In which I am very random

1. If Autumn were a dog, this is what she'd look like: clickie!

2. Did I tell you I am officially in my third trimester? Yay! Went to the doc this week and all is well. I feel like a hoss but I'm inside the target weight for this stage and everything is measuring fine. Next visit is a 3-D ultrasound. I didn't get one with Autumn because it was like $200 which, no. The 3d is routine at this practice and they are going to do a weight check because of Autumn's growth issues. I doubt there will be anything too funky going on though because she had umbilical cord issues and this time there are no (known) umbilical cord abnormalities.

3. This children's Bible is awesome. Our friend Michelle gave it to Autumn for Easter two years ago. I love the illustrations--it's one of the few books that seems to have people of every color in it--and the stories. I've been reading Autumn different parts of the Easter story this week. Today we read about how Jesus died on the cross and tomorrow we will read about His resurrection.

From page 292:
"My body is like this bread. It will break," Jesus told them. "This cup of wine is like my blood. It will pour out.

"But this is how God will rescue the whole world. My life will break and God's broken world will mend. My heart will tear apart--and your hearts will heal. Just as the passover lamb died, so now I will die instead of you. My blood will wash away all of your sins. And you'll be clean on the inside--in your hearts.

"So whenever you eat and drink, remember," Jesus said, "I've rescued you!"

4. Roxie's birthday was last week! I get the fail award because I didn't take any pictures of things like the fruit arrangement Valerie made. It was cute...she cut out the letters of Roxie's name in pineapple! It was a Minnie Mouse party which totally delighted Autumn. We all know how much she likes anything Mickey.


Valerie also planned an Easter egg hunt. Autumn was the most mobile of the kids and the only one who had really done an egg hunt before so I tried to corral her into one area while the others did some hunting. Once they gave up, Autumn swept in and gathered everything else. :) She ended up with 4 eggs that had a dollar each in them! She was seriously excited and put the dollars in her mickey bank where she is saving up to buy a soft my little pony.


Roxie was so cute while everyone sang her happy birthday. At first she looked a little baffled. Then she started to enjoy herself.


Then she was all, "this is for meeee!"


This was part of her gift from us. It was not popular with her. :P


I like this picture.


The gift Roxie is leaning on above was as interesting to Autumn as it was to Roxie. Mike ended up putting it together for them to play with.


My mom got Roxie a little push/ride car. The second I took it out of the box and put it together, Roxie took off. Mike got all worried and followed her around. :) When my mom saw this picture she said, "Mike loves babies, doesn't he?" And yes. Yes, he does.


Want to see something crazy? Here's Autumn at her first birthday party:


HOLY COW WHEN DID SHE GROW UP??

What a Week! Part 1...

Seriously, this week was some kind of busy! On top of all the things we had to do, I started my biggest project. I went through all of autumn's old clothes and separated hand me downs for Roxie and future nieces from the consignment/to sell clothing from the things I feel comfortable putting in the garage sale. I still have a couple more boxes with toys and things like blankets to go through so the playroom is truly a disaster, haha. Does anyone in the Memphis area have a favorite consignment shop that takes kids clothes? Or is anyone interested in going through any of this for themselves or a family member/friend?

I didn't get any pictures of it, but last week Penny had Autumn and me over to her house and we had pizza and watched Tangled together. I really enjoyed Tangled...Autumn did, too, when she wasn't getting nervous about the two kind of bad guys. She was also really confused about how the mama ended up being the real bad guy which made for interesting conversation. We had another fun day this week with Penny. We're counting down until Penny takes a weekday job in May (she's a nurse and works on the weekends right now) by trying to do some of the things we've talked about doing. Wednesday we did My Big Backyard at the Botanic Garden. It was a lot of fun and not exactly what I was expecting.

We started off at the bird area where there's this big bridge the kids can go across and then take a slide down. Autumn must have done this 2 dozen times before we left for the day.


Penny's mother in law Mrs. Debby came with us and brought her grandsom Harrison. He is seriously adorable and was so happy the entire time. Autumn liked him a lot.


They had these wooden slat things in a natural puzzle area. I thought they were really neat and wouldn't mind finding some for our house. Autumn made basically a huge maze but we walked by some boys later who had made themselves a small box and were sitting in it. Super cute.


One of her favorite spots was the area with the playhouses. She had two that she really liked. One was made of big, um, sticks, I guess? And inside, the table and chairs were tree stumps and there was a washtub full of wooden blocks. Another had mallets in a box so you could play a wrench xylophone, some chimes, metal bowls, and wooden blocks.


We have a tendency to kill our grass so we have a yard service that comes and sprays weeds every few months--it ends up being cheaper than re-sodding every year! It's great but I do miss clover and dandelions. They had a whole area that was, deliberately or not, overrun with both. Autumn had so. much. fun.


There were also swings placed in various places along the path. This one was in the butterfly area and was shaped like a cocoon.


This is one happy little monkey.


On the way out, we stopped at the fountain and let the kids put their feet in. I'm not sure if this was actually allowed but, really, who could say no to these little feet??


By the end of the trip, both Autumn and Harrison were absolutely wiped out. I think Autumn could have stayed all day but I planned the outing a little too close to her naptime.


Sometime before it gets too hot, I definitely want to make the trip with Mike. I think he'd really enjoy it and I'd like to see more of the gardens. Autumn would certainly welcome the chance to stay longer!