Easter weekend

The Friday before Easter we took a drive down to Forest Hill, Maryland to stay with our good friends the Niehoffs for some Easter time fun. We always have a blast and there is always tons of fabulous food. They treat us so good. We call them our east coast family because they really take care of us, especially Miss Lucy. They love to spoil the little missy. The Easter bunny came early to their house and brought Luce a bunch of goodies, including a mega pack of playdough. That entertained Lucy, me, Kate, and J-Wal for a good hour. We're all still little girls at heart. Kate gave Lucy a beautiful play dough manicure.

She was pretty excited about it.

 We made all sorts of animals and things. Lucy has really been into birthdays lately so she requested I make her a birthday cake with 3 candles since she's turning 3. She was tickled pink with her mini cake, especially the sprinkles.

 She asked us to sing to her and everything. Then she blew out the candles and started taking it apart and giving everyone a piece.

 Later Luce and Trey went out back to set up the tent for their camping extravaganza. She was soooo excited. She was a good little helper to her daddy.

 I opted for a bed in the warm house, being 32 weeks pregnant and all.

We picked crabs for dinner and then after we set up the Xbox for some Just Dance 3 action. Lucy had to dance every single dance with all the ladies.

 Here's a short video clip...

We thought that would for sure wear her out because she danced for a good hour straight. She actually told us she wanted to go to sleep(this NEVER happens) so we thought she would for sure pass out once they got out to the tent. She must have got her second wind because Trey said she was ready to play when they got out there. Her definition of camping is closing her eyes and pretending to snore. Trey said she did that for a good half hour before she actually went to sleep.
The next morning we got up and got dressed up to go to the D.C. Temple. Luce got to color a few eggs and go through the Niehoff's dress ups before we headed out.

We met up with one of my besties Tara in Silver Springs for some Chick-Fil-a and then she took Luce and we headed to the temple. It was so nice to go escape the world for a while and remember the things that are truly important. I'm so happy we were able to go before baby girl arrives. Who knows when we'll get to make it down there again. Thank you so much T!!! It was so fun to see my T-bone and catch up on things. It's fun to have her as a fellow east coaster, even though it's just temporary.
We headed back to Hershey that evening. We had an extremely low-key Easter Sunday at home after all the weekend fun. The Easter bunny came, we went to church, colored eggs, and had the lamest Easter dinner ever. We didn't really plan ahead so we just had to scrounge up whatever we could find at home, which wasn't much. Ah well. C'est la vie!
The Easter bunny brought the Go Fishing game! I loved that game so much when I was a kid.

 Lucy looked so stinkin' cute in her Easter dress. It's the same one she wore last year and I was so sad we didn't get a picture of her last year so I was set on getting one this year but she was not cooperating so here it is from the back.

 And here's one from after church when Lucy attacked her daddy. She loves to wrestle these days.

I told her to smile and this is what she gave me...lovely. We got the tie dye kit this year for our eggs, it was really fun. Messy, but fun.

Nesting and such

Say hello to my little friend! Yippee!! I love our new camera. Since I can't really take a picture of it, here is a picture of what it looks like...

It's really thin and a whole lot smaller than our old Canon. Lucy definitely won't be allowed to get her paws on this one.

I made a fun little case for it since we are too cheap to buy one. :) I like how it turned out. I didn't really use a pattern, I just kinda winged it with some left over fabric from our pillows.

Now that we have a camera I finally took pictures of the fun little things I've made for the little bean.

BEANIES

I took a knit shirt I was going to send to Goodwill and made it into 2 knit hats. I'm hoping she has a small head because they are bitty, especially the one on the right. Good thing they're super stretchy. I used this tutorial. I'm planning on bringing the smallest one to the hospital to go with her take-me-home attire. It's super thin so she won't be sweating in it.

BOWS & FLOWERS

I made these with fabric. I think I'll make them into clips. If I'm feeling daring within the next few weeks I might make a simple peasant dress with the purple polka dot material to match the bow.

 I got a little carried away but these are so fun to make! Most of them I just used eco-fi felt (you can get it for 29 cents a sheet at Joanns) and some ribbon for the bows on the bottom right. I used this tutorial for the felt flowers and bows. The line of bows on the left and the 3 stacked flowers are itty bitty, I'll probably just stick them on her head with Karo syrup (it totally works!). The ribbon bows will go on thin headbands and I'll make the bigger flowers into clips.

CAR SEAT COVER & CHANGING PAD

I found this fabric online and fell in love with it! I used this tutorial and made a car seat cover. We just used a blanket for Lucy so it will be nice to have something that's secure on there. It turned out a little big, I think our car seat isn't as beefy as most so if you're going to make one just keep that in mind (we have a Graco). I had a little bit of fabric left so I used that to make her a changing pad.

STUFFED ANIMAL FRIENDS

And of course she needs a sock monkey. I'm pretty sure big sister won't be down with sharing any of her stuffed animals that she sleeps with so I wanted to make the little lady a little friend that was just her own. I used this tutorial for sock monkey.

And then I went ahead and made one more little friend for her that matched the receiving blanket I made for her awhile ago. I love the fabric so much, it kind of reminds me of a Liberty of London print. I don't have a pattern with this one, I just kinda made it up as I went.

I still have a few more projects up my sleeve that I hope to finish before the lady makes her debut, such as:

• a tiny peasant dress - I intend to get over my fear of making clothes. I don't know why this intimidates me so much. Probably because of my craft OCD.
• pacifier clips
• funkifying some onesies - I have a few of plain white onesies that I want to have some fun with. Tie dye anyone? :)

I'm currently 33 weeks along! Holy crap! I still feel like there is so much to do! We did have some major spring cleaning and organizing going on last week so I do feel better about that. We made some room for her in our room by moving Trey's gigantor desk to the front room. It's amazing how much more space we have now.

It's getting a little harder to do everything these days as the belly keeps growing. I can't see my feet at all when I look down, ha ha. I can still wear my wedding ring, which is nice. I'm not quite as swollen as I was with Lucy. This girl is sitting high and straight out. And boy is she active! She's currently practicing her synchronized swimming routine as I am typing this.

Here is my view from above these days...

 I had to lean over a bit to find my feet...

And thar she be!

The usual response I get from people who ask me how far along I am is, "Oh wow!" Yep, still have 7 weeks left to grow peeps. I'm still feeling pretty darn good though. Because she sits so high, most nights I can sleep the whole night without getting up to go pee. It's pretty sweet. I'm enjoying it while it lasts.

Alright, well time to head to bed friends. I'll post some Easter pictures soon. Over and out!