easter, 2016.

The sun didn't want to agree with us for Easter Sunday this year. I mean, the sun's still having trouble coming up at a decent time since daylight saving, but add a rainy day on top of it and we did the best we could with photos and a flash this year.

The Easter bunny dropped off some fun goodies for our boys. If you run into Cayden any time soon, you'll have to ask him about his Easter bunny siting! The big hit (no surprise) have been the stackable Tsum Tsum mystery packs. I'm not sure why these little things are so much fun, but they are awfully cute, so maybe that has something to do with it? The littlest Allen took no time at all digging into some chocolate. Like, he had half a piece of it in his mouth before I realized he had even started opening one. I think I'm more impressed that he knew to remove the foil first?

After a great morning of worship at church, we headed over to my parents' house for lunch and our annual egg hunt. The weather kept the egg hunt inside this year, but that might have actually been more fun – there were a ton more places to hide an egg and it definitely lasted a little longer that way. Unfortunately the older two cousins weren't with us this Easter to get the annual cousin photo. We'll have to remedy that as soon as we're all back together again!

We had a lazy evening after that. I think a little too much sugar (so much sugar!) and no naps made it the perfect evening to snuggle up on the couch together. Oh, and the rain. The rain didn't hurt either.

jumping right back in.

Excuse me while I just dust this here blog off a bit.

It's been a while. A long while. Probably the longest I've gone without ever posting once. But you know, baby girl deserves for her story to be recorded too. And since I'm um, halfway through this pregnancy already, it's probably time to start.

As pregnancies go, this has been my toughest one by far. At first I just chalked it up to getting older. I mean, truth, right? But as I continued to constantly get sick, I had a sneaking suspicion that maybe we were going to have a girl this time. Don't get me wrong, another boy would have been a dream too; we KNOW boys. We can do boys. But we'll figure this girl thing out too.

Because I am a little bit older during this pregnancy, I was offered a blood test at ten weeks to look for any major problems – all covered by insurance. As a bonus, we would be able to find out the sex of the baby pretty early on. After waiting a two agonizing weeks for the blood results to come back (seriously, I don't know that I'd do it again...), I found out that baby looked perfectly healthy according to the test. And oh, it's a girl!

Thankfully the nurse I was on the phone with had my files right in front of her and understood my shock and elation at that surprising news. She rejoiced with me, which was kind of fun. Once I hung up, I think I scream/cried out to the Lord thanking him for answering this specific prayer of ours and called Jeremy crying. After I reassured him that all looked healthy, I let him know our fun little news... and then we kept that news to ourselves for SIX WEEKS. (Well, our immediate family knew, and the boys [Sidenote: Never tell your children something you don't want other people to know. Duh.])

We announced the pregnancy after we heard the healthy news. But there was no way I was announcing we were having a girl until I saw no boy parts on an ultrasound. I mean, I knew the blood work was probably correct, but I still was having a hard time believing. At our ultrasound we were able to confirm the amazing girl news. And also re-confirm that baby girl looks as healthy as she could be and measuring right on time.

So tomorrow marks 20 weeks. Halfway there. Little girl likes to party often throughout the day. Jeremy and Sawyer have both felt her kicking. Graham has too... but that's only because she kicks him every time he sits in my lap. I'm sure Cayden will feel her soon enough too.

Whew. A short and long update all in one. Hoping to get back at this more regularly. It'll be easier now that there are no secrets to keep. Hopefully.