family fun family fun

for several reasons, the girls and i headed to greensboro for a long weekend. for one it was my mom's birthday. two, courtney and her kids were going to be there. three, nanny was coming. and four, we have free passes to the asheboro zoo and this would give us another chance to use them :) so wednesday we loaded up and headed out.
when we got there we had cake and opened presents.

brooke, of course loved the cake!

steven too!

the three birthday honorees

thursday, through the rain, we headed to the natural science center. we had been before and once again the kids loved it.

all the kids loved the bouncy thing

friday, with a small break in the rain, we went to the zoo. of course the kids loved seeing the animals. nanny got a scotter to ride around the zoo. she and i shared it and the kids enjoyed it too :)

hana enjoyed the monkeys

brooke enjoyed the scooter :)

saturday, since it was STILL raining, we decided to dye easter eggs. the kids enjoyed it!! it even went better than we thought :) and after we dyed them, we hid some around the house. hana said that was her favorite part of the trip- go figure!

hana intently paining her egg

brooke making a mess :)

everyone enjoying the eggs!

the finished eggs :)

it was a wonderful weekend of family and fun. i could have done with a little less rain, but other than that i wouldn't have changed a thing :)

kristen and wes

check out my photography blog for the maternity shots i did of kristen and wes this weekend :)

saturday flying solo

as previously stated, we had a busy saturday planned. it did not help my plans that my sweet husband was sick and unable to attend any of our outings. not to worry, i proceeded solo. after the morning spent with brooke and her birthday, i headed to church. mark foland was ordained and we were invited to the ceremony. since most of it was during the girls nap and they would have limited exposure to their sick dad, i thought it ok to attend. it was a very cool and moving ceremony. they spent time talking about each candidate (there were 3) and how they were (and are) contributing to the church and its future. they they prayed with each family. it was neat to be a part of the church in that way, and see things on more than just a "sunday" basis.

after that i jetted out and headed for home. i got the girls up and ready to head over to kj, chris, grace, and sarah elizabth's house. sarah elizabeth has the same birthday as brooke, just one year later. so, they had a cook out for her birthday. it was lots of fun! and the best of both worlds for me... brooke got to hang out and play with friends on her birthday. and i didn't have to plan anything!! thanks kj! it was a really nice afternoon. the girls enjoyed themselves and i did too!!

hana, of course, enjoyed the bubbles

hana and brooke playing (nicely!!!)

sarah elizabeth, the birthday girl

grace and hana playing

all in all saturday went off with out a hitch. jack was better on sunday and rejoined the land of the living. i also had an exciting photo shoot on sunday... pictures to follow soon!!

happy second birthday Brooke!!!

saturday was brooke's second birthday. it is so hard for me to believe that she is two... it feels like just yesterday i was having her (if you want to re-count my birth story read last year's post). since this was her second birthday and not her year for a birthday party, we did not have much planned for her. (if you don't know, since hana and brooke's birthdays are only a month a part, we only have a party for one of them each year. this year it was hana, next year will be brooke. don't ask me how the new baby will fit into all of this!)
we opened presents in the morning (jack was sick, so we brought the presents to him in our room).

we made brownies later on in the day. both girls really enjoyed making them!!

we also had several other things going on saturday, which was another reason for our lack of birthday festivities. more on those to come :)

Happy 2nd birthday Brooke!!!!

"i got 3 shots"

the girls and i ventured to the doctor for their 4 and 2 year check ups. it took quite a while to get all of the necessary procedures out of the way. hana's felt very much like an adult physical. they checked her height, weight, eyes, and hearing. she had to pee in a cup (thankfully they gave us the "hat" to put in the potty to assist us). they also asked hana various colors and had her draw a circle and square and identify which (of 2 ) lines were longer. both girls donned hospital gowns which made them look SO grown up. everything went well. both girls are very healthy and still in the 5-10% in height and weight. they no longer say anything about this, i guess they have just accepted that they are small. hana weighed in at a whopping 30 pounds and brooke weighed in at 22 (which was hana's exact 2 year old weight). everything was fine until he said the dreaded words "hana needs a few more vaccinations"... 3 to be exact. i was not prepared for her to have shots at this visit... and neither was she! she cried the whole time. i could see the pain on her face. it made me a little teary (something that had not happened since her 3 month shots). i felt very sorry for her. the rest of the visit if anyone looked at her, she would say through tears "i got 3 (holding 3 fingers) shots"...

ahh got to love those well check-ups.

park

since today was a beau-tiful day, the girls and i decided to head to the park. we met several friends and enjoyed a wonderful morning of playing and chatting. what a nice morning!! i am thankful for the beautiful day and the wonderful friends :)
a few photos of the morning... for some reason i only take pictures of my own children. once others get there i put the camera away. go figure.
there are two other cute shots from the day... check out my photography blog!!

playing with chalk... hana writing her name :)

hana climbing

brooke "swinging"

just enjoying the day!

*sigh*

well i had my 16week ultrasound today. everything looks great!

they think at this point it is a girl. i would have bet money that it was a boy, oh well! they don't know 100% sure at this point, but they didn't see any "indication" of a boy. i guess we will have to wait until the april 8th apt to know for sure (well guess you can never know for sure until it is born). but that is what i know at this point :)

oh and don't let this affect your voting... keep voting boy!! ;)