Pre-Baby Photo & Story Dump!

Mardi Gras

We went to a masquerade party with our Lawrence friends...

They weren't entirely impressed with our interpretation of "wear a mask"!

Michigan! 

Declan got to enjoy Cash's blue bath goo - Cash was too scared to get in.  It took us hours to drain the tub because the dissolving powder didn't really work.

Cash is getting so big!  He's super excited to meet his new cousin in August!

Molly and I right before we left Michigan :)

St. Patrick's Day 

Jen's first Irish Carbomb

Chug! Chug! Chug!

I took way too many pictures from the parade, it was pretty cool (but VERY long)

Har har har!

There goes Captain Morgan in his firetruck

My favorite float...

Rock Chalk!

I had my KU Pillow Pet in my folding chair, along with my phone and Three Spoons - parade essentials!

A trip to the zoo with all of my nephews and niece! 

Everyone checking out the polar bear

Hanging out with the giant polar bear

Ooooo, sea lions!

Enjoying the carousel

Andrew didn't actually want to ride on an animal, so we just got dizzy sitting on the bench.  

This snake could have eaten Andrew as a snack!

 Lazy monkeys!

Andrew was SO excited to hang out in the mud houses

On the sky ride he kept pointing and saying "Look, a bird!" "Look, a tree!" "Look, water!"

Andrew has ghost hands on the train!

March Madness 

Hanging out at Brian and Jen's house for the Final Four game - along with her sister and mom

This is how I roll at halftime!

We've been behind since the beginning of the game and now we're starting to get close, can we do it?

Yes we can!

On our way to Mass Street to celebrate KU making it to the championship game!

Mass. Street is flooded with fans!

I'm a bit of a local celebrity with my basketball belly - lots of people asked to take pictures

I started the trend of parking in the bank drive through - we were only 3 blocks from Mass. and the police were too busy to ticket for minor parking violations!

That's how March Madness rolls for this pregnant lady!

Booo, Kentucky beat us in the NCAA Championship game.  A bunch of drunk frat guys tried (and failed) to tear down the street sign at 14th and Kentucky.

Addy and Eric were pooped after the game!

 Gratuitous Cat Photo! 

Addy is soooo sleepy from watching me clean the house all day!

Baby will be here soon! 

Me showing off how nice it is to have a belly to hold my dinner!

Our bedroom is ready for baby - Boppy on the bedside table, changing pad/cloth diapers/wipes on my dresser and baby's bassinet are all set up in our room!

The pack 'n play and changing table are ready in the living room (with the swing folded up behind it), and the caterpillar toy is in the changing table to scare Addy from jumping into it!

Day 277: There's No Place Like Home

We said a quick goodbye to the boys in the morning, when Cash left for daycare and Molly took Dec to a doctors appointment.  Cash left first, and I didn't get any morning pictures of him, oops!  Then we hung around with Molly for a bit, packed up and headed home!  We made awesome time and actually got home just after 10pm.  During the drive I worked on updating the blog on my new phone (while Eric was driving) and Eric worked on napping (while I was driving).  When we got home, we plugged in our phones so we could play some more!  We're slightly obsessed with the phones right now - learning how they work and searching out what apps we want.

Dec climbing around the couch.

RAWR!  I am Declan, this is my sweater!!!

Declan saying goodbye to Eric.

 Declan saying bye to me!

We found this creepy run down gas station when we switched drivers on a US highway.

Cool old gas pumps.

Day 276: More Michigan!

I'm almost feeling fully recovered today and we decided to keep the boys home for the morning so we could spend some time with them.  We played at home for most of the day and went to the park for some slides and a picnic.  Finding the park was an interesting ordeal.  It isn't spring break in their area, so all the kids are at the schools.  Plus it was really cold outside.  We were going to skip the park, but Cash kept saying "we're going to the park" and "I'm going to slide!"  So we scouted one out at a local church and got our slides in.  Then we had an in-the-car-picnic because it was so cold outside, brrr!

After we dropped the boys off at daycare, ready for their naps, we set out to enjoy a really cheap movie!  We stopped at Family Fare to get some movie snacks - chocolate covered peanuts for me and cheese nips for Eric.  The best part is that Family Fare has a coffee, water, and popcorn machine by the doors for their customers!  So Eric and I grabbed three mini bags of popcorn to take to the movie with us!  We went to see Tron in 3D for $6 each.  We both liked the movie - but I really didn't like the lack of visual contrast.  Everything was tones of gray with accents of blue or orange - there were no other colors while they were on the grid!

We had planned on going to the driving range after the movie, but it was too cold and rainy so we went home instead.  Luckily, less than 5 minutes after we got home, Eric saw the UPS truck and we tripped over each other running down the stairs to the front door.  I signed for our package and we raced to open the boxes for our new cell phones!  Within the next two hours we had activated and set up our new phones, and spent nearly 2 hours on the phone with customer service to get our numbers transferred from T-Mobile.  Now Eric and I belong to Virgin Mobile - for $25/month/each we get unlimited texting and data, and 300 minutes.  Eric will easily be able to keep it under 300 minutes, but I may have to bump myself up to the $40 plan for 1200 minutes.

After Molly and Nate got home from work, we had a potluck of lasagna and barbecue pork and set the boys up with some of Declan's new toys so we could play games.  We started with Pandemic and won (pretty closely) on our first try.  We were at 7 outbreaks though, so it was a race to the finish!  The game is over if you reach pass 8 outbreaks.  Then we played Monopoly Deal, which is a really cool card game version where the goal is to collect 3 full sets of properties.  Then we all ended up going to bed pretty early, it was a long day!

 Cash and Dec on the spiral slide.  Cash is trying to smile, but not looking.

 Popcorn and crackers in the bag!  We don't spend $5 on a bag of popcorn, no way!

I was offering for Eric to use scissors to open the box with our phones in it, but he insisted on using the knife shaped like a raptor claw. 

They didn't want to overwhelm Dec with gifts at his party, so we opened his Kansas gifts tonight.  Both boys love the remote controlled dog from Aunt Becky and Uncle Alan, and the baby smartphone from Aunt Deb and Uncle Sean!  

Day 275: Medicine, Paint, & Dancing

This morning I woke up early and headed to Meijer, Michigan's version of Walmart or Target.  Their pharmacy had a generic version of azithromyecin for only $15.  I took the first two doses and went back to sleep for another few hours, and was already feeling better when I woke up.  Eric and I did nothing at home all day.

We picked Cash and Declan up from daycare around 5:30, and let them do some painting with homemade paint (equal parts of flour, water, and dish soap, colored with food coloring).  Cash practiced his pointillism - painting with one fingertip while saying "I'm getting soooo messy Duck-Duck!"  Declan just wanted to splash his hands in the paint, and wasn't thrilled about moving them to his paper.

After Molly got home from work, we broke out Just Dance 2 and had a really good time.  I danced to "Rasputin" with Declan on my hip and he LOVED it, Cash danced to "Jump Jump" with me and did pretty good following directions, and Molly and I did "Rasputin" and "Iko Iko" together.  That's about as much of Just Dance as any one person can take.

Overall, today was MUCH better and restored my faith that this could still be a good vacation.  Between medicine, sleep, and lounging around most of the day - I feel back to life and think I'll make it.  Eric is still complaining of an itchy throat, but it doesn't appear to be progressing and definitely doesn't look like strep.  Thank goodness!

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