Happy Easter!

Isn't he just so handsome in his little Easter outfit?!!! I love it. :)

I found the pants and vest at the thrift store for 69 cents each a few months ago! And the bow tie is the amazing crafty work of my sister-in-law, Elisa! She's so talented. It was just the perfect touch to his little outfit!

We had such a fun Easter weekend! Braden has been so excited for Easter all month long!

He LOVED dying the eggs:

(We took off his shirt so I wasn't so anxious about him spilling dye on it)

Then later in the week we had a little Easter Egg hunt for a few friends:

They were all VERY happy with their spoils! :)

The next day we went to our ward's pancake breakfast and easter egg hunt, which Braden was doubly excited about because he LOVES Easter Egg hunts and he LOVES his Curious George book, where Curious George goes to the pancake breakfast fundraiser. Braden thought it was so exciting that he was getting to go to a pancake breakfast, "Just like George!"

Sunday morning was perfect! I had Braden's Easter basket waiting for him in our room when he got up the next morning. (He always comes into our room and snuggles with us in bed while drinking some milk in the morning) But to my surprise, he didn't notice it at all! After a while I pointed it out to him and his face lit up and he just sat there, looking at it in awe. I finally persuaded him to go over and see what all was in it and his reactions were all "ooohhhhh" and "wow"!!! It was so fun to see how excited he was about some bubbles and some Easter candy!

We spent some time that morning watching some Mormon Messages about Christ, and playing while listening to some beautiful Easter music. He loves the picture of Christ stepping out of the tomb (but is always so concerned about how Jesus' one foot seems to be "stuck"in the tomb! haha!).

Justin had informed me that growing up they didn't hide the plastic Easter eggs, but always hid the boiled eggs that they had dyed. I thought this was a really good idea! So we hid them for Braden to find and then ate them with our breakfast. Braden loved it just as much as the ones with candy, so it was great!

All in all, it was a wonderful weekend and a wonderful way to celebrate Christ and all things becoming new again with Spring. I loved starting some new traditions with our family, and having Braden old enough to participate and be excited about them!

Amazing Friends

I have some amazing friends here in VA! Cami threw me a baby shower and we all got together and had so much fun! She is so creative and made amazing favors for all of us, decorated so cute and fed us delicious food! It was great to get together and spend some fun, relaxing time with friends. It was perfect.

Thanks Cami and everyone for a great baby shower!!!

I just love these guys!!!

Braden's thoughts...

A few fun moments of Braden over the last few weeks:

Braden, upon seeing a picture of Jesus showing the nail prints in His hands to the disciples after being resurrected:

B: He got a scratch. Jesus got a scratch. (full of deep concern in his voice)

Me: Yes, he did. He got a scratch for us. He's showing His scratch to His disciples.

B: Yeah. They gonna get a band-aid for Him. So He can heal. They gonna get a band-aid for Him. Make him feel better. Yeah.

Justin and I were sitting on the couch. Braden comes in the room and announces:

B: "I just gonna go play baseball a little minute. Be back in little bit. I just gonna go play baseball."

Us: "Oh. Okay. That sounds fun!"

B: "Yeah. I gonna play baseball. Be fun. Be back, real soon." Then seeing the back door is closed. "Uhhh, I just need keys. I just need the keys so I can go play baseball a little minute. Mommy, daddy, I need keys go in the car."

Song he made up before church the other day. I listened from the bathroom as he sang this to his balls: "Goin to church....and this little ball goin to church...and this ball going to nursery....and we're ALLLLLL goin to church...."

Spring Break

Mom and Dad Peterson flew out and joined us for Spring Break! It was WONDERFUL!!! We had so much fun having them here and it was a great and much needed break for everyone.

We hung out here in Norfolk for a few days, went to Jamestown and Yorktown for a day, and toured around DC for a few days. Braden LOVED having Grandma and Grandpa here and it was so sad to have them leave. We love it out here, but sure miss our families!

JAMESTOWN

Preggo and proud! Haha!

So serious. Looks like he could have just fit into the role!

YORKTOWN

Braden sure loved having his daddy around all the time to play with!

Showing Braden the techniques of skipping rocks. :)

Are they just so cute!! :)

This turkey was hissing again and again at us, and although the people working there said it wouldn't attack, none of us were so sure. The thing kept coming towards us and making this scary noise. I've never really been close up to a turkey before, and never thought imagined it would be this scary. Braden and I were both pretty jumpy around the thing!

WASHINGTON DC

Marine's Museum

I was all excited about these little stands...Braden not so much.

Isn't it supposed to be the other way around?

And this was the best! Every time they found a hill and had the chance Justin would run up it with Braden and teach him how to roll down. Braden never quite mastered it, but he sure thought it was a ton of fun! He doesn't get much practice around here. It's flat as can be in Norfolk, and the only hills of any kind around here are the ones built up for freeway exits/entrances!

Downtown DC

Braden got to hold a caterpillar, millipede and a few other fun bugs at the Natural History museum. It was one of the highlights of the trip for him. :)

Nap time on the go.

NORFOLK

Botanical Gardens

Mom and Son! How sweet!

It ended up being freezing cold (well, not literally freezing, more like 50 degrees kind of freezing - I know, I know, we're totally wimps out here!) the whole time they were here, so sadly it wasn't a very warm Spring Break. But we had so much fun in spite of the bad weather!

Love you guys!

Can't wait to see you again!

38 weeks

Not my favorite picture of me, but it does the job of showing my belly...plus I'm just too lazy right now to take another one more to my liking. :)

So here we are, two weeks away!! So crazy! Lucky for me and Justin, no signs of anything yet. The contractions I was having randomly have stopped and the baby seems to be sitting content to stay in there for now. We'll see if he'll by chance just be the most patient and obedient little boy ever and stay that way until May 6th! Haha! I'm not counting on it, but there's always a chance, right?

I'm feeling really good - not swollen yet (which is WAY different than I was with Braden) and, although its hard to get up or bend over, not feeling overly huge and uncomfortable yet. I'm not sure why - with Braden I was so swollen by now and just so ready to have this baby. I'm taking it as a huge tender mercy from above!

I felt especially good about life today - started off with a 2 mile walk with Braden (in the stroller), we stopped to play at the park, I mowed the lawn (I know many of you are sitting in snow and thinking "mowed the lawn?!!", but spring comes nice and early here and this is the second time we've mowed our lawn this season), Braden and I had a picnic, and to top it all off it got up to 85 degrees with 50% humidity and I got a little (tiny) bit of color on my arms and face! Yay!

Justin was very unhappy with me when he got home and saw that I had mowed the lawn (He came in and immediately said, "Please tell me that our neighbor was extremely nice and came over and mowed our lawn today. Please tell me you didn't do that." I just smiled and told him that a lawn fairy had come. He just shook his head at me!)

In other things, Braden is very excited to have this baby come. He talks about all the things he's going to help do (change diapers, help give the baby a bath, give the baby blankets, show him toys, etc.). He loves going to the doctor's office with me and hearing the baby's heartbeat. It is so fun and cute. He'll randomly bring out his dr kit and get out the stethoscope and 'listen' to the baby's heartbeat on his own. I'm really excited to see him as an older brother!

Here he is "practicing" holding the baby and enjoying the baby's bouncy seat. He really had a good time in there!

We finally got serious about things and put up the baby's crib, put the room together, etc.
Nothing fancy or cute, but it still made me excited. :)

And in other happenings, Braden got to go to his third concert! He is so great and really loves music and we have really enjoyed taking him to events like this. Our friends/"family away from family" were so sweet and got tickets for us to come to their son, Juston's, concert. He plays the viola in an amazing youth orchestra, which gets the chance every year to perform with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra. It was an amazing concert with lots of John Williams and other familiar music. Absolutely fantastic and Braden really got into some of the exciting pieces! He was literally bouncing up and down during the William Tell Overature (Lone Ranger Theme). It was great! I love making these little memories!

Thank you Goldades for keeping us a little bit cultured on our small student budget!

Braden and Coulton Goldade after the concert

And some random fun time at the Zoo! :) Two little monkeys together...