New Swingset!

They had a swingset on sale at Toys 'R' Us this week, so on Sunday we bit the bullet and got it. I don't know who was more excited, Hayden or us. Here are some pictures. He woke up first thing this morning and asked to go swing. We can't wait to get our fence put up so that we can just open the back door and let him go!

Kindermusik

For the past 10 weeks or so, Hayden has been attending Kindermusik. There were only 2 other kids in there and they were both younger, but he still enjoyed going to his music class every week. Ms. Jennifer is a great teacher and really did a lot with them. They always sang their hello and goodbye song and played instruments 3 or 4 times intermittently. She usually also read them a book and taught them some of the instrument classifications and musical words. Their favorite thing, though, was probably the parachute and scarves. I will definitely take Livee when she is big enough!

Playing instruments! We learned about steady beats and different voices (calling, singing, whispering, etc.).

Under the parachute!

Parachute time! Up and down like a carousel.

Can You Catch Me?

Here is a random picture of Hayden. He put on my shoes along with his Wolverine "claw" and asked me to take his picture. He's too funny sometimes.

27 Weeks, Doctor Visit, and Sugar Test

Well, I am 27 weeks along and had a doctor's visit today. Dr. Hutchins did an ultrasound and Livee is measuring perfectly for her gestation date. She is 2 lbs, 5 oz.

I had gained 8 lbs this month, which is a big "Yikes!" for me. But I'm just going to try to eat better next month and regularly exercise, something I had been slacking off on. My sugar test came back at 138, and the cutoff is 140. So my doctor said to watch the sugar intake, which I had planned to do anyway. I told her I eat less sugar than most people, but I have been pretty bad the last month or so. Sugar is one thing that I can really get addicted to eating.

Anywho, I've gained around 15 lbs so far and if I can keep it under control then I will more than likely gain 25-30 overall. Here are the updated baby bump pictures.

On the left is 23 weeks, and on the right is 27 weeks.

I will go back in 3 weeks for another check-up and then will be scheduled for non-stress tests, which I do not look forward to doing. They're just so boring! I don't know how many I will have to have, but Dr. Hutchins sounded like it would be pretty often. After that I will go back every 2 weeks a couple of times and then every week. They will more than likely do another ultrasound at 32 weeks, then every 2 weeks after that.

I feel like I'm in the home stretch now, but then sometimes it seems like July will never get here! The critical period for monitoring Livee's growth is coming up, simply because 29 weeks is when it's more likely to stall, so keep us in your prayers!

Easter Basket Video!

Easter!

Let me preface this by saying that last year Dave and Hayden had the stomach virus on Easter weekend, so we really enjoyed not being sick this year!

On Friday Hayden had a playdate at the jumping place with our friends the Pilgrim's. He loves his friends Ryan and Emily and we are so thankful that they have "adopted" us. Then we came home and just had a typical day of activities: painting, coloring, playing, napping, etc. On Saturday, Dave and Hayden dyed Easter eggs. Hayden really enjoyed putting each egg in the dye and flipping them over to get the perfect color.

That night, Hayden put out his basket with the eggs in it for the Easter Bunny to collect. (I don't know why I came up with this, but since we didn't hide them I figured he needed to do something with them.) Sunday morning I woke up and went down to breakfast. I thought for sure that Hayden would be up any moment, so I hurried and got ready. He didn't wake up until 8:45! We had to dress him upstairs and then let him come down and look at his basket right before we headed out the door to church. The Easter Bunny left him Bumblebee (a Transformer, which could have been the only thing in the basket as far as he was concerned), a superhero book, bath tub crayons, a baseball glove with ball, a Veggietales DVD, a cup with his name on it, Transformers fruit snacks, and candy. Hayden had begged for Bumblebee for at least a month, so needless to say he has not let it out of his hand since he got it!

I just couldn't get a smiling picture of him in his Easter outfit! He's a goober!

Note the Bumblebee in his hand!!!

Our church service was awesome and even Hayden said "This was great!" when we picked him up in the nursery! We really are lucky to have found a great church that Dave and I both enjoy. We became members a couple of months ago. Our preacher is awesome and I have to say that they really went all out yesterday. The music was spectacular and they had witnesses giving testimony. Everyone there was touched in some way.

After church we hit the road to Birmingham. We stopped and ate lunch at Subway because it was 12:45 at that point and the pregnant lady needed to eat! We arrived at Dave's parents around 3:00 and looked at their new table and carpet, which looks great. Then Hayden opened his Easter basket that the Easter Bunny left for him at their house. There were washable markers, a Spiderman kite, and candy. I think we have enough candy to last until Halloween! Then Gramma had fixed plastic eggs with money and more candy inside, so Hayden got to hunt Easter eggs. We sat around and visited after that, and then we ate dinner. We had pork tenderloin, potato salad, deviled eggs, green beans, broccoli and rice casserole, and baked beans. For dessert there was strawberry shortcake or brownies with ice cream! Yum! It was all delicious! The most surprising part was that Hayden ate his whole plate of food. We couldn't believe it!!! That made it not quite so bad that he had a ridiculous amount of candy yesterday. At around 8:30, we headed back to Georgia in the rain. Poor Dave had to drive b/c I was exhausted at that point, didn't have my glasses, and he had taken a nap (sitting straight up in a chair) earlier. Overall, we had a great day and were glad to get to spend Easter Sunday in the 'Ham.

Livee's Picture

So I went to this website - makemebabies.com - and made a "picture" of Livee. Ha!