Catching up

 WARNING - MAY CONTAIN MORE WORDS THAN PICTURES

I'm not even going to TRY and catch up on February and March, so don't worry.  February was mostly filled with Valentine's cookies and finding out we were expecting.  There was one really fun family night where we broke into teams (poor Bracken, he was doomed from the beginning) and made forts out of Lincoln Logs.  Then we took turns "bombing" each other's forts with extra large marshmallows.  Very fun.  Except I was sick the entire time (still didn't know I was pregnant).

March was a blur because this whole baby thing was still surreal.  And I kept thinking I would wake up from a dream soon.  Justin's grandma left on a mission, Bracken got a much needed haircut and we had some family from Wisconsin visit.  That's pretty much all I can remember.  Oh!  And I realized that I shouldn't buy large bags of potatoes.  We just forget about them and they start to grow roots under our sink. 

April was a much better month for us.  I was pretty sure I was keeping this baby and I started to feel better everyday.  We had Easter, lots of rain and I took my very first baby bump picture.  I think this one is between 13-14 weeks and I felt like I was starting to show, but looking at it now it makes me giggle.  I don't look a bit pregnant, do I?  

After Ema took this picture of me, Bracken wanted to show off HIS "baby bump"!

The best part of the month came during the last week.  We had Bracken's preschool graduation, Ema's Spirit Festival and my birthday in a matter of 2 days.  It was quite the whirlwind.  My mom came down for the day (literally - she was here only 24 hours) and we didn't get ONE picture.  How does that happen?  

Here are some highlights:

I am in LOVE with Bracken's preschool.  His knowledge grew leaps and bounds while he was there.  Since it was his 2nd year of preschool, I could blame it on that - but I like to think that going to school at a college made him smarter :)  We started with 2 days a week during fall semester and when we saw he was getting bored the other 3 days at home, we forked out the $dough$ to get him there every day that we could.  He LOVED it.  His teacher was amazing and I am grateful for the experiences that he had while he was there.  He is completely ready for kindergarten and he's already started reading (words like Ben 10 and Cartoon Network seem to come natural when he's browsing the TiVo).

Every other year, Ema's elementary school puts together a HUGE festival with singing and dance numbers.  The theme this year was "Disney" and the 1st graders danced to Mickey/Minnie songs.  It was adorable!  She completely shined and we realized how much she loves to perform. She took the songs and dances very seriously and made sure she knew all the moves.  

April can't come and go without MY BIRTHDAY!!  This year I was spoiled by my mom (who took me shopping and let me pick out whatever I wanted) and my husband (who turned my dead DELL into a desktop computer).  I don't know HOW they do it.  My hard drive on the Dell was shot, but they cloned it and put it onto another computer.  It was trippy to sit down at this new computer and have all my pictures, programs and files exactly like they were on the Dell.  But I love it.  This year I picked out my own birthday cake too.  I wanted to make sure my family got the right cake, so I ordered it myself:

I thought it was fitting.  Don't you?