We had such a busy Easter season leading up to the holiday since we were involved in our church's ALIVE drama that I was a little worried the day of was going to be hectic as well. The play we were in had a performance Friday evening and 2 on Saturday, so we were at church all day Saturday which didn't leave me with a whole lot of time to prepare the things we were supposed to bring to our family get together's, prepare our church clothes, and stuff the girls Easter baskets. Not to mention try to keep our house somewhat in order from all of our running around.

Mark and I were up late Saturday night after we got home getting everything together. I did indulge in some late night brownie batter spoon licking to help keep me energized. : ) I planned to get up early the next morning too so I could shower and get myself ready for church before we did breakfast and Easter baskets. Usually Sunday morning breakfasts are quick and easy, but on special occasions I like to make time to eat a fun, memorable breakfast. (These came out of a can, so memorable can still be easy!)



Anyways, I snoozed my alarm clock and woke up an hour later than planned! Ugh! I'm really thankful God got a hold me of me in the shower in the middle of my grogginess, and changed my pouting about the morning being off to a bad start to remembering the importance of the day. A less than stellar house, or breakfast, or even time to do my hair just right {cause you know, Easter pictures!} was absolutely NOT what we were celebrating today. Thank you Jesus for that grace that kicked me in the pants!  I let go of some things, prepared my heart to worship a RISEN king and enjoyed my little family. We even had time to do a surprise Easter Egg hunt that one of our neighbors left in our yard the night before for the girls!



I've said it before and I'll say it every year, Easter Sunday at church is my favorite. The excited celebration is something I wish I could carry every week of the year. We celebrated at church with family, spent lunch and the early afternoon at my parents house and then went to Mark's parents that evening. We colored eggs, did an Easter egg hunt for the girls {and one for the adults with a few $20 bills hidden around! Thanks mom and dad!} and shared delicious food.


That night when we got home we finished our Holy Week readings and calendar with Reaghan. I'm so glad we did this with her this year. She retained so much information about the weeks events and even still will hear songs on the radio like "Come to the Table" and will tell me... "Mom! this is the song about Jesus when he washed his disciples feet and said 'this is my body' and 'this is my blood!'" I'm always amazed at how much she actually remembers! It's motivation for me to keep feeding her growing mind and spirit and conviction to keep me praying for the wisdom and grace to show my girls their need for a Savior and their mom's need for Him too. The weight of that feels heavy sometimes, I'm so afraid I'll mess it up! But that's kind of the thing isn't it? It's not all on me and His strength is made perfect in my weaknesses thanks to the cross! Thanks to the resurrection! Happy Easter!

Last week was our annual Beach Week trip with Mark's family! We're starting to outgrow the little condo we stay in now that we have 2 toddlers and 2 babies filling the space up with all of the things, not to mention vacation with 2 kids is even more work than vacation with one buuttttt its totally worth it.

 We had some rainy days and some really nice beach days. We did some shopping, had a tornado warning one night, and I may have dressed the girls in matching outfits every. single. day.

We worked through some severe toddler anxiety regarding the beach with Reaghan. I wish I could say we overcame by the end of the week, but she was still terrified on our last beach day. Once we were down at the beach for a little while she would slowly start to relax and enjoy herself and even wanted to be carried down to the waves to SEE them {touching the water was out of the question} but her initial reaction at the top of the dunes was to have a meltdown because she was scared. So thats what I mean by work through. It completely caught us off guard because she's been to the beach here at home this season without any issues and even our first beach day on Monday in the OBX she didn't have any anxiety, but when we went back to the beach on Thursday she was a mess. Toddler's are super fun sometimes you guys.

Here's a little recap of our week:

I'm the worst at blogging right now. I posted Lilly's 1 month update before I even shared her newborn pictures. Oh Well. Let's just rewind time for a minute and go back to my beautiful babe at just a few days old. She's already getting so big and more alert, {which I love!} but there's nothing like that first week with a fresh baby. That time before its important to start getting into a schedule... when all that matters is lounging around and cuddling and getting to know the sweet new life that's become a part of your family. *Sigh* Nothing. Like it.

Lilly turned 3 weeks this past Friday! I can't believe I haven't taken the time to sit and blog about her birth story but its just been so much more fun cuddling with her on my lap rather than a computer! But I'm finally ready! So here are all the details that no one has asked for but I know you want to know ;)

In my last pregnancy update I left you getting ready to go begrudgingly make a dinner that I didn't want to make because I wanted to be in the hospital having a baby. All of the start and stop labor I'd had over the last week had left me exhausted and I snapped at my husband when he first got home from work and was a little too short with my toddler when she woke up from her nap. Thankfully God's grace penetrated my dark attitude and I was able to turn the evening around and enjoy it with my little family. After we put Reaghan to bed that night, Mark and I sat on the couch talking and I told him we should just start planning the Super Bowl party because I was pretty sure I was going to be pregnant through the weekend. I wasn't upset saying it either, just resigned to the likely fact. Erin called me around the same time to ask how I was doing and encourage me to just be patient and let it be. She encouraged me to rest and stop trying so hard and maybe even go get a massage or visit a Chiropractor the next day to help relieve stress and relax so my body could work. I was all for the massage idea so when I got off the phone I told Mark that I was going to try and make that happen the next day. I went to bed feeling more content and repeating a verse that God had put on my heart the week before... "He will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast on him..." Perfect peace. No contractions since before my nap, but falling asleep with perfect peace.

Only a few hours later I was woken up by a contraction around 3am. Nothing crazy and I was able to fall back asleep. About 4am I was awakened by another contraction and this time this one was MUCH stronger. I could feel it in my low back and thighs and it lasted a good while. I could tell this one was different. This was the intensity level that I had been waiting for. I told myself if I had another one that strong I would wake Mark up and let him know... sure enough 11 minutes later it came again and was even a little stronger than the one before. I stayed laying on my side and breathed my way through it and then woke Mark up. I told him if one more came like that then it was go time! A little less than 10 minutes later the third one came and was so strong I had to get up on my hands and knees to breathe through it. We got up to start getting ready and I noticed it was 5am - I smiled remembering how my water had broken with Reaghan at 5 in the morning! Funny how I was starting labor at the same time of the day! I called Erin to come sit with Reaghan and when I called she said she was actually already awake and didn't know why but hadn't been able to fall back asleep. (I love including these little details because I feel like they are the intimate ways that God takes care of us. He had her prepared.) Before we left the house I had 2 more contractions that stopped me in my tracks and caused me to lean on something for support or get on my hands and knees. I'll admit I was getting a little nervous that I was going to start feeling the urge to push before we got to the hospital, thats how strong and painful these puppies were coming on and they seemed to be getting a little closer together each time! It was hard to breathe through them sitting in the front seat of the car on the way to the hospital and we had to wait for one to pass after we parked before walking inside.


It was 5:55 when we stopped at the desk to check in. I was so frustrated that they wanted me to fill out some paperwork because I had already pre-registered. Isn't that the point of pre-registering? Mark said I was little short with them and I'm sure they thought I was being overly dramatic as I leaned on their counter to breathe through a contraction while a lady holding out a clipboard waited for me to sign the papers, but they didn't know I was already towards the end! When they finally got me into a gown and in the triage room the nurse checked me at 8cm dilated and 100% effaced and little miss Lilly already at the +1 position! You should've seen Mark's face when they said 8cm. Eyes as wide as saucers! He came over to hold my hand, shaking his head and said "we're having this baby soon, aren't we?" He was so relieved to be at the hospital. With all of my prodromal labor he was afraid I was going to wait too long to go in and have the baby in the car or something haha I just told him "See? I knew exactly when to come!" He just rolled his eyes. : )

Early this fall I had envisioned getting some family pictures taken that would sort of be a 3 in 1 photo shoot. {1} being General Family pictures {2} a few Maternity shots and {3} 2 year old photos of Reaghan to replace her 1 year pictures hanging in our hallway.

For reasons that I can't quite put my finger on, we kept delaying them and not finding a good weekend to get with my sisters to get them done.

Finally the first week in December I was all bummed out because we had no pictures to use for our Christmas cards and my body was entering the massive stage of pregnancy, not the cute little baby bump stage and we still hadn't taken any pictures! My sisters were going to be free the next day so I begged Mark to go take some pictures on what was looking to be one of the coldest days of the season so far! He tried to insist that we didn't need to send picture Christmas cards this year, so it took a little convincing, but he finally went along with it.

But it turns out... I probably should've just listened to him and scrapped the whole dream of getting pictures done in time for Christmas cards because you guys - it was like 30 degrees outside and Reaghan was not loving it. At. All. I tried to do everything right to prepare my toddler for the photoshoot - as in make sure she gets a good nap before we go - but I forgot 1 key toddler necessity. We left so quickly after she got up from her nap that I never gave her anything to eat or drink. *gasp* Freezing weather + hangry toddler is not a good combo for getting cute, loving and giggly pictures. Not to mention the the cold caused her poor little nose to run the whole time and you know how toddlers LOVE having their noses wiped. You know another thing toddlers LOVE? Having their coats taken on and off every 3 minutes to strike another pose. {please tell me you can hear my sarcasm.}

Erin and Mallory graciously tried to snap pictures while their hands were freezing and get Reaghan to smile. They're pretty talented so they managed to squeeze out some good ones that I'm really grateful for! I don't know how they did it because over all it wasn't quite what I had envisioned! I was surprised when we got them back that there were actually ones of Reaghan smiling! haha

Oh well. Lesson learned. Don't take pictures when its 30 degrees outside. Don't take pictures with a hangry toddler. Aaaaand its probably a good idea to listen to my husband's advice a little more. ; )

We broke our usual tradition this year and decided to put up our Christmas lights before Thanksgiving. *gasp!* The first 2 weekends after Thanksgiving were packed full with family fun things so we decided to get a head of the game and take advantage of a nice warm day and put some pretties up outside!

It was a challenge trying to figure out how to put lights on our new house. You guys, we love the two peak's that bookend our home, but man are they high when you're trying to reach them! We struggled for literally hours just to get the lights up over the garage before Mark decided it wasn't going to happen unless he had 1.) a better ladder and 2.) someone to help him who wasn't 7 months pregnant, a toddler, or a brother-in-law who confined to a wheelchair. haha We were trying our best to give him a hand, but I'll be honest, we weren't doing much more than holding the lights. We set everything else up and then the next day Mark went and got his late grandpa's industrial ladder with his dad and came back and finished all of the lights in like 20 minutes. haha oh the poor hours we spent in frustrations that we'll never get back... At least our first experience with the house was memorable!