easter

only a few days late : )

we had a wonderful easter! we attended the Good Friday service at buckhead that was phenomenal ~ as always! then we had dinner with teenie & poppa...

saturday we headed over to my parents in the late afternoon to enjoy an easter celebration dinner with my mom & dad, grandmother & my parents' neighbors. the food was delicious and the company was great ~ we all enjoyed our time!

on sunday we were ready in record time and picked up becky, grabbed coffees and headed to church to make sure we were able to get a good parking space, get bella in her class and save great seats all before the big crowds arrived... thankfully we were fairly successful!

after amazing praise and worship and a great message, we all- jason, me, bella, becky, teenie & poppa, todd & staci, christian, noah, emerson and jonathan & elizabeth- headed to wahoo grill for a delicious brunch buffet. by the looks of bella's dress after eating, she thoroughly enjoyed it too : )

precious bella just waking up

her easter goodies ~ notice the picture of her on the right side w/ the bunny ~ so sweet!

finding her dora ball in her easter basket

me & my hubs

our family

ava's sprinkle

my sweet friends got together on saturday at the swan coach house to celebrate ava's coming arrival!! we had such a wonderful time and i am so blessed by God to have each of these precious friends in my life. we laughed, talked, ate LOTS of wonderful food and received some wonderful gifts.

**and the sweet picture of bella & aubrey is right before ariel & i left and they were enjoying their "special cups" that ariel & chris brought them back from their cruise**

heather franklin & me

me & heather hayes

kirstin & me

mary & me

me & ariel

me & katie

a little babymoon in savannah, ga

is what jason and i just got home from... and we had such a wonderful time!!

we left friday around 9:30 am and met teenie half-way to drop bella off... then jason and i made two stops- one at a motorcycle store for him- and the other at a local store that has the BEST snack ever ~ peanut butter filled pretzels... can you say yum?!?! jason ran in and came out w/ 4 big containers : ) should hold us over for a while...

we arrived in savannah around 4 pm... we checked into our bed & breakfast ~ olde harbor inn...

me & my man

our inn~ loved the location ~ we could walk almost anywhere...

after unpacking, we headed out to river street where we walked around for a while and then had dinner at the cotton exchange restaurant. afterwards we hit up savannah's candy kitchen for some fabulous treats ~ they had ice cream, homemade salt water taffy, old school candy (pop rocks, fun dip, etc.) and all kinds of fudge & "heaven dipped chocolate"... we headed back to the room, watched a movie, ate our goodies and hit the hay by 10:30 pm...

saturday we woke up, ate breakfast at our inn & went for a great trolley ride throughout the entire city... we saw some beautiful architecture, gardens, etc... it turned out our friends, kathi & louie, where in savannah for a weekend getaway too, so we met up w/ them for lunch after the tour at a little greek place.

following lunch, jason dropped me at the savannah day spa for a prenatal massage, while he went cycling throughout some historic neighborhoods... when we got back to the room we enjoyed some downtime and i napped for a bit and then we browsed through some antique shops before dinner at cilantro's, a little mexican place. afterwards we shopped for a little bit, and then went back to get our car ~ which wasn't there!! we quickly realized it must have been towed, which made NO sense... we had a special city parking pass from our inn & there were cars parked in all the surrounding spots ~ none of them had "special permission" and they didn't get towed... needless to say, the guys who had towed it were pretty sketchy, so we just paid the fee and were glad to get our car back! and, of course, because i couldn't live w/out it, we hit up the candy shop again : ) and, since it was our last night, we went BIG... jason tried chocolate covered oreos & a "gopher" as they called them... i got a chocolate covered s'more... and some jelly bellies... we enjoyed another movie and our goodies... it was a GREAT day!!

today we slept in and jason went cycling again before we met kathi & louie for brunch. afterwards we drove around a bit more to take in the city and then headed home to pick up sweet bella bean... boy we missed her!! but we also had such a wonderful time away and are so thankful that we had the opportunity before our family grows to 4!!

7 weeks from today, sweet ava is due to grace us with her presence!!

petite & perfect

basically sums up bella's 2 year appointment... thank you Lord for your blessing of this precious girl!!

height ~ 2' 8.25" & weight ~ 25 lb 6 oz

she did great and didn't even cry when she got her shot... the drs & nurses were amazed! but we did all get laughing b/c about a minute after the shot all she kept saying was "ouchee" and letting everyone know that her leg hurt : )

come on spring!!

we are all so ready for spring ~ between the unusually cold atlanta winter and all the rain we've had, we are so ready for sun & temps that are a bit warmer... when spring decided to give us a sneak peak this past sunday we all headed to the park, including max, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

pure joy!!

LOVES the slide

so proud of herself for being able to climb without any help!

bella's friend, abby, who lives in our neighborhood

bella's 2nd birthday celebration

we still can't believe our little girl is now 2 ~ everyone always says time flies but it really is true!

since we went all out & as some might say- overboard- for her first birthday, we decided to keep this year's a little more low-key esp. with ava coming soon, etc.

we had family and a few close family friends over for a steak dinner, strawberry lemonade (yum~ one of my key cravings this pregnancy) and delicious birthday cake. bella seemed to have a blast and even blew her #2 candle out all on her own!

we didn't do a fabulous job of taking pictures, it is so easy to get distracted w/ hosting, etc... but here are a few.

blowing out her candle

teenie, poppa and cousins all helping bella celebrate!

the beautiful birthday girl

aubrey & ariel

the pink polka-dot birthday cake ~ marble cake w/ butter cream frosting ~ yum!!

lock-in

yesterday we had a big snowfall - at least for GA... i think it was around 3 pm that it started to fall... jason checked in on our friends, chris & ariel, to see what they were up to and to see if they might want to come hang out with us and spend the night...

ariel's bosses were a bit reluctant to "release" everyone from work so it wasn't until around 6:15 or so that jason, who went to navigate them, along with chris, ariel & aubrey (or as bella calls her best friend- "bobby") showed up... while bella and i anticipated their arrival, we made a cake and started making spaghetti & meatballs, and garlic bread, all the while talking about how bobby was going to be over soon... she was quite thrilled, esp. because she is really starting to enjoy the kitchen and helping me stir and prepare things as much as possible...

we all enjoyed a big meal together and then the girls had a blast in the tub together. afterwards they went to bed and us adults carried out our tradition when it is the 4 of us... the guys play playstation 3 & us girls watch a chick-flick and fall asleep... so this night was no different... the guys played and we flipped b/t "you've got mail" & the olympics' opening ceremonies... then everyone went to bed...

this morning we enjoyed a big pancake breakfast and just relaxing... then we got the girls dressed for a snow adventure with their daddies and some of the neighbors.

we had such a great time together and are so thankful that God has blessed us w/ such awesome friends!

chris, aubrey, bella & jason

little snow bunnies ~ bella & aubrey

getting all clean