May Flowers

Last Monday (May 31) Stephen and I celebrated our 7 year wedding anniversary. Our wedding flower was a hydrangea. We gave his mom one of the potted ones that we used as a decoration and she planted it in her yard. This year it is in FULL (and I mean full) bloom. When we were over there yesterday I snipped one of the blooms. God is such an amazing creator. I love all the shades of purple and blue. Our love is continuing to grow, much like this hydrangea. I am truly grateful that God allowed me to marry my best friend.

I'm a big kid now!

We decided to work on setting up Lily Kate's "big girl room" before the baby arrives. She is completely excited about the whole process. Though it will be interesting to see how she does when she sleeps in there (I think we will do that tomorrow night). Stephen spent several hours on Wednesday painting the room "Rapids" to match her bedspread.

Today we "revealed" the room to her.

It is still a work in progress...I'll do another post once it is all in order. Right now, the only things in the room are the bed, a night stand, and a lamp.

Lazy Day

I have been a little under the weather today (a cold when preggo is NO fun), so I tried to come up with some things to keep Lily Kate occupied. We had pedicures, read a dozen books, watched entirely too much TV, played with play doh and Lily Kate's favorite new pastime is putting together 24-piece puzzles.
We did this one four times today. We are definitely going to have to return to Dollar Tree to pick out a new one.

This is "Aubrey Jane" according to Lily Kate. Let's hope when she actually makes her appearance she looks a little less purple.

Sprinkler Time

This weekend we spent some time in Gastonia with the family.

It was warm enough Sunday to play in the sprinkler!

To say she was excited to wear her pillowcase dress from Grandma Mary is an understatement.

The Simple Things

Tonight we had a fun and spontaneous family night. We ate dinner at Nothin but Noodles and then we browsed in Learning Express (a toy store) where Lily Kate told us to "Look with our eyes".What Friday night is complete without a trip to Walmart? We had to peruse the toy department and stopped a random shopper to snap this pic of us. Fun times!

Yeehaw!

We took a field trip today, up to Mooresville, NC to the Lazy 5 Ranch. Our play group was going so we joined up with lots of other parents at tots and went on a wagon ride through their ranch.

I must admit, I may have had more fun than Lily Kate. It was amazing to see such large animals up close and personal.

This 16 year old giraffe would eat right out of your feed bucket.

Some kind of yak or buffalo, I can't remember, check out his tongue! Lily Kate loved dropping the feed into their mouths.

Lily Kate and JaJa on the wagon ride. Lily Kate kept saying "Yeehaw" as we rode.

I did almost lose my cookies when Lily Kate put her thumb in her mouth just after letting a llama eat out of her hand. We used a ton of hand sanitizer during our visit :)

Checking out the baby goats at the "petting zoo." I was thankful they stayed on one side of the gate.

Tour de Maternity

Today we had a sibling tour of the maternity center where Aubrey Jane will be born. Lily Kate did surprisingly well for being the youngest participant in today's session.

She learned how to help with the baby. Here she is practicing changing a diaper on her baby doll, Maxine.

Her favorite part was the teddy graham snack that was served. I loved the hats they gave each sibling.
We got to see the newborn nursery (including a new little baby) and one of the rooms. We had to explain several times that Aubrey Jane wasn't coming out of Mommy's tummy today, we were just visiting the hospital where she will come out soon.

I've created a monster

This morning we went to a neighbor hood garage sale and Lily Kate quickly decided she loved it! After we would leave one house she would ask to go to another one, "not Lily Kate's house but another one yard sale house" She got all kinds of fun junk for free...her first Pokemon cards, a Leap Frog stuffed frog and her favorite has quickly become a treasure:

You've all seen them, they come in quarter machines (only now they are probably $.50) The finger puppet monsters. Well my sweet little girlie girl loves them. Her aunt Rachie gave her one a few weeks ago and she has played with it for hours on end. We found a yard sale today that had a pink one! So now her monster has a friend.

FedEx

For the past four Friday nights we have been attending Friday Evening Date Experience at our church. Each week we hear from a different married couple who share their love story and give us advice on how to make our marriage better. I have really enjoyed these "scheduled" dates and just having some time to chat with my man. Lily Kate loves attending as well (they have childcare and our babysitter is one of the staff). I will be sad to see it come to an end next Friday, but I am thankful for many of the conversations it has started between us.

In my opinion some of the most useful advice we have learned:

Spend at least 10 minutes a day talking about something other than work/kids/household.

While wives require lots of love, husbands need lots of respect.

Communication is key to a healthy relationship.

It is hard to believe Stephen and I will celebrate our 7 year anniversary at the end of the month. I'm so thankful I married my best friend!

Catching up

Here are some fun pics from the past few weeks. Our family goes through withdrawal if I don't regularly post pictures :)
Katelynn Grace (one of Lily Kate's favorite cousins) is so sweet and gentle with Lily Kate, they have a mutual love for each other.

Wearing Daddy's clown nose.

Too cute for words.

My Mother's Day gift from my sweet girl- a magnetic photo frame.