Tumble Buddies

I've mentioned before that Pierce and I have been doing a mommy & me tumbling class at a little gymnastics center near our house. From what I understand, this is a cheaper, less structured version of what places like Little Gym offer. The class is on Monday mornings and Pierce thoroughly enjoys every minute of it! We only have a few more classes for this season, but will probably try to attend again in the fall (with a new baby, of course!).

On Monday, it was HOT and I'm pretty sure they didn't have they a/c on. As you can see, Pierce worked up a sweat!

I'd say that Pierce has 2 favorite things about this class. One is getting a stamp on his hand at the end right before we leave. The other is the parachute time. Below is a (long) video clip of the parachute time and end of class that I took a couple of weeks ago. Enjoy! :)

Baby blessings

Our dear friends, Nan and Brandon (B also happens to be Shaun's first cousin) welcomed their second child into the world last Friday. Brett Alston weighed 8 lbs., 12 oz. and is precious! I was blessed to be able to visit them on Saturday and snapped a couple pictures. We're so happy for them and are praying for a quick recovery for Nan and a smooth adjustment for all to this new change!

On Saturday, I also attended a baby shower for my sister, Kirsten, given by the ladies at her former church in Richmond. It was quite enjoyable and they cleaned up (and still have 3 more showers to go)! :)

The beautiful Mommy-to-be

Wow - these desserts were amazing!!

I took many, many more pictures and you can see them HERE.

It is finished

This has been a year-long process, all-said, but boy has it been worth it!! We started talking about and looking for a playset for Pierce about this time last year and Shaun completed it's construction this past weekend! Shaun is quite frugal, but when he spends, it's almost always up. He wanted a very good quality, sturdy, safe and long-lasting playset for Pierce. He also wanted it to be something that he could play on with Pierce, not just beside.

We got this 10-year old used set from a family in Maryland. Shaun and his brother spent a very cold and snowy December Saturday disassembling and transporting it. They spent almost 24 straight hours doing this. Because of the cold winter weather, it has been sitting in our garage in pieces for the past several months, being slowly assembled whenever Shaun got the opportunity and some nice weather. I have to give my husband huge props as he put this thing back together almost exclusively by himself. And it is AWESOME! Pierce absolutely LOVES it and I know it is something that our children will enjoy for many years to come. Thank you, Shaun, for all your hard work and diligence on this!!

Pierce wants all his little (and big!) friends to come play with him on his playset!

And this weekend, we also got Pierce's sandbox (received at Christmas from Mimi & Papa...thanks you two!) set up and filled with sand. This is now one of Pierce's favorite things to play in/with!

Weekending

We've had such a fabulous weekend! The weather has been beautiful since Thursday and we're loving it!! On Friday evening, we took Pierce to the Dogwood Festival. Kirsten & Keith met us there and I hadn't brought my camera, but Keith caught these with his phone. Thanks, Keith!

We started out with the carousel because Pierce was not all about riding anything at first! He was the first one on and the anxiety was building as every minute passed waiting for other kids to get on. Once it got going, he enjoyed it very much!

His confidence began to build...he rode the cars around twice!

I'm so proud of my little man! He rode this kiddie roller coaster, which I'm sure is pretty scary for a 2-year old, especially one with such a cautious non-risk-taking personality as my boy has! As you can see, he was staying close to Daddy the whole time!!

The motorcycles were a hit - he rode this one around twice, too.

I'm so glad we were able to get him to ride some rides. We bought a whole sheet of tickets (not terribly cheap!) and at first, I was scared they were going to go to waste. Pierce was walking around saying 'no' to all the rides. Once he got going, though, he had a blast and was even sad to leave. It was a hoot for us adults watching him have so much fun on the rides.

On Saturday morning, we participated in the Walk for Life to benefit our local crisis pregnancy centers. God really blessed us with a beautiful morning and the 2-mile walk around the UVA grounds was fabulous! The turn-out was awesome and I know a lot of money was raised to help this incredible ministry. Shaun was explaining to Pierce where we were going as they were getting ready in the morning and all day he was able to tell people that we were walking to 'help babies in tummies.' Love it!

Here's Pierce before the walk with juice all down his shirt!

Our little group of walkers:

I hope y'all had a very blessed weekend as well!

Baby Update

I don't want to bore y'all with lots of pregnancy talk, but I do want to try to do a better job of documenting this time around than I did with Pierce. I am having to rely a lot on my memory of my first pregnancy and it's not always serving me so well!


I am 16 weeks along today and had a prenatal appointment on Tuesday morning. Pierce went with me and did such a great job. We were in and out in less than 20 minutes and I think his favorite part was riding the elevator! I'll probably take him to many of my appointments (we go just about everywhere else together, after all) and trust that he'll continue to be awesome!


We got to hear the heartbeat for the first time, which is such a reassuring thing for me. The rate was 154 and the doctor found it in less than a second. Praise the Lord! He said it sounded perfect. I have gained the 2 lbs. back that I had lost at the last visit, so I am net 0. I'm pretty sure this was the case with Pierce as well: no weight gain early on, but boy, do I pack on the pounds later! I gained over 40 lbs. with Pierce and I am REALLY hoping not to repeat that this time around (as it is, I'm still carrying around at least 10 of those extra pounds!). Everything else looked good to the doc and he sent us on our way.


I feel like my energy is slowly coming back and while the nausea has not completely subsided (I had to eat crackers in bed early this morning to avoid sickness!), it is much better than it was. The most significant symptom to speak of right now is my dreams. Do pregnancy hormones make your dreams vivid and crazy?? I'm definitely one to dream and remember some of them when I'm not pregnant, but over the past several weeks, they have been so clear and I either wake up from them or remember them in the morning almost every night. I really do not remember this from my first pregnancy. The hardest thing is that most of them involve Pierce being in some kind of danger and they are quite jarring. My friends were telling me recently about these types of "protection" dreams and they are definitely strong for me right now. Shaun says that I must not be sleeping very well to be remembering these dreams so well b/c dreaming is supposed to happen during your heaviest sleep. Maybe that's why I still feel quite drained at times.


Okay, one last thing...I'm still pretty much able to wear non-maternity clothes, but my wardrobe is quickly shrinking and the maternity clothes have been pulled out. I have a little belly poking out, but I mostly feel fat and like most everything is unflattering on me. Oh well! I think I was in maternity clothes around 18 weeks with Pierce and it looks like it might be just a tad earlier than that this time around. Oh and no noticeable movement of the baby felt yet (I don't think), but I'm very much looking forward to that!


Here is a (non-flattering, I think) picture of me taken by Shaun this past weekend. It gives you an idea of what my belly is looking like:

As always, thanks for reading! Many blessings to you all.

Easter Sunday

We had a wonderful Easter Sunday (and whole weekend, actually!). I was not able to get any pictures of our lovely family in the morning before church. We were already running late for our sunrise service and didn't return home from church until after 1:00. We enjoyed awesome fellowship with our church body, worshiping our risen Lord and Savior!

Our whole faith is centered around what Jesus did for us on the cross and the hope that we have in His resurrection, which makes for such a glorious celebration! We are still reading books about Easter around here and talking to Pierce about how the God we serve is ALIVE! It's really a year-round thing, but I love that we take this time out each year to really focus on the sacrifice and love that is Easter.

We enjoyed a visit with my parents in the afternoon and had a delicious dinner together. In years past, we have hosted my whole family at our house, but all my siblings had other plans and were not able to make it this year.

Shaun took close to 200 pictures, but I trimmed them down and you can see them HERE.

Here are a few of my favorites:

Pierce and Papa watching golf.

We didn't do a basket for Pierce, but he was spoiled plenty by both sets of grandparents! Thank you, Grandma & Granddaddy and Mimi & Papa!

He likes to search through the eggs for treats. I've tried VERY hard to limit the amount of sugar he has consumed and we are doling out the candy a little bit at a time.

The weather was beautiful on Sunday (we haven't seen the sun since, but I'm not bitter!) and we had a lot of fun playing outside.

Mimi drew hopscotch on the driveway and we all took turns playing. Boy, did that make me feel old and silly! (For more pictures of the silliness, see above link.)

I pray that everyone had a blessed Easter!!

But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a Man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. 1 Corinthians 15:20-22

Egg Hunt

My Mom's group had a brunch and egg hunt yesterday morning. Pierce did so well and collected 13 eggs!! I wasn't sure how he'd do with the bigger kids, but it was great!

This was the best "posed" picture I could get!

After about 5 minutes of hunting, he promptly dropped his basket right where he was standing and headed right for the playground equipment. He loves to play outside: swinging, climbing, sliding!

And of course, playing with BIG sticks! :)

Fun pictures from our weekend

Pierce and I had a great time visiting family in Richmond this past weekend -- Shaun was not able to join us, unfortunately, due to his very demanding work schedule lately. It had been a LONG time since all the family has been together and we really enjoyed each other.

On Friday night before dinner, Pierce and Sierra watched a little Sing Along Songs (from 1989...brought us back!!).

What's that wild boy up to now?!
On Saturday morning, my mom, Karen, Blakely and I went out shopping for Kirsten's upcoming baby shower (it's a tough job, but somebody's gotta do it!) and Pierce was lovingly cared for by my brother, dad and sister while we were gone. They took him to the playground in my folks' neighborhood and he didn't want to leave after almost 2 hours! Shaun and I are so thankful to those who love Pierce so very much!

Papa told Pierce that he was going to let go...

...and then he did.

Pierce was having a BLAST when Papa would stop him in mid-swing. I love this picture!

Pierce insisted that Papa push Aunt Kirsten, too.

Later on Saturday evening, we celebrated this little sweetie's birthday (a bit early, she doesn't turn 1 until Friday).

I can't believe it's been a year since she was born!!

We also celebrated Uncle Brian and Aunt Karen's birthdays as well and they were gracious enough to let Pierce help them blow out their candles.

What we've been up to

So, I feel like one of the worst bloggers ever! I haven't been able to keep up with posting a few times a week for various reasons and I find that it's like most things: the more you do it, the more you want to do it and the opposite is true as well. I'm not putting pressure on myself, though, and will share as I can!

We had a great and full weekend! Saturday, we spent the whole day at my sister's house helping get their nursery furniture set up (and other projects around their house). We were there for almost 6 hours and Pierce skipped his nap (this wasn't the plan, but he was doing very well and Shaun really wanted to finish what he had started!). I brought my camera, but didn't take any pictures so I'm using some of Kirsten's.

Pierce is such a little helper. He's so used to seeing his daddy doing projects that he wants to get right in there.


Mimi is so patient with Pierce and even let him use the electric screwdrive by himself.

We left from there to head to our friends' house about 45 minutes away for dinner (Pierce did catch a little snooze in the car on the way). I made dessert and let Pierce lick the spoon. He was very happy about it!

By the way, don't you just love the hat?! Kirsten picked this up at a yard sale and Pierce LOVES to wear it. Oh and lately when we say "Go Hoos!" Pierce says "Not Go Hokies! That's what Papa says." Too cute!

We had a great time with our friends on Saturday evening and Sunday was another busy day. Pierce had a birthday party to attend in the afternoon after church, so he, again, missed his nap. I can't believe I let him miss his nap 2 days in a row! (We've been having major nap issues in our house for some time, which is another post entirely.) Sunday was a beautiful day and we had a nice time at the party.

I spent some time on Sunday afternoon reorganizing the playroom. I bought this organizer at Target last week and I love the way it keeps things in their place in the playroom. I'm happy with how it all looks now.

There is more that I'd like to do with this room such as paint and put up new curtains. I'm hoping to get to that sometime next month maybe.

We also bought this train table for Pierce from a friend and got a great deal on it and all the trains and tracks that go with it. It takes up a bit of space, but Pierce really enjoys it. Once I got the playroom in order, it all fits really nicely.

I'm starting to get a little of my energy back and feel like the nausea has mostly subsided. I'll be 14 weeks tomorrow and feel like it's already flying by! We've got quite a bit to do before October and I'm planning to take advantage of my feeling well during the second trimester when I can accomplish more than I have over the past couple of months.

As always, thanks for reading, friends!