Tuesday, April 23, 2013

No News is Good News

The past week in our home has been somewhat uneventful. All three of us have managed to get sick, but I think we're all on the mend now. Not feeling well meant lots of extra rest and sleep over the weekend. I didn't realize how much we needed it, but we absolutely did!

On Friday morning, we got to see some more of our sweet baby boy. 
How anyone can see that little profile and not believe in God is beyond me.
Precious little legs. 
And tiny little feet.

James remembered to ask the tech if we could get another DVD, so we have that, too. I love to watch the DVDs. Probably a little too much.

On Saturday, we got a really neat, new security system at the house. We are now able to monitor our alarm, door locks, thermostat, etc from our phones. How cool is that? It is basically the equivalent of a big toy for me and James. We are pretty much in awe over the whole thing. I'm looking forward to the next time we have guests. We don't have to worry about spare keys anymore!

xoxo ashley

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Re-Meeting Baby Elle

This past weekend was full of family and friends that we are so blessed to have in our lives. 

Friday night, my sweet friend Courtney was set to spend the night. We were leaving early to head up to Brenham for the BlueBell 5K on Saturday morning. The 5K my doctor said I wasn't allowed to run in. After a bit of persistence, I convinced her that I could walk it. Then I got sick. Ridiculous sick. Courtney ran without me. I stayed home and moped.

After I got over my moping, we headed out to a friend's little boy's first birthday party. It was so much fun to see friends and people that are like family to me. I love Kristen's family so very much. 

After the birthday party was an impromptu nap and dinner with Peg, Andy, Corie, Will, and Elle. We got to meet sweet Elle when she was just a few days old, so it was fun to get to see how much she has grown and changed. 

We had a long talk with Cullen about how we needed to be gentle with the baby. I think he was a little bit afraid of her. 
Maybe next time, we can get a picture of Cullen holding Elle. One step at a time!

xoxo ashley

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Sleeping In

This past week has been full of nothing extraordinary. We had lots of family time with Steph's kids, and a fun evening with Megan and Lee for shrimp and (if you're me) a nap on their new couch. We keep trying to squeeze in a bit too much for the sick, pregnant lady, but I wouldn't miss it for the world. 

I think the best part of my weekend was our little family sleeping in on Sunday. We slept until after we should have left the house for church, and it was fabulous. 

Cullen has gotten into the habit of coming downstairs around 7:30 on the weekends with all of his "things." He carts down his pillow, two blankets, and three stuffed animals. I have no idea how he actually makes it down the stairs with all of these items, as he only does it when we're still asleep. Once downstairs, he wakes me up, asks me to cover him with his blankets, and lays there for about 15 minutes before getting bored. I usually use that time to mentally prep myself for actually getting out of bed. Once upon a time, I was a morning person. This pregnancy has taken that away from me.

On Sunday, Cullen slept until 9:30. A special thanks to Megan and Lee for letting him run around their house for hours on Saturday. 
I wish I slept that soundly.

xoxo ashley

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Jesus and the Easter Bunny

I love Easter. Seriously love it. It requires very little prep work, it's a great excuse for fun activities, and Cullen's school is closed on Good Friday, so we're practically forced to take a three day weekend. I was particularly excited about this Easter, because Cullen is reaching a stage where he gets excited about upcoming events. He was pumped about Easter.

We had a pretty good time decorating eggs. I tried to get everything set up in a really organized manner. Oh well. We all had multi-color fingers when we were done, and Cullen's jammies might have a few more spots than they did before. Luckily, the spots blend in well with the webs. 
Cullen thought it was pretty fun to color the eggs. I think he found his calling best in telling us that we could not eat the eggs. They would make our tummy hurt. 
I'm pretty sure I bought an old batch of dye or something. Most of the eggs were unintentionally spotted and awkward. There's always next year! 
After we finished dying the eggs, Cullen asked me to peel one for him to eat. The look on his face says it all. He was not pleased with the cheese-like texture of the egg white. I wish I had a video of his face while he spit out the egg yolk. Cullen is not an egg fan. 
Saturday night, I made a lemon meringue pie for our Sunday lunch with my parents. It came out pretty nicely, if I do say so myself. 
This year was our first Easter to really work on teaching Cullen the true meaning of Easter. It's a tough chore to tell a three year old about crucifixion, death, and rising from the dead. Just mentally come up with an age-appropriate story. Harder than you might think, right?

Cullen interpreted it a few different ways. One of them was that Jesus would be hunting Easter eggs with Cullen. Jesus is our friend, so I let that one slide. The most prominent interpretation completely wiped out the Easter Bunny (fine by me), and replaced EB with Jesus. 

On Sunday morning, Cullen woke me up to tell me that Jesus put fun things in his basket. He then proceeded to tell me that Jesus drove away in His car before Cullen had a chance to say thank you. I didn't have the heart to correct him. Jesus gave us so much, and I'm fine with Cullen believing that Jesus popped by to put some marshmallow Peeps in his basket.  

Who wants to ruin Easter for this little guy? Not me.
Cullen ate the head off three Peeps and gave up on the sugar. I don't think he's touched his Easter candy since then. I should probably throw it out before he remembers that it's there.
I was too sick for Easter morning church, but that didn't stop me from forcing Cullen into a button-down for his Easter egg hunt in the front yard. Let's just ignore the fact that he's in shorts and flip flops.  
Did Jesus hide Easter eggs in your garden? Pretty special, right? 
Our next Easter will involve one more Easter basket. Can't. Wait.

xoxo ashley

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Elton John and Crawfish

Yesterday was our seven year wedding anniversary. It's so funny how some people say that the time feels like it has actually been longer. James and I talked about how it seems like there's no way it's been seven years. I guess it means we're doing something right. 

We rarely do big gifts for any occasion. The fact is, we don't need a whole lot, and we're usually happy without adding more stuff to our home. A couple of months ago, I found out that Elton John was coming to town. James was given the option of going with me or letting me go with someone else. He opted to be my date, and we decided to call it our anniversary gift, because the concert was just a few days prior. 

Even better than an Elton John concert? Free child care with one of our favorite family members! Cullen loves visiting Aunt Peggy, and he is quick to shove us out the door when he knows we aren't staying. I get the feeling he doesn't have to follow as many rules when I'm not around.

Peggy is so sweet to sit on the floor while Cullen repeatedly serves her the same pizza and chips over and over and over again.
And who else gives projectile foam missiles to three year olds?
We had plans for a nice dinner at McCormick and Schmick's before the concert. Things didn't go exactly as planned, but we did actually wind up eating there for a quick bite. 

Elton John. Sold out. Yes.
I don't think I have ever enjoyed a concert so much. The show was fantastic, I had a lot of fun, and I sang along to almost every single song. I know it wasn't James' first choice for entertainment, but I think he had a pretty good time, too. 
On our actual anniversary, we decided to go to a local restaurant for crawfish. We split eight pounds, and I'm pretty sure I ate almost half of it. I wasn't even remotely surprised to be sick later, but I sure enjoyed our family dinner out for our anniversary.
The last seven years have flown by. I can't wait to see what the next seven bring. 

xoxo ashley

Monday, April 1, 2013

Seven Years

Seven years ago, two very important events occurred.

My precious little nephew was born.
And I got to marry my best friend. 
How much luckier can a girl get?

xoxo ashley