Easter Extravaganza

This Easter was a lot of fun, Ava really figured out the hunting eggs and getting candy very quickly! She did have quite a bit of practice though. We started off with her Easter Egg Hunt at Mother's Day Out. They had to move it inside do to rain but the kids didn't care. Grandma came to town for the weekend and Ava got her first Easter basket of the year filled with all sorts of goodies! Friday we colored eggs with Grandma, Nana, Natalie and Ethan and what we figured would take an hour or two only took about 15 minutes with these two. Saturday we got to attend the Pittman families annual Easter egg hunt. That was a great time with friends, there was more candy than I've ever seen in one place and we finished the night off with yummy fajitas! We got up early before church and gave Ava her Easter basket, then we went to church and spent the afternoon at Nana and Pop's house where the kids got to hunt Easter eggs and got more goodies in their Easter baskets from Nana and Pop. Ava took a little tumble in Sunday School which is why she has a gash across her face in all of her Easter pictures. She did not want anyone to talk about it either, she would sob anytime anyone asked her what happened to her face, poor baby! Thankfully we made it home a few minutes before the never ending hail storm hit and both cars were in the garage so we didn't get too much damage.

It was nice to slow down a bit and refocus at church Sunday morning on what the weekend and celebrating was really about, our risen King! I was once again overwhelmed at just how much He loves us and the extents He went to and goes to everyday to show us His love! It is a love that will forever baffle and awe me! My prayer for my children is that they will know His love for them because when we really know His love for us our only response can be to fall more in love with Him and I pray that He captures their hearts very early on!

Sweet Baby J

Today we had another doctor's appointment and sonogram and it just amazes me how much growth and development has happened since the last sonogram. The sonogram photos of sweet baby J went from looking more like one little oval to really looking like a baby with a visible head and body and even little arm stubs. Everything looked perfect still and the baby is still measuring exactly to my due date of November 23rd! This pregnancy has definately been a little harder on me physically with lots of nausea and sickness but in the end it is absolutely worth it all!

Baby J had lots of firsts this month as well- first trip in an airplane, first time in MN, first visit to the Mall of America and first time to attend the Toro finance conference (pretty sure that will be baby J's last time to attend the conference). Thankfully baby J must have known mommy was out of her element and took it easy on me that week, it was a long and busy week with meetings and dinners and I barely had any nausea at all! I'm pretty sure someone much bigger than baby J had a lot to do with that though! I am not sure I was ever so glad to see home though as I was that Friday after my flight in DFW got cancelled due to the crazy wind and I got a rental car and made the longer than normal drive home from DFW in the ridiculous wind. I had never been away from baby J's big sister for that long and seeing her face when I got home was a beautiful thing!

A Double Birthday Dinner

April carries on our families spring season of birthdays, two very special people in our family, Justin and my mom. April 7th was Justin’s birthday. Ava and I made him homemade cards this year since she loves any excuse to play with markers and colors and we gave him a Lunatik watch band for his new iPod Nano. I think he was pretty happy with his gifts. We celebrated that night at Perini’s with his dad. Unfortunately my “all day sickness” caused us to have to cut the evening a little short and head home early but at least we got some bread pudding to go!

Justin and my mom have birthdays 4 days apart so this year we did a double dinner for them at grandmother and papa’s. Papa made his famous steaks and they were as good as ever! Grandmother made mom’s favorite chocolate cake and I made Justin’s favorite yellow cake with chocolate icing although as you can see from the photos my cake had some issues since I put the lid on the dish while the cake was still warm! Oh well at least it tasted good!

My Little Blueberry

My littlest love,
What a gift you are indeed! As your Nana said, it’s like God handed you to us on a silver platter. Our whole family is still just beaming at the news of your expected arrival around Thanksgiving! We will have so much to be thankful for! Right now you are only 7 weeks and about the size of a blueberry. Today we got to see you for the first time and hear your precious heartbeat, what a wonderful birthday gift for your daddy! You were measuring exactly to the size you should be for your due date, November 23rd. Dr. Mascarro said everything looked just perfect, very reassuring words for us all.

It is amazing how different and how similar this pregnancy has been to my pregnancy with your big sister. Physically it has pretty much been identical- lots of nausea, sleepiness, many food turn offs, indigestion and many trips to the bathroom at night. Mentally it has been quite different, with your big sister we were much more aware of the possibility of pregnancy and had worked much harder and waited much longer for it to happen and therefore I think it sank in much faster but this time wow it was such a surprise I think I still at times have to remind myself I’m not dreaming!

I have so many dreams for you my littlest love and having now experienced motherhood I think it only adds to the moments I look forward to with you- that first moment when I hold in you in my arms of which I’m convinced is one of the sweetest moments we are ever given in life, the quiet moments in the night when it’s just you and I together, watching your big sister and your daddy fall in love with you and so many more. I can’t wait to see your tiny little features and see who you are going to look like and watch your little personality develop. I will say I’m hoping you’ll get a few more of your daddy’s characteristics because your big sister and your mommy are both very stubborn, strong willed females but I know God and I know from experience He knows what is best. He knew exactly when you should be conceived, He knows if you should be a brother or sister for your big sister, He knows if you should be laid back and easy going or strong willed and determined. He knows just what our little family needs! I can already see I’m probably not going to do quite as well at documenting my pregnancy as I did with your big sister now that I have her keeping me busy but always know that doesn’t mean I love you any less! You are already loved more than you can know, I always thought my heart might burst with love for your big sister and now I have two of you to love and my heart just keeps expanding with more capacity to love! I can’t imagine in 7 months when I’m holding both of you in my arms the joy and love my heart is going to be exploding with!
I love you little blueberry!

Mommy