Eather Ei!

That's how Kate says "Easter egg," we discovered this weekend, so it seemed a fitting title for this post. As I mentioned, Easter Sunday was very low-key, but we did some fun things Friday and Saturday of the long Easter weekend.

Friday, Matt scheduled a massage for me--I know, way to reflect on the pain and suffering of Jesus, right? It was very sweet of Matt, though, having scheduled it a week before, when I'd had my worst day of throwing up yet and was so sore from all the convulsing, had a migraine from the dehydration, etc. This Friday, though, I actually felt disconcertingly good! Best I'd felt in a while! But the massage was still a welcome time of relaxation.

I did some scrapbooking in the morning, and actually cooked in the evening (I can't remember the last time food seemed un-disgusting enough to put effort into preparing it!) Kate ended the day with a random fever of 102.8, but it came down quickly with ibuprofin and she slept straight through when we would have gone to Good Friday service (Kate and I--Matt had to go anyway, of course).

Saturday morning, Kate and I dyed Easter eggs in our pajamas. She actually got into it this year, dropping the eggs in the cups gently, getting them out with the little wire wand, etc. Since it was so rainy Sunday that we couldn't go hunt them outside, they are still just sitting in the fridge, waiting to be part of a spinach salad or zucchini casserole (my two recipes that use hard boiled eggs).

Then (after calling to make sure the fluke fever wasn't a dealbreaker) Kate and I went down to Nancy's house for a Thirty-One party, and Kate and Becca had fun playing together while the ladies perused the catalog. It was a pajama party, so we wore our jammies and ate chocolate chip pancakes. It was great!

 Kate and I stayed after the party to dye eggs again with Nancy and Becca!

Later that afternoon, we had the church Easter egg hunt, where Kate collected a gazillion plastic eggs

 ... and then gorged herself on chocolate.

Though it really felt like we'd indulged her enough already, we still gave her her Easter basket that night, since the Easter Bunny visits pastors' kids on Saturday. Kate got a Sesame Street book and coloring book, "Elmo fizzies" for the bath, some bubbles, and a cow and farmer girl for her Little People farm.

Her favorite part was the bubbles. She'd gotten a bottle in her Christmas stocking, but since she insists on holding the bottle herself, they tend to get spilled quickly. We're down to about 1/3 of this bottle already.

Kate says "Happy Eather!" and hopes you had an enjoyable weekend celebrating Christ's resurrection... with eggs, chocolate, and bubbles... I really do wrestle with the secular "fun" parts of holy-days. Having a small child makes it both more important to emphasize the meaning of the holiday and harder to resist the fun stuff at the same time!

Easter Dress

We had a pretty low-key Easter today, with no big family dinner like we usually have. After church, we took long naps and played around the house. It was stormy this morning, so Kate and I spent some time in our "safe place" in the hallway--not because we really had to (it was a bad thunderstorm but no tornado warnings or anything) but Kate had apparently taken note during a midnight tornado warning earlier this week, and when it started storming, she sat down and insisted I do the same!

Friday and Saturday (somber as they should be) were a lot more busy and fun, and I'll post pics from those days soon, but for now, let me share these pics of Kate in her Easter dress, which I wisely took Friday morning when it was nice out, since we definitely didn't get a good opportunity today! I wanted to get Kate a yellow Easter dress since yellow is her favorite color, it seems. So I found this on eBay (as I have her previous two Easter dresses) and she seemed to enjoy it.

grumpy face :0)

We Bought a House!

A couple weeks ago I shared the great news that Matt and I are moving back to Nashville, and last week, we had our offer accepted on a great house in the south part of Davidson County, about 13 miles from my work and 10 or 11 from Matt's new church, Arlington UMC.

We'll move sometime next month, so we've got a lot to do!

We're so excited about this next stage for our family.

Bird's Nest Baby Shower

A week and a half ago, our sister-in-law (Matt's brother's wife) Alexis, came down to Nashville for her baby shower! They are having a boy in July, and we were so excited to celebrate this coming attraction!

We did a bird's nest theme, featuring this gorgeous cake from Puffy Muffin

and these little favors of a bird cookie and three Cadbury mini-eggs in a little nest. These were my mom-in-law's idea, and they turned out adorable! (She baked and decorated the tiny cookies herself too.)

Instead of a game, we asked guests to write a bit of new-mom advice on little bird papers and tuck them into an egg for Alexis to open and read. It's funny how a few of us were the hard-asses, saying things like "let him self-soothe at bedtime and he'll sleep better," while others were the sweeter type, saying "take time for yourself," etc. :0)

Here is Alexis with her mother, our mother-in-law, and me.

(Yes, of course I intentionally dressed to match the party's color scheme.)

I got my little nephew a tub full of bath supplies and toys.

I thought these little saddle shoes Granna gave her grandson were simply adorable!!

(If we have a boy, we'll have to get some too!)

As a school reading specialist, of course Alexis takes her son's reading very seriously, and asked guests to bring a favorite children's book to build baby's library.

It was a fun event, and Baby Kelley (no, they haven't shared the name yet!) is now well-equipped for babyhood!

Two Months

When I was pregnant with Kate, I made the mistake of counting months as sets of four weeks, which makes one essentially pregnant for ten months. So this time, I'll take my monthly photos on the 30th of each month, rather than on Week 4, Week 8, etc.

So... I was two months a couple weeks ago. (Too tired to get on the computer in the evenings since then!) Now I am at almost 11 weeks and get to go in for another checkup and ultrasound next week, and finally sharing my two month belly shot.

It's exaggerated a little because of the shadow behind me, but I'm seriously hanging out there already. I'd heard you show sooner with second and subsequent pregnancies, but man. I'm already having to be selective with my pants and skirts, and will break out the maternity clothes pretty soon. I don't mind getting big sooner, since I love "looking pregnant," but right now I just feel fat.

I would show a side-by-side comparison with my two month (8 week) picture with Kate, but that was right after the haircut from hell, which I stewed about for half my pregnancy (I asked for 1-2 inches off, they took 4. I was pretty ticked.) So, I'll compare with my four month Kate picture, since it seems I'm about as big--eek!

I'm throwing up about once a day, often during my morning commute. Yuck.

Most foods sound gross to me, but I'll experience very specific cravings and want that food right then. Like with Kate, I'm very open to suggestion. One morning I saw an egg salad sandwich in a magazine and so that's what I ended up making for breakfast. I'm still queasy and tired most of the time, and go to bed around 8:00. But that's par for the course!

I wouldn't trade it!

March Snapshots

Just a few pics from earlier in the month (well, last month, since it's now April).

On the 5th or so, we welcomed Daddy back from his trip to Israel. He's been blogging about the experience, so check it out if you're curious.

The 9th was Ash Wednesday, my favorite liturgical holiday. Daddy and Kate sat on the chancel steps after the service, and Kate was pointing to tell me to come sit RIGHT HERE.

Kate's gotten into a phase recently where she wants to read Mommy's High Heel Shoes (a great book about why mommy works) over and over, and she's been wearing my shoes around a lot as well.

On the 14th, we had a party at work to demo Ministry Matters for the rest of the company. We had orange M&Ms, orange cake, and orange balloons. I knew Kate would love it when I brought home "boons!" for her.

This shot is pretty typical of any day at our house. Man, there's a lot of Elmo. It's usually not all congregated in this one spot, but it's indicative of the overall trend. I generally try to avoid licensed character stuff, but when she's as obsessed as she is, it's tough to avoid. (For the record, though, the only one of these items I bought myself was the vacuum, and that was for seven bucks at a consignment sale.)

Kate has been doing great in her potty training. She's able to stay dry in her big girl panties for long stretches of time, and (at school at least) regularly goes on the potty. At home, I set the microwave timer for 10 minute intervals, and if she's dry when the timer goes off, she gets a heart.

One night, I wrapped a bunch of baby gifts--so excited to welcome the new little ones in our circle of family and friends!

And speaking of which, tomorrow is the baby shower for our sister-in-law Alexis. I can't wait to share pics of the cute theme my mother-in-law and I are using. And pics of the mom-to-be and all the baby loot as well, of course!

What are you up to this weekend?