Milestones, March & More

Where to begin?  With our adorable boys, of course!  The first major milestone (since my last post) was Nolan's first haircut.  Anyone that knows us well understands how difficult it was for us to cave on cutting Nolan's beautiful curls; but alas, the 287th time of our youngest son being mistaken for a girl did the trick.    In October I attempted to "trim" his bangs and after one jagged snip, I decided to leave the hair cutting to the pros:)  SO, I sought out a toddler-friendly salon and settled on The Hairy Elephant.  The golf cart chair and Elmo TV was NOT enough to keep him still, or happy.  However, about 8 suckers later we had a handsome looking one year old!  (He went through a lot of suckers because he continuously got hair on each one).  Ben also got a new buzz cut and was charming as always;)

 


Our next major milestone was celebrating Ben's 5th birthday.  We took him camping at Bennett Springs State Park and since it's close to my family, we also had a triple birthday celebration / BBQ at the park.  Ben's cousin Allie was also turning 5, and my niece Mia turned 2.  The kids had a blast, the weather was spectacular and we can't wait to go camping again at BSSP!

Speaking of March, we'd had a fairly mild winter, once again....to our disappointment.  However, as the saying goes, "in like a lamb, out like a lion", March brought us an expected wave of winter with an epic snowfall and we had close to 12 inches in one day!  Since Eddie and I have lived in St. Louis for almost 9 years, never has it snowed this much at one time.  Eddie didn't want to miss out on the fun so he took the day off from work. We made the most of it and the boys helped us build their first snowman.  It was a very memorable snow day for our family.

The last day of March we had our favorite celebration/holiday, Easter.  Every year we stay the weekend with my family and my mom hosts a huge family feast for our entire family.  Before the big meal we attend church with my mom and step-dad.  This year we attended our a small church where my mom's cousin pastors.  Johnny opened an invitation to the congregation for anyone that felt led to sing a special.  Who should volunteer and sing loud and proud about Jesus' death and resurrection   Benjamin!  Fearless and determined he stood up with the microphone and sang a song he learned in preschool.  It was such a proud and emotional moment for Eddie and me.  Afterwards, we went back to the farm to prepare for the family dinner.  There were over 60 of us gathered together to celebrate the resurrection of our Savior, Jesus.  This was the first Easter without Grandma.  There have been a lot of "firsts" since she died in November, and this was very emotional for my mom.  She never dwells on the negative though, and reminded herself and the rest of the family, about the amazing celebration that Grandma is a part of now in Heaven.
The entire weekend was refreshing and revitalizing for the boys and me.  We love staying on the farm, taking in the open scenery, fresh air and the extra family time.  Ben and Nolan really took advantage of the "farm life" and spent most of the weekend playing outdoors, especially in the mud puddles.  Nolan would live

outside if we let him.  He LOVES the outdoors and especially when there are puddles to splash, roll and play in.  I'm so glad we get the chance to get out of the city whenever we want to, and I'm so glad my boys make the most of it.
Baby #3 update: I'm 21 weeks, now over halfway there.  It's going pretty fast so far.  We had an ultrasound the week before Easter, but we've chosen to keep the gender concealed.  We want to be surprised, and want our family and friends to be surprised as well.
Baby #3 was very fast and active during the ultrasound, making the sonographer really work for those precious pictures, and important measurements.  Everything appears to be healthy so

far, which is all that matters at this point.  Ben's heart is set on a baby sister, but Eddie and I have explained that God has already chosen what this baby will be and it's not up to us.  He seems to understand that concept for the most part and  has come up with a few baby boy name suggestions as well.
After 8 years of looking at mauve countertops in my kitchen I decided it was time for a makeover.  Thanks to Pinterest, YouTube and many blogs, I found a way to redo my countertops for about $100.  Here are the before and after pictures.  I'm so thrilled with how they turned out.  I'll try to give more details in another posting about how it's done.

 

Lastly, the most bittersweet milestone for us: we registered Benjamin for kindergarten.  This child absolutely LOVES people, learning and structured environments.  He absolutely THRIVES around other children and although I know he'll do great in kindergarten, it's very emotional for me to "let go" of my first born and send him off to school for the first time.  Ben on the other hand, cannot wait!  He asked me the day after registration if he can go back and stay for 100 nights!  LOL.  And being the observant, intelligent and sensitive boy that he is, he looked at me and asked "Mamma, are you sad I'm going to kindergarten?"  I was a little taken off guard that he was so intuitive, and after I gave him my honest answer "yes, a little", he said, "well, I'm not."  And with that I was smiling again.