Summer so far

I am tired. This pregnancy plus this busy summer is kicking my butt. So here's a recap.

First, Nate graduated from Kindergarten, and I totally didn't expect to cry through the whole thing! It all started when the teacher leading the thing started talking about "your babies are first graders now." Not cool, Miss Stone! They all got to walk across the stage and get their certificates, and then they sang a couple of songs, and it was all very cute. Nate had the option of coming home early but he wanted to stay at school and finish his work. :)

The next week began the kids' very busy summer schedule. My goal for the summer was to give the kids opportunities to get out of the house and get interested in activities, and also to give them time to just hang out at home playing and doing a bunch of nothing. I don't know that I hit the right balance, but so far so good.

On Mondays, Georgia has dance class. It's a class of 2 year olds, and she's probably the oldest 2 year old in the class. Georgia loves everything about it--the outfits she gets to wear, Miss Audra the ballerina, prancing around doing new dances, etc. While most of the other little girls are just running around like toddlers do or throwing tantrums, Georgia is paying very close attention to Miss Audra and trying to do exactly what she does. When we signed up, I didn't realize I had to be in class with her every week. But I usually just stand back and watch her because she does so well. I think we'll move her on to 3 year old dance after this class is over.

On Tuesday mornings, Nate has swim class. Nate LOVES swim class. He loves swimming period. I took him to a trial class to make sure it was a good fit for him, and he smiled from ear to ear the entire time. Afterwards, the instructor told me that Nate could stay in that class because even though he wasn't quite as strong as the other kids at that level, he doesn't have any fear and is totally comfortable in the water. He thought he might need to do this level class a couple of times before moving on. He's not swimming independently yet, but he's pretty close. I've been swimming with him a few times this summer, and he does a lot on his own. Nicole laughs because when he's in the water, he's constantly dunking his head to look under water. This was from his first class of the summer.

Then on Tuesday afternoons, Nate is taking piano lessons. Oh my. Nate loves the piano, but he mostly just bangs on it and calls it a concert. He tries to make up little songs, and sometimes it even sounds decent. He really wanted to take piano lessons to learn to play real songs. But I don't think he realized piano lessons are nothing like his jam sessions at home. The first day, the teacher kept the piano closed most of the time and talked mostly about how to sit at the piano, the numbers of each of his fingers, etc. He kept saying, "Why aren't we playing the piano?" So far she is only working with him on the black keys, and he's very frustrated by this. I have a hard time even watching these piano lessons because he is so distracted and doesn't listen well and just tries to do his own thing. I can tell she gets frustrated with him, but she keeps plodding along. I'm not sure we will continue piano lessons after this summer. :)

On Wednesday mornings, Nate has handwriting tutoring. I found a tutor who does a program called Handwriting Without Tears, which comes highly recommended by everyone. This woman is an OT in a nearby school district during the year, but agreed to tutor Nate this summer. I really like the program, but of course this isn't Nate's favorite activity. She makes it fun for him and he doesn't mind the tutoring sessions so much, But he's supposed to do 5 minutes of homework every night, and we usually end up doing all of it in one or two sessions (bad mama), and it takes a really long time. So he doesn't like the homework. But I think his handwriting is improving some. I'm also thinking about putting him in a handwriting camp at the end of this month. That's really our biggest concern with first grade, so we're trying to do all we can to get him caught up a little.

On Wednesday afternoons, Georgia has swim class, and this one is a mommy and me class. Only for my kids would I be getting my pregnant butt in a swimsuit on a weekly basis. But unlike Nate, Georgia is afraid of the water and really needs exposure to it. When we go each week, she is usually clinging to me for dear life for the first part of the class, but she gets braver. She's doing great actually with the swimming and is warming up to getting her face wet. She still hates going underwater, but we're working on it. This is a picture of her ready to get in the sprinkler at Memaw's house. She really likes wearing cute swimsuits better than swimming.

On Thursdays Nate still has OT and PT, and Fridays are usually free unless we have to reschedule handwriting for that day. Add in doctor appointments, hair cuts, and all the other stuff that creeps up, and it's a really busy schedule to keep up with. But the kids are having fun and learning some new things.

There have been a few other noteworthy events of the summer so far ...

We went to the zoo with Granna and Pop.

We went to a wheelchair racing clinic at SBAK.

In another step toward becoming a big girl, Georgia gave up the paci. Not without a fight! But she did it, and the paci fairy brought her a new baby in exchange for the pacis. After the first couple of days of asking for it every now and then, she's done great, and I'm glad it's gone!

I have gotten bigger.

We went on a little weekend trip to a water park and to see trains.

Nate turned 6! This is the first year we haven't had a big party with a house full of people. It was very different, but it was nice. We tried to make it very special for him. It seems impossible that Nate is 6 years old!

And for the last part of June, I went to the Spina Bifida Association National Conference, held in Indianapolis this year. This was my 3rd year going to conference, and as usual I loved every minute. It was so much fun getting to meet people I have only known through message boards or Facebook for a long time, but we already knew each other so well. One of the highlights of the conference for me was getting to present a project to other SBA chapter leaders on my "Delivering the Diagnosis" project, which was originally my thesis project and informs doctors and expectant parents about Spina Bifida. It's now a national program!!! I am so proud! I also learned a lot from the sessions and other people I met there. I think the major thing I took away from conference this year was to really work on independence skills with Nate. Those sometimes come harder for kids with Spina Bifida, but they make a huge difference in their lives. It's also important for parents to back off at some point. For example, I saw a man about 25-30 years old using a wheelchair and going through the breakfast line. His mother was behind him and pointed out the strawberries. He says, "I'm not really a strawberry guy. I'm more of a watermelong guy," as he put some watermelon on his plate. His mother said, "I am encouraging you to eat at least one strawberry." Oh lord, I thought. Note to self--back off on the overbearing parenting when your kid is old enough to grow a beard.

So there's June in a nutshell. At the end of this month we'll be traveling for a week-long appointment for Nate at Cincinnati Children's Hospital's Colorectal Clinic. And in August we'll be having a baby! Whoever called summer a "break" obviously didn't live at the Payne house.

Father's Day Interview with Nate and Georgia

So far Blake has spent his Father's Day by getting up with the kids and letting me sleep, making cheesy eggs, bacon and biscuits for breakfast, and going to Home Depot to get stuff to fix the fence today. Later he'll grill out for his Father's Day cookout. Does it sound like he's having a crappy Father's Day? Actually, these are the things that Blake enjoys--spending time with his kids, teaching them lessons, cooking for us, and puttering around in the yard.

Having children changes everyone. But it has been a dramatic change for Blake. Since Nate's birth, he has determined to be a good dad, no matter what the cost. That meant giving up some things and making some big life changes. One of the things I admire most about Blake is that he is on a daily journey to be a better person, better husband, and better dad.

And he's a great dad. He teaches the children about God, he disciplines them even though it hurts him(this is one area where he has made recent improvements), and he also indulges them often because he loves to see them happy.

Georgia is very much the Daddy's girl. When Nate and I went to Boston for 3 weeks last fall, Blake and Georgia bonded big time, and now she would usually rather have her daddy than anyone else. Georgia isn't the best sleeper, and she would like to sleep with us every night if she could. But mama doesn't sleep well with kids in the bed, so I've had a rule since Nate was a baby that once the baby is sleeping through the night pretty well, they are in their own bed. Blake sleeps just fine with kids in the bed and knows how much they love snuggling, so sometimes he lets one of the kids sneak in bed with us anyway. One night last week, Blake went to bed early while I stayed downstairs reading. Apparently Georgia was up and down out of bed and Blake finally let her climb in our bed but told her she had to be quiet and go to sleep or else she would get him in "trouble" with mama and I'd make her go back to her bed. When I came upstairs and opened the door to our room, Blake was asleep and Georgia sat upright on my pillow and said, "Is Daddy in trouble?" Haha.

So to celebrate Blake on Father's Day, today I interviewed the kids with questions about their daddy.

How old is Daddy?
Georgia: 3 years old
Nate: Nuh uh! 33 years old
Georgia: Daddy is spelled 3-H-9

How much does daddy weigh?
Georgia: (holding hand up to my face) This.
Nate: Um, I don't know, how about 30 pounds. I don't know, maybe at the top of the pounds?

Where was Daddy born?
Georgia: I don't know.
Nate: In Kentucky, I think.
Georgia: No, he wasn't.

What is Daddy's favorite color?
Nate: Um, blue and green.
Georgia: Um, blue and green.

What is something that Daddy always says?
Georgia: Um, "Oh my gosh"
Nate: No.
Georgia: Um, letters
Nate: Uh uh, you don't know it
Argument ensues: Uh huh! Nuh uh!
Nate: He says, "Don't be mean to each other."

What does Daddy do at work?
Nate: Pay money? Um, work?

What is the first thing Daddy does every morning?
Georgia: Tells me not to get stuff.
Nate: Says not to steal anything.
Georgia: And daddy likes to get toys ... and he likes to play with ponies.

But what's the first thing he does when he gets up in the morning?
Nate: Goes to work

Daddy laughs when you do what?
Nate: Silly things! Funny faces.
Georgia: And he likes some ponies.
Nate: And he likes trains, not ponies.
Georgia: I like ponies. Nate, do you like ponies?
Nate: What are you typing?

What is Daddys favorite food?
Nate: Uuuum, burgers
Georgia: Burgert?
Nate: Burburt
Georgia: Berberberber
Nate: Yayayaya
They continue to make funny sounds, it turns into a song they sing while holding hands, until they are giggling so hard they can't continue.

Why do you love Daddy?
Nate: Because he loves us!
Georgia: Um, because he yuvs us.

Then they go back to their song.

We love you, Blake! Happy Father's Day to a great daddy!

Picture Update

So here's a little bit of what we have been doing the past month or so.

One day I got to go to Churchill Downs to see the races from a suite! I had never been, so it was fun. Although I realized if you're not drinking or gambling, horse races aren't all the great. Here's me being pregnant.

We've recently moved the trampoline from the toy room to the living room, where the kids tend to jump on it more. They also fight over it more. In one particularly gruesome battle, yesterday Nate pushed Georgia off the trampoline mid-jump, and she landed in the corner and got a really nasty knot on her head. (Nate got in HUGE trouble.) She accidentally paid him back today when she went to give him a big hug, and they both toppled off the bench they were sitting on, and Nate got a matching knot on his head.

Georgia still falls asleep pretty much anytime the car starts moving. This was from our trip to see Mindy and Scott and the babies.

Blake borrowed his mom's riding lawn mower for the summer, and I can't get him to come in the house anymore. Every night he's doing something on this mower. I'm pretty sure he mows a couple times a week. Tonight he's "thatching" something? I don't even know what that means. And one night I looked out the window and saw him pulling a big bundle of tree branches with the mower, and not knowing I could see him, he had the biggest smile on his face at his adventures. Like a kid with a new toy.

(These pictures are a bit out of order. Blogger does not make uploading pics easy.)

For Mother's Day, Nate brought home a bag full of hand made stuff for me. Here was his card. It says all sorts of sweet things like "You're the best mom in the world" and "I want to be nice to you." I'll pull this out when he's a surly teenager (or on the days he's a surly 5 year old).

Refridgerator magnet with and I-love-my-mom note.

And then a booklet he had been writing in all year, with pictures of him at school and answers to questions about me at the end. This says, "My mom looks prettiest when she goes to a wedding." He's referring to the picture of me and Blake on our wedding day. He told me he didn't know how to color a white wedding dress on white paper, so he made my dress "brick red."

We spent Mother's Day in Owensboro with Memaw. We stopped by the Barbecue Festival long enough to get some burgoo and a pound of pork, and we just played at the house the rest of the time.

(Maggie's head)

My 3 babies!

A few weeks ago was Nate's Kindergarten play.

We got there a few minutes early, not realizing so many people were going to be there, so this was our view.

Nate was in the chorus, and we had fun practicing his songs with him a few times leading up to the play. He stood in front of us in the living room, and after he finished each song we would clap for him, and he got the biggest proudest smile on his face.

 After the play was over, I went to get Nate from his classroom, and you could see how proud he was of himself.

That gets me about caught up to Kindergarten graduation and starting summer. :) I'll blog again soon.

Nate's iPod

Nate has an ipod touch. Last fall my mom asked me what I thought of her and my dad getting Nate an ipod for Christmas. At first I thought it was a very expensive, breakable gift for a 5 year old, but Nate loves music so much, and he's constantly asking to borrow our phones to play a game, and I thought it might be good for increasing his fine motor skills. So they bought him one, and this was probably Nate's favorite Christmas gift. Not so much at first because he didn't know what it was, but this is probably the only Christmas gift he's played with every single day ... except when he loses it for weeks at a time.

The ipod has helped Nate move on from his 4 year obsession with trains. Now, he's really into music. He has about 40 songs--some from my and Blake's itunes, and some we have purchased just for him. He also searches itunes for his favorite songs and listens to snippets of them. This has been a little bit tricky because he loves country music, and there are lots of country songs that are not appropriate for 5 year olds. He's learned a few words that he should not say.

But he has learned so much about music and artists, and I think he could be a radio DJ tomorrow! As soon as he hears a song come on the radio, he states the song and artist. One night he and Georgia were playing Ring Around the Rosies in my room, and Nate starts singing "5-1-5-0, somebody call the po-po!" What! Nate, where did you hear that?" "It's a new country son, mama." I texted Nicole and asked if she had ever heard this before, and she was just a shocked as me. Thankfully the next day we heard the song on the radio. He was right! And it's a pretty catchy song!

Nate likes taking his iPod everywhere he goes. So far it's been banned from PT because he doesn't pay attention to anything but his music. His PT was initially pretty charmed when he brought his music and said, "Are you ready to ROCK OUT?" People see Nate walking around with his face in his iPod and say he looks like a little teenager.

Besides listening to music, Nate uses his iPod to practice spelling things. This is not something we anticipated or even encouraged. He just likes to do it. So one thing he's done is set up "Playlists" in his music. Every time he hears a song or sees a music video, he either reads the name of the artist or asks us who is singing it (if he doesn't already know) and then he types their name into a playlist. He's made 64 of these, from Big and Rich to John Mayer to Lady Gaga to Newsboys to The Beatles to Fifty Cent. (There are no songs in these playlists, just the names.) I really just discovered this tonight. I didn't know that's why he was asking us how to spell all these names. I don't even know how to set up a playlist!

Nate also has an email address--natepayne5 at gmail . com, and sometimes Pop emails him and he writes back. But we often forget his password and can't check it.

The other thing I learned about Nate's iPod today is that he writes in the "notes" section throughout the day. Kind of like his journal. Today we went mattress shopping and then drove to Berea to visit Mindy and her babies. Here are Nate's notes--each one is one sentence. They start on the ride to Berea.

We went shopping the other day!
Don't say no there!
Half way there!
Be nice there!
We're here all ready here!
We're playing now!
We're having fun!
We went to 2 places!
It's wild here!
Musics on!
I like this music video!
We're still here!
Only say yes here!
I like it here
Be quiet here cause the baby are asleep here!
It's fun here!
I like them!
I like to come here!
I like everything here!
There talkin a lot here!
There talkin here so don't say to be quiet here!
There still talkin here!
We're almost going!
We're going now
The radios on with country music!
That was in our state!
I like all country music videos
That was a long trip!
I had a good day!
We're almost here!
Were in our nieborhoode!
Were here!

What a fun little glimpse into the mind of a 5 year old. :)

Stuff my kids say

The reason I started this blog was to keep track of all the cute things the kids say. But I have not been great about recording them lately. Here's an attempt at catching up a little before all these things leave my brain.

When we were visiting my parents last month, Nate and Georgia were wrestling around in the floor with Blake and somehow Nate knocked Georgia's head and she started crying. Then he started crying. About an hour later, they were sitting at the kitchen table coloring, and out of the blue:

Nate: Georgia, when you hit your noggin, I wanted to say I'm sorry, but I was crying too hard.

My mom: Georgia, Nate is saying he's sorry. Now you need to say you forgive him.

Georgia: (with major attitude and a head bob) Well, Nate never says he forgives me when I say I'm sorry!

Georgia does that head shake all the time. She says everything with such attitude. A couple of times lately, when she sees Nate eating something, she'll say, "Holy cow, piggie!" Ha!

One day, Bekah (her babysitter) texted me that she said: Bekah, my Nate was being so sassy with my mama!

She tells the truth!

This was a few months ago. Georgia saw our dog, Maggie, playing too rough with our cat, Allie.
Georgia: Maggie! You be nice to the kitty! (bending down nose to nose) She's my kitty sister!

Nate seems to say the funniest things when he is getting in trouble. Maybe it's just that he gets in trouble so often. :)

One day at school, Nate's aid, Miss Beth, said it was time to go potty. Nate said no. She told him he could not say no to her, and if he did, she would change his bear to a different color. (His bear has been on green all year.) He finally went to the bathroom with her, where she had a little talk with him:

Miss Beth: Nate, I love you to pieces, but you have to listen to me when I tell you to do something.

Nate: Well, Miss Beth, I love you too, but I love all of you, not just pieces!

Miss Beth: (heart melted) You can do whatever you want.

Nate's nanny/cousin Nicole picks him up from school every day and keeps him until we get home, so she often has to put him in time out. When he's in time out, he tries to come up with the meanest things he can say to her ... and thankfully, those things are still pretty lame. :)

Nate: Nicole, you never look pretty!

Nate: Nicoooooole! I was thinking about calling you names!

Nate: Nicole, I hope you get lice!

Nicole: Well, thanks, I hope you do too.

Nate: Nicole, I have loved you for 178 years and now you have broked my heart and I don't love you anymore.

These kids crack me up every single day. Of course I think they're the most brilliant and hilarious little people in the world. :)

Conversations about Spina Bifida

Last weekend my kids were out on the back deck playing so nicely in the sand table while I got some peace and quiet. It started to storm, so I went to get them and saw that they were totally covered in sand. I should have been suspicious of the quiet. Georgia had dumped sand in her hair, and it took forever to wash out. Nate had sand in his shoes and braces, and I was taking them off and dumping the sand out when he said:

Nate: Mama, I'm the only one who wears braces. I just realized that today.

Me: (Smiling a little at him using the word "realized" so seriously and yet a little sad that he had realized he was different) Well, you're the only one in our family who wears braces. But Daddy is the only one in our family who wears glasses. And I'm the only one in the family who has a baby in her belly. And Georgia's the only one who wears tutus. We're all different.

Nate: But I'm the only kid in the world who wears braces.

Me: That's not true. We know lots of kids who wear braces. Our friend Brock wears braces. Our friend Ian wears braces. That little boy, Brendan, you met last night, he wears braces. All those kids at Spina Bifida camp last weekend wear braces.

Nate: Really?

Me: Yes! Do you know why you wear braces? Remember how they make you run faster?

Nate: Well, other kids run fast and they don't wear braces. But not as fast as me!

Me: Really, you wear braces because you have Spina Bifida.

Nate: Oh! So everyone who has Spina Bifida wears braces?

Me: ..... (simple 5 year old answer) Pretty much.

Later...

Me: So do you feel better about wearing braces?

Nate: Yeah. I thought I was the only kid in the world who wears them. But I'm not.

And then he moved on. Up until lately, Nate has been pretty oblivious of all this Spina Bifida stuff. I try to tell him about it, but it doesn't sink in. But since his surgeries, he asks me about it sometimes, and we talk about it in simple terms. Just today I overheard Nate and Georgia talking:

Georgia: Nate, you have Spina Bifida.

Nate: Yeah, I do! We know lots of people with Spina Bifida! ... What do you have?

Georgia: .... I have Spina Bifida too.

Then we went to the park this afternoon, and there was a little girl there named Kylie.

Nate: There's a girl at school named Kylie. And she uses a wheelchair!

Me: Oh, I know Kylie! Did you know she has Spina Bifida?

Nate: Like me! But she doesn't go to your work. (Spina Bifida Association of Kentucky)

Me: Yes, she does, sometimes. :)

So most of the time, it's just how I've hoped the conversations would go. Spina Bifida is just a fact, just a part of our lives, but it's not (usually) talked about with sadness at all. I absolutely refuse to treat Nate with pity. We all have our "thing" and this is his thing. I don't really have a rule book about how these conversations should go, and I know there will be many more in the future, but so far Nate is handling it all very well.

Ultrasound Day!

Can you believe it's already been 18 weeks? It's flown by pretty quickly, but the last couple of weeks I have been very eager to find out if we're having a boy or a girl. I took this picture yesterday, my first "bump" picture of the pregnancy. I feel pretty big already. And of course big sister makes the picture cuter.

Nate is on spring break this week, so I gave him a choice about today. He could either go to Bekah's again with Georgia, which he loves, or he could go to work with me for the morning and then come to the doctor appointment to see if he was having a baby brother or sister. He chose the second! So this morning he came to work and sat beside me at the conference table coloring like it was his job. He started acting up and getting really whiny several times and I almost regretted bringing him. But he perked up with a peanut butter sandwich and an apple on the way to the appointment. We met daddy there.

This is definitely a Blake Payne big cheese grin! No denying they're related.

Nate still gets to be a baby even though he's the big brother.

So first things first, we wanted to make sure the baby was healthy. I haven't been too awfully concerned this time around, but I can't say I haven't thought about that first ultrasound with Nate and getting that devastating news. The ultrasound tech started by asking questions about my pregnancies. This is technically my 5th pregnancy, counting the two early miscarriages. She asked me about my pregnancy with Nate and was very interested in hearing about the fetal surgery for Spina Bifida. She said they currently have a patient who is in Cincinnati doing the surgery. She asked how Nate was doing, which gave me the chance to brag on him and show her what a boy with Spina Bifida looks like. She later brought in a nurse who was doing some sort of research following the mom in Cincinnati, and Nate ran over to them, gave them high fives, and ran back to Blake with a little jump. Um, can I just admit this one of my reasons for bringing Nate with me to this appointment? I really wanted the people who give the SB diagnosis to see a child with SB. Mission accomplished successfuly.

Anyway, back to the baby! The ultrasound tech started with the brain, and she explained to me that when a baby has Spina Bifida, often the cerebellum is shaped differently. But this baby's cerebellum is perfect. I said, "So, no Chiari Malformation, great. How do the lateral ventricles look?" Hehe. No need to dumb it down, I understand the terms. The brain looks totally normal, and so does the spine. BIG sigh of relief!

I had told the tech that if she got a good look at the gender, we wanted Nate to announce it. This morning I drew on a piece of paper "It's a ______!!" and Nate colored the paper and drew flowers and rainbows and 5 year old stuff on it. When the tech saw what the baby was (she made me and Blake cover our eyes), she wrote on the page, and Nate got to make the big announcement. Here it is! 

Yay! We're so excited! But not at all surprised--I knew it all along! We got a few pictures, but they weren't all that clear. These first three (sideways) pictures are from the 12 week ultrasound when baby was smaller. It cracked me up to see him all stretched out in there with those long legs.

This time he was a bit pudgier and scrunched in. :) He's a whopping 9 ounces! Here's a profile (head on right, feet top left)

And here's the front of his face. Looks a lot like Georgia's "skeletor" pic that Nate said was scary. :)

The doctor came in and talked to us, and he agreed baby looks perfectly healthy. Of course I had to do a little business while I was there and asked if he would refer pregnant moms to SBAK when he diagnoses them. :) Then I went to have some blood drawn for the AFP test that also checks for Spina Bifida. The tech said if the ultrasound looks good, there's a 95% chance that everything is fine, but we'll do the blood test anyway. I warned the .... phlebotomist? ... that I am a really "hard stick" and she would need to use my hand instead of my arm. Still, she had to take a look at my arm. (eye roll) Why is it that every single one of them thinks they're better than every other one out there. I told her no one has ever been able to get anything from my arm. She did stick my hand, but it didn't work and now I have a massive swollen bruise on that hand. But she did the other hand successfully.
I took Nate over to Bekah's house to play for awhile this afternoon, and when I got there, Georgia and all the other kids flocked to the car. Nate got to announce that our baby is a boy. :) All the little girls were so excited. Georgia just came over and held up her arms for me to pick her up, but as I was lifting her she saw the bandaids on each of my hands. That freaked her out! She was like, "Why you have boo boos on you?!" I took off the bandaids and showed her I was fine, but she was still very weirded out. It was pretty funny.
I'm very relieved. And we're all very excited for another little bundle of joy ... and energy, and responsibility :) to join our family. This little guy has no idea what he's in for!

Easter 2012

Easter is the new Christmas for us. At Christmas, we have so many SBAK parties that we end up celebrating for an entire month. This year we had 5 Easter egg hunts, so it's been the same big celebration! Although this time I didn't need to be at every single one, but we still went to three of them.

My parents came in yesterday to celebrate Easter with us. We went to the Saturday evening service, so all the dressing up occurred yesterday.

The kids looked adorable as always, and we had a great church service. Blake grilled out afterwards, and my parents gave the kids all kinds of Easter goodies.

This morning I got up to get cooking, and after breakfast and getting dressed, I gave the kids their Easter baskets. We don't really do the Easter bunny. I'd like to say it's all because we want to remember the real reason for Easter, and some of it is that. But it's also because I don't have the energy to keep up another charade for the kids. :) Easter baskets come from mama and daddy.

Nate got the biggest box of crayons I could find. He is *really* into coloring right now! For so long he hated coloring, but he's been practicing and is better at it, and now he is a coloring machine. He spends most of his time either coloring or listening to music on his ipod. (Right now he's coloring and singing a song he made up.)

Georgia got a Big Sister/Little Sister doll set. She is so excited about being a big sister! She tells eeeeveryone.

Lucas and his girlfriend Amy came here for a really yummy brunch. So mad I forgot to take a picture! We had ham biscuits, spinach and bacon quiche, hashbrown casserole, peach french toast bake, and fruit salad with a yogurt dressing. It was sooooo good. Then the kids had a little Easter egg hunt in the backyard.

Nate loves bringing his mama flowers. I get at least a couple dandelions every day.

And after a really big weekend, Georgia was all tuckered out.

So were they.

And so was I! I took a nap. :) I am now 18 weeks along in my pregnancy and feeling pretty good, no big complaints. Our anatomy ultrasound is on Tuesday! I'll update when I know more about our next little baby!