Jakob Daniel and Everleigh Grace Hall

What a year this has been for our little lady!  So much learning and growing, laughing and crying, shouting and speaking, playing and hugging and snuggling and kissing.  What started as the terrible two's has slowly been morphing into (hopefully!) the terrific three's for Everleigh.  She's still willing to throw a tantrum, but more and more she's using her words and controlling those big emotions.  The pacifier is a bigger player in her life than we care to admit, but it isn't the all-the-time crutch that it had been even a couple of months ago.  Everleigh is steadily becoming the independent, social butterfly that we used to catch brief glimpses of in the past...her teachers and school friends adore her, and she's brave and adventurous while also being caring and kind.  She's our wild child, and we love her so very much.  Happy third birthday, baby girl!

Grandma and Grandpa Janelle got the kids bugs for their birthdays...and they could not be more excited!  Thankfully the bugs are caterpillars and soon to be butterflies.  :-)  They were so tiny when we got them last week, and they hardly moved at all.  Actually, I thought they were dead.  Turns out they're alive and well, and they're getting fat!  Jakob has repeatedly told me that he plans to release his butterflies in the house, and more particularly in his room, because he wants them to land on his nose.  Should be interesting to see whether I can talk him out of that, haha!

Thanks to my loving and lovely family for making me feel so special this Mother's Day.  The day started with a delicious omelet and bacon made by Jakob and Dan (with a large mug of coffee, of course).  We did some cleaning while the kids played, and then it was time for second breakfast of cinnamon buns...also super delicious.  Dan got me tickets to see Pentatonix in September, Jakob painted a beautiful pot and planted a flower, and Everleigh made me a sweet picture, keychain, and bracelet.  Jakob also wrote me a card that says Happy Mother's Day, which is also pictured below.  You have to start in the middle of the second line, wrap up the right side to the top line (reading right to left), then drop down from the first letter of the second line to the third line, ha.  Dan and Jakob headed off to Echo and to run errands, while Everleigh and I went to the trampoline park to jump for an hour.  We had the Gilmans over for a feast of carnitas and homemade...