Our beloved dentist, Dr. K, bought us "Resurrection Eggs" several years ago. Each year I pull them out and forget to begin opening them 12 days before Easter. So, usually, we end up doing several a day. This year we started them yesterday! Oh well. The girls enjoy it whenever.
Allyson surprised me this year. She saw the plastic carton and immediately began asking about the "donkey." Last year she was obsessed with playing with the little plastic donkey from the first egg. This year was no different.
Anyway, each plastic egg holds a symbol of the Easter story. They decided to share the story with you themselves.
Nicole had a wonderful 8th birthday!! (I can NOT BELIEVE she's eight years old!) Nicole thought it was pretty great that she turned 8 on the 8th of March.
She had the day off from school... the first day of spring break. She was pretty disappointed, thinking she wouldn't get a "party" at school. Fortunately, her wonderful teacher made sure the class recognized her on Thursday, the day before her birthday. Each student colored her a picture or wrote a note and it was all stapled together in a book. Then they sang Happy Birthday. Mom also made sure there were cupcakes delivered. So she was one happy camper!
As for the actual day of her birthday, we had the table decorated for breakfast.
You can't really see because of the sun but Mom gave her a photo book about her role as Zuzu in "It's a Wonderful Life." It tells the story of how she got the part and has all the pictures from practices, dressing room antics and friends she made.
We had muffins and strawberries. Notice the "Birthday Girl" ribbon. She never forgets to wear this on her birthday!
Then it was time to go shopping! We still had some gift cards from Christmas that Papaw and Nana gave us on top of extra birthday money! Even our beloved dentist, Dr. K, sent her some birthday money!
When we walked into the store I asked for a birthday balloon for her. I didn't remember that they make an announcement over the loudspeaker about the birthday girl. I don't know if it was pregnancy hormones or what but Mom started crying!
Right away Nicole found a fuzzy blue journal that she fell in love with. It went right in the cart.
Allyson's beloved giraffe that she got a long time ago from a restaurant in Branson recently broke. She was so heartbroken that I was actually trying to find a replacement online but couldn't find one quite like it. But she found one in the toy bins! She was sooo happy! We got TWO! The funniest part was that the gift card from Papaw and Nana had a giraffe on it, too! (Nicole's was a Happy Birthday gift card, even though it had been a Christmas gift... how perfect is that?!)
Nicole bought a fishing game that the girls love to play with in the bath.
And a panda kite. And a paddleball game that can be played outside or in the pool. She ended up spending her Christmas money but saved her birthday money as she just couldn't decide!
Up next was a trip to the used book store where Mom had a gift certificate. She was in Heaven. We were able to buy a bunch of books... most of which she's already read... and even bought a book for little sister.
Next was dinner at her favorite Chinese restaurant, Mr. Yen's. Britt loathes this place but we went for her birthday. We invited her good friend, America, to come with us. Here they are with her free birthday cheesecake which Nicole happily shared with everyone.
Next was the big party!! Nicole won a martial arts birthday party for her winning entry in the pumpkin decorating contest last fall at school. At first I wasn't sure she would want a marital arts party but she was pretty excited about it.
And it actually turned out to be a lot of fun. We were the first ones there and the girls started out playing right away.
As guests arrived the leader started them off in games.
The cake was included with the party.
It was pretty exciting when the leader pulled out a samurai sword to cut it with!
Time to eat!
And now time for presents! I LOVED the rope idea. The kids weren't allowed to cross the rope. So many times the birthday girl gets bombarded and you can't get a good picture. So this will likely be incorporated into future parties.
Then a few more games.
Someone insisted on taking a picture of my pregnant belly. An 8 year old and 8 months pregnant!
Happy Birthday Sweet Baby Girl. I love you more than words could ever express!!
The other night the weather was beautiful so we barbecued and then decided to roast S'mores in our chimenea. We had a wonderful time. Nicole kept asking Britt and I to tell stories from when we were young. (She asks us to do this a lot... and I feel like either my childhood was really short or my memory is going!)
Well, it was finally time for bed. Britt helped get the girls ready so I could sit by the fire for a while. (I know, very sweet.) After a few minutes it was story time. While reading a chapter in the "Little House"series, I happened to catch a glimpse of my leg.
My first thought was the pattern from the patio chairs. But Nicole pointed out that wasn't even the pattern of the chairs. I showed Britt and he was rather worried. Then I got worried. I called a nurse friend who said to wait it out. I posted the picture on my pregnancy group that I am part of on Facebook. A woman showed it to her husband who is a nurse who said it looked like an infection and I should go to the ER. At this point it was getting very late. I ended up calling the doctor on call and they said to take a Benadryl and see if it clears up. But, also to mark where the rash was so that if it grew I could tell and then would have to come in right away. Or, if it started hurting/itching. I felt like it was already clearing up a little.
Notice the lines I drew
By the morning, the rash was completely gone! But certainly not the questions. Why? How? What in the world??
Well, tonight, someone from that pregnancy Facebook group said she did some google searching and found pictures that looked just like mine. The ailment is called "Toasted Leg Syndrome." She asked if I had been near heat at all. (I hadn't mentioned the fire/S'mores). Turns out, this is something that is now being caused by laptops but used to be caused by people getting too close to a fire! Now, why this part of my leg, I don't know. And I didn't feel I was too close but, I think this is probably what I had! Of course, I'll show my doctor on Monday. But... don't keep a laptop on your bare skin and watch it around the fires.
How weird is that?? I'm just thankful it wasn't any pregnancy-related problem or blood poisoning or something awful. Ha... Mommy got too close to the fireplace! :)
Today I started my weekly ultrasounds. This is standard for moms over 40. What I didn't know is that they monitor the baby for 20 minutes before the ultrasound. I can't wait for my next appointment! Lol They put me in a huge recliner (it's basically a lift chair) and let me lie back for 20 minutes while they monitor baby's movements and heartbeat. It was very relaxing!
In fact, it was a bit too relaxing. Baby's heart rate was rather low because she was sleeping. They want to see two peaks in heart rate and hers just stayed the same. We tried nudging her around a bit but nothing. So, they brought in this little instrument that would make sound into the fluid surrounding her. It's the same thing a person who's had a tracheotomy uses to speak. Guess the babies don't like it. This one was no exception! Her little heart rate went right up how they wanted. She settled back down until I sneezed and caused her second rise in heart rate! Just in time before we were done.
Next we went for our ultrasound. We couldn't have asked for better news. Baby is no longer breech but upside down how she needs to be. (Of course, she was sideways while I was being monitored so she's definitely on the move all the time.) And, there had been an issue with my placenta being a little bit low which could have meant problems during delivery and a possible c-section. But, the placenta has moved up as we hoped... and once it moves up it won't be in the way again! Yeah!!
During the ultrasound I said something about 4D pictures and how I wished I could get some. The technician said they had 4D and, the next thing I know, there is my beautiful little girl on the screen, clear and in color! (They didn't have a color printer so I got black and white prints.) It made her arrival seem so real and made me even more excited.
She was moving so much it was difficult to get a picture. And her hand was in front of her face much of the time but you can definitely see her cute little face!
I've been in a bit of panic mode as the baby's due date is approaching very quickly and we are just not ready at all! First, we wanted to wait to find out whether it was a boy or girl. Then the focus was Christmas and then... suddenly we are here and she's almost here!
I knew one thing. Even if I had a girl, I wanted to redo the nursery. I was tired of the old bedding and it had a rip in the bed skirt anyway. When we found out our crib was recalled due to having a drop-side rail (they're now illegal), it kind of cemented the idea that we were going to redecorate. This time I wanted to go bright and cheery. So, I made finding a new crib and bedding my first priority.
Here's what we ended up with (I'll explain the paint in a minute.)
Next we had to find the paint. We tried several samples that were either too light or too dark (as you can see).
So I found a place that was able to mix me something in between and we finally hit the right match. The girls were very excited to help paint. Britt was happy I didn't want stripes this time! (We have stripes in the playroom and we did several different widths of stripes in Nicole's room at our previous house.
Time for a reading break.
Of course, it couldn't be just paint! But Britt didn't seem to mind putting in a chair rail and painting the bottom white. Especially when he had this cute little helper.
So far, so good. We'll keep you posted on the progress.
So, I've never done the monthly picture thing with any of my pregnancies. I finally started with this one but not until month 5. They say to wear tight fitting clothing and wear the same thing in each picture. Well, I probably shouldn't have picked quite so tight fitting at 5 months as it's starting to get really tight fitting now. But, here goes. (BTW, Nicole took the last couple of pictures.)
FIVE MONTHS
SIX MONTHS
SEVEN MONTHS
I should have taken the eight month picture today. Will try to get it done tomorrow.
