Easter 2011

We had a busy Easter day!  Going through our baskets, church, lunch with the Reynolds' and then dinner with the Ruffin's.  Justin and I went to bed at 8:30 last night and Justin was asleep before both kids!  The only reason I stayed awake was to turn off lights and close doors after everyone fell asleep.  I did not get a family picture which I wanted but, Anna was not in the mood for us to tell her to do anything.  We barely got her Easter dress on her and I wasn't going to push it!

 Silly String from the Easter bunny.

 Anna's favorite goody was the Mickey Mouse bubbles.

 Collecting eggs.  Brice was such a sweetheart the whole morning, sharing the hunt and letting Anna get the pink eggs.  He was also the reason we finally got her dress on her.  This kid is a better parent than some of the ones I see in the NICU!

 "Egggggsss!"

 Chocolate Marshmellow egg for breakfast.  Nice.

 Beach balls from Nana and Pa.  Mickey again was a hit!  Not a good picture at all but wanted to capture what she did most of the time at their house, including not sharing with cousin Jack (see below).

Larry wanted a picture of all his grandkids for his desk.  This is probably the best one I got!

 And then this one with Nana.  Someone was also taking some with their camera so they may have managed a better one!

So long to my favorite holiday!  I might have to leave my blog background for a while.  I love it.  I love Easter, and all that comes with it.  The best line of the weekend was when Justin asked Brice what Easter meant and he responded, "JESUS IS ALIVE!".  He didn't yell it but he gets it!

Big Girl Bed Love

Friday morning was the last morning I will ever see this...

Late Friday afternoon my parents met Justin at Sam's to pick up some new mattresses and then put together Anna's new room.  We have been talking it up and she has been wanting to sleep in a big bed so I, especially, was very excited to receive the furniture.  The delivery is a story in and of itself.  (In short, I arranged for it to be delivered Friday between 10 and 12 and it arrived Thursday between 10 and 12.  They didn't knock or anything.  Just dropped it off on the driveway.  I wasn't home.  Justin was but again had no idea that they had delivered it!)  Back to Friday..."the boys" (Justin, my dad and Brice) began working around 3:30pm and didn't stop until probably 8pm that night.  To say Anna was excited is an understatement.  She wanted to be right there in the action watching it all happen.  See?

While they brought the box springs and mattress up, she stood on the catwalk and watched them bring it in the front door and then sneaked by them into her room so she could "supervise"!  As soon as the box springs were in the frame, she wanted up.  I let her stand on it for a minute and then told her we had to get out of the way for the mattress.  After the bed was made, oh man, the Big Girl Bed Love abounded...

 jumping

 kicking

pretending to sleep.

My mom stayed home with her while Justin and I took Brice to his baseball game so my mom put her to bed.   She did great, same routine as the crib and we didn't see her until we went in this morning.  She was just laying in her bed relaxing with her dolls and books.  She played in her new room most of the day and we are all in love with it.

Yes, Thursday night I cried when putting her to bed.  The glider is no longer in the room and I knew that would be the toughest part.  Rocking her for the last time in the same spot where I rocked her the night she stopped breathing.  I looked around the room and took it all in one last time.  I am so happy that she feels settled in her new room.  It settles my heart.  We have accomplished a lot this weekend thanks to Justin and my parents and I feel like a big part of my nesting is complete.  Hoping she continues to flourish in this room...

My Girl in Pink

 Talking.

 Smiling.

 Thinking.

 Frowning.

 Daydreaming.

 Relaxing.

Disagreeing.

All pictures of My Girl in Pink.  The many faces of Anna.  We got her big girl furniture today.  Should be ready to be slept in by tomorrow.  Pictures and emotions to come...

One Minute and Eleven Seconds

What To Blog About?

 24 weeks and 2 days

I am not sure What to Blog About today...the baby, the house, Anna, Brice, our anniversary, work.  My mind is going so fast everyday that I can hardly keep up.  I have one thought and by the time I can execute it, I have already thought of five other things to do.  This week is jammed packed with appointments, baseball, Easter parties, etc.  Sometimes, as awful as this may sound, I totally "get" Kate Gosselin.  How she managed to run such a tight ship is beyond me with all eight of those kids running around.  I feel as though maybe I should have taken a management class in college.  There are of course the things that I NEED to do, the things I WANT to do and then the things that just pop up in between.  I am definitely a Type A personality but at the same time I do not want to live my life on such a strict schedule that I might have a melt down if I don't complete a chore on the same day every month. Do you see what I'm saying?

I am feeling pretty good with my pregnancy.  My back does hurt everyday at some point, some days are much worse and then others are tolerable.  Mainly my sciatic nerve that bothers me.  Otherwise, I have no complaints.  This little boy is riding so high right now and I feel like I am enormous.  I do remember Brice being in the same position and towards the end feeling his heels next to my armpits!  Not really but close enough.  Today, I had to drink the sugar drink to test my blood for gestational diabetes.  I don't know if I "passed" or not but everything else looks good.  I will find out my results next week some time.  I am measuring right on track so I was glad to hear that.  When your husband came out the size of a three month old, it can kind of make you nervous when you are carrying his child!  Especially since it's another boy.  We still don't have a name for him.  We discussed it quite a bit at our traditional anniversary dinner Saturday night but didn't really get anywhere.  We aren't disagreeing on the names, we just aren't ranking them in the same place.  Hopefully, we will get there before delivery!

Poor Brice has been suffering from the pollen and I just feel so bad that he can't go out and enjoy the weather without sneezing and coughing.  I called the pediatrician yesterday to find out what to put him on so we started some Zyrtec yesterday.  We'll see if it helps.  He had a baseball game last night and played so well.  He really seems to enjoy it which is the main goal right now.  Sometimes Justin and I have to remind ourselves that those boys are only six and can't throw, catch and hit like a major leaguer.  They are at an age when so many things are being taught to them between school, church, sports, and everyday life, it must be hard to soak it all in.

Anna has had an excellent week.  We have her in some refresher swim lessons from the intense lessons we did last year.  She is a fish and LOVES to go "see Ms. Cindy".  She can't get in that water fast enough and climbs in all by herself.  As we are walking out after each lesson she is already asking, "Go swimming again?".  She is highly anticipating the arrival of her furniture which has been shipped so I can't wait to see her in that girly bed.

The house is in a constant state of disaster.  I feel bad for those without children who walk in here and must think, "Jennifer Reynolds keeps her house looking like this?".  Believe me, if I had the time and energy and a little more Kate in me, it wouldn't look like this.  But at the same time, I can't let the kids run around outside by themselves just yet in order to clean and I know it's just a part of having kids.  I know it sounds crazy but I do think that one day I will miss their "stuff".  Last week I had to take the car seats out of my car for the sitter and on my way to work, I looked in my rear view and had a totally weird feeling without their car seats being back there.  I guess it's a good thing I didn't have triplets and that they won't all leave the house at the same time!

So, I know I cannot do it all.  Nobody can, nor should they need to.  But maybe, if I can't DO it all, I can BLOG about it.

Camp H2O and Easter Egg Hunt

 Here is Brice after his last day of Camp H2O at the Georgia Aquarium.  He had an AWESOME week there and he came home with some pretty neat projects.  The last day a diver talked to them while underwater so Brice pretended to be a diver as soon as he got home.

 On Saturday, our neighborhood had the annual Easter Egg Hunt which is so fun for the kids and they really do a nice job of having lots to do there.  This year Justin had to do it alone since I had to work. :(  He did a great job taking pictures and if you're "friends" with me on Facebook, then you've seen these but, here goes again...

 Apparently, Brice coached Anna on how to gather up those eggs just as fast as you can.  Either way, they are only allowed 12.  I think after age 7, it should be every man for himself if you ask me but...hey, I don't make the rules I just try to enforce them on my kids!

 Brice was in such a hurry that he didn't even count his and ended up with only 10.  Anna was able to snag 13 so added together, we didn't even get our two dozen back!

 I love the way she is looking at him in the above picture.  "What are you grinning about? You can't even count right!".

Two little faces I miss so much when I work but appreciate so much more when I get home!

Ramble

Found this dress in her closet and requested to wear it.  Yay for dresses in the spring!

Here she is "driving Wii MarioKart".  She found this little toy and then asked to play Wii with me.  She was Baby Peach.

Anna took her bean bag chair out on the deck this afternoon to each lunch in and then Brice followed suit after he got home.

I realize it has been over a week since I've blogged.  I guess I haven't had anything significant to write.  I am in major nesting mode trying to plan everyone's room.  I just ordered Anna's new furniture the other day and I'm excited for it to come in.  She is too and asks about her big girl bed.  I'm nervous about the transition of crib to bed with her and how many night time visits we will get but we'll see...It is also going to be weird to have her out of the crib.  My baby girl.  The baby's room will be fairly easy once I get all the toys out of that room and paint on the walls.  I am using the same crib bedding that my mom made for Brice's room.  I ordered a new crib sheet and lamp shade for it but for the most part will still use the nautical theme here and there.  This past week has been Spring Break for Brice and he has spent it down at the Georgia Aquarium everyday from 8:30-3:30.  He has loved every minute of it and is full of all kinds of marine facts everyday when he gets in the car.  Justin has done all of the driving so I can't take credit for that because it is a haul down there from our house.  It has been totally worth the cost and driving though.  That was his birthday present.  So, Anna and I have spent the days running errands and just hanging out in the beautiful yellow weather.  Yes, Atlanta is gorgeous this time of year and if you can stand the pollen, it is quite a treat.  I have been trying to get the kids to at least rinse off every night if they've been outside a lot.  Brice seems more affected by it than Anna right now and is ready to scratch his eyes out in the evenings along with at least five sneezes first thing in the mornings.

So, like I said, nothing too big going on here, just trying to enjoy my days with Anna while Brice is still in school/camp.  While I know she is going to LOVE having this new baby around, it is also going to rock her world!  She is such a good mommy to her babies but at the same time will climb up in my lap and let me rub her head and back for a good ten minutes.  If you were a fly on the wall around here you would hear her saying things like,

"I do it by myself, okay?"
"Let's read books together, Mommy.  We can read this one first and then this one after."
"Are we going bye-bye?  Okay, let's go guys."
She talks non-stop throughout the day so come nap time and bed time, I enjoy the quiet!

That is about it around here.  Sorry if this post seemed to Ramble but that is an update for you!