Easter Weekend...

This post is pictureless because I am lame and did a TERRIBLE job at picture taking that weekend.

Anyhoo...my parents came up for an extended weekend for Easter. It was so nice having them up for a while and not having to cram things into such a short visit. On Friday my parents and I went shopping at the Mall of Georgia and Discover Mills, before going to meet Greg for lunch at one of our favorite BBQ places, Jim-N-Nicks (YUM). Friday morning we also got the very sad news that Greg's sweet granddad had passed away, so we were pretty shaken up by that for the rest of the weekend. So, Friday evening we went up to see Greg's parents and to visit with them for a bit. Saturday morning my dad brought us donuts for a healthy breakfast, then we spent the day just hanging around the house. That evening we had our Easter meal which my mom and I prepared and it was SO good! We had ham, corn casserole, creamy asparagus, apricot bake, deviled eggs, rolls, and homemade apple crisp for dessert! Yuuummmy! Easter morning we woke up bright and early to go to the 9am service at our new church. It was a wonderful service and it's always special to hear the amazing resurrection story of our awesome God! That afternoon we took naps, then Greg and I headed over to the funeral home for the visitation. It was amazing to see how many people came out to show their support for the family and how much they loved Johnny Mac! After the visitation, we headed home to spend the last night with my parents by watching a movie and ordering pizza. It was a bittersweet weekend, we had a fantastic time with my parents in town, but it was a sad weekend to get the news we did! However, if anyone is in Heaven, it's that man, so we can't be to sad for him, he's in a much better place than we are!!

Deals, Steals, and Freebies...

Even before I was pregnant (not too long ago, within the past year...I'm not THAT creepy)I was racking up some great deals and freebies in baby and pregnancy gear. Call it weird...but it's paying off now!! Over the past year I've entered giveaways and been to several consignment sales (not just for me, for nieces/nephews and classroom books, etc) and have scored some AWESOME stuff!! For example:

I posted a while back about winning a SWEET carrier, the Ergo carrier...

I LOVE this carrier! For baby under 6 months I will probably use a Moby wrap or a Maya sling, but for 6mos+ this carrier is AWESOME! Whenever I put the twins in, they immediately go to sleep or at least stop crying. It hold the baby so close to you. Then for bigger kids, I put them on my back (like in the pic above) and the weight is distributed so well that they barely feel like they're back there!


Retail: $134.99 I Got it for: FREE I won it!!

Next deal... our stroller! I love Maclaren strollers. One benefit of nannying for 5 years and babysitting for 10+...I've tried out a LOT of strollers! Greg and I were on our way to a friend's house and I spotted this stroller out of the corner of my eye in someone's yard. Greg suggested we stop, just to check it out. It was in PERFECT condition, but I wasn't for sure it was for sale, so I went to ask the owner if it was and guess what... it was!

Retail: $169.99 Got it for: $20 (and it looks brand new!)

Next deal... Halo Sleepsack Swaddle. LOVE me some sleep sacks! I think that they are much safer than blankets and a great way to keep baby warm. So snuggly!


Retail (not all sleep sacks, just this Minky Dot version which is the one I got): $28.95
Got it for: FREE (won it!)

Next up... our carseat! We found a sweet deal on Craigslist for a "used carseat"...turns out, it was never used! The tags were still attached when I picked it up! The woman said they bought it as a carseat for the second car, but they never got around to using it before the baby was too big! SCORE!!

Reail: $178.99 Got it for: $70 (including the base)!

Our next big purchase was the crib bedding! Now, I know it seems crazy, BUT we wanted something fairly gender neutral anyway, and I happened to run across this in kids consignment store and fell in love. When I got home I looked it up online and saw how much it was and how much we could save if we just went ahead and bought it, so we did! Why pay full price or let someone else pay full price when we got such a good deal! The bedding is in excellent condition and came with everything (Bumper, comforter, sheet, crib skirt, valence, diaper stacker, and mobile)!

Retail: $240 Got it all for: $50


For one of my greatest deals...a breast pump!! A brand new, Medela Freestyle Hands-free pump! I entered a contest last Spring and the prize could have been a number of things, but this was what I won!! We thought it was hilarious at first, but now I am SO thankful I have it already! Retail: $379.99 (!!!) Got it for: FREE (WOOHOO!!)

Total Retail Value of all things listed above: $1,132.91

Total spent out-of-pocket for items above: $140

WOW =)

Besides all of these awesome deals, steals, and freebies I've also received a TON of maternity clothes from my sister-in-law Katie, baby clothes over the past few years from my sis-n-law Kari, and other ridiculous deals on children's books and toys from various consignment sales and events! I LOVE a good deal and with ones like these, they're too good to pass up! We are SO excited about the next several months and getting things ready for the baby, and in the meantime I will continue to bargain hunt the heck out of baby deals!

Katie Anne's 4th Birthday Party...

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Last Sunday we celebrated our sweet niece's 4th birthday by having a fun outdoor birthday party. The kids had a blast running around playing on KA's new playset and playing all the fun games they played. Although the concept of Duck, Duck, Goose and Tag were lost on some, it was still so much fun to watch! If only I could bottle up some 4-year-old energy, that would be awesome! All of the kids dressed up in their favorite characters and it was so cute to see everyone's costume. KA was a beautiful Rapunzel =) I loved getting to spend time with everyone and getting some time to love on SJ who we don't see nearly enough! In the beginning of the party and cute pony showed up, but no one was all that interested...I think even though it was small to the adults, the kids stll thought she was a pretty big animal! Katie and Saunders did a wonderful job, as usual, planning this fun party! The cake was fantastic and we had so much fun hanging out, celebrating KA's birthday~!

Telling our families...

Our original plan was to tell everyone on Easter, but 1) we just couldn't keep the secret anymore and 2) Easter plans are up in the air and we were afraid we were going to miss the opportunity to tell everyone. So, we told my family in NC last weekend and Greg's family last night at dinner. I am so glad we chose to tell when we did because that way we got to see everyone's reaction in person and not on Skype or hear it over the phone! A few weeks ago I ordered these personalized scratch-off cards and tucked them in an Easter egg filled with candy. We told everyone that since we weren't getting to see them on Easter, we got them an early gift. We LOVED being able to finally share our exciting news with our families!!

The filled eggs...

The cards after they were scratched off...

And of course...here are two videos of us telling our families (sorry for the shaky camera skills, try not to get motion sick)





However, don't let the surprised faces fool you... the Joneses and the grandparents had some surprises for us too! Cindy and Thomas gave us a onesie for the baby and the Joneses gave us cute rattles and teethers...so, apparently we are super transparent and terrible liars =) Thanks for the sweet gifts!!

The onesie from Cindy and Thomas

(I need a picture of us with gift from the aunt and uncle)

Surprise!!

We are obnoxiously excited about being pregnant! This is such an incredible blessing and such an answered prayer for us! I am 10 weeks and due in November =) I will post more on how we told everyone soon!

MS Walk and NC Trip...

Last weekend was the big MS Walk in Raleigh (A BIG thank you to everyone that helped me raise my money)! We had a GREAT time seeing everyone, since it had been since Christmas that we had been up to NC! The walk was a lot of fun, but the weather was not great...a little chilly! There were TONS of people there and they were playing lots of fun music. The walk started by sending off balloons and then our team started the walk together. You could take the 1 mile, 3 mile, or 5 mile path. There were also tons of dogs, so we were sad we didn't bring the boys with us! I am so glad that we got to be a part of this and help out such an important cause to my family.

While we were in NC, we also got to celebrate Eva and James' 2nd and 3rd birthdays! We got them a sand table and I put together two little sand buckets with sand toys to play with.
Saturday night we had so much fun spending time with the family and eating my dad's DELICIOUS chili and then having a game night by playing Apples to Apples..which any game where you have to argue in my family, is a lot of fun. It was a great, but very short visit! Fortunately, we get to see my parents for a few days for Easter, so that will make up some missed time!

Chattanooga Date...

Yesterday Greg and I spent our beautiful Saturday in Chattanooga, TN. We've had this date planned for a while, but the original date planned got rained out, but yesterday's weather was incredible so it was worth the wait! Our first stop was to drop the pups off at the grandparents house, then we hit the road to our first destination...
Rock City! It was a BEAUTIFUL day to spend outside and walk around the rock gardens. We had fun walking all of the trails, but were super creeped out by the glow-in-the-dark gnomes in Fairytale Land...
Here are a few more pics of us at Rock City before moving on to our next stop...

Greg, going through the Needle's Eye

The top of Lover's Leap

Our next place to go...
The Incline Railway! We didn't spend much time here, just enough to ride it down and back up, but it was neat all the same! I hadn't been here in YEARS!!
Our final stop before dinner was...
Ruby Falls! This was a lot of fun, after the initial panic attack brought on by claustrophobia...who would've thought being 1120 feet below ground, in rather short tunnels would make me freak out? I eventually got over it and had a great time looking at all the neat natural creations and actually making it to the waterfall. However, I was happy to be above ground too =)
Our final destination for the evening was out delicious dinner at...
This is an Italian restaurant that my family used to eat at when we lived in Chattanooga. The pasta is all homemade and OH SO YUMMY!! I seriously could have licked my plate of eggplant parm clean! Greg got the Spaghetti Carbonara which looked so good too! I love the area the restaurant is in, the Bluff Art District, because it is just so quaint and cute! It was a fantastic way to end a wonderful day with my sweet hubby =) After stuffing ourselves, we headed back to to pick up our puppies and go to bed! It was a fun, busy day!