Easter and California Baby Shower

*Updated thanks to Josh: 

Survival Tip #14: 'Everything in moderation...including moderation'

Lordy, Lordy! Over a month since my last post! Geez. And it's not like I even have the excuse of being busy at work anymore. Did you know I struggle with time management? Well, I do. It has almost made being at home more difficult, because now all my time is free to my discretion and not structured for me. To top it off, I'm unorganized and a procrastinator. I am working towards getting better at this, but have a feeling this won't be the last time I do such a poor job at keeping my blog updated, but here goes!


So today I'll talk about Easter, and tomorrow I'll give a pregnancy update. From there... we will see how things go.


We were able to go to CA for Easter! It was so nice, not only to be warmer, but to visit with family and friends. Most of the time when we go to my home we are so focused on trying to spend time with family that friends are neglected, but not this time! My sweet step-family threw me and Baby a shower (with a "nesting birds" theme), and I was able to spend time with so many friends I don't get to see often enough! I would have been just as happy if no one brought a single gift and we were able to just eat and chat, but Baby and I were extremely blessed with some great gifts too!

Colleen, Natalie, Alia and Ashley. First visit with them in years!

beautiful decorations

It was funny to register because we are going to find out if we're having a boy or girl, but 1) don't know yet and 2) don't know much about baby things in general! I was able to read some websites (lucieslist.com is awesome), read friends' reviews of products, and ask for a bit of advice, but still have a lot to learn! Tomorrow I have my four-month check up, and from there we will schedule the anatomy ultrasound that will tell us if we are expecting a little girl or boy! It will be so great to be able to envision our baby in a new way, not  that we will know his/her hair or eye color or things like that; I just imagine it will be different.

Back to California. We were also able to spend LOTS of time with family. It is amazing how fast life changes in so little time. The niece and nephews are growing up so fast! I woke up Saturday morning to little Jackson babbling away "Uncle Vander. Uncle Vander. Where's Uncle Vander?"So cute! Melanee was visiting from New Zealand to work on wedding things and visit family. I also really enjoyed bonding with my family as a pregnant woman. Lots of good advice was shared (I wish I had a tape recorder)! Stacey is about 8 weeks ahead of me in her pregnancy, which is fun and exciting!

Can't wait to put this on our sweet baby!

Another highlight, I was able to eat LOTS of yummy food! It is amazing! I indulged in everyone one of my pregnancy cravings I can't get in WA: In N Out and King Eggroll! I pity the people who have not experienced the yumminess. After consuming 6 eggrolls and three #3s in a weekend, I am so glad I do not live in CA anymore; I would certainly be HUGE by the time October rolls around.

*quick aside: I am typing this while watching The King's Speech. It makes me want to use proper language as I type. If I slip into using a voice that does not sound like my own, now you know why.*

We had a lovely Easter. We were able to attend church at CCCM, the church I went to (and worked at) when I lived in CA. Afterwards we picked up Jesse (my brother), had a pizza lunch, and headed off to Rita's for celebrating. More yummy food, the kids had an egg hunt and then the grown ups had a hunt of their own. This year, for the first time, we hid eggs for the grown ups that either had money, candy we didn't want the kids to eat, or nothing in them. It was fun and we actually got Marshall to participate :).

On the way home we were able to grab coffee with my mom in Redding. It was nice to see her and catch up, even if it was just for a little bit.

It was too fast a trip, as always, but it was really fun and we came home feeling really blessed. I didn't take too many pictures this trip, but here are a few more from the shower! It is hard to think to take pictures when you feel crummy.

Melody!

Kim and I in our prom pose