Happy Easter!

We've had such a very busy week, with Collin's 33rd birthday, lots of Easter activities and Holy Week services... but I wanted to pop by to wish you all a very happy Easter! I'll be back to post some more from our week soon.

He is Risen!

Easter Egg Hunt

Our neighborhood HOA had an Easter Egg Hunt in the park this morning, so I thought I'd share some pics. I was really impressed with it, actually. Most of the eggs were filled with candy, but some had a prize slip in them, where you could redeem them for a basket of goodies when it was all said and done. Fortunately, one prize per child, so when Moira found one and Ian didn't, one of the bigger kids who found like 5 gave Ian one of his. They had lots of fun.

On the way to the park

Hunting eggs

Hunting more eggs

After the hunt

Redeeming their prize slips for goodie baskets

Time to play afterward

Moira found a friend from school there

Back at home with their prize baskets

And playing with Ian's new popper cones

Chick-fil-a cravings

I *heart* Chick-fil-a. And really our whole family does too, especially after years of living in Montana and California with not a one to be found locally. Lately though, those pregnancy cravings have kicked in and I could eat their chicken caesar cool wrap and waffles fries at any time of any day... seriously. So, when I saw this clip on my friend Jennifer's blog, I just had to repost here - enjoy! :)

baby shower & the nesting begins

I feel like we've been so busy lately, with Spring Break, a baby shower, yard work, and... oh yeah. The nesting has begun. I'm 28 weeks today and officially starting my third trimester, and while I'm starting to get a wee bit uncomfortable, it's mostly manifested itself in the mindset that "there's work to do!" Not that I'm cleaning any more than usual (yet) but the fun stuff like shopping and organizing and planning! ;-) It was all kick-started, I believe, by the baby shower that our church gave us last Sunday. It was intimate and sweet, but not having been here that long, we felt so blessed to be showered by our dear church family. I'm afraid we didn't get many pictures, as our camera started flashing low battery half way through, but here's just a few from the event.

Opening gifts with Jessica, the other Mommy being showered.

The kids were mostly interested in the cake - Moira asked for 3rds!!

(Did I mention she's going through a growth-spurt right now?)

But Moira took some time away from playing with the other kids long enough to help us open some of the gifts.

Our family of 5 (with baby inside) when it was all said and done.

Oh, and the thank you notes I made this week for the shower. They're all finished and mailed, as of Thursday... so keep your eyes open for them if you were present! :)

I also had a doctor's appointment on Wednesday, and I'll be going every two weeks now. Things still look good - baby is still growing. Remember at my last appointment when I measured 31 cm (which equals 31 weeks)? Well, true to form, I measured 35 cm this time! I sure hope this little 'loaf' slows down a bit at the end. At least my OB didn't mention scheduling a C-section or induction this time - she just wants to "keep an eye on it" and we might possibly get another ultrasound out of it, closer to the due date. She also mentioned that I might take this year's prize for biggest baby - ugh. As long as she's healthy... right?

So, back to the topic of nesting. We ordered a white, 6-drawer dresser/vanity for the girls' room, for the extra clothes storage space and to double as a changing table, and it came in today! Fun, fun, fun! I'm hoping to convince Collin to help me put it together this weekend, and that way I can start washing baby clothes, taking inventory and putting them all away. (It makes me giddy just thinking about it!) I've also been working on lots of baby blankets lately. One of Collin's mom's friends sent us a box of 3 pounds (yes, pounds!) of yarn, and I've slowly widdled it away to almost nothing. Here are the results:

This one, called Sweet Pea, is for our little girl. The purple is actually more purple in real-life, but it was hard to get our camera to pick up the right shade in the pics.


The big kids testing it out - they had to make sure it was right for their little Sis.


This one I made for Jessica, the other Mommy being showered on Sunday.

This one is for a friend in Colorado, Laura, that just had a baby girl.

I've also got the sweetest little jumper on needles right now, that will be perfect for the "loaf" come Fall. I'll post pics of that one once it's finished. And, we haven't been neglecting the big kids with all the baby stuff going on. We were lucky enough to be given a free twin bed and mattress set for Ian from one of the couples at our church, so all we had to buy was the bedding. Ian's starting to think he might want to switch room themes to dinosaurs soon, so I decided it would be best to get some generic (non-Mickey) bedding that would last through many themes - and I'm glad we did! It's so cute, and really perfect for him, especially with the splashes of orange (his favorite color).

Here's the new big-boy bed...

...and here's our big-boy enjoying it!

(I just want to eat him up, he's so cute!)

And finally the big news, as far as our two older kids are concerned... they're getting a big, wood swing set for their birthdays! We actually bought it yesterday, because it was on sale for $200 off the ticket price (yea!), even though their birthdays aren't until May and July. We won't be putting it together until June though, when Papa (my dad) arrives with Grammie for the baby's birth, since he has so graciously agreed to help Collin with the construction. They're excited though, and I hope they can wait 2 1/2 months until it's ready to go. Here's a sneak peak of the catalog picture (random kids and all), just in case you can't wait to see it either...

Fun, huh? I think we're almost as excited as the kids are! It really is perfect timing too, since they'll have something fun to do and help get their energy out when the newborn is here and napping all the time.

So that's what we're up to right now, thanks for checking in despite my irregularity in posting. Hopefully, you haven't all written me off as a lost cause in blogging. Have a wonderful weekend!

Spring Break in Savannah

We're back now from our wonderful trip to Savannah, Georgia during Spring Break. We'd never been to Savannah before, and left feeling charmed by the city and looking forward to the next time we'll be able to visit. Here's a brief overview of our trip...

We left early Sunday morning, and took the more scenic drive through the mountains to Atlanta, and after about 8 hours, arrived at our hotel in Savannah. We settled in a bit and headed to Uncle Bubba's Oyster House on the river for a seafood dinner, which was very yummy. Collin got the oyster dinner and I got the scallop dinner (the kids ended up with the stand-by chicken fingers and grilled cheese), which were both very good. We left with full tummies and headed back to hotel to rest up for the next day.

Monday morning we headed to historic downtown and waited in line at The Lady & Sons (Paula Deen's restaurant, for those foodies out there) to get a lunch reservation time for that day. Then we bought our tickets for an "Old Savannah Trolley Tour" with on and off privileges that allowed us to get off at any of the 14 stops to explore on our own and get back on a later trolley. The tour guides were quite amusing, had a lot of history and trivia to offer about Savannah, and I think we all enjoyed taking in the sights and sounds of the city. We went back to eat at The Lady & Sons for a late lunch and tried lots of good Southern cooking from the buffet, including fried green tomatoes, crab stew, cornbread, BBQ pork sandwich, fried chicken, mac-n-cheese, collard greens, garlic cheddar biscuits (which were fabulous) and topped it all off with peach cobbler for dessert! We were stuffed!! After heading back to the hotel to let our puppy outside, we decided to go back into town and look around the City Market section a bit. About 6 blocks away from the car, we got caught in a downpour and decided perhaps we should wait until tomorrow to continue our tour. We went back to the hotel and dried off, and had a very light dinner at Bennigan's before calling it a night.

Tuesday morning, St. Patrick's Day, we woke up early and went downtown to get a parking spot for the parade later that morning. We then were able to walk through the shops at City Market and found a spot on Bull Street to watch the parade. We saw city officials, marching bands, Ireland themed floats, and lots of people in kilts playing bagpipes. Moira thoroughly enjoyed all the hoopla of the parade, but Ian thought it was all a bit too loud. I found it amusing that "the loaf" about had a fit inside the first time one of the marching bands walked by with their loud drums and horns blaring! One of the parade officials even stopped when he saw Moira and came over to give her some green beads, saying that he "couldn't pass this cutie up." :) We didn't realize that Savannah hosts the 2nd largest St. Patrick's Day celebration (after Chicago) in the world - and that 500,000 people were expected to descend on downtown that day. We saw locals and visitors alike, but most interesting were all the visitors from Ireland herself! After getting our fill of the parade, we went to Scottish pub called Molly McPherson's, of all places, as we had determined this would be the best place to get a good Irish lunch and was the most family-friendly. We got Corned Beef & Cabbage and Bangers & Mash, and Collin had the obligatory Guinness, which were all very good. We walked down to Leopold's Ice Cream afterward, but they were closed, so we headed back to the hotel to see Cailin for a bit. We then decided to make the short drive down to Tybee Island, with a quick detour to try to see Paula Deen's house, to walk the beach. The kids were itching to get in the water and swim, but it was just too cold, so they settled for splashing around in the shallow water. It was all very picturesque, and it was nice to be able to see the Atlantic again, and show it to the kids for the first time. We went back into Savannah to eat at the Mellow Mushroom for dinner, and after eating way too much pizza, we came back to the hotel and caught American Idol before calling it a night.

We left Savannah early Wednesday morning, and made it back home earlier than expected at 4pm. I got lots of knitting done in the car (pretty much started and finished a baby blanket in the car on this trip for an upcoming baby shower this weekend) and we had lots of daylight once we got home to play in the warm weather, unpack and start laundry and relax. I think all of our legs are a bit sore from all the walking we did this week, and I've decided not to make fun of the belly belts you see in the stores anymore, for supporting a preggo woman's belly!! ;-) All in all it was a wonderful trip, full of new adventures, good food, beautiful scenery and lots of quality time spent together as a family.

Click on the picture above to see the picasa album of all our Savannah trip pictures. I recommend viewing the pictures as a slideshow to get the full effect and to read all the captions.

I love the daffodils...

In our experience, moving to a new area is always fun, especially during the first year. In the first year you get to experience, all 4 seasons and all the neat things that are special to that area during each season. One thing we love about Spring in San Antonio is the usual abundance of bluebonnets growing wild everywhere. It's quite common to see families pulled over on the side of the road, snapping pictures of the kids in their Sunday best amongst seas of these dainty little purple-blue flowers. For me it conjures up warm, fuzzy thoughts of family and Spring, and all their many blessings. So, when I started to notice daffodils popping up everywhere here in Huntsville, Alabama, I quickly recognized the similarity to home, and the photo opportunity that living here in the Spring would bring. It's just another way that I can take something I love from "home" and make it a part of our new home and traditions. Today after church, we stopped and took a couple pictures of the big kids in the daffodils...

Aren't they darling? And the flowers aren't bad either...

I'm struck with sentimentality as I look at these pictures of my ever-growing, ever-changing children. It doesn't seem all that long ago that I was growing them inside of me, dreaming and hoping the best for their lives, just as I am now with this precious little baby girl. Soon she'll be here, and I'll get to see her beautiful face and watch in wonder as she grows before my eyes too. It's such a blessed thing to be a Mother - one of the true gifts in life, and I'm incredibly humbled and honored to be entrusted by our Father with such precious gifts as these little ones.

And here I am, 'blooming' with motherhood today, at 25 weeks along. Only 3 short months until I get to hold my 3rd precious baby in my arms. Today I'm reminded of one of my absolute favorite scripture verses:

***

"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made..." -Psalm 139:13&14a

Welcome Spring!

Uh.... Spring?

Our view waking up this morning.

I don't think our pretty daffodils (that just bloomed this week) are gonna make it. :(

Did I mention we live in Alabama?!

Here's to hoping this is Winter's final hurrah!