15/52

"a portrait of each of my children, once each week, in 2018"

Jaden: Your egress window for your bedroom finally arrived and will be installed soon, and I think you are finally getting a little excited about your new digs. We set up your new bed frame in your new room, ordered you a new basketball pillow for your bedding and have fun plans in place for some really cool decor to go on your walls. Your current room is already starting to transform into a nursery with bits and pieces of pink items being set out here and there... and you're being a good sport about it!

Brandon: You are so eager for baby girl. The other night you grabbed one of her baby books and brought it over to me on the couch, asking if you could sit beside me and read out loud to her. One book turned into three, and by the end we were planning a date - just you and me - out to the bookstore to pick out more books for her collection together.

Pregnancy || 28 Weeks

I realize this blog has been a little slow lately. In fact, this will probably be the new trend once baby girl arrives anyway. :)

I have hit the third trimester, and life feels sweet. The birds are singing, the sun is shining, and we have a calendar filling up with beautiful plans, events and celebrations over the next two months. I feel like I have come out of hibernation in a sense - it was a long winter, and I didn't feel my best. And though I continue to grow in size, and my ability to breathe with ease continues to get worse, I'm bound and determined to soak up what remains of this pregnancy. It's such a gift - an answer to prayer - and it's going by at a rapid pace now.

We have a fun, extended weekend ahead. Baby showers, track meets... and maybe a backyard fire, too. Hello, spring. Hello, home stretch.

Pregnancy || 27 Weeks

14/52

"a portrait of each of my children, once each week, in 2018"

Jaden: Signs you are growing up. 1. This is the only picture you allowed me to take of you this week. 2. You were grounded from the iPad and going to neighbors' houses this week because you left your cell phone outside for two whole days - only to be discovered when we had to go outside and look for it at 9:00 at night - with four inches of snow piled on top of it. Good thing it's waterproof. 3. I caught you heating up an overflowing bowl of leftover goulash in the microwave one day at 4:15 in the afternoon. It was a good thing I did catch you because it was at least two weeks old and had been shoved in the very back of the fridge. Yuck. You are giving us a run for our money, child. These pre-teen years are getting interesting.

Brandon: You have completed three full track practices and enjoy the sprints and long jump the most. You got stuck with the distance runners one practice, and though it definitely wasn't your cup of tea, I was so proud of you! You ran two 400's and two 800's without any break in between - and never walked or gave up until you crossed the finish line. And when you do get to run sprints? You're one of the fastest ones!

Pregnancy || 26 Weeks

Easter 2018

It was a chillier Easter than we'd like. I always prefer when Easter falls in late April, as the chance for decent weather is much greater. This year, we avoided the two outdoor egg hunts we were planning on attending and missed our yearly visit to see the baby goats. The entire weekend, I kept thinking ahead to next Easter, with it falling later in the calendar... and envisioning a baby girl in a pretty little Easter dress. I think next year, we'll be making up for this year's lack of pictures. ;)

All of that being said, we still enjoyed a festive weekend even if it did lack some of the traditions we've grown accustomed to. I was hoping to have a big egg hunt in our own backyard, this being the first Easter in our new home, but cancelled those plans on Saturday for a much warmer day inside our home. We still managed to color some eggs, dress the house up for spring a few weeks prior to the holiday... and spent the two weeks leading up to Easter reading bedtime books about spring and Jesus and His precious gift to us.

Though the Saturday of Easter weekend did not include our normal traditions, we filled our home with family and friends, many of who came to help us continue to make progress on our basement bedroom build out as we inch ever so closely to the birth of baby girl. Saturday night we threw an impromptu Final Four gathering, complete with appetizers and chicken wings and pizzas. And then after the boys went to bed... a little later than normal... we prepared for Easter morning...

After Easter basket surprises that included the new Star Wars movie release on DVD, some new basketball socks for Jaden and a rub-ix cube for Brandon, new summer shirts for both boys, plenty of chocolate and fruit snacks... and some fun new chapter books... we made it to church with plenty of time to spare, dressed in our Sunday best.

Church was warm and full, and afterwards we headed out to Grandpa Don and Grandma Alda's for ham and chicken and our annual Frey Farm egg hunt. Yes, it was chillier than previous years, but at least it was dry, the sun came out here and there... and the kids didn't seem to notice the cooler temperatures.

Jaden was as competitive as ever scooping up those plastic eggs filled with money and candy, Brandon was incredibly sweet helping his younger cousins with some of the easier-to-find hidden eggs, and baby girl even got in on the action - receiving her very first pair of shoes as her Easter gift from Nana Deanne and Papa Tim. I just love those adorable unicorn flip-flops!

My mom and dad came over for a gift exchange upon our return home, and we shared a quiet Easter night as a family - watching our new Star Wars movie in our pajamas.

It was a fun, full weekend, but we are ready for some real spring weather around here. 60 degrees is finally just two days away!