Mike and Beth visit!!

We were lucky to have a visit from Mike and Beth!!  We miss them so much since they moved back to Rhode Island last fall and love it when we get to see them again.  Mike was only with us for one evening, but Beth stayed a few days and helped me with the kids.  It was so great to see them again!!  We look forward to seeing them at their wedding in Newport, RI this memorial day weekend!!!

A perfect day.

My day started out kind of hairy with 2 cranky kids and 1 very tired mom.  I was going to write about how my children make me crazy, but I still love them.  Then a wonderful turn of events completely re-wrote my day:  Walking around with Olivia, I looked down, she made eye contact and gave me the biggest smile I've ever seen my little girl produce. 

It is a wonderful day!!!

Grandma heads home. :-(

Grandma Dawn had to leave for home today.  After much brainstorming and deliberating, I could not figure out how to get her to permanently take up residence in my house as "mother's helper".  It was WONDERFUL to have her here and such a HUGE help.  Many thanks to Grandma Dawn for leaving your life for a few weeks to make ours a whole lot easier and a whole lot more fun too!!  We will all miss you.  PS- Grandma will HATE that I've posted the following pictures, but we love it!

I will now attempt to figure out how to stay at home with 2 children under 2 and keep all 3 of us alive!!

Happy Birthday Lauren!!

Our very good friend Lauren Emily Sievers turns 1 year old today!!  We are very excited for Olivia to join the big kid club with Paul and can't wait to see her very soon.  Here's a big healthy and happy birthday wish for Lauren!!!

My Lauren pictures are very much out of date.  I can't wait to see the grown up version of Lauren soon!

Lumberjack Part III: The Final Chapter

Matt concluded his escapades as a Lumberjack today with a wild and crazy (and responsibly under control) bonfire in our backyard to take care of some of the debris he chopped through in our yard.  We were joined by new friends Chris, Carrie, and Savannah Gomez.  I'm proud of my husband's perfect fire and his ability to not burn down the neighborhood or our house!!  GoooOOOOOO MATT!

And the beautiful product of all his hard work!

Happy Easter!

We had a great East coast Easter!  Paul had his first Easter Egg Hunt with plastic eggs filled with Kix, Crispix, and mini-marshmallows.  We also made rice krispie treats, Paul's new favorite dessert.  Olivia pretty much hung out, slept, and ate.  She did go through a couple of outfits and had an Easter bath.  Grandma, Matt and I had eggs benedict for breakfast and grilled for dinner since the weather was so beautiful (80 degrees).  We missed all our West coast family, but got to video chat with a few of you and for those we missed, we will catch up very soon.  Below are some pictures of our Easter fun!

Olivia's first Easter outfit.

Complete with bunny feet.

And her second outfit.  Thanks to all her relatives, Olivia gets to wear a couple of cute outfits every day if she wants to!

Paul had to hunt for his Easter basket before we could hunt eggs.  We put his basket in this cupboard last weekend and he's been playing with it since, so he knew right where to look.

The Easter Bunny did such a good job hiding the eggs that Matt had to help Paul find a few (all).

Success!

Our little family.

Paul and Olivia

Paul got a new water bottle with a straw and LOVED it!

Paul's Easter Egg Hunt!

Pregnancy Perks

Some parts of being pregnant are pretty rough, but looking back, there are also some enjoyable parts I want to remember and share:

Eating what you want and blaming it on someone else - this is the most popular pregnancy perk.  No matter when you feel like a milkshake (breakfast, lunch #2, midnight) you get one.  And usually you can convince someone else to procur it for you!  The best part is being guilt-free, "it's not for me, it's for the baby."

Prime parking spaces - at many of the stores you need to frequent while pregnant, you get a front row parking space so you don't have to waddle quite as far (grocer, baby store, doctor, etc.)

Free chocolate milk - yes, this actually happened to me a couple of times.  Example #1: While buying a sandwich at Subway, the sandwich artist noticed my big ol' belly and demanded that I take some chocolate milk for free!

Zipper-free pants - this one takes a while to appreciate, but once you finally give in to wearing maternity clothes, you really get to enjoy the comfort and time savings of elastic waist bands.  If you shave 30 seconds off every one of your 20-30 bathroom breaks in a day, you save yourself 10-15 minutes per day.  Perhaps time to enjoy another milkshake?

Making strangers uncomfortable - there are many games you can play with strangers for extra kicks during pregnancy.  There's the "Thanks for asking, but no, I'm not pregnant," and of course the "I have raging hormones and could lose it in a BIG way in a matter of seconds," or, a little trickier to pull off because it requires pre-planned body positioning, "Are you checking me out? That's creepy considering I'm 8 months pregnant."

Cutting in lines to pee - This can happen anywhere, but is VERY frequent when at a bar surrounded by drunk people.  (No, I was not drinking while pregnant, but a girl can still go out right?)

Great hair and nails - I'm not sure if this is the vitamins or the hormones, but it rocks!  Long pretty nails and full bodied, shiny hair. 

With babies 18 months apart (to the minute) I also got to experience different seasons of pregnancy.  For those of you who really like to plan and can pull it off, here are the pros of fall vs. spring babies.

Fall Pro's:

Less clothing to buy: the summer preggo wardrobes don't require as many pieces of clothing so you save money and are obviously pregnant and not just fat and bundled.  By the time fall rolls around, you're too hot all the time to even need to consider warmer clothes.

The first trimester is done by March/April: Lots of fun events happen during the summer.  You get to be "cute-pregnant" during the fun-loving summer months and not have to pretend to be giving up alcohol for one reason or another (1st trimester) or waddle around uncomfortably (3rd trimester).

There's no ice to fall on when you're most unstable (3rd trimester) and there's no risk that you'll get snowed in and your husband will have to deliver your baby.

Flip flops are appropriate all the time!!

Spring Pro's:

Maternity leave in the spring is awesome!  You get to enjoy the wonderfully mild weather (not too hot or too cold for your new baby) and get out of the house a little.

You get your bikini body back in time for summer.  (YEAH RIGHT!!) This is a little pipe dream of mine.  I've seen some people pull this off, but they are not usually the ones who enjoyed pregnancy perk #1 quite as much as me.

You're done being an incubator and uncontrollably hot by the time the summer sun hits.

There are some negative parts to pregnancy, but in the end you wind up with a wonderful little bundle that brings so much happiness to your family the negative aspects all just fall away.  I like to focus on the positive parts because the ends justify the means.

**Disclaimer: Please do not ask my husband how he feels about me being pregnant; he may paint a very different picture.  I am so gratetful that my husband is one of the most patient and understanding humans on earth (or at least that he was able to learn to be...).