Fun fun fun

We enjoyed a wonderful weekend visit from Michael's brother, Caleb, his wife, Shannyn, and their two hilarious kids. I forgot to take pics on our hike in the Shenandoah National Forest, but here are a few other highlights of our weekend. I most especially enjoyed just talking and laughing--that's my favorite part of every family visit.

 The three brothers. Hyrum is now as tall as Michael. Crazy.

 Clark and Clara got along well with both of her cousins, which was so nice. But why on earth don't I have a pic of Jane and her amazing dimples?

 Watching a movie.

 Michael is becoming a grill master.

 Dinner time--love Clara's face. I failed to take a pic of the other side of the table with Hyrum and Michael :-(.

 For the cookbook. (Michael is very good at reminding me, "Do you need to take a picture of this?")

 Clara just loved Caleb and Shannyn and not only preferred having Caleb read to her, but she also asked Shannyn to put her to bed.

This is one of my all-time favorite pictures--if we could just hear the sound of Hyrum and Michael laughing together, it would be a family treasure. But now Hyrum will be gone for nearly the entire month of June, and we miss him already.

Family rocks. Thanks again for coming, guys!

Growing

I was organizing Clara's closet this past weekend and pulled out a few of the clothes I had saved from her babyhood.

                  

Clara saw the bear costume that I had made back in 2008 for her Halloween costume. (There was a little bear mask, as well). Can you believe this cutie pie?!  And look at her foot--I had covered her purple cast from her leg with a brown sock as camouflage.

Clara insisted on trying it on, and even with shorts and a t-shirt on underneath, it amazed me that it still fit, although now as shorts. The fact that she had taken out her braid from the day before and brushed her hair out by herself really adds to the "scary bear" look, don't you think?

My question is, how is it possible that she is now seven years old and about to have a baby brother? Mind-boggling.

Pregnancy

This pregnancy has taken a whole lot longer than nine months. I still have nine weeks to go and I feel like the weeks crawl by. The comments about how big I am, whether or not I am carrying twins, or "Wow, not until July?!" don't help much either.

But I remind myself that I am so grateful I'm not on bed rest, that this baby boy is alive and reminds me of it daily through his active kicking and squirming, and the fact that we are actually going to have another child. Very weird and scary but wonderful.

Clara is so cute with the baby in utero. She comes up and kisses my tummy and likes to feel him kicking. I am trying to prepare her for the realities of a newborn, but frankly, it's going to be an adventure for all of us.

This video was taken at 28 weeks, I believe. You might have to turn up the volume to hear Hyrum in the background.

Other shtuff

As for a re-cap on other happenings 'round these parts, here's a sampling:

 We baked sugar cookies out of a classic 1957 Betty Crocker kids' cookbook from my mom.

 Clara pretended to be a dog. Or a bear. Or a lion. She doesn't like to be anything scary, though--a "baby lion" or a "cub" or a "puppy" is infinitely preferable over the adult version. At our house, asking Clara to do something in a regular voice does not always guarantee compliance. But saying it in an "Ernie" voice or a "puppy" voice or an anything voice pretty much does.

Clara had hat day at Cub Run Elementary.

 Michael let Clara watch the classic version of "The Karate Kid" with him several weeks ago. Since then, Clara continually wants us to be Mr. Miyagi (she has dubbed me Mrs. Miyagi) and she is "Miyagi-daughter." We have to use the right voice, or she corrects us. She especially loves it when Michael gives her a "karate lesson."

 We went to the children's museum on Charlottesville over Spring Break. It was pretty paltry, I must say, but it was a fun diversion.

This was the coolest part--the tubes blow air and shoot out different handkerchiefs or sponge balls.

See my next post for a video of me in my pregnant splendor. Or something.

Easter

I didn't realize I hadn't posted these pictures. Man, I am behind. I have been very unmotivated to do things on the blog--maybe it's because I am not happy with its current design. Or I'm lazy. Or I'm stressed. Or lazy.

I love Easter and had big plans to spend each day reading about the last week of Christ's life, doing the Resurrection Eggs for Family Home Evening, etc. That all went to pot when I went down to Atlanta, which I don't regret, but it did make our Easter a bit less meaningful than I would like in the future.

Anyway, here are some highlights of our brief Easter festivities.

 Normally we do our egg hunt on Saturday, but Michael couldn't be there so we had it on Friday.

 I made Hyrum carry around a basket--of course, it didn't fit all his eggs, but whatever. I mean, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to take a photo of a large teenage boy in a sweatsuit with an itty-bitty Easter basket, could I?

 The loot--I bought too much candy, even though I thought I was being lean this time. Well, live and learn. Speaking of learning, Clara seems to prefer non-chocolate candy to the chocolate candy (crazy), so next year she might just be getting some jelly beans and gumballs and we'll call it good.

We dyed eggs--Hyrum couldn't be there because he had a tournament, I believe. Anyway, I loved the tradition of dying eggs growing up, but I don't think my family is a big fan of hard-boiled eggs--I am not sure if Michael ate more than three, and Clara didn't eat any. I think it's because they're a pain to peel. Not sure if we'll do it again next year.

Speaking of peeling, when I was in Atlanta I watched a youtube video with my brother Bryan about how to blow the peel off an egg, and we did it and it worked! But then when I came home and tried to reproduce it, I was unsuccessful and must at some time redeem myself to prove to the menfolk that it is possible.

I love Easter and its message of hope, don't you?