31 Weeks!

May 28th is very rapidly approaching! So we are getting everything ready!!! Lily's beautiful bassinet, we made a little extra sweet with a big pink bow and some sweet cloth lilies. I am not sure how long those lilies will stay there, since they are just tucked under the mattress right now.

Grams made these curtains that match the curtains on the bassinet, ceiling to floor! With a pink layered sheer underneath. And the pictures in the wall came from Mommy's room when she was a little girl! One still has the receipt on the back!!! $7.99 for one and $3.99 for the other (it had broken glass.)

Her room is very sweet!

And here is her Mommy knit keepsake sweater that she will wear home from the hospital! Mommy got it done in two days, because I wanted to see it so badly. It is the perfect size and so sweet! I can't wait to see her in it.

We had another midwife apt this week...now that Mommy is in her third trimester she gets to go every two weeks. And still everything is growing great, no weight gain and Lily's heart rate is still perfect. Mommy has been having rather painful "braxton hicks"contractions, but that is normal with a second pregnancy, as well as the charlie horses in my legs and cramps and pulls all around. Lily has not turned yet, she is breached...but that is not a big concern with 9 weeks left to go. I should start the home remedies to turn her myself and if she is still breached next visit I will need to see a chiropractor to get some help. If by 37 weeks she hasn't turned the midwife will have to try and that I have heard is painful...further then that and a C section will be needed. But with all that said the midwife wasn't concerned with 9 full weeks left.

First Trip of the Year to the National Zoo

Even though the excitement of Johnny's birthday is over, we still have Daddy home on his convalescent leave for another week! So we thought we would take advantage of the beautiful weather and take Johnny to see the animals at the National Zoo!

We loaded our wagon with a picnic lunch and headed to the metro station.

Once we walked up hill from the metro station to the Zoo we got right into seeing the animals and Johnny was very excited! If you look close you can see the cheetah walking away.

Here the emu was trying to escape and stood this close to us sticking his head through the fence over and over again.

It was still early in the season so there was a lot of construction going on and some of the exhibits where not open, like the elephant house, but the elephants where outside and Johnny LOVED it...I don't think he knew how big they really where.

He quickly learned the point of being at the zoo and started to run from exhibit it exhibit, find the animal and point it out to us.

Here in the small mammal house we tried to tell Johnny this is an armadillo, but he was convinced it was a rock and kept telling us..."no rock, rock" So why would he stick around to look at a rock where there are monkeys to be seen.

see...monkey!
A lot of the animals must have been excited to have people around because they where free and about, like this Prairie Dog. Of course Johnny started saying the animals where "stuck" I can't deiced if that was because some of them wouldn't move or because there where behind glass.

More monkeys!
Loven the really close meercats.

And then on to the big monkeys, he picked up quickly on the fact that there where Gorillas and knew the difference!

And then our picnic lunch...yum! But Johnny was very excited and wanted to get up and get on the move.

Monkey Daddy and Monkey Johnny on the big gorilla.

Headed into the reptile house, at first he was stuck on "dinosaur" as we told him what everything was he learned it very quickly.

I am not sure what lizard this is, but I love this picture of Johnny up sitting just like it and looking so carefully.

There where a lot of alligators and crocodiles, and at first Johnny wanted to see them all as close as possible, but when they started to open their mouths and swim toward him he started to back away. He didn't scream or yell, but my big boy was smart enough to know to be a little afraid and I am so proud that he figured that out, basically all by himself.

Big turtles where kind of interesting, but they moved so slowly that he lost interest quickly.

and look "INOSAUR!" This bronze skull was part of an big cat exhibit (even though the lions where off exhibit) as the biggest meat eater ever...it was very exciting.

This entire day was for Johnny and he loved the attention and the new animals and Mommy and Daddy loved seeing him so happy and learning. And yes that is my two year in a full 4T outfit!!

In the morning when we told Johnny where headed to see animals, we named off animals and Johnny asked "cow?" we said yes...and that was what he was excited about saying "moo moo."

Johnny taking his turn pulling the wagon.

But about 4 pm, after having been at the zoo for 5 hours we where all pretty tired, finishing up in the bird house which wasn't as exciting for Johnny as we thought it would be. On our way out we wanted to walk down the "Asia path" and see the pandas and giraffes and such, but still being chilly and not fully in season we saw nothing down that path. We where a little disappointed with how much of the zoo was still closed, but we had a blast and Johnny loved it too! I am so proud at how much of a little sponge he is! He wants to know everything. I have a million pictures from zoo, this is just some of them!

Walking back to the metro we saw many Cherry Blossom trees preparing to bloom and this one tree right out side of the zoo that was already in full bloom. Next week during the Cherry Blossom festival Grams, Pops and Uncle Tommy are taking Johnny and Ella to the museums and too see the full trees in bloom!

Pictures

John Robert is 2!
Our fast growing family!

Branson, John Branson. Chocolate milk. Shaken not stirred.

PARTY!!!

I spent two weeks stressing myself out about this party, but in the end it was so so so much fun!

All set up and ready to go! Our dinning room turned into party central with green fruits and green veggies, cookies, green M & Ms skittles and green Peeps! UMMMM

As our friends and family started to arrive everyone settled in nicely and just started to play.

The Roller Coaster in our hallway was a great point of interest and all ages loved it. Here Ella was playing with her new friend, our neighbor Aidan.

Uncle Tommy got a chance to show Sammi Godzilla and dinosaurs and she was very interested. Godzilla's tail was very yummy.

Once everyone was in Mommy tried to follow her organized schedule of party fun and do our craft, decorating liners that fit into travel mugs (that actually where not dishwasher or microwave safe) The kids liked it, but the call of such a beautiful day outside and all the great toys around ment Mommy should not have bothered with a craft, but it was still lots of fun!


Yes that is Johnny in a full tux for his special day! SO adorable! But we are doing pictures in this tux on Monday, so Mommy wanted to get it off of him before the real playing began.

While Mommy got Johnny changed Daddy brought out the bubbles (which where not in Mommy's schedule of party fun, but it was so beautiful outside) and this ended up being the main event of the day!

Johnny knew what was going on while Mommy dragged him around the house getting his cloths and diaper changed, he was yelling out "BUBBLES, BUBBLES, BUBBLES!" so finally he got to join the fun, in an outfit he was free to get as messy as he wanted.

and oh did they have fun, for over an hour this entertained them!

Even when the older kids lost interest, Johnny and Wyatt could not be deterred.

He just gets cuter!

With the older kids outside, our youngest guest was inside enjoying some pretzels and yogurt, but I couldn't help myself, this picture is too adorable.

Grams and Pops and their grandsons. I have three good shots of this pose and in each one Johnny is looking a different way, none of those ways are forward!

Then the silly string came out and that was great fun!!

Somehow Papa found himself as the center of the attacks, poor Papa!

So while the big kids where attacking Papa, Johnny and Wyatt where just running, and Wyatt had his first big spill right onto the concrete, he was a very good boy about it and got some ice and some Tylenol and was as good as new, mostly.

Some love from Mommy and Daddy always helps, and by the way Wyatt will be a big brother at the end of October! How exciting!! A sixth grandchild and a 4th cousin for Johnny!!!

So then we headed inside for some cake! Johnny helped Mommy decorate, at first, then Mommy tried to cover up mistakes with the little sugar pieces. I think it looks great, even the cake itself was green.

Johnny loved it when everyone was singing to him, he laughed and bounced in his seat and then blew out the 2 candles all by himself!

Johnny certainly thought it was yummy.

He is not a big fan of his hands being dirty..."hands wash"

Whatever pain was left, was gone with the addition of cafe, isn't he cute?

As the party whined down we decided to open presents. Uncle Chuckles, Aunt Chel and Wyatt got him this the official Toy Story Bucket O Soldiers and these are great! Very sturdy and just a little bigger then off brand soldiers Johnny loves them!

Next was a special present from the Hart Family who live across the street.

A golf set!!!!!! Daddy was very excited though Johnny wasn't sure what it was, we know he will love it when he learns he can hit a ball with a club.

Then a special present from Aunt Natalie, Uncle Tommy, Ella and Sammi, a Sesame Street book of echo friendly crafts to do with Mommy and a gift certificate to the Bouncy Place!!! yeah he gets to go to a super fun place and bounce around in really big bouncy houses! FIVE TIMES!!! Thomas and Nat always find these great things!!

Now on to a big bag from the Fox family who live right next door. I love that Sara got this green bag and green paper and so did Johnny.

and Johnny was super excited about this dump truck and sand toys!! "open, open, OPEN!" Now Mommy and Daddy need to get him some sand for his sand box.

Daddy teaching Johnny how exciting golf is, Look at my little man !

After everyone went home we laid down and relaxed for a few minutes before the cleaning began. We all had such a good time!! The house was crazy with kids and Mommy got to sit and talk to other Mommas and Johnny was surrounded by friends and people who love him, again it was a perfect day!!! Though we didn't do the sundae bar Mommy had planned or the story time, or the video games, the kids just didn't need those things, they had each other. Johnny is so lucky to have all these loving people in his life, thank you to everyone who came and we hoped you enjoyed it as much as we did!