Flowers!

Ok, so I have been very excited about the flowers we have grown outside that I want to share with you- check them out! This was taken pretty soon after they started to bloom in early April- they are still out and HUGE...though some are starting to die.

This was a surprise flower that we didn't plant- awkward placement, but pretty color!

I loved these little purple and white ones- they actually came out first. My only disappoint me was they didn't last very long:(

Nate's 30th Birthday Party

April 2nd was Nate's 30th Birthday so I threw him a little party. We invited our staff friends over for ice cream cake and snacks. It was a low key but fun shindig:) Blowing out Candles:

The "spread" - including embarrassing pictures of Nate growing up :)

The SURPRISE! I wanted to make Nate's 30th special so I tried to invite all his college buddies over to celebrate as a surprise. Unfortunately we were busy the weekend before and the weekend of was Easter and many already had plans with family. However, Ryan Casey made the trip from Baltimore for the night- so great of him! The highlight of the night was Ryan walking in our door at 11 pm and Nate's face red with surprise:) Unfortunately I was consoling Olivia and did not capture a picture. Ryan shared fun stories before heading to bed- including how he almost died when he fell off a cliff in CA but still made it to our wedding in Boston within the week! Saturday morning he and Nate got to play some Frisbee golf and made a trip to Myer's Dairy where he acquired chocolate milk- Ryan's drink of choice. Thanks Ryan for making Nate's Birthday so special!

PSU men's weekend

In Pittsburgh this weekend for a men's retreat. Missing my girls, but having fun at PNC Park with 60 guys from our Navs ministry. Tickets here are way cheaper that Fenway, but can we even make the comparison? Also shot a 12 gage shot gun today at some clay pigeons. I've never done that before. And did you know that today's the first day of trout season? ...the things you learn in good old PA. Had the privilege of speaking to 200 or so students last night at our Nav Night. I think it went pretty well. Sorry if you are reading this hoping for another picture of Olivia. :)

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Just waiting

Well, we're here in Hershey waiting for Caroline (Mommy) to come back to the waiting room. She's getting an aspiration of her lymph nodes around her thyroid gland. Please pray with us that they will be conclusive results this time!

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Eating one's hand

I think Olivia's showing some more coordination. And perhaps she'll be right-handed. Unless of course she chews off her right hand.

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Olivia

Last Saturday we ventured out as a family for our first dress up affair- the Navigators Semi-formal. It was fun to get dressed up again after being SO big for so long :) And Olivia slept through the whole thing! Honestly we were a little disappointed we didn't get to dance with her. But Nate did dance with me and that was SO much fun. During dinner, Michel Buble's song, Everything, came on which is the first song we danced to at our wedding. Nate took me to the dance floor and we had the first dance of the night! Mind you, no one else was dancing yet. It was VERY romantic and I loved it. He is a wonderful man:) And today is his 30th birthday!!! Happy Birthday Nate!!!

And this is just a cute pic of Olivia I think:) She is growing so fast! The last couple of days I have really been noticing that she likes to be awake longer and is interested in looking at things much more. She may have even grabbed at one of her toys on the changing table today. Nate and I both think she has smiled at us at least once- though hard to know if its for real, or just gas- which she also has plenty of! Yesterday afternoon she played two separate times for over ten minutes in her swings. And this morning she had tummy time for over five minutes. She is such a joy and we love her so much!

Flowers, Syrup, and Surgery

Three totally unrelated things- but things I want to share:)

Last fall Nate and I bought flowers to plant and my mother in law graciously helped me plant them in October seeing as I have never planted flower before. This last week they have started to bloom. I took this picture yesterday and with the gorgeous weather we are having - even more have blossomed! They are gorgeous and bring me joy:)

Last Saturday Nate thought it would be yummy to have waffles for lunch- I heartily agreed. He also thought it would be yummy (my word, not his) to have strawberry syrup- so I made some! It turned out so well. Since we have been married, it has been really fun to try to make all sorts of delicious things. Whenever we think of something, instead of buying it, we often will try to make it... although the only other adventurous thing we have cooked that I can think of right now are crepes- so good!

Lastly, my surgery. It will not be April 6th as we originally thought. That one test that we weren't sure about needs to be redone and they couldn't reschedule it that quickly. Basically they know there is cancer on my thyroid and will remove it. They see something that is suspicious in the lymph nodes near it so they biopsied them the last time I went in. The results were inconclusive so they need to test them again. Boo. We were hoping to get it all over with, but now we must wait a bit longer. I will go in April 15th to have them biopsied again and then surgery will be scheduled. I am expecting it to be in early May, but I will let you know. The up side of all this is that I should be able to recover more from having a baby before undergoing another surgery- here is to going on more walks and eventually running again!!!