Celebrating Brownie's 60th with the family

Alex and Coady came in town Easter weekend.  Cas was out of town with work on Thursday night when they arrived, so Collin and I had a slumber party with my brother and sister-in-law at my parents' house.  Reading with Uncle Alex before bed -

 
On Good Friday, we hit up a park with my best friend and her 3 kids.  Collin and Esmae in the sand-

Random curl of hair, bark on the hand -

Reunited with Daddy later Friday evening results in big grins from both guys -

Though my dad's actual birthday was a week and a half away, we took advantage of family in town, especially Alex and Coady from Indiana, and celebrated his 60th birthday with fajitas at our home Friday evening.  My Uncle Bob and Alex -

Collin joined his grandpa for the singing and candle blowing - 

 
Son & father -

 Coady and Alex -

My cousin Leah and her boyfriend Matt flew in from Seattle -

Posing with my grandma Jewell Rae -

My mom's sister-in-law and brother, Rita and Dick -

Collin being silly -

We had a great time with family and enjoyed celebrating the start of the next decade with my dad!

A Surprise "Sprinkle" shower for my daughter

We left for Hawaii on a Monday because that Sunday night we were attending the wedding of one of my oldest elementary school friends.  So I thought nothing of the invite to meet my friend Kelly from Dallas at a cupcake place near our home on Saturday afternoon, as Kelly was in town for the wedding and wanted to swing by and see our new home.  It was a perfectly reasonable request, and I was excited to pick up some cupcakes, so I threw on jeans and headed to the shop. 

 

I was quite surprised as I walked in and saw my grandma there, then a second later, realized there was a group of friends in a back table decorated with cupcakes and bows.  They had thrown a surprise "sprinkle" - a small gathering to celebrate our daughter Maya and sprinkle us with pink, ruffles, bows, and complete little girl adorable-ness! 

The wreath Amber made that's hanging on her bedroom door -

Amber and her sweet daughter, Esmae Sue -

My friend Michelle - we love seeing Michelle and her daughters for play dates and at church on Sundays and are glad we live so close to their wonderful family -

My friend Elizabeth who we met in the newlywed class and have been friends with for our entire marriage -

My incredibly thoughtful friends and shower hostesses, Kelly and Amber -

My grandma Betty, mother-in-law Libia and my mom - all thrilled to meet their first granddaughter and great-granddaughter -

Cas couldn't get over the pink explosion that hit our home -

And if that wasn't enough to fill her closets and drawers, my friends passed on their girl clothes - and this is just 0-6 month clothing!  We'll have to change our daughter multiple times a day to get through all these outfits!

We are so blessed to have a daughter on-the-way and friends and family who surprise and shower us with love, prayers, cupcakes and plenty of pink!

Kauai Babymoon

Cas qualified for the annual rewards trip with his company, and this year it was to Kauai.  Thankfully my pregnancy cooperated and I was able to join him.  On the Monday we flew back to Houston, I was 33 weeks pregnant and my doctors said no more plane rides.  My sweet husband let me upgrade my flight while he slummed it in coach!

We arrived two days early and got to explore the island on our own before we joined in the structured activities with his co-workers.  Here was our beautiful hotel -

On our first full day on the island, we started our morning with strawberry-macadamian nut pancakes and a crab omelet.  One of the best parts about going to Hawaii 7 months pregnant was not worrying about a big meal creating a stomach pooch!  Then we explored the North Shore beaches like this one:



Cas had a few work calls to manage and so I fielded work off my blackberry too.  The car rental place had stressed not leaving any valuables in cars, so we took all of our electronics to the beach with us.  And though we positioned ourselves far from where the waves were breaking, a rogue wave interrupted my nap and soaked my blackberry.  In jumping up to save our phones, running just a few steps on the beach, I threw my hips out of alignment and then limped for the next 3 days until the corrective moves I had learned in physical theraphy kicked in.  But it was hard for anyone to feel too sorry for me when I had to endure in such a beautiful setting!

 

The next day we visited Waimea valley, the Grand Canyon of Hawaii.  We opted out of hiking, but took photos from the overlooks -

Later that evening we went to the company opening reception at the hotel lagoon -  

Cas and I with some of his co-workers from Houston -

I enjoyed my virgin pina coladas and we were entertained by a hula and fire show -

One of the days, the company chartered catamarans to explore the coast.  I wasn't allowed to participate in my final trimester.  Ironically, Cas and I decided to visit a beach near our hotel on that day which involved a short drive on an unpaved road.  And I have a feeling our daughter was bounced around just as much on the drive as she would have been on the open seas.  The company catamarans were surrounded by whales, and they said they were so close they had to cut the engine and sit for over an hour, with everyone snapping hundreds of photos -

We got to see whales from the hotel breakfast terrace -

We spent the week relaxing.  I went to two water aerobic classes the hotel offered, but most of our hours were spent reading on the beach or pool, with a company-sponsored massage thrown into the mix.  The last night, they had a beautiful outdoor reception -

I posed with Cas' co-workers from New Orleans and Houston -

I'm so thankful we were able to take an incredible, kid-free vacation before we become a family of four!

Snakes on a Bench

When Collin grew tired of drawing on the ground with chalk on the front porch, Grammy let him decorate her bench swing.

 He went to town drawing blue and pink snakes (lines), his specialty -

 Snakes coming to attack Grammy -

 Intense with his chalk -

Clearly he doesn't hear "no" very often at the grandparents' home!

Needs a Bigger Bed . . . for Books

Collin would like to give up naps, but he still needs them . . . and so do we!  So our compromise lately has been to let him pick a few books to look at before he falls asleep.  Then he curls up around his books on his little twin bed -

 
Other days when naptime is over, his bed looks like this . . . probably on days when there was a lot of playing a not a lot of sleeping.  As long as he gives us 2 hours of quiet time, we're okay if some of those days are spent reading rather than napping -

And we're thankful that our boy loves his books!