My Baby is 30 and boy is she PURDY!!

I just wanted to publicly wish my sweet little Stace Face a Happy Golden 30th Bday. 30 years a go today, the finest specimen that God ever created was sent down to earth. I thank the Big Man upstairs for letting her come down and find me. You save me every day. I thank you for the grace that you show everyone. I thank you for your passion for LIFE. I thank you for just being you. I love this girl to the Moon and back. Have a great one babe. FYI, Stacy doesn't just have a birthday celebration, but a birthweek celebration. Let the festivities begin!!!! You are my sunshine!!! Here's a song dedicated to you my sweets. Love Joshy

From the first time I heard this, I've always thought of you. Everything makes me think of you ; ) I love you Green EYES!! I love growing OLD with you too. And by the way, 30 is the new 15, so don't stress too much.

Read No Further If You Don't Want the Details

Okay, today was my 36 week doctor visit, which means I had my first pelvic exam. Stop reading this if you don't care to know...................................................................................................................I'm 2cm dilated and 50% effaced, which means I most probably won't even need that induction date on May 19th. That's coming from my doctor, not just my hopeful opinion. My hopeful opinion is that next Tuesday's visit will turn into a hospital admission!! Cinco de Mayo, baby!! Let the nesting madness begin.

Ian's 2 Year Stats

It's a little late I know, but Ian had his 2 year well baby check-up yesterday. It was no surprise to us that he was at the top of the charts in weight (33 pounds-95th percentile) and height (36 inches-75th-90th). I don't know the percentile of his noggin, but it was 49 inches. He had the nurses laughing with his elbow pump when they led him around the halls. He says, "I fast" or "I blue jet" which is from the Little Einsteins show. He cracks us up all day every day. His latest funny thing is caught on video below. He'll get anything around the house and turn it into a horsey. We sure do love this little big fella!

My Doctor Visit Today

I asked my doctor if my Gestational Diabetes will change anything as far as inducing early. He said that since it's under control with my diet, that it's not necessary to deliver any earlier than 39 weeks. So, my tentative due date is now May 19th instead of the 24th. This was the same plan with Ian-going one week early-but he came on his own at 38 weeks. We'll see how it goes this time...I'm just happy to know that we at least knocked off 5 days! Of course, that is as long as my body is preparing itself as it should, which I know it is. From here on out my visits will include the lovely pelvic exams.
Quick funny story: When I was near the end of my pregnancy with Ian, the hospital windows were being cleaned during my appointment. Of course the guys were at MY WINDOW when the doctor was ready for my exam. The blinds were closed, but just to be on the safe side, I asked him to wait a minute until they moved to another window. Sorry, no peep shows from me, guys! Try another window.

Easter Adventures

We take pictures with Santa and the Easter Bunny every year, and up until this point, my kids have never freaked out. I was just bragging to Robin about this the minute before we had this experience. Poor Ian was so scared of that crazy bunny. Ayden and Kota took the sweetest picture, but it took us a lot of trial and nothing but error to get Ian happy. If you look closely, you'll see that Josh is holding him. The funny thing is that for 2 weeks Ian asked me all day, every day if he could go see the bunny at the mall with daddy. In fact, he just asked Josh this morning if the bunny was at the mall. Well, it's something we'll laugh at later, but I hope we didn't permanently scar our child.

The "real" Easter bunny came to our house on Saturday while Ayden and Ian took their naps. Josh leaves at 6:30am on Sunday mornings, so we thought it would be better that way. The bunny left clues all over our neighborhood, leading them to their Easter baskets-it's a tradition in my family that I'm keeping alive. The clues took them to our backyard, the creek at the end of our road, back to the front yard, then in our kitchen cabinets where lots of fun toys were waiting.

On the hunt.

A face like that is a sign of true success!

We got daddy good with Ayden's silly string!

I forgot how much fun a can of this stuff can be.

That's all for now.
Happy Easter!!

Where Do I Begin?

Josh had a long day at work and church today. He came home a little after 9pm, carrying some gift bags from the car, then he went back to the car three or four more times with his arms full of gifts. He told me he had a story to tell, but I had to wonder what was going on until he finally brought everything in.

So, the story goes that he had a work meeting about recruiting new day care centers today, that turned out to be a surprise baby shower for him. Isn't that the sweetest? I would have loved to have seen Josh opening all of those gifts-there's a lot of pink! His co-workers really like him a lot and it shows. They even invited some of the day care directors he has visited in the past. I was in tears, I was so shocked. We got quite a few blankets, which we still need. I have plenty of boy blankets, but not many unisex. The funny thing is that I spent all day today shopping for things I didn't get at my shower on Friday, thinking that I'm in a time crunch, and it's up to us to supply ourselves with what we need from here on out. HA! I had the closet all organized from newborn to 12 months and decided that we still needed some nightgowns, socks, and mittens. THEN, tonight my Aunt Videt came over with loads of clothes, and THEN Josh comes in with bags and bags of gifts. Now I have to figure out how to organize all of this new stuff! We are both so floored at how generous everyone has been. We feel loved, that's for sure.

What a Week!

On Monday I went with Ayden and his class to Global Wildlife-
he calls it Flahful Wahblahf.

Baby zebras! There was a baby giraffe too,
but they were too shy to come see us.

Feeding the beasts of the earth. Look at that tongue!

Friday was my baby shower!! Robin and Meredith hosted a great party.
Thanks again!

My favorite flower: tulips!

My friend, Cathi, made this super cute onesie cake
and Lauren made these super cute cookies.

Morgan won the door prize!

Saturday was cousin Kota's annual Tiny Tiger Fest.
Here's Ian with his trucks from Aunt Meredith.

These treats ended up all over the boys. It was worth the mess, I guess.

Sunday was our big family crawfish boil.
Ryan-on the right-was the chef and seriously made the best crawfish I've ever eaten.

Enjoying the grub.

More crowd pics. My battery died before I got around to everybody.

The kids had a blast playing in the hose and kiddie pool.
They also dyed Easter eggs and had an Easter egg hunt.

So there you have a glimpse of our busy week.
Monday: field trip
Tuesday-Thursday: Josh was in Nashville with the Mangum brothers for a USA soccer game
Friday: Shower
Saturday: T.T.Fest
Sunday: Crawfish boil.

WOWSAH!

Oh, and we DVRed General Conference and watched it after the boys went to bed Sunday night.

Today's Dr. Visit

I'm reaching the end. My next visit will be in only two weeks instead of one month. I was so excited today, because I've lost 5 pounds since last month's visit! Don't worry, the baby is fine. This is normal for women who get forced to diet and exercise because of GD. That's 5 less pounds I will have to lose after little Afton comes. Everything is going normal and my doctor is letting me check my blood sugar every other day now instead of daily. WHOO-HOOO! He said the baby's head is facing down now. Her heartbeat was 154. I've been concerned because I've been feeling menstrual-like cramps over the past couple of days, but he assured me that I'm okay, I might be dilating a little, and this is pretty common for third timers. He offered to do an internal exam if I was concerned, but I declined. I'm not mentally prepared for those stirrups just yet. Even if they have festive covers for every holiday. No thanks, I'll pass. I was reading my journal from when I was 36 weeks along with both of the boys and both times I was 50% effaced and 1 1/2 cm dilated. I'm sure I'll keep up the trend. We'll see in 3-4 weeks! It's go time.

We're On To You!

I guess this is A.F. for "April Fools". It's some kind of red goop.

That's not moss flying in the wind. Nope, that's toilet paper.
Our house and the Rabalais's house not far away from us got toilet papered last night.
The cops were called when they were at the Rabalais and it was reported that a red Nissan Altima was driving away. Click here and you will see who just purchased a car of that description.
I think it would have been more funny to me if Josh weren't out of town right now and I wasn't 8 months pregnant bending over to pick up little pieces of t.p. all over the neighborhood. Thankfully I have good friends across the street that helped me.
I am not turning the other cheek on this. Oh no, I'm going Old Testament "eye for an eye" with this one. I'm calling on all of you bloggers to send some comments Michael and Melanie's way, letting them know how ashamed they should be, teasing poor ol' me and my children while their father is away. BLOGGERS UNITE!! I won't stop there. I have to think of something good. Any ideas? M&M, you'd better sleep with one eye open!