Easter and Spring Fun!

...Easter! We love Easter, and thankfully this year we had good weather. Easter is just a stone's throw away from Baby Jude making his appearance, so we are officially on baby watch. Amanda and Jude are both doing good and each day we keep the little guy in there the better. Amanda is officially 35 weeks today, which is only 1 week earlier than Kate was born, so we know it could be any day now.



Amanda's mom came down for the Easter weekend to see Kate and help us get the last few things ready for Jude. Last year Kate discovered egg hunting and I think we hunted eggs from Easter to Labor Day (before we finally "LOST" all of her plastic eggs). She remembered the joy of the hunt and we spent much of the weekend finding good places to have brief egg hunts around Lubbock. The grounds of the Health Sciences Center was the favorite, and we spent about an hour hiding and finding eggs. As a bonus to hunting eggs around Tech in the evenings is that we also spent a lot of time watching the jack rabbits playing.

For Easter morning we had bought Kate's Easter dress some time ago, but we forgot that it came with a matching dress for a doll. So, of course Boo got to dress like Kate for church and wear his Easter best! I think he looks good, don't you?



Headed into church.



Kate and Granny (or as Kate calls her, Guinea).


Hunting eggs at Tech!




What's Easter without a little egg dyeing?



Kate and Logan at Sydney's t-ball game. She and Logan really love each other. It took some effort for Kate to finally convince Logan that he should like her, but I think she finally managed.


I couldn't resist taking a picture of Kate sitting in her lawn chair with her legs crossed. Such a big girl!


Side note: Kate loves butterflies!


Happy Easter!

Dance With Me Daddy!

...Kate still in to dancing. Except now, she wants to wear my heals to do it. This past weekend, while I was getting ready for Jude's shower, I took these pictures of the 2 of them dancing. She can walk in heals surprisingly well.

Jude's Shower

...my beautiful friend Kristi being excited about our baby boy enough to host a shower for him. Michael and I have become very close to Kristi, her husband Jeremy, and their 2 amazing kiddos. We are so blessed to have them in our lives. They have really helped make Lubbock feel like home. As you can see, Kristi, and her sweet mom, put together a lovely table of goodies for the occasion. Baby Jude really liked eating all of it! I would like to thank the both of them, and my friend Kim for coming and celebrating Baby Jude with me.

Busy, Busy, Busy

...realizing we have a very busy, but very fun schedule. Michael and I are enjoying life and I think Kate is right there with us! Kate's school was able to go to the football field to play with coaches and players last week. It was so much fun and pretty neat. Kate LOVED playing ball on the field. However, she did not want to have anything to do with the coaches and players. Several tried to play with her, but she was not interested.

What's bigger? The ball or my belly?

This is Kate and her friend Lauren. She loves playing with Lauren (she has good taste...her parents are Okies!)



This is what Kate did any time someone tried to talk to her. She would talk to them, but only with head bowed and on the ball.

Unfortunately, her ball had rolled too close to this player so she wasn't able to put her head on it like in the previous picture, so she just stood there.

The Double T class! This is a picture of Kate's classmates, teachers, and student assistants.

Well, we've been going to the doctor pretty frequently lately. For about the last 6 weeks we have had weekly appointments at the high risk doctor, mainly due to the preeclampsia I had with Kate. It's really a great opportunity to see Jude on a weekly basis and I think it helps Kate bond with him.

Speaking of Jude, we have been very busy working on his room. Here is a sneak peak. We still have some things to do but the crib and new twin trundle bed are ready to go! This weekend Ron and Donna came down to help build shelves in his closet (and play with Kate). It was great to have some help getting things ready! We love how it is all coming together. I can't wait to get the pictures framed and hung on the wall. They are amazing.

Then and Now

...realizing how much Kate has changed in a year. I was uploading some new pictures to the computer when I noticed what pictures were included in the "past 12 months" album. When I showed Michael he said, "No, that was 2 years ago. That can't be last year." I said, "Yes it is." Then I showed him the information about when the picture was added to the computer. It is amazing that this time last year, when the tulips were blooming on campus, we took these pictures. Then we compared them to pictures we took this past week. What a difference a year makes!

Then



Now