This Easter was even more fun than last years, with Luna having a new sister to celebrate it with and Luna somewhat understanding the Easter bunny coming to town!

We started with an egg hunt at Luna's school on Tuesday, followed by an Easter party.  Luna picked up more than her friends, so she chose to share some of her eggs with them :)

Then we had a fun afternoon at Luna's friend Ella Grace's house.  We had a huge Easter egg hunt in her front yard and the kids loved running around grabbing eggs.  Even Belle got in on the action.

Luna and I also dyed Easter eggs and she decorated with markers and stickers!

Then it was time to set out our carrot for the Easter Bunny!  Luna left it on the fireplace, just like Santa's cookies.  (yes, that is my old plate from 1979)

Luna was so excited to see what the Easter bunny had left her.  And so was Belle.  If only they knew their Easter Bunny had made a trip to Dollar Tree for most of it :)  Ah, I love this innocent age, where just a piece of pink ribbon will bring tears of joy to my children.  Next year, probably not so much!

We then went to Easter dinner at my mom's house.  Luna and Belle got some Easter Bunny presents at Coco's house and the real Easter bunny decided to show during our Easter egg hunt!

It's been a crazy last month here in Lake Highlands.  We have all been super edgy and not sleeping well, due to recent crime events.  And last night was a Lake Highlands Self Defense Seminar that was put together due to the recent events in our area.  Back in February, a woman was attacked in her home at 12am and was sexually assaulted.  Obviously the man had been watching her as he knew her husband was out of town.  Then the next week the news announced that the police had caught the guy, and we all were sleeping better.  BUT, then they announced, nope, he's not the one, although he was the one who was attacking women in Lakewood and the M Streets since 2008.

Then another sexual assault happened on March 15th on a Friday night at 10pm on the same street!  And then another one 3 days later not too far from our house at 7am after her husband left for work!  Luckily that victim fought him hard, scratched his face and practically bit his finger off.  There were helicopters flying overhead all morning searching for him, cops on horseback combing down our streets and schools on lockdown.

They didn't find him, so as you can imagine, every woman was scared to be home alone.  The victims were in their 20's and 30's too, close to all of our ages!  My moms group (Lake Highlands Early Childhood PTA) was posting on our FB how we needed some sort of speaker to help us learn self defense and safety tips.  So I called my Dallas Rape Crisis counselor friend Monica and the local cops about it.  The cops were amazing, they found a self defense agency, Chamberlain Self Defense, and scheduled a class at the local high school!!  My Rape Crisis friend also agreed to come out and we partnered with the Lake Highlands Jr League and president Stephani Walne.  It went from a small little affair with just a few moms wanting to attend, to almost 800 women expecting to show up!!  To be honest, I was super nervous about it all as I am NOT an event planner or speaker by any means.

But it went really well, my heart racing as I spoke briefly in front of a large crowd.  The 20 instructors were amazing and we learned a lot of great tips!!  It was very intense as we had not psyched ourselves out to defend ourselves laying down and pretending to get raped.  In fact, some friends of mine said they broke down when they got home and some during the class since it was more emotional than they realized.  And Monica did a great job at being their for everyone's support!

Here are 2 articles about it and I was featured in them (don't judge the pics please :).  We also kept the big media out as we wanted the women to feel safe.

http://lakehighlands.advocatemag.com/2013/03/photos-notes-from-a-self-defense-class-organized-in-response-to-lake-highlands-attacks/

http://www.lakehighlandstoday.com/index.php/news/article/the_best_defense_a_good_offense/

I am so lucky to live in such a great community too!  Todd went out with some other dads and hung 'Wanted" flyers around town and luckily some great person came forward and called the Tip Line about seeing this man (with a scratched face).  So the police were following him for a week.  We had officers patroling down our street daily, in cars, bicycles, etc.  It was great to see and I felt safer with their presence.  AND SO GLAD he was FINALLY caught on Tuesday after cops pulled him over, he fled on foot and they arrested him, he admitted to them, and gave details only he would know about the events.  So we are confident he is the one!!!  Great job Dallas Police. 

Sweet Belle turned 10 months on March 23rd!  Seriously, where has the time gone?

She is doing so well, and such a happy baby.  She is crawling all over the place, pulling up and cruising.  MUCH more active than Luna was at this age.  She is my little monkey.  It's so cute to see her get into things she knows she's not supposed to, she will look at me before she goes for an outlet and smile because she knows she is about to be told not to!

As far as her sleeping and eating, we had a setback a couple of weeks ago because she is TEETHING like nothing I've ever seen.  She is biting me, and was refusing to breastfeed so I got mastitis from it, and this time it was the worst since I had it with Luna!  I was in bed for a few days and pumping and she is just now getting back into eating.  Her little cheeks are red from her top teeth, and she is griting her teeth constantly - the worst noise ever.  I even bought her an amber teething necklace hoping it will work. 

But she is sleeping a little better, only waking up once while I am asleep, like around 3am or so.  And she is eating more now, but her favorite food right now is yogurt.  She turns her nose to spinach and even strawberries, but give it with yogurt and she is a happy girl!

And the crawling is out of control.  We all joke that she will be walking soon, and I think she just might.  The crawling is so hard now, hence the delay in blogging!  She is into everything and wants my computer at all times if I so much as open it.  She also hates me being in the kitchen and crawls over to the gate banging for me to get her.  So the house is a mess, but it's okay, I know it's more important to spend time playing now than cleaning :)

Luna, Belle and I made a visit to my grandmother's house during Spring Break.  They love going to visit Momo and especially Belle who loves crawling and getting into all of the 'no-no' breakables!

Belle was trying so hard to pull up and sit in the big girl chair like her sister, so I put her in it, and she was so happy, she was smiling from ear to ear! 

Luna has been taking swim lessons at Dolfin swim on Mondays with her daddy at 5:30pm and LOVES it!   He was getting in the pool with her at first, but last week she graduated and is now swimming on her own with her instructors!  We are so proud of her, and Belle loves going and watching her swim too.