Easter Weekend 2017

Easter weekend was a whirlwind, but it was oh so good to remember and CELEBRATE the resurrection of Jesus! It is so easy for this "story" to just become a story a grew up hearing, but really, it's my everything- without Him and His mercy and grace, I would be a lost little sinner. We read the stories surrounding His death and resurrection from the Jesus storybook Bible, and I love these kid versions of the stories because they point to the simple truth: Jesus died on the cross because He loved us.

In the story when He's nailed to the cross, the people taunt Him, saying that if He really was the Son of God, He would be able to save Himself from death on the cross. And I love what Sally Lloyd Jones wrote: "And of course they were right. Jesus could have climbed down. Actually, he could have just said a word and made it all stop. Like when he healed that little girl. And stilled the storm. And fed 5,000 people.  But Jesus stayed. You see, they didn't understand. It wasn't the nails that kept Jesus there. It was love."

Oh the love of Jesus! I'm so thankful for it!

On Saturday we went to the church some old neighbors of ours used to pastor at, for an Easter egg hunt. We've been before, and as always, they did a wonderful job of sharing Jesus. They had a puppet show that pointed the kids (and adults!) to look at God's truth about ourselves, not what the world tells us. As in years past, I teared up, so thankful that my kids can continually hear the truth about who they are in Christ. And I prayed that my two, and all the kids in the room would come to believe it for themselves!

Then they dismissed for the Easter egg hunt, and with 10,000 eggs scattered on the church's property, Noelle and Jonah ended up with quite a bit of loot. We took our baskets inside to empty out all the eggs, and to collect prizes. It was quite the contrast to the day before, when I took them to a little egg hunt at a park in Sykesville, where there were not enough eggs, and we walked away with three total.

Saturday evening we got together with one of our small groups for an Easter dinner. Our friends hid a few eggs around their yard for the kids to find, and then we shared a meal as a group. Sunday morning, we woke up with enough time to send Noelle and Jonah on a scavenger hunt for their Easter baskets, and a little egg hunt around the house.

After church, we snapped a few pictures with Aunt Heather, Uncle Jason, and Holden, and then headed to my parents for a quick lunch, and yet another Easter egg hunt. The weather on Easter was beautiful, and it felt wonderful being outside without being cold! Then we swung by the house to pick up the food that Luke made for our Easter dinner with the Wiedemans, and we headed up to Westminster.

Grandma and Grandpa had an egg hunt set up for the two of them, and with all those hunts, we now have a giant ziplock bag full of candy. These two are clearly well loved! It was great spending time with family, eating delicious food, and resting in the truth that Jesus saved me from my sins!

This picture just cracks me up! They make my heart so full!

This Is Now

I look at the room my children are sharing and see what a mess (and by mess, I mean disaster) it is. But as I crawl around picking up various socks to throw in the laundry, I can't help but think this is it. This is my dream- raising babies into toddlers into children. Tiny clothes, tiny socks. Their sweet little voices.

Laughing at the funny things they say and do.

Feeling their little arms wrapped around my neck.

Sneaking out of their beds to come tell me they miss me, and asking how many hours until it's morning.

Hearing them ask each other the first three questions of the children's catechism, and giving each other the answers. (We only know the first three!)

The excitement for library time, and the hours we've spent cuddled on the couch reading books together.

Hearing their little conversations and watching their imaginations grow.

How much they need me, and only me!

And with Jonah turning three in less than two weeks, and Noelle turning five in just under three months, I know that this time is so short. People, especially moms with older kids, told me this over and over when Noelle was born. And I believed them. But now I'm living it- it goes WAY too fast.

Please just stay my babies forever!

Good Stuff, Bad Stuff

Let's play a little game of good stuff, bad stuff. Okay, none of it is really "bad", but just not as good!

Good stuff- This past Saturday, we had our first Easter egg hunt of the season! My MOPS group met at the church where we have our meetings and did some fun crafts, ate yummy food, and then the kids found eggs in a large, multi-purpose room the church has. The bad was that it was rainy out, but Noelle and Jonah were so excited to go find some eggs!

ready to hunt for eggs!

Once our casserole was out of the oven, we headed off to the church. As we were driving, Luke and I were talking about how this was my 6th day in a row going to this church (it's the same church where Ellie's school meets), and the Luke's second Saturday there in less than a month after he helped out with their food pantry a few weekends ago. Since our home church is 25ish minutes away, we started calling this one our church away from church. We've never been there on a Sunday morning, but between preschool stuff, MOPS meetings and events, and Luke now helping out with the food pantry, it's become a significant place in our immediate community.

his favorite find- chocwate!

Good stuff- We had some beautiful days in the 70s! It felt like spring, and we loved it!! We ate popsicles outside, went to a park, and drove around with the windows down. It's such a great feeling being able to leave the house without coats, and walk from the car to wherever without feeling cold. It really just makes life so much easier.

Bad stuff- Storms have been coming through, and it's been raining all day. So much rain. And it's making it colder again. But such is life in Maryland in April. This morning when I left the house to go drop Noelle off at school, I turned the wrong direction, and then missed the next turn I was supposed to make to get to her school. The rain was making my brain foggy!!

Good stuff- So far I've been able to celebrate my 32nd birthday with my favorite little loves, a MOPS meeting, a nap, reading some of my book (The Light Between Oceans), and Luke told me to not make anything for dinner tonight. And a friend at MOPS made me a beautiful quilt for the baby! Gray and white with little triangles, polka dots, and arrows. I love that this sweet baby is getting so much love!

Bad stuff- I took the kids to Chick Fil A for lunch to do something fun on my birthday (which of course was good), but while we were there I got a phone call that I failed my one hour glucose test on Tuesday. Boo! That's never happened before, so now I have to do the three hour fasting one next week. Not fun, and hopefully I'll pass!

28 weeks! (and a very dirty mirror)

Some Snapshots From Our Week

Another Friday, another donut date with the J-man.  This time we did it drive-thru style and brought it home since spring is officially here and it's super rainy. And of course Jonah ate it the best way possible- frosting first! And 30 seconds later, there was even more chocolate on his face, including his nose.

Someone loves to copy his big sister and put on all her accessories (which recently have been super hero accessories), and then he says "I'm so fancy!" Yes, yes you are, Jonah.

Another Wednesday, another day with Holden. After Heather dropped him off around 7:00, we did our usual running around in the morning to take Ellie to school, make a quick run to the grocery store, and then back to pick up our favorite girl. And then another quiet afternoon at home while he took a three hour nap. Love this little munchkin!

Another day, another shot of the growing bump! 27 weeks (and 3 days today!) and growing bigger! I feel like a whale, but still have SO much growing to do. And I'm so thankful to do so! I've been feeling lots of movement the last few days, which is so much better than earlier in the week when I wasn't feeling much at all and even busted out the heart doppler in the middle of the night one night because I was so stressed about baby. Grow, baby, grow!

Our Monday morning started with an early play date, picking up Holden for a few hours, and picking up my neighbor's son from preschool. We played, ate lunch, gave Holden a nap, and then drove him home to his daddy. Then, since it was SO beautiful out, we stopped and played at the train playground for a bit. While we were there, a train went by, and every single kid on the playground stopped playing and ran over to the little field to watch it go by. It reminded me of my childhood when my dad would take us down to the train station and we'd put pennies on the track to get flattened by a train.

And Jonah just loungin in his Thomas the train robe that he insists on wearing to bed almost every single night- mostly as a delay tactic.

Snow Day and the First Day of Spring

We had our first (and hopefully only!) "major" snowstorm early last week. Our weather alerts kept telling us we would get 6-12 inches, but probably got more like 4 inches of ice/snow. Schools were out for the day on Tuesday, but only a two hour delay for the next two days. I say, let's get this snow/ice melted and bring on spring!

Noelle made it outside twice for 5 minute increments before deciding it was too cold and coming back in. Jonah was out twice for at least a half hour each time, mostly just playing on the back deck while I watched from inside. We baked chocolate chip muffins, watched the Little Mermaid, and ate snow popsicles after dinner.

On Wednesday last week I had the ultrasound for baby at the maternal fetal medicine place. The sonographer spent about 40 minutes looking over baby, and then the doctor came in for about 15 minutes. Baby had completely flipped and was butt down with his or her head and legs over to my left side. I think this made it so much easier to get  good measurements, and baby was measuring right back where he or she was at 20 weeks. Praise the Lord! AND even though they were being careful to tell me when to look away, I thought the doctor said something about little guy?? But I couldn't hear her very well because she was talking quietly to the sonographer. But maybe it's a boy!

And we got a cute little shot of baby's hand. LOVE!

For this first day of spring on Monday, I took the kids to Rita's for our free Italian ice. Our local Rita's had two other people there when we arrived, so we didn't have to wait in any kind of line, which was perfect! Then my parents texted me in the evening asking if we wanted to meet them at Dairy Queen for the free vanilla ice cream cone. And again, only a few people in front of us. Double the sugar, double the fun!

Eating Rita's in the car

Baby and the Dentist

As of today, I'm 25 weeks pregnant! I catch glimpses of myself and still cannot believe I'm pregnant sometimes. I am SO SO thankful, and I'm trying to soak it all up. Like for real, I've taken far more "bump" shots with this baby than with the other two. I just want to capture it all and hold on to it!

20 week shot!

I had my 24 week appointment last Tuesday and we did the second part of the anatomy scan since baby wasn't super cooperative at the 20 week check. Baby's heartbeat was pumping along at 155, and everything anatomy-wise looked good. The sonographer tried like 5 different measurements of the head, hoping to get a bigger size, but overall baby is measuring about 2-3 weeks small. I saw one of the nurse practitioners after the sono, and she was concerned because baby's percentile went from the 33rd percentile at 20 weeks, to the 15th percentile at 24 weeks. She looked back and saw that Noelle and Jonah both measured around the 25th percentile at 20 weeks, and she said it could be possible that baby had a growth spurt right before the 20 week check, and is now settling into more of the general growth curve he or she will be on. Or there could be something more going on, so she referred me to the maternal fetal medicine place (aka high risk) to get monitored with another ultrasound which will also look at the flow of blood through the umbilical cord to see if baby is getting everything he or she needs through that.

I am of course really nervous that there will be something wrong. But also doing lots of praying and trusting that this baby is in God's hands. I keep reminding myself that Noelle and Jonah were both on the tinier side, though there weren't concerns until later on in my pregnancy with each of them. The nurse practitioner suggested I drink two protein shakes a day to help up my calories. I'm not sure I can handle two a day, but I figure between at least one shake, and then copious amounts of peanut butter, that should help get some good, healthy fats and protein into me and baby.

 Last week Jonah had his first trip to the dentist! We ended up having to find a new one because the one we've been going to for the past few years stopped taking our insurance, which was really sad because we love Dr. B! But the new dentist seemed really nice, and I also got my mouth checked while we were there because I've been having some sensitivity here and there. Based on some general 2nd trimester approved guidelines, they were able to take an x-ray and saw that an old filling needed to be replaced. That took about an hour, and thankfully both kids contentedly sat and played on tablets while the dentist worked on my mouth. Then Jonah sat in the chair like a big boy, opened his mouth, and took the fluoride like a champ. Definitely a world of difference from Noelle's first time when we basically held her down so the dentist could take a quick look in her mouth.

It's hard to believe we're already halfway through March, but I am looking forward to some consistent spring weather!

Four Things

one // Last Monday Noelle had a ballet presentation for the end of a little winter ballet session she did. The girls did a few ballet moves, and then each one was presented with a certificate of completion. It was President's Day and Luke had off work, so we ended up spending the afternoon with Luke's parents and sister. We ate a delicious lunch, did some shoe shopping (successful for Luke!). and then all of us headed out to Noelle's ballet presentation.

two // As of today I am 23 weeks and 1 day along! I cannot believe it! I mostly feel the baby move when I'm laying in bed reading at night or occasionally if I sit down long enough. I of course worry that the baby isn't moving around enough, and the other night at like 2 a.m. after not feeling the usual amount of flutters, I pulled out the heart beat doppler and listened for that reassuring thump thump. I'm pretty sure we just have another lazy baby on our hands like his/her sister! And baby Holden will be 7 months on Saturday!

three // Jonah and I pretty regularly head to Dunkin Donuts on Fridays after we drop Noelle off at school. My sisters got me hooked on the iced caramel coffee, and it's always a chocolate with sprinkles donut for Jonah. One Friday my mom friend from Noelle's school happened to show up with her two year old, so we all sat together, and she and I got to chat while the boys ate their donuts. I do love that between preschool and MOPS, I've actually found mom friends who live nearby!

four // Jonah woke up with a fever in the middle of the night last Friday and fought it most of the day Saturday. Even though he was completely fine through Saturday night, we kept him home from church on Sunday. But as of today, he seems to still be struggling with something, and spiked a fever again. And of course we have Holden here, and went to MOPS this morning. I really hope we didn't infect anyone else! And sickness season just needs to end.