North Carolina

We normally go to North Carolina every summer, usually in August. We stay at the beach and visit my Pop Pop and it is probably my favorite annual tradition. This year, since we are expecting a baby at the beginning of August, we knew we wouldn't be able to go when we normally do. Also, my Pop Pop had been having some health issues recently so we decided we'd rather visit sooner than later and so...we went down the first week of March.

My brief view of the cold, but beautiful ocean

We will definitely miss being here this summer,
but there's always next year

Needless to say, we didn't stay by the beach or even see much of it, but we had a nice time visiting with everyone anyway. On the way down, we stopped in Winston-Salem, NC. It is a very cute town with nice shops and restaurants. On Saturday morning, we decided to check out "Old Salem" before getting on the road to Hampstead. It is a historic neighborhood, similar to Williamsburg, with many historical buildings and people dressed in period costumes. You can pay to have a guided tour, but we didn't want to spend that much time so we just walked around on her own. I'd like to go back again some time and spend more exploring. Here are some pictures from our visit to Old Salem.

Once we finally arrived in Hampstead, we spent a lot of time visiting with Pop Pop, Florence, Steven, and of course, all the dogs. Olivia really got a kick out of them. In addition to visiting with everyone, we fit in some other excursions including: a trip out to Topsail Island to run/walk along the boardwalk over the Intracoastal Waterway, play at the park, and a massage for me; a trip down to Wilmington to go to the Children's Museum; and a visit to Poplar Grove Plantation. See the pictures below.

We stopped again in Winston-Salem on the way back home and had fun checking out their Children's Museum. See pictures below.

Our life in pictures over the past month or so

A beginning of the year trip to the Boonshoft

Linden pulling Olivia on her sled through icy Paw Paw Camp

Enjoying a walk on an unseasonably warm winter day

Gross but funny head-in-a-toilet-seat picture :)

Playing with homemade playdough

Taking a picture of her baby...naked. What can I say? She likes to be free. :)

Playing with bunnies at her friend Linden's house

Poor baby had a nasty cold and fell asleep in my arms

Speaking of tired, this picture is cute and sad all at the same time. After a
particularly difficult naptime in which we resorted to closing Olivia in her room,
she finally gave in and fell asleep like this.

Cutie patooties

I'm making dinner and I hear
"Look Mommy, I'm wearing a book!"

Homemade birdfeeders

Finally, after many days of checking to see if birds had come to our feeders with
no success, we found a pair of cardinals munching on them! So exciting!

Olivia playing ring-around-the-rosie with some
 big girls (3-year-olds)

Showing off some "oobleck" me made.
Very fun, albeit messy experiment!

Cutie pies at breakfast :)

Our Family is Growing by Two Feet!

In case the picture didn't give it away, we are expecting Baby #2 in August. We gave a framed copy of the picture above to our parents for Christmas. It was a fun way to share the news. Of course, they were excited!

The first trimester was fairly uneventful with the exception of being severely exhausted and feeling a little more "icky" than I remember feeling when I was pregnant with Olivia. As of today, I'm 16 weeks and feeling pretty good. I still haven't really popped out too much and can't really feel the baby moving yet, although sometimes I think I feel a little something here or there. The good thing about a second pregnancy is that you already have a child to focus your time, energy, and attention on and therefore, don't obsess about every aspect of your pregnancy. It also makes time go by faster.

This baby is already trying to get our attention. I've had two little issues with some bleeding, but the baby is fine and I've been told there's nothing to worry about. The upside to these two little episodes is that I've gotten to have ultrasounds and see our baby, an opportunity I wouldn't have otherwise had. I'm hoping the rest of the pregnancy remains uneventful. :)

Once I get the ultrasound picture scanned, I'll post that. Coming up on March 28th, we'll have our 20 week ultrasound and get to find out whether we're having a boy or a girl. I'm excited to find out and after we do, we can start painting/decorating the nursery and re-decorating Olivia's room as a big girl room.

It SNOWED!!!

It's been about two months now since I last blogged and there's A LOT to catch up on. First up...this draft I just discovered that I never published!

We were disappointed when didn't get any significant snowfall last year, so we were pretty excited when, the day after Christmas we got almost half a foot of snow. We went out and bought some sleds, bundled up, and sledded down my parent's driveway. Olivia was tentative at first about sledding, but decided to be brave and had a lot of fun. Their driveway is the perfect sized hill - steep enough to get a good ride, but not too steep to be scary and a short enough distance to not get exhausted running back to the top. Afterwards, Olivia enjoyed some hot cocoa prepared by Maga. :) Here are a few pictures of the fun.

Here are a few more pictures of the snow from a walk in the woods we took a few days later.