humbling moment in parenting

I put a lot of thought into gifts, especially for my girls. Probably too much thought, actually. I think it's just because of limited funds and not buying toys for them very often. When we give gifts, I just want them to be good!

For probably the last year, when we would play at our friends' houses, the first toy Kendall would find and stick with was the guitar. Honestly, it seemed like everybody had some sort of toy guitar except Kendall! So as I thought about birthday gifts for her this year, I thought a guitar would be a perfect one, and when I found a purple one at Toys R Us, I just KNEW she would love it. I imagined her reaction to the gift over and over in my mind and absolutely could not wait to give it to her!

Well, imagine our surprise when Kendall unwrapped the gift, looked at it, put it back down on the table with a frown on her face and said, "I wanted a piano!" Talk about deflating! I was absolutely crushed. I just looked at Evan, rolled my eyes, and went to the other room to feed Arden.

As I sat there feeding Arden, all sorts of thoughts went through my head...We should take the guitar back. How could she be so ungrateful? Why didn't Kendall respond the way I wanted? Was there another gift that she would have loved better? A piano? Really? Finally, it hit me. She's four, and she's going to respond like a four year old.  So I just prayed that I could respond with grace, even though I was still incredibly sad that she didn't go ballistic over her gift.

We didn't take the guitar out of the package immediately. We told Kendall she needed to wait and think about it, because if she really didn't want it we would take it back and get her something she did really want. It was her birthday, after all, and we didn't want to spend money on something she wasn't going to play with.

After I got out of the shower, the guitar was un-packaged and she was happily playing it. Apparently, Kendall and her daddy had a conversation about it, and it wasn't that Kendall didn't want the guitar, she just wanted a piano, too. Needless to say, we've had a few conversations about contentment and being greedy in the last few days as well. (Especially after she asked us on the way to church why she only got two presents to unwrap that morning!) 

Every time we deal with a heart issue with Kendall, it's like I see myself in relationship to God. Is it just me, or do you other parents see this, too? As we work through all this with her, I've been thinking about how many times God blesses me with gifts and all the time I grumble and complain against Him. How sad! It really makes my heart hurt! Oh how I am thankful God is gracious to me and loves me anyway, just as we do to Kendall.


The guitar? Well, it's a hit around our house, and not just with Kendall. I woke up from a Sunday afternoon nap to Evan tuning it for her, then listened to him (obnoxiously) strum on it for 30 minutes or so Monday night. I asked Evan if he was practicing for his future youth group meetings and if so, he would need to ask Kendall's permission to borrow her purple guitar. :)

Whirlwind Trip

We just returned this morning around 2 a.m. from a very whirlwind trip to Arkansas. Hopefully, I will post more on the reason later, but for now, here are some highlights:

*One the plane ride there, I discovered Arden's first tooth--front bottom left. About four days later, I discovered her second tooth, right next to the first one.

*When Arden pooped on this trip, she blew out her diaper every.single.time. Almost all of those blow outs were while she was in her car seat. Needless to say, SHOUT and I became great friends on this trip.

*Kendall, Arden, and I were able to stay a few extra days with my family. (We were supposed to leave on Wednesday, ended up having a huge change of plans, Evan cancelled our flights, and ended up driving BACK this weekend and picking us up. Like I said, more on that later.) Anyway, we spent a couple of days in Stuttgart visiting my dad, Papaw, and sister. Upon our arrival at the farm, we were greeted by Papaw's very sweet but very large dog, Trixie. If you know Kendall at all, you know she is NOT a fan of animals. Kendall was DEATHLY afraid of getting out of the car, so I told her to wait a minute and I would get Arden (who was crying!) out, then come get her. When I opened up the car door on Arden's side, Trixie was right there beside me. I assured Kendall that Trixie would NOT get in the car, but what happened?! Oh yes, Trixie climbed right into the back seat of the car and went straight for Kendall, licking all over her! Kendall was DYING!

*While carrying in all our belongings at Papaw's house, I pinched my finger in the door and got a big blood blister on my index finger.

*Later that evening, I walked over to see my sister's new place. As I was walking out her front door, I missed the steps completely and took an extremely hard fall to the ground while holding Arden. Thankfully, the fall only scared Arden. I, on the other hand, have scratches on my right leg, a bruise and scratches on my left knee, and possibly cracked/bruised a rib. I opted not to visit an ER, as I assumed there was nothing that could be done for a cracked rib anyway. I'm still having some pain, laughing and sneezing especially.

*Not only did Arden cut two teeth on this trip, she also found her way to her knees and can ALMOST sit up on her own! She's growing so so so so fast!

*The girls and I got to watch my oldest nephew play football. We had a fun time, and I think Kendall especially enjoyed watching the cheerleaders and eating M&Ms. Even though his team lost, Coby played well and made a few great tackles!

*As if the blood blister and bruised rib weren't enough, as I was peeling an apple for Kendall using an apple peeler, I basically sliced a small section off my thumb. After looking at it further and it bleeding off and on for a couple of days, this one probably warranted a doctor's visit. Hopefully, it will heal up quickly!

*I have a love-hate relationship with long road trips and Evan. I love being in the car as a family, getting good reading time in that rarely happens anymore, and jamming out to all kinds of music, but it drives me nuts that Evan can go practically the whole trip without saying a word! We have a running joke about this because usually about 2-3 hours into the trip I say, "You know I have a need for conversation!" and then we end up with random conversations like "I wonder, if you added up all the contents inside all the semi-trucks on any given day, what the dollar amount would be?" Yes, after about 2 hours with very little conversation, THAT is what came out of Evan's mouth. I love him. :)

*Speaking of road-trips and music, we so love his smart phone on car trips. Tiny Shark, especially, where you can create all kinds of play lists. I had so much fun with this from Memphis on last night. My favorite part was seeing Evan roll his eyes when we would listen to a long stretch of Counting Crows or something like that, then I would throw in a random Beyonce or Fergie. Makes me laugh even harder when he starts singing all the words to Big Girls Don't Cry and then tries to act like he doesn't like that song. Did I mention how much I love him?! :)

*We drove the entire trip home without a DVD player. How did Kendall make that trip? By playing "bank" in the back seat. She shredded up about 10 sheets of paper making deposit slips. I'm not looking forward to cleaning out that mess. However, the fact that her little sister cried from Wheatley to Nashville (with me in the backseat feeding her bottles AND a stop at McDonalds), we didn't really care what Kendall was doing, as long as she was happy!

*Like I already didn't know, but this trip convinced me of the fact that we have way too much stuff. I packed, thinking we were only going to be in Arkansas for four nights, yet stayed another four. Would you believe even with Arden blowing out her diapers 5,000 times, we STILL had enough clothes? Granted, I was staying where I could do laundry, but still...I'm pretty sure there were items in our suitcase that were never worn.

I don't think I've ever been happier to see Louisville. Not sure how much longer this will be home, but I'm planning to savor every last second of it!

Cereal, Cubbies, and Lettuce Wraps

Need to do a little catch-up post on a few items of business...

 I don't remember much about starting food with Kendall, except that she was about 4 1/2 months old and I thought it was terribly challenging. I remember rice cereal doing a number on Kendall's tummy and just never knowing when to give her food, how much, or what to try. I also remember FINALLY moving past all that and loving meal time, but it took awhile.

I have NOT been looking forward to starting foods with Arden. With all her spit-up and tummy issues already and FINALLY feeling like no-dairy is working, I just don't want to mess that up. However, Arden dropped her 4 a.m. feeding (finally) which has caused her routine to change a little bit. She's also in that stage where she doesn't need as frequent sleep. So as I'm trying to get her into a good morning/afternoon/occasional evening nap routine, I thought I might try giving her some cereal.

We started with oatmeal on Monday, and after three days, she's still completely uninterested.

I'm okay with that. I vow not to stress out about it so much this time around because I know she will eventually (hopefully) love to eat! I mean, I'm not sure she can be a part of our little family if she doesn't love food! :)

Kendall FINALLY joined Cubbies at church. This is a BIG BIG BIG deal, you know. She's been talking about that vest (aka: cubby coat) all summer long! She is doing a great job learning verses and certainly keeps us on our toes with working in her book. Kendall role-plays the whole Cubby class at home. She pulls up a chair with a book and pretends her hands are the Cubby Bear and Lovey Lamb puppets. It's really funny. We are excited about this new activity for her and look forward to see how she grows throughout the year!

With the dairy free diet, meal planning is a little challenging around our house! Many of my go-to recipes involve loads and loads of cheese (because cheddar cheese is the way to Evan's heart!) or are cream based of some sort. Such a bummer, but I'm learning to like things without cheese, actually, and have found that some things don't taste half bad without it. Like fajitas, for example. Pre-Arden, my fajitas would be loaded with sour cream and cheddar, and while I will always love a fajita that way, non-dairy fajitas are still edible.

Since going dairy-free, I've been challenged to explore some new recipes. One thing I've found is that Asian cooking requires no dairy, so we've been eating lots and lots of stir fry. I've had fun mixing up different veggies and have found that stir fry makes great leftovers! One Friday night, I thought it would be fun to do a copy-cat recipe of P.F. Chang's Lettuce Wraps. They turned out DELICIOUS, and really weren't too labor intensive. Check out the recipe HERE. While I could easily make a meal off lettuce wraps, I knew they would not suffice as a meal for my hungry husband, so I made a side of Sesame Noodles from my all-time favorite, Ree Drummond (aka: Pioneer Woman). That recipe can be found HERE. The noodles were great, although I might do less green onion next time, because it seemed like they all ended up at the bottom of the bowl. I will certainly do this meal again because after buying all the special seasonings, it's a relatively cheap meal.

Summer Recap

Before this summer becomes a blur in my mind, I want to recap a few things:

August was one of the hardest months we've had in a long time. The brakes on the 4-Runner went out at at the very end of July. (Literally, took Kendall to her last swimming lesson and thought, "I should not be driving this vehicle!") Financially, we already knew August was going to be super tight (it's pretty tight around our house already!) but we knew it was going to be even more so because of vacation and just a slow July in general for Evan at work. Sooo...August was the month for being a one-car family again. It was a little tough to maneuver at times, and the girls and I were at home a lot, but we made it. The Lord provided in some amazing ways, and for that I am thankful. I will always remember the Wednesday evening that I was ready just to give up, only to get home, look at the mail and find a check from my OB-GYN for $450 because we had over paid. Then, two days later I received a phone call about some other very unexpected money coming. People, those things do not happen by accident. The Lord's timing is perfect, and I am slowly, SLOWLY learning to trust it and accept it.

I also want to note that extra money was not the only way the Lord provided last month. We were at the end of our "given to us" diapers for Arden, and a dear friend of mine purchased two boxes (of Pampers!) and gave them to me. I also had come to the realization that because of our indefinite one-car situation, I was probably going to have to give up a couple of activities because sharing a vehicle just wasn't working for these two particular things. At first I was very bitter about this, but ended up spending one Sunday afternoon in some major prayer and came to a great peace about it. Funny how the Lord works because two days later a dear friend of ours gave us the keys to their extra vehicle and told us to use it as long as we needed. We also fixed the brakes for a fraction of the cost that the brake-fixing place quoted because of a new family in our church who knew how to do all the work. He and Evan (well, I think Evan mainly handed him tools! HA!) spent about three days working together, and as of last Thursday, we have two working vehicles again!

We also spent much of August swimming! Yes, that's right...swimming! This is HUGE for me, as I am a sunshine and water kind of girl in the summer, and since living in Louisville, trips to the pool are few and far between. Some friends from church bought a house with a pool at the end of July, and basically let us (and a few others) come over as much as we wanted. Such fun and some great memories made!

As summer comes to a close, Evan and I find ourselves in a season of waiting.  While some days are okay, many days we find ourselves grumbling and complaining about our circumstances. We are trying to fight against that with all we have and trust in verses like Colossians 1:17, Jeremiah 29:11, and 1 Peter 5:7-11, but sometimes it is HARD!!! Just today, we spent most of the afternoon conversing about why we can't just rest in Christ and be thankful in the midst of all of it...only to go to church tonight and sing songs like Forever God is Faithful, and Great Is Thy Faithfulness, and listen to a sermon preached from Romans 8:18-25. I mean, really, I could not sing "Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth, thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide, strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow, blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside" without tears streaming my face! Even in the middle of waiting and wondering what the Lord is up to, we are still so very blessed. Our little family would covet any prayers as we go through this season, though. We know God is up to something good and look forward to the outcome!


And...just because I don't want to play favorites with my girls' pictures, here is one of Arden from the end of the summer. She's looking SO MUCH like her daddy! She gets a whole post later this week, so I'll save all the fun baby things for then!

the story of how we met

This is my dear friend Jennifer, holding my baby girl. I'm pretty sure Jennifer doesn't read our blog. That's okay, I'm writing about her anyway.

I met Jennifer my very first year of teaching. She was the math teacher on our (very amazing) team and became such a wonderful friend to me. Our common ground started when I learned her husband's family was from the same town that I grew up in AND when she invited me to a Ladies' Bible Study. Jennifer and her husband had just started the process of building a house, and I remember riding out to see the new construction one Friday after school. It seemed our friendship just blossomed from that point. I started babysitting her son and just hanging out with her family a lot. I'll never forget when she showed up on my doorstep one afternoon after school to tell me she was pregnant (she hadn't even told her husband yet) because she was in such shock. Little did I know that nine months later, I would be IN the delivery room for precious baby (now big boy!) Taylor's arrival. Such sweet memories!

Jennifer was my biggest cheerleader when it came to dating. Yes, I was single out of college, and wanted to meet the right person, but it just hadn't happened. Very early on that fall semester, Jennifer invited me to church because she wanted me to meet her pastor's son (Evan) whom she didn't even know very well, but thought he was cute. I went, but felt so weird about it because I didn't think going to church to check out a guy was right. Funny--Evan was sitting with a girl that Sunday. For a whole year after my first trip to church with her, Jennifer swore that girl was a relative because she was never with him again! I now know who that girl was, and we laugh every time we think about it!

Not long after the church trip with Jennifer and Mark, I started dating someone else. That lasted from December until about June, and was questionable the entire time. Jennifer was actually instrumental in that relationship as well, and her failed attempt didn't keep her from trying again! Jenn and I spent a lot of time together that following summer--as she and I were both having some rough things happening in our lives. Towards the end of the summer, I ended up spending the night with them on Saturday nights a lot and going to church with them the next morning. Maybe it was just me, but going to church as a single person was always one of the most difficult things to do, so having Jennifer and Mark with me made it feel like family.

Jennifer kept bringing up "her pastor's son" in conversation, but I dismissed it a lot. I didn't want to go to church just to meet a guy, and I had finally come to a point where I was really okay with being single. One Monday morning at school, Jennifer came up to me and said, "So, I asked Evan if he might be interested in dating my teacher-friend, and he said yes." What?! Evan and I still laugh about this, too. He didn't even know Jennifer and said all he could think of were the words "teacher friend" and see sweaters with school bus buttons! Thankfully, I was not what he pictured.

Just a couple of months later, I ended up in a Bible Study group at Evan's parent's house, only to find out Evan lived there, and would be part of our Bible Study group, too. About two or three weeks after our first Bible Study, Evan invited me to come watch a Razorback game at his house, after which I called Jennifer and told her that he was SO not interested in me and I wasn't sure why he asked me to come over. (Ole Miss beat the Hogs. Enough said.) The next week, I got a phone call for another date, and the rest is history.

I love my friend Jennifer. She is incredibly smart (a law degree, but teaches math!), fun, witty, a great leader, and loves the Lord. But most of all, I love her because if it weren't for her, I would have never met and married Evan Smith.

THE END.

Birth Announcement

Okay, I am a slacker. I think Arden's early arrival just threw me a little bit, and ever since then I have been about three steps behind myself. At least I feel like it, anyway.

In the age of internet, it seems like we all see each other's pictures quicker than we can mail out a birth announcement. However, I like the mail (even though I'm terrible at it!) and I really wanted to send out at least a few birth announcements to lifelong friends and family who may not have a chance to view an internet photo.

My sweet and extremely talented photographer friend, Angie, came over when Arden was about four weeks old and got some great shots. Those shots, combined with my cousin/BFF Laura's Photoshop skills made our birth announcement. Going through our address list has been on the to-do list for two weeks now, and since we are coming to Arkansas for a visit very soon, well...I just decided sending out birth announcements would need to be taken off the to-do list. I will probably print one for Arden's baby book and just pray that she won't be scarred for life if she finds out I didn't actually send any in the mail. :)

I really love this picture. It's so sweet, and I love that Arden is wrapped in a blanket hand-made by my mom and lying in the baby doll cradle built by my dad. So thankful to have these two heirloom items, and the opportunity to pass them on to my girls.

VBS

Last week was our church's Vacation Bible School. What fun we had on a Big Apple Adventure! Everything was NYC themed, and SUPER cute! Kendall participated in an actual class this year and experienced the full pre-school rotation complete with Bible story, crafts, recreation, music, and missions. She had a wonderful week! I "helped" in the oldest four year old class by telling the daily Bible story. (I use the term "help" very loosely because my team did most of the work this year!) We had 23 four year olds in our class, and I think Kendall's class averaged about 16. It was truly a wonderful week.

I've always thought VBS was a good thing. It's fun and a great way to reach out to the community. However, this year, VBS took on a whole different meaning for me. It became seeds that were planted in my sweet daughter's mind. She came home every day telling us about the Bible stories, singing songs (I'm sure we'll be singing VBS songs for a while!), and grasping new truths. Evan and I pray continually for the girls to come to know Christ and I'm most certain this week of VBS made a difference in Kendall. Looking forward to seeing those seeds continue to grow!

Room for Sisters

It always seems like a room is never finished. Am I right? I still have a few little things I would like to do in the girls' room, but I am pleased with the way it's coming along. I also love that I've spent little to nothing making changes. It's amazing how re-arranging furniture and adding little things here and there can make such a big difference.

The dresser is actually a dresser from my childhood that I sanded and stained a deep walnut (it almost looked painted) for the guest room in our first house. We were actually using it in our bedroom, but it didn't fit very well in the space, so I decided to paint it black and move it in the girls' room for drawer space/changing table.

The window above the dresser came from the one-room school house my dad attended as a child. It hung, with the glass panes still in-tact, in our kitchen in our first house. When we moved to Louisville, the ONLY thing that broke in the move were a couple of panes out of the window. I couldn't bear throwing the window away, so it sat all broken-down (for three years) in our garage. As I thought about what I could do for cheap wall decor, I decided to sledge hammer the glass out and fill the panes decorative items. My sweet friend Amber (who also helped me with a lot of the decorating for this room) gifted me with the purple and green frames, as well as the painted letters. At some point, I will fill the frames with "sister" pictures and figure out what to put in the empty pane. Maybe a sister quote?

Above are close-up pictures of wall-art near Kendall's bed. I made that fabric boa about three years ago, and it sat at the top of Kendall's closet waiting for the perfect spot. The scripture canvas was a baby gift from my friend/accountability partner, Miranda, when I was pregnant with Kendall. It was a special verse from that season of my life that we memorized together. At some point, I'm going to move the canvas to the opposite wall and make a couple of THESE for that space. Kendall LOVES to take books to bed with her and I think she will love having easy access!

I found the above wall hanger at Hobby Lobby on the cheap. Like less than $2 on the clearance aisle. One of the hooks was broken, but something that could fix easily. It was also brown and ugly. Amber took it home, painted it and added the owl and flowers. Turned out super cute! Perfect for tutus!

The below pictures are the opposite wall. Evan's mom made the crib bedding for Kendall. I always loved it, and I felt as if it would be wasteful not to use it again. I still need something for above the crib, but I'm planning on using Arden's name banner from her shower. If I do that, I will make a matching one for Kendall's side of the room, because I am symmetrical like that! :)

I wanted to throw in a close-up of these awesome flowers. My girlfriends here made these as part of the decor for Arden's shower and let me bring some home. SO cute!

Of course, Arden hasn't made her way into the sister room just yet. She is sleeping (quite well, might I add!) in a pack-and-play in our room. We didn't have a pack and play with Kendall, but decided on the Travel-Lite version for Arden. It's a little bit smaller than a regular pack and play, but still grows with the child. It's perfect for our room!

And there you have it...a room for sisters. I hope they love sharing it as much as I loved decorating it!

looking for a new normal

I'm thinking it's going to take a while for us to find a new normal. That's okay. I'm rolling with it!

Evan's mom visited last week. We were so thankful she was able to come and certainly enjoyed having her here with us. She was our chauffeur for the week and helped out around the house tremendously! 

On Wednesday of last week, my friend Lydia hosted an Easter themed play date at her house. I was so thankful I felt well enough to go. Kendall needed to play with her friends! I love how every time we go to Lydia's house, Kendall immediately strips down and gets in costume. In fact, all the girls do! We had a yummy lunch and hid Easter eggs (inside the house because it rained the night before) for the kids. What great fun!

My Aunt Marva (dad's sister) is here with us this week. Again, so thankful. I'm thankful she's here after my Mamaw's passing last week. I feel like I have someone to grieve with a little bit and I know it's good for Aunt Marva to be busy. She's been a huge help to us as well.

I do have to throw in a funny story...

 Yesterday, we needed to get out and about for diapers and groceries. I felt well enough to go, and figured we'd only be gone a couple of hours. We left around 11 a.m., and ran to Target first. After Target, we headed to Kroger. Aunt Marva pushed Kendall in a cart with the car on the front, while I pushed Arden in a separate basket. Our first stop was the produce section, and while we were shopping Aunt Marva realized she didn't have her phone and needed to check the car for it. When she came back inside, Kendall needed to go to the bathroom, so I took her. After Kendall and I came out of the bathroom, Aunt Marva said, "You won't believe this, but I think I left the phone out in the car again!" so she went BACK outside to get it. About the time she walked out, Arden began to fuss. I knew she was probably getting hungry, but I thought surely we could finish our grocery shopping because we didn't have that much left. Well, I ended up having to take Arden out to the car and nurse her. Aunt Marva and Kendall were just going to wait on us to finish, but decided to get all the goods into one basket and continue on shopping. When I finished nursing Arden I found Kendall and Aunt Marva, and we grabbed the few things left on the list. Of course, when we got ready to check out there were only two lanes open, and one was an express lane. And OF COURSE, the lane we were in had two people in front of us with loaded down carts. By the time we got home, it was almost 3:00!!! No joke...I told Aunt Marva that I wouldn't be doing grocery shopping with both girls ANYTIME soon!

We ARE learning our new normal. Arden is a very sweet baby. She rarely cries and only wakes up a couple of times at night. I hope that trend continues! It's crazy to think that she turns two weeks old tomorrow and technically isn't even supposed to be here yet! We are just loving her so much.

It dawned on me the other day that I hadn't posted any pictures of Arden with her eyes open. The one on top is probably the best "open eye" picture so far (although it's a little blown out at the top!). She really is more and more alert, and has times during the day where she stays awake for lengthy periods. We think Arden favors Kendall quite a bit, although I don't think Arden's eyes are quite as wide. I look forward to seeing their similarities and differences!

Celebrating Arden!

I think just being from the south, it is somewhat ingrained that you don't do showers for second babies. Honestly, I've never had an issue with attending showers for the second born, as I think ALL babies should be celebrated! However, when it came time for MY second baby, I felt a little awkward about it. I don't know why...maybe because it was the second girl and we had most everything we needed already? At any rate, when the offers came for both of these showers, I made the girls promise they would be laid-back and low key...nothing major at all.

While we were in Arkansas, my cousin/BFF offered to host a baby shower at her home. One of the main reasons I agreed to this was because it would be a great way to see my family and close friends all in one place. What a special day with friends and family! My dad actually drove my Mamaw and Papaw over to Laura's house and my sister was there, too! Laura had an amazing cake made and the rest of the snacks were perfect. Arden received several beautiful little outfits and Kendall was treated like royalty with "Big Sister" gifts.

My sweet girlfriends in Louisville showered us today. Oh my goodness! I don't have enough pictures to do it justice! The decorations were absolutely precious...hand-made fabric flowers on stems, owl (my fave!) and bird cupcake toppers, and a precious name banner! I just loved it all! Arden received more sweet outfits/dresses, diapers, and I think we are pretty set on baby wipes for a while! What a precious time of fellowship with people who have literally become family to us! So very, very thankful!

I had to throw the above picture in...Kendall received the movie Tangled from her friend Emma as a big sister gift. She was soooo excited. If Kendall asked once, she asked a thousand times if she could watch it when we got home. She carried it around with her for about the entire length of the shower. So when Amber got ready to take a picture of the gift I just opened, Kendall proudly held up her movie. It was too funny!

I will admit that it's been so fun this go-around, actually opening up little girl things instead of gender neutral! Arden has received some beautiful things and I can't wait to play baby doll with her! I can't believe her arrival will be so soon! I still have a few things that need to be done--pack hospital bags, go purchase the pack-and-play, and take inventory/purchase some little things we still need. Everyone around our house is getting so excited!

Splash!

I'm oh-so-thankful for the occasional breaks in winter, where the temperature is above 40 degrees and we can bear to be outside longer than ten minutes. We had a couple of those days last week...one that came after a couple of rainy days. What did we do? Put on our beloved rain boots and splashed around in the water.

Another one of those days was actually nice enough to have lunch at the park. It was a tiny bit windy, but not enough to make you not want to enjoy the sunshine.

So thankful for the cold weather break last week. I'm not wishing the days away, but am looking forward to spring!