It's early. Bags are packed and the car is loaded. Beemer is cared for and Ella is fast asleep at Garan's. I've had a haircut, manicure and pedicure. I've paid the bills, mailed thank you notes and finally completed my Census form. The house is clean and the yard looks gorgeous. Big pink bows are hanging in Sophie's room... ready for the mailbox and front door. Coming home outfits are pressed and ready to go. The fridge is stocked for next week and we've got hospital snacks in the car. Car seats are installed and the nursery is finally finished.All that's left is to meet Sophie. Please pray for us today as we meet our new addition. Pray... that my surgery is on-time and uneventful. that my doctors and nurses make good decisions and give us the best possible care. that ...
Baby Belly, Week 39
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No More Doctor’s Visits!
Today was my last doctor's appointment before the big day. I was scheduled for my bi-weekly non-stress test and planned to take Ella along. She loves going to the appointments, visiting my sweet doctor and hearing Sophie's heartbeat. My mom was worried that I'd get there with her and they would decide to keep me and we'd be stuck! Luckily, they had a weather-day and she got to tag along, too. For those of you unfamiliar, a non-stress test measures the babies heartbeat, movement and any contractions I might be having while at rest. No stress is applied to the baby, I just get to hang out in a comfy chair for 20 minutes and hear Sophie's heartbeat, wiggles, kicks and hiccups while the doctor watches the results. Ella & Gran came in and kept me company, so I snapped a sweet picture ...
Baby Love
Today we were lucky enough to tag along with K while she did a newborn session for our sweet Lake. We were in need of some time with our besties, since we haven't seen them since they've been home from the hospital. Ella's daddy even gave her a hard time this morning about getting all dressed up for her "boyfriend." In a few more weeks, we'll have plenty of time for play-dates {although we might be lacking in energy!} for the littles and the bigs. This time, we settled for brief conversation while Ella & Grey made a huge mess building a "fork" and we watched Lake play sweetly for his pictures. We had such fun! This was Ella's excited face... right before she got to practice her big sister skills on a sleepy, baby Lake. She was just itching to get her hands on him! And ...
Easter Picnic
After church, we headed to Garan's for a picnic with the family and of course, family pictures. I'll be sure to share those that K took, but we snapped this quick one in the meantime. After the photo session, we all changed clothes for vegging out in the sunshine, hunting eggs and stuffing face. How cute is this little one in the sweet dress the Bunny brought? She convinced Jared to hunt eggs while she was waiting on the other kids. Her idea of "hiding" the eggs is to throw them in various locations around the yard. Luckily, he was very agreeable. Thank you, Jared! This much be Molly's serious face... she, Stanley, Jay and Ella were gearing up to hunt eggs. Just like on Saturday, she was pretty proud of the 32 eggs she found. Unfortunately they all came home with ...
Bunny Business
On Easter Sunday, I decided to get up early to make sure we had plenty of time to enjoy each other and still get out the door on time for church. I was up by 5:30 "making sure the Bunny hid the eggs" and moving the girls Easter Baskets from the kitchen counter. I'm sure the Bunny put them there to keep little gray paws out of the chocolate! I baked apples-in-a-blanket for breakfast, ironed our Easter clothes and had a cup of coffee before I was greeted by my little princess. A little person screamed at me and as soon as I opened the door she was off to see what the Bunny brought. I did manage to convince her to wake daddy first, but as you can tell from the pictures, he wasn't quite ready to be up. From mommy and daddy, Ella got a new Bitty Baby ballerina outfit that she's been ...
The Hunt
After dyeing our eggs on Saturday morning, we got all dolled up and headed for a local egg hunt. We were probably a little over-dressed, but Ella has lots of new springy dresses that she's been dying to wear, so we went with it. Unfortunately, it was a little dreary outside and we were glad we brought a sweater. We started out in the gym of our elementary school, where there was face-painting while we lined up in our age group. Luckily, Ella wasn't interested in having her face painted, but she couldn't wait to start hunting those eggs. The preschool set got to search on the playground, so they were easily contained. Although we didn't find the grand-prize egg {thank goodness - it was a stuffed horse the size of our dog!}, we did find a prize egg and my child selected a gallon sized ...
Eggs-travaganza!
This is how I started my Saturday morning. We had lots of fun things to do this weekend and Ella kept calling it the "best weekend ever." I knew if we were going to squeeze it all in that we were going to have to get an early start. I was up hard-boiling eggs at 6:30, just praying that Ella would sleep a little longer. Since we don't have much counter space, I decided to spread a vinyl tablecloth on the kitchen floor and set everything up there. We donned our pretty pink aprons and everything else we need to dye our eggs. Did I mention Ella confused "dyeing" with "dying" and we had a long conversation about how we were not killing our eggs. This is how excited she was to be doing it herself for a change! I showed her how to use a tablespoon to lift the eggs instead of that ...