March Madness

It's March 1st! That means the two longest and coldest months of the year are over-YAY!!

Our March is going to be crazy busy. For all of you basketball lovers, I'm afraid that I will not be referring to basketball's March madness in this post. Sorry.

First and foremost, I can't go on without sharing the amazing, wonderful news that Jenn and Courtney already shared on their blogs.

This past Wednesday my Dad was officially declared CANCER FREE! I can't even tell you how much joy this brings to m! I've actually had moments when I've been crying tears of joy over this wonderful news. God is so good! I couldn't help but think of this quote when I was thinking of the journey our family has been on this year;

Okay, so maybe it's a bit of a stretch to use that quote with this situation, but I LOVE this quote from Lord of the Rings. I couldn't help but post the whole quote below. :)

"It's like in the great stories Mr. Frodo, the ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were, and sometimes you didn't want to know the end because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end it's only a passing thing this shadow, even darkness must pass. A new day will come, and when the sun shines it'll shine out the clearer!"

Now I'm getting off topic. All I can say is, Dad, you're my hero and I'm so thankful that we get to have you around for many, many more years (Lord willing). :)

Now, back to the insanity that is this month. Caleb and I have so much planned that my head is spinning a bit. We're going from trying to fill weekends that are wide open to having so much going on I don't know how we'll manage it all. 

Next weekend I have to leave my babies for 3 days and Caleb and I are flying with his parents to San Francisco to visit his Grandma Janette, aunts, uncles and cousins. It's been a while since we've been to California to visit his family and it's past time considering our grandmothers are getting well into their 90s and we don't know how much time we have left with them. It will be a fun time.

It's always so bittersweet leaving my babes behind. On one hand, I know I could use a break and enjoy some time alone(ish) with the hubby and enjoy some adult time. On the other hand, I always miss them terribly and almost everything, EVERYTHING makes me think of them and what they're doing.  In this case the statement of "absence makes the heart grow fonder" completely applies to me. It helps to know they'll be in good hands with my sister Alli and my mom.

Then, after we return home from that trip, Caleb will have 1 week of work and then it's his spring break. On Sunday the 17th we'll be going to my sister Alli's house for a gender reveal party. Alli and Brian are expecting their first baby just weeks after our little one is born. It should be a lot of fun!

We always try to do something fun with the kids during spring break even if it's not a huge vacation. Last year we got a hotel and spent a couple days and nights in Denver.

We can't go too far this year due to my pregnancy, and we didn't want to do Denver again, so we are surprising the kids with a couple of days and nights in Colorado Springs.

We plan on going to see Focus on the Family (they have some great play rooms, a huge slide, and an old fashioned soda shoppe),

And we want to check out this indoor play area called Monkey Bizness. It's supposed to be a lot like the Cool Beans play place that I blogged about last month only even bigger and better.

 

In between doing those activities I'm sure we'll spend some time at the hotel, swimming in the pool. :)

After we get home from that mini-vacation we'll be heading up to the family cabin for the weekend to see Caleb's brother and SIL. Or as the kids call them "Uncle Nate and Aunt Amanda". Nate and Amanda live out of state and we only get to see them about 3-4 times a year. When they're in town, they love to spend time at the cabin and we enjoy an excuse to get up there too. :) Ellie's had a special bond with them ever since she was a flower girl in their wedding almost 2 years ago so she's really excited to see them. :)

Then, once spring break is over Caleb returns to work for 4 days and then we're off to Breckenridge for a vacation with my side of the family. We'll be gone over the Easter weekend. 

That's 4 sisters and their husbands, my parents, my 3 nieces and 1 nephew, and our 2 kids all staying in the same home. If you counted that's 16 people all under one roof!

It helps that the house we're staying in is large and beautiful (although I hope it's not so beautiful that we destroy it-ha!). 

My family never, I mean NEVER takes a vacation together so I'm REALLY hoping it goes well and that we still like each other when the weekend is over. 

On top of all of the traveling and having fun, we have SIX birthdays to celebrate in March. We have my sister Alli's, then my nephew Nehemiah, then my BIL Jon, then Ethan's 2nd birthday, then my FIL Duncan and my BIL Brian share a birthday at the end of the month. Oy vey!

And then, when it's all said and done it will be April. Whew! I'm exhausted just from writing this post. It's a lot of fun, but a lot of craziness. And a lot of spending. I hope we survive it all. ;)

Presenting Ethan James

This is Jenn, Christine's sister, updating her blog with the news that Ethan James made his arrival earlier than expected. Four days before Christine's scheduled induction date, her water broke early Sunday morning around 6:00am. Ethan James made his arrival at 8:24am. But not before Christine dilated to a full 10cm... without drugs... again. Poor, poor girl. Her babies just come way too fast!

Without further ado...

Ethan James, 6 lbs, 10ozs, 18 inches long.

Mommy and Ethan. One of the most beautiful pictures I've ever seen!

Daddy and Ethan, or as Caleb lovingly refers to him as "My Buddy".

Mom and Baby are doing well! He's nursing like a champ, sleeping all the time, and they're really enjoying this time with him. I'll leave the rest of the details of the little Mister's birth to his mama.

Our Ever Expanding Family

Over the course of a year, our family will have added 3 new family members-again!

I guess this is how my family does it. Two years ago in December, we added 3 new family members over the course of two weeks. First, Elliana was born, then exactly 7 days later my sister Courtney got married to Jeremy, so Jeremy was added in as a brother-in-law, and then 8 days later my niece Reagan was born. It was a crazy and busy time, but a December that we'll always remember.

Now here we are two years later, and it appears that we are doing the same thing all over again-just a little more spread out this time.

First, 9 days ago my niece Ashlynn was born.

Then, last night, my sister Allison became engaged to a wonderful man named Brian. Brian is a strong christian man, he loves the Lord and it's obvious how much he loves Alli and that he really wants what's best for her in all things.

We are so thrilled for them. They are a great couple and a great match for eachother. We're excited to be adding another (and the last) brother-in-law to the family.



I got to hear the proposal story from Allison this morning and Brian did a fantastic job planning out the proposal. It was very romantic! My sister Courtney described it on her blog.

Here is a view of Alli's absolutely GORGEOUS ring! Didn't Brian do a great job?!



The two of them are planning a September wedding. I'm a little jealous. I always wanted a fall wedding. I've said many times that Fall is my favorite time of year and I know it will be a beautiful time of year to get married. For anyone that knows our family, you know we (the sisters) will all be involved in helping to plan the wedding. It's going to be SO fun!

So anyway, that's 2 new family members, and in about 4 months or so, Caleb and I will be adding a new family member of our own. That makes 3! I only wonder how we'll keep up with this trend considering there won't be any more weddings to plan. Maybe the next sister that gets pregnant will have triplets! Please not me. Ha!

CONGRATS again to Alli and Brian!!

Family Matters

This past week has been a very busy, but very exciting one for us and for our extended family.

First of all, I'll begin with last Tuesday (one week ago). I'm sure most of you that follow my sisters have already read about this, but I wanted to get it on my blog too.

My sister Jenn is expecting baby #4 in November. They already have 2 girls and 1 boy and wanted to find out the gender before the baby was born so they could figure out how to arrange bedrooms.

I don't know where Jenn found this idea, but I LOVED it! She and Jon had an ultrasound last Monday. They had the ultrasound technician write the gender of the baby on a card and seal it in an envelope. They then took the envelope to a bakery and asked the baker to put blue icing for a boy or pink icing for a girl inside the cake.

Didn't the bakery do a fantastic job decorating the cake?!?


Then Tuesday night, they invited both sides of their family over for a barbeque. After dinner, they cut into the cake and the gender was revealed. It was SO MUCH FUN!





In case you can't see the icing, they are having another GIRL!! They are naming her Ashlynn Rose and I can't wait to meet and hold her.

We enjoyed this so much that I've been thinking about other creative ways to reveal the gender of a baby for when I'm pregnant again (hopefully soon!).

Then, last Friday evening, Caleb's brother Nate proposed to his girlfriend Amanda. She said YES!! We are SO thrilled to have her as a sister-in-law, and she is so great for Nate.



Aren't they cute?!?


I'm also excited to watch (and maybe help if they need me) them plan their wedding. They are living in Kansas City and the wedding will be there. We are really looking forward to it.

And last but not least, this past weekend we were in Washington to celebrate Grammy's (Caleb's grandma) 90th birthday. We had a wonderful time. The weather was perfect, and it was so great to see Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, Cousins families, etc.

The only hard part was flying with Elliana. She is SO active and she was quite a handfull on the flight out to Washington. She screamed a few times and ran up and down the aisle of the plane several times. Ugh. Thankfully, the flight home was much smoother since there were some sweet little girls sitting behind us. Ellie loved "playing" and "chatting" with them!

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures from the Washington trip at the moment, but as soon as I can "steal" some of my mother-in-laws photos (she took LOTS of great photos), I'll add them on here.

Ahh, what a great week!