Easter

The girls Easter baskets.

Lovey, Sittre Paige,

the bunny cake and Pops

The camera hog.

My handsome husband and beautiful girls.

The SISTERS.

Here are some of our Easter pictures. The girls were beautiful in their dresses made by my awesome Aunt Debra. We had a wonderful Sunday and even left Stella in the nursery so we could worship. Jared and I really wanted to be able to sit in church, after nearly 3 months of not being able to go, and just worship. Plus its a lot easier to let the second one go.....I mean, that sounds horrible but with Sittre Paige we were so cautious and always wanted to have our eyes on her and I guess you just know with the second one that they are fine and your just in the other room if they need you but we still missed her and ran to get her after church was over. Actually I ran to get her after the message, didn't make it all the way but maybe next week. Anyway, we hunted eggs all day, had a great Easter lunch and ate the "bunny cake" that Pops and Lovey helped Sittre Paige make. Supposedly my mom made my brother and I this cake every Easter but I can't seem to remember it??? Sorry mom. But I trust that you say you made it with us? It was good, and we just had a day of family time which was much needed during this very busy time in our life. Hope everyone had a lovely Easter.

Certainly a Good Friday

What a Good Friday it truly was.
First today I am so thankful for Good Friday and what it commemorates, the crucifixion of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the suffering and His death. But the exciting part of today is that 3 days later he arose from the grave. He's ALIVE!! He was sent to die so that a wretch like me can live and I will forever praise His holy name. I am a whosoever......John 3:16
Second, our Stella had her 2 month Dr. visit today! Jared was off work so he got to go with all his girls today. God is doing some wonderful things in our baby right now. She weighed in at 9 pds 11 ounces, in our eyes our preemie is huge!! She is certainly catching up fast! Her sister weighed around 11 pounds at this age so Stella is right on track. Her length is 20 3/4 inches. Stella is finally on the charts and in the 12% range. Which is awesome considering last visit she wasn't even on the charts! The dr. asked us all the questions he would a regular baby at 2 months and she passed with flying colors!! Well as much as they can do at 2 months, which would be staying awake more, becoming alert, holding the head up, smiling, and some cooing. She is doing all those! Praise! The prayers are working, and I never once doubted the wouldn't! We are not giving Stella the chance to be remotely behind! The Dr. also said the true test to see how caught up she is will be her 4 month checkup because she should be doing lots more then, so we shall see, but we know she's in God's grasp and we couldn't be more proud of this baby! She will continue to be on the preemie formula, Neosure, until her 4 month visit. She needs the extra nutrition that it gives a little longer. She is still on a vitamin daily and the Dr. put us on Zantac to help her acid reflux and some of the heartburn she is possibly feeling. The saddest part of the visit was the shots. FOUR! I mean if that doesn't break your heart! Jared and I both had tears in our eyes. For a baby that only cries when shes hungry, if even that, we were feeling her pain! We haven't even heard her cry that hard before! She's so sweet, it was really hard! Our sadness was broken when Sittre Paige started laughing???? What??? I said "why are you laughing at your sister crying, I mean do you want 4 shots"?????? I said "we do NOT laugh at sister crying, because when she cries it means shes HURT!" Sittre Paige stared at me and said "oh". Jared and I came to the conclusion that since Stella rarely cries, that Sittre Paige apparently didn't know what reaction to take to that???!!! She does now. She's hilarious and couldn't be more funny at 3 years old! She cries on the soccer field and laughs in the Dr. office.....should that not be turned around?
Well, I am off to bed, getting ready for an "exciting" soccer game in the morning. Thanks for the prayers!! If you don't mind sending one out for SP in the morning.....as stated in the previous blog, this isn't really her "thing".

Soccer-NO, Diva-YES

Okay, it has been a major chaotic couple of weeks for us yet VERY exciting as well. The past 2 weekends I have been a bridesmaid in 2 wonderful friends weddings, and in one of those, Sittre Paige was the flowergirl, and also Sittre Paige had her first soccer game. Now, I should mention, we NEVER thought that soccer would be her thing, but we thought it would be a fun thing she could do with her friends to run around and just get out of the house. So we signed her up and long story short, Jared became the coach......yep. Jared is the soccer coach. I am very supportive of my husband, but had to laugh when he turned to me and said, "wait I don't know anything about soccer". So its been a learning experience for both he and Sittre Paige. Well, back to the first game, yea, we found out quickly that Sittre Paige is NOT an athlete. Poor thing, she inherited that from me, her mother. She cried the WHOLE game and stood in the middle of the field saying "they won't give me the ball"!!!. She did finally start running when Mrs. Kim, the OTHER teams coach held her hand!!! Now, at the time I couldn't have been more frustrated with her. I didn't understand, why she just didn't run back and forth down the field. I didn't care if she kicked the ball or even scored a goal, I really just wanted her to run around. But apparently thats not her thing. Now my friend Staci's daughter, Kenley Grace, is on the team and Staci found all of my frustration and Sittre Paige's crying very funny. She was laughing the whole time and I was upset the whole time. So needless to say, soccer is NOT something we will pursue with Sittre Paige. And coaching is NOT something Jared will pursue atleast not coaching his own daughter! But I posted a picture of the team right before Sittre Paige had her meltdown. That same day, Sittre Paige had to be a flowergirl in one of my best friends wedding, Lauren. I had prayed so hard all week that she would cooperate. There was another little girl who was also a flowergirl, so I knew she would do good with someone else walking down the aisle with her. After a long day of taking pictures, it was time for the wedding and she did great. Although she didn't throw her flowers because she held the other flowergirls hand, they both did so good. I posted pictures of them together. They were so cute together and got along great, her mom, Lori Mercer, is a photographer and took some fabulous pictures of Sittre Paige for me. So to wrap this up, I have embraced what my child is.........a major DIVA who can't play soccer!! She is ALL girl with little to none athletic skills, and who can blame her......look at her mom!

Lastly, both Lauren and Melissa were truly 2 of the most beautiful brides I have ever seen. It was an honor to be in both weddings and have such wonderful friends.

Stella has her 2 month Dr. appt on Good Friday so I will update her progress then. But so far she is still growing and doing great. My friend Staci brought over her new baby, Hudson, over to the house so we could compare size because I am obsessed with knowing if Stella is catching up with other babies so I posted a picture of them together. They are 5 weeks apart and I would say that Stella is holding her own for being a 34 week preemie! They are pretty much the same size and were both pretty much not happy about having their picture made!!