Easter

It is Wednesday morning, we are expecting bad weather, and Harper and I are snuggled together watching her new favorite movie, The Sound of Music, that the Easter Bunny brought her. It is our first chance to sit down since a BUSY Easter week/weekend, and I couldn't be happier to veg out a little this morning. Sophie had to go to school and Lee is in Baltimore, but Harper and I are taking a much needed break!

Easter was wonderful. The girls had so much fun attending Palm Sunday services, Easter Egg hunts, hosting an Easter party for some new friends at our house, and having Spring Break to add a few beach trips and swim lessons to the mix. For this pregnant mommy, it wore me out! It was a blast, though. Knowing both girls are so in love with the sand and pools this year is a major blessing. They have had a great time using new pails and swimsuits several times a week.

Easter morning we had our usual wake up early fun of getting baskets and looking for the big eggs in the yard. Below are a few pictures of our morning and getting ready for church!

We did have a sad time Friday night before Easter, though. Our little Jack Russell, Macy, got bit by two water mocassins while she was playing in the creek behind our house. Lee and I KNEW this would happen one day, the way she always finds creeks to play in. However, this was the most inopportune time with a party at our house the following day, being exhausted from a busy week, and getting ready for Easter. We had an emergency late night trip to our new local vet (who is a very nice guy, and lives down the street! yeah for us!) We debated spending major cash on an antivenom that may or may not work on such a little dog with two spring snake bites. Macy was doing fairly well at midnight, so Lee brought her home with tons of medicine and the vet's number in case she turned for the worse. In the meantime, I had a SAD little four year old breaking my heart trying to grasp that her little dog buddy was very sick. She stayed awake until Lee called with the news that things were looking okay.

He brought her home and we both pulled an all night vigil keeping her medicated and calm. Our efforts didn't work though, and late in the night she started looking very bad. If you have ever seen My Dog Skip or Marley and Me, imagine living that with your poor little dog. She finally died about five minutes after the girls woke up Saturday morning. We have had MANY questions from both girls, mainly Sophie, about Heaven, Macy, and where she is now. They are crazy questions, and you just wonder what is going through her little head. We are now on Murphy watch, considering he and Macy were so tight. He is sure to gain 10 pounds this month from our over feeding, and he is getting more inside time than he has in years to keep him from crying in his pen. I have a feeling he will be quite a spoiled dog in a few weeks.

The name game...

The baby is getting kinda close to making "its" appearance. I am at 30 weeks. And with a doctor I know will schedule at least a week earlier delivery, we are beginning to think we might need to get some stuff ready for our new little boy or girl. We did get the big bed put together, and the cradle is about 10 feet closer to the garage door, which means after Easter it might actually make it into our room. Besides waiting to see what we have and ordering color appropriate blankets and clothes, I say we are doing better than expected!

We finally decided on names for the squash, and that has made getting our baby preparations going even more evident. Wanna know the names? If it is a girl, we are going to name her Camille Lee. We will call her Camille or Millie, whatever seems to suit her best. If it is a boy, we will name him Samuel Irvin, and more than likely call him Si. I monogrammed a onesie with each of these names on it to see if it looks good on a shirt (very important in our house). I will post those in a few days on my monogramming blog to show off the new fonts I used for the new addition.

We are having an Easter Party/Egg hunt for family and a few friends tomorrow. After that big event, baby boot camp is on around here! Harper is giving her pacis to the Easter Bunny to make her a big girl, we are going to finish potty training (so close, yet so far away), and Sophie gets registered for Kindergarten. Our new chapter to our lives is coming very soon, whether we are ready or not!

Our latest growth!

Not only is my belly growing as evidenced by the pictures below....

......we have a garden! ( by the way, baby is definitely growing. My belly has made its major arrival the past two weeks, and the girls can see and feel major kicks and elbows. Sophie knows it likes her because when she lays in my lap kicks ALWAYS happen.) Our garden is tiny and probably won't produce more than one cucumber, but we are going to try. We are having a ball watering each day and seeing our growth. I am pleasantly surprised at how well we have done so far!

This is our lemon tree. At least we think it is a lemon tree. The fruit keeps getting bigger and bigger, but is staying green. I am guessing they will change really soon?!?!

This is our flower patch. We planted TONS of bulbs and wildflower seeds in here. I figured it was a waste of time, but one week after planting, you can see tiny green coming up from the ground, and they aren't weeds! Even some bulbs have already shot out tubes. I can't WAIT to see what happens here.

This is our current pride and joy, the veggie and herb garden. All our plants are thriving, we have three strawberries growing, the basil has shot up, and I plan to make my first cilantro salsa for Easter Egg Hunt day.

Oh, the week is over!

Okay, this week has truly been such a comedy of errors! Lee had his back surgery Thursday to correct a pinched nerve that has been hurting him for over 16 months. I think we tried every other attempt at correcting this situation before going under a knife, including standing on his head ( need an inversion table? we have a slightly used one!). Taking on this surgery was a necessary thing to get him back healthy, but with two toddlers, one 3/4 baked baby and many "new house" chores in the works for spring, a little stressed feeling came over us. I am NOT one to dwell in things I can't control, so the surgery was way outta my hands. I also try not to stress over silly things. But last night was the breaking point. I either had to laugh or cry at our "situation" we are currently in. I chose to do both at the same time, while riding in the car barely seeing ( I will get to that later). So, instead of having a pity party, we decided to make a sarcastic thankful list. It was quite hilarious, with a urine soaked toddler who was trying to potty train and had an accident on the way to Chick Fil A, a husband with no appetite but needing to eat, and a tired wife who is acting like a nurse, but does not have that nursing gene. - I am thankful for dirt. For over three weeks we have been trying to get dirt delivered to finish a little raised veggie garden project. We have called over and over to two companies, begging for our little delivery of dirt. Monday, three days before "cut day", pulls in a DUMP TRUCK full of dirt. Needless to say, Lee and I both shoveled dirt for about two hours a piece, against both doctors' orders. However, now that we still have 7/8 of the dump truck dirt, we can get more of our yard sodded! Score for us! - I am thankful for a safe neighborhood. Why, you ask? Well, when your garage door flips out at 11 pm and will no longer function and your garage is full of attic stuff, it is nice to know that burglars are rare. - I am thankful for girls scared of vacuums. Again, why? Well, Lee decided to give me one last reprieve from mopping (considering he can't do that movement for 3 months, and it usually sends baby into contractions). While doing so, my Shark, my saving grace for the floor, built up too much steam and flew across the room in a literal hot mess. If anyone had been in the path of that, another ER trip would be in our books. - I am thankful for sunglasses. Because, when you lose a contact and your eye looks like you have done serious drugs and you have to hold a paper towel over your eye so your legally blind self can drive your family home (Lee can't drive for three weeks), it isn't as noticeable. - I am thankful to speak English only. If I understood Vietnemese, I would probably know how much fun those ladies at the salon were making fun of my cankles Saturday afternoon when the girls and I took a few hours for girl time. Lee is doing great with his surgery. He was very sore the first day, which we all expected. He hasn't taken any muscle relaxers today, which is a big step in knowing the worst pain is over. He is on serious restrictions for three weeks ( the doctor even said no laundry!! I personally think he paid for that order) then he has to take it a little slow for three months. After that, he will start some physical activities to strenghten core muscles. I am hoping these activities include lifting car seats and children, because we have three months before I am out of the help aspect with a new baby arriving.

Spring Fun

We have been enjoying such great weather and fun lately! We had a visit with Lee's sister from Franklin, enjoying playing with Cousin Cade, my mom's birthday fun at our house, and a visit from some Montgomery friends for a weekend! In the midst of that we have learned our allergies are having a terrible adjustment to just a short distance south from where we used to live, and that has NOT been fun! I am fully supportive of the the Zyrtec movement and we are slowly starting to sleep again around here. Below are two of my favorite shots from the week!

When the Graydon's visited we had a jam pack weekend of fun. We hit the Oyster House, ran (or walked really fast) in the Azalea Trail Run, which I hate we got no pictures of, hit Fairhope Pier, and lastly toured the big bug exhibit at the Exploreum. All the kids really enjoyed cheesing it up with the bugs. Strange but true!

Here is my sweet family enjoying some time at the beach! Don't they look like they belong in a magazine or something? By the way, the girls' dresses are from my friends' clothing line, Sundae Afternoon. They are SOO cute and they loved wearing them!

Japan and God

Tonight as we were getting dinner the Nightly News was on behind us. Of course to us this was just background noise, but Sophie was really paying attention to the news on the Tsunami. As we sat down to eat she had LOTS of questions; where the people in the houses ended up, where were their toys, where were their pets, could they go outside yet, etc. Lee and I tried to answer as truthfully as we could but keep it on a level that wouldn't scare her.

For a four year old, her knowledge that God is in control and always around is pretty accurate. After we talked for a while and assured her that we lived far enough away from the beach to ever have that happen to our house, she started asking the whys. Why did it happen to Japan, did God make it or let it happen, and why would he do that. We just simply said we don't know everything God does or do we know why he lets some things that seem so bad to us happen.

She thought for a minute after we told her we didn't know why God let it happen, she told us she didn't know why he let it happen either. But, if we turned it to the Weather Channel, they would probably know why. Apparently she has heard them explain a lot, and they probably know why God does a lot of the things that he does.

Another Version of Miracles

Yesterday we went back to a church we previously tried and seemed to really enjoy it. So did Sophie. She got to do a really cute art project and was so proud of it. While we were waiting for our lunch at a local restaurant she told us about her picture. I will do my best to use her exact words when telling this story...

"Today at church I made that picture(the previously mention art project) and glued all those pieces of bread and those fishes in a basket. Did you know there was a boy that had his lunch and Jesus took it from him and fed as many people that go to a night Mardi Gras parade? Not a daytime Mardi Gras parade, because that wouldn't be that many people, but one of those night parades where there are so many people I have to sit in my wagon".