Easter Weekend 2017

I'm only a week late posting this, but here is a recap of our Easter week.  Most of it has been written since last Monday.  I just never could get it finished.  Here's a recap of our Easter week.  
We actually started the weekend before Easter with an egg hunt at Liberty Hospital (our local hospital).  We missed Madi's age group, so she hunted with Kaitlyn.  There was a an ambulance, police car, fire truck, and lots of other activities.  This was their first public egg hunt and they had so much fun!  We will definitely try to make it next year.

Madi's first time seeing the Easter Bunny.

Wednesday evening. my mom came over and we colored Easter eggs.  This is a tradition that has only been skipped one time that I can remember.  My mom can only remember skipping one year too.  

She said that she liked hard boiled eggs.

She decided that she didn't.

Our Easter weekend started off with a trip to the doctors office for Kaitlyn.  She had complained a couple it times that her throat hurt and since she had strep throat just two weeks ago, we wanted to make sure it was gone.  To our surprise (and her doctor's), she tested positive for strep again.  So for the second time in three weeks, she is on an antibiotic.  We really thought that we would have to cancel some of our weekend plans.  We tried to make her rest, but that was pretty much impossible.  She kept telling us that her throat didn't hurt, so we went ahead with our plans.  Weirdest case of strep I've ever encountered.

Saturday afternoon we headed to my mom's house for their second annual nest hunt.  Instead of looking for eggs, the girls searched the house for the contents of their Easter baskets from Gram and Papa Chuck.  It took Madi a few minutes to get into it, but once she did there was no stopping her.  They had a lot of fun and were on a major sugar high.

After a late lunch we headed home in hopes of relaxing, but there was just too much excitement in the air.  Just before bed, Kaitlyn wanted to leave some carrots and notes for the Easter bunny.  Bedtime was much easier than expected.  We may have told them that he wouldn't come if they got out bed.

As soon as their alarm clock turned green, the girls were up checking out their Easter baskets.  I wish I could have caught it on video.  They were so happy with what was in them.  By the time I made it to the living room, they had pretty much gone through everything.  Of course, I had them go through them again so that I could snap some pictures.

After a quick breakfast, I headed to church while the girls stayed home with David and watched their new movies.  They normally go to church with me, but I knew it would be crazy there and they had been sick.  We thought it would be best for them to rest a little before heading to David's parents house that afternoon.

As soon as we got to my in laws house, the girls and their cousin started looking for eggs.  Shortly after that they opened their baskets from Grandma Kathy and Papa Dave.  The rest of the day was filled with eating, playing outside, eating more candy, and watching a movie.

She's becoming a pro at egg hunting.

Easter baskets at Grandma Kathy and Papa Dave's house.

Madi playing with her cousin Ava.

Kaitlyn and Noah

7 Months Pregnant with Baby K #3

Easter is over, which means that we have officially celebrated our last holiday as a family of four.  It also means that we will be meeting this little guy in just two short months.  Some days, nine weeks seems like an eternity and then others it seems like the blink of an eye.  Before we know it school will be over for Kaitlyn and David and it will be baby month.  
I'm starting to feel a little more ready about meeting our baby boy.  My pre baby check list is getting smaller and I finally found someone to help out with daycare once he's here.  This is a HUGE relief!  It was a little harder than I thought it would be to find a teenager willing to help and I was starting to get a little worried.

How Far Along: 31 weeks and 2 days

Size of Baby: Pineapple

Gender:  Boy!!

Weight Gain:  I was up 19 pounds at my last appointment, but haven't stepped on a scale since then.  The battery in our scale in dead.  My guess is that I've gained about 23 pounds.  I'll find out next Wednesday at my appointment.

Food Cravings: BBQ chips.  I hate to admit this, but I've been eating almost a bag a week for the last several weeks.  I've also wanted barbecue food, which I almost never want.  David is enjoying this craving and hopes that it continues once baby boy is here.

Food Aversions: None

Movements: He is almost always moving, especially after I eat, in the evening, and at bedtime.  His movements are getting much stronger and are slightly uncomfortable at times.  Both of the girls and several of the daycare kids have felt him move.  David finds it kind of creepy, so he doesn't like to feel him.  He was the same way with the girls.  I finally convinced him to feel him a couple weeks ago.

Sleep: I am still waking up every couple of hours, sometimes every hour throughout the night.  Most nights I have to get up and walk around due to back pain, round ligament pain, or acid reflux.

Other Pregnancy Symptoms:  My energy has taken a dive.  Everything makes me tired.  It doesn't help that I'm not sleeping well.  I still have terrible acid reflux all day and night.  Lately, my back and legs have started to ache.

What I Miss:  Sleeping through the night, walking up the stairs without getting winded, and feeling normal after eating.

Best Moment:  Watch the girls get excited about Easter

Worst Moment:  Realizing that I couldn't make the trip to my dad's house a couple weeks ago.  I was really looking forward to seeing everyone and the girls have been begging to go to their house.  I can no longer ride in the car for very long without becoming uncomfortable.  That paired with my lack of energy and not sleeping well made me realize that I will be staying in town for the remainder of this pregnancy.

What I'm Looking Forward To:  My mom and mother in law are throwing me a baby shower at the end of the month.  The girls and I are excited for it.  I'm also looking forward to finishing the nursery.  It is really starting to come together.

Easter Baskets 2017

Last year, I ordered baskets and personalized liners from Pottery Barn Kids for both girls.  I ordered the liners way before Easter and was sure that I'd be able to find baskets for them somewhere other than Pottery Barn.  I looked everywhere, in store and online, and found nothing.  So I had these cute liners and no baskets.  

The baskets finally went on sale Easter weekend, but of course the size I needed was out of stock.  I thought for sure  that I'd have to pay full price for them this year, but just a couple days later they were back in stock.  When they arrived, they were much bigger than I expected them to be.   

Since we have giant baskets, I tried really hard to keep the contents pretty simple.  We have enough junk toys around the house, so I tried to only include things that they really wanted or that I would buy anyway.

Here's what they're getting:

Rain boats (in pink), gardening gloves, gardening tools, mermaid swim suit, movie (Trolls for Madi and Moana for Kaitlyn), My Little Pony Necklace, and a couple peeps. 

I really hated to put too much candy in their baskets since that's primarily what is inside the Easter eggs.

Kaitlyn said it was the best Easter and I think I'd have to agree!

The Kids Behind the Blog - April

As a reminder of why I began blogging, I thought it would be fun to join the monthly series, The Kids Behind the Blog.  Each month, I'll ask the girls a few questions (independently) and share their answers.  This month's question pertain to mostly to spring and a little about Easter.  I enjoyed interviewing them and listening to their responses.  They both thought it was pretty cool too.

Kaitlyn: age 5
Madi: age 3.5

What is your favorite thing about Spring?

Kaitlyn: the flowers start growing
Madi: That we can go to Sheridan's (frozen custard) and play outside. 

2)If April showers bring May flowers.  What do May flowers bring?

Kaitlyn: um, spring
Madi: flowers

3)What does a flower need to grow?
Kaitlyn: sunlight and water
Madi: rain

4)Do you like that it's starting to get warmer or do you like the cold and snow better?

Kaitlyn: When it's warm.  That's what you like, isn't it?
She's right.  I'm not a big fan of the cold.
Madi: When it's warm because that means we can play outside.

5)What did you want to do over your Spring Break?

Kaitlyn goes to preschool at a daycare center, so they don't close for spring break.  We did keep her home that week, but only because David was off for spring break. 
Madi isn't in school yet, so she didn't really notice a difference.

Bonus: What is your favorite thing about Easter?

Kaitlyn: Hunting eggs.  I hope there's candy in them.  Also, that Jesus rose from the dead. We've talked about the true meaning of Easter a lot, so this answer didn't surprise me too much.

Madi:  That we get to open Easter eggs.  I hope there's toys and candy in the eggs.

Linking up with Wife, Mommy, Me, Our Pretty Little Girls, and Not in Jersey 
#thekidsbehindtheblog

Random Thoughts for Friday

I don't know about you, but this has been a long week.  Maybe it's the lack of sun we've had or maybe it's from chasing too many kids while being pregnant (the third trimester has been kicking my butt), I'm not sure.  Whatever it was, I'm glad that we've finally made it to Friday!  

Here are some random thoughts for this Friday.  Hopefully, this (and some sunshine) will get me out this blogging slump.

{one} I am so over this cloudy, rainy weather that we've had lately.    I'm excited that sunshine and warm temperatures are in the forecast for the next several days.  The kids (my girls and the daycare kids) and I did a happy dance when we saw the sun yesterday.  We have lots of outside activities on the agenda for this weekend including an egg hunt first thing Saturday morning.

{two} One thing that wasn't part of our weekend plans was for our freezer to quit.  David noticed that it was making a dripping sound last night and that things were starting to thaw.  Fortunately, we have a refrigerator in the garage and were able to save most of the contents.  All that remains is some half frozen ice cream (four different kinds) and popsiscles.  Kaitlyn and Madi were quite surprised when I honored their request for ice cream after dinner.  Hopefully, it can be repaired because buying a new refrigerator is definitely not on our agenda for this weekend.

{three} Last night was the first time in almost a month that the girls went to dance.  They were both really excited to go and can't wait until it's time to wear their Minnie Mouse costumes at their recital.  

{four}  I have had zero motivation to work out lately.  First, I was sick.  Then, I had nursery projects.  Now, I have neither excuse.  I'm going to have to force myself to start doing something or all of this ice cream is going to catch up with me.

{five} Speaking of nursery projects, I have been making lots of progress transforming the once purple room into something suitable for a little boy.  This week I made a crib skirt, put together the glider and ottoman, attempted to recover a lampshade (Epic Fail.  It looked so simple on Pinterest), and started to figure out where to hang everything.  Maybe I'll post a sneak peak sometime soon.

This was so easy and much cheaper than the store bought skirts.

No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get the fabric to lay straight.  I even got a solid fabric a try.  After way too long, I decided to scrape the project and just buy one.

So I had planned to stop at 5, but here's an extra one.

{six} Three weeks ago we signed Kaitlyn up for soccer at preschool.  She was (and still is) so excited, but is bummed that so far they have not had a single practice.  Hopefully, next week will be drier and they will actually get to play.

Happy Friday!  Have a great weekend.