Resurrection Sunday

Happy Easter! We are enjoying the day quietly at home. Since Grandma does Easter baskets for the kids every year, (we'll wait to do those next weekend when cousins are in town,) we made Olive a little gift bag with things to dress up with, books and crayons. She was excited. :)

My little sweetieheart didn't get a gift bag, but he did get a lot of cuddling time with mommy last night and this morning. What a eater this boy is! Which is a good thing, since I'm having a horrible time with engorgement. (Yowwwch!) Can't wait for things to normalize.

christmas recap

this was our first christmas in our 5 years of being our own family that we've spent the holiday with just ourselves. my family was all gathered in NC, matt's family was all gathered in OH, and we decided to stick close to home, since there had been so much going on lately with matt's thyroid surgery and the worries with my low amniotic fluid levels.

it was strange to have what is a usually busy, noisy day spent with lots of family so quiet and relaxing. it was a nice change (though, we have to admit, just a tiny bit lonely. we love our families!) we enjoyed leisurely opening gifts, watching olive play with new toys, skyping with loved ones, eating a homemade mexican feast, and taking really long naps.

it's really strange to think that next year we'll be celebrating with olive AND a little baby boy! so exciting!

Merry Christmas!

We finally, FINALLY got a picture to go with our cards this year.

Not a fantastic one, but with as much as we have going on right now, I'll take what I can get. :)

Hope everyone is enjoying prepping for Christmas! It's been a very nice, welcome distraction for us.

xox

halloween

,

when i was a kid, my siblings and i were never allowed to partake in halloween festivities. we never went trick or treating. and i'm ok with that. i remember i would sometimes feel bummed out because i felt like i was missing out on something really fun, but i understand why my parents made that choice for us and i hold no grudges. :)

so now i'm a mom, and this halloween i found myself really wanting to do something fun. i know there's a lot of disagreements in Christian culture about whether or not it's right to partake in halloween celebrations, but that debate wasn't weighing on my mind or conscience this year. for me, all i sincerely and innocently wanted to do was just dress up my cute 2 year old in a funny costume and show her off to friends and family! and maybe eat some candy corn. 

so olive and i went to the consignment shop my sister in law works at and found this adorable, reminiscent-of-Ralphie-from-that-Christmas-movie's-bunny-suit elephant costume, and i had to get it for her. i mean, how adorable is she?

and tonight matt and i dressed her up in it and took her out for a special meal at chick-fil-a. it worked out perfectly, because she got chicken nuggets (her favorite thing ever,) we got to show off her cuteness, and i didn't get gestational diabetes eating up all the candy she would have gotten trick-or-treating. triple win!

i'm sure as she gets older, matt and i will think more seriously about whether or not it's the right decision for our family to participate in halloween activities, but for tonight, we just thoroughly and guiltlessly enjoyed watching our 2 year old (who's growing way too quickly,) run around and have a ball in her elephant costume, and basked in the glow of all the compliments strangers gave us on her exceeding cuteness. it was a fun night!

memorial day weekend re-cap

we had such a nice, LONG weekend - even though it was swelteringly hot the whole time. we occupied ourselves playing the wii with "papa" frey, eating my mother-in-law's amazing homemade strawberry ice cream, spending time with my dear friend rebecca, (we've been good friends since the day we met, as 14 year olds! can't believe that was 11 years ago..) and watching some beautiful, fiery sunsets.

feels like summer is finally here to stay a while!