with him!

 Jo made a little friend.  They were so cute together.  

Both would run back and forth from the bunny to our table.  

 Love my little girls! :)

 Later on we ran some errands and came home just in time to put Josie to bed and I decorated eggs with Kennie.  This year we got tie dye eggs!  I thought they turned out nice and pretty!

Makenzie left the whole bag for the Easter Bunny because "he will be very hungry". 

18 Months!

Our little firecracker turned 18 months this month!

That was a fast year and a half!

Here is our little Jo at 18 months:

*Loves to eat and will eat just about anything!  Some days she seriously has no bottom!  She eats and eats and eats!  

*Always on the move!  I really don't remember Kenzie being this active!  Whatever she eats she burns right off!

*Sleeping through the night!!! Yes, you read that right!  Starting at about 16 months she stopped getting up to say hi to mommy at night! Which brings me to the next one....

*100% weaned! Starting at around 12 months we started giving her whole milk bottles during the day for her naps and I would nurse her at night (and throughout the night) until about 16 months.  Around that time she had a ear infection and did not want to nurse so I went 2 days without nursing so I decided it was the perfect time to stop!  So without nursing she didn't have a reason to get up in the middle of the night to see mommy!   I had a feeling that was going to happen! :)

*LOVES Baby Einstein!  She is obsessed! 

*Is very social.  She will wave & blow kisses to everyone!  

*Loves babies!  I can't keep her away from them! If there is a baby in the room Josie will find it! :)  She pretty much loves any kid, but babies are her favorite! :)

*Saying some words.  Her most common: thank you (she says this all the time at the appropriate times! so cute.  She actually says it without opening her mouth! hehe) Mama, Dada, Sissy, hi, bye, baba (bottle), uh-oh, balloon...and she will copy words I say like: Neenee, love you, and blankie.

*Holds food in her mouth and refuses to swallow!  I don't know why she does this!  She will keep food in her mouth until she can no longer hold it in and then she will take me to the sink so she can spit it out.  It's so strange and I really hope this stops soon! 

*Still takes 2 naps during the day.  The first one usually starts around 9:30-10 and the second one around 3.  And both range from 1 1/2-2 hours long.  

*She will smile for anyone's camera! On a few different occasions someone (that we didn't know) had their camera out and Josie stood in front of them "cheesing"! :)

*Loves: baths, Levi, Elmo, balloons, going outside, & people!
  Love this picture of our crazy little redhead!! :)

Josie's best friend

Josie loves Levi!

She gets soooo excited when I mention his name!

It is the cutest thing! 

And  Levi loves her too....

he always says Josie is his best friend....

and he even calls her his cutie pie! :)

All I have to do is ask Josie "you want to see Levi?" and she'll grab her coat and run to the door.

So sweet!

And Levi is so sweet with her he'll always find her blankie and chase her down to give it to her.  

The other day Levi bumped his head and cried....

Josie ran over and put her head on Levi to be nice.

And it worked...it made Levi feel better! :)

Winter wrap up!

Helllllloooo April! 

Boy are we glad to see you! 

This winter was a looong one....

and the Soto's are happy it's over!  

In honor of April I figured I'd share the last of my winter pictures that never made it to the blog!

Jo Jo's "smile"

 Josie has started the terrible 2's!  

So we have started time outs! 

She so does not understand them...

she eagerly runs to the chair and grabs a book a sits for a few minutes! :)   

 Last week Makenzie won a reading award for reading 25 or more books! 

She was proud of herself! :)

Josie went through this annoying phase of holding her spit and/or food in her mouth and not swallowing! 

Her mouth would become so full she would look like a chipmunk!  

At the worst point she refused to eat dinner because she wouldn't swallow what was in her mouth!

I forgot to warn the poor ladies in the church nursery.  They kept on thinking she had something in her mouth so they would try to pry her mouth open and then get soaked with spit!  

It was very weird...she wouldn't cry or "talk" b/c she had to keep her mouth closed! 

One time she was whining a muffled cry (with her mouth closed) b/c her shirt was stuck on a toy and she couldn't move, but it took us awhile to realize it because she wasn't actually crying!  

Silly girl!

Luckily this phase is on it's way out....

but the next 2 pictures are from when she refused to smile b/c there was spit in her mouth! 

 My girls love sour cream!  

 They both will eat it by the spoonfuls!

I love it but not that much! 

 I asked Jo to smile....