Easter in NC

Siblings with our babies
Mark and Victoria

Thank you, Jesus for giving Your life for me. What hope we have because of Your resurrection! Easter is my favorite time of year - I love to have hope! And Easter is all about the hope we have in Jesus. I remember hearing someone teach about how we as followers of Jesus are Easter people - all of life is viewed different from the perspective of Easter. I want to take time to stop and contemplate that more often this year.

We were able to spend Easter with my brother Mark and his family. As the last post showed, we spent Friday on the way there in Mt. Airy, NC. We arrived at Mark's on Friday night and had dinner together (minus Mark - he was working). On Saturday we had a great breakfast and then took the boys and Mark to see "Horton Hears a Who" - Trey went too and was fascinated by all the characters but crashed about halfway into the movie.

Benjamin and Aaron with Trey at the theatre

playing with Victoria's tub toys - we need to get some for Trey

Trey and Victoria playing

On Saturday night we went out to dinner to celebrate Victoria's first birthday. Nanette (Mark's wife) made a great cake, and it was fun to be together.

Happy birthday, Victoria!

Sunday was spent at church celebrating Jesus' resurrection. We had a roast for dinner, and we spent the afternoon talking about our plans for the future. We took a nice nap and then had an Easter egg hunt for the boys. We left around 7 that night and got home around 11:30pm. Thanks again, Mark and Nanette, for a fun weekend. We love you!

Mayberry

Us with the owner of the Snappy Lunch - he's owned it for over 60 years

We went to visit Mt. Airy, North Carolina the way to my brother Mark's house. We left around 8:30 on Friday morning and arrived in Mt. Airy in time for lunch. This is a very big deal because David is a HUGE Andy Griffith fan, and Mt. Airy is the hometown of Andy Griffith. David has probably mentioned to me a dozen times that he wanted to visit there someday, so we decided to just take the day and do it. We had a lot of fun walking around the town. We had lunch at the Snappy Lunch (famous for their pork chop sandwich) and had ice cream at the Blue Bird Diner. We went to the Andy Griffith museum, and to a part of town that had a Sheriff's station and Wally's service station. We even got our picture taken in the squad car like the one Andy and Barney used to drive. It made me happy that David was so happy that day.

This was a replica of the sheriff's office/jail that was on the Andy Griffith show

Trey and I took a little nap while David explored

David sitting in the Floyd's barber chair

4 month check up and grandparents visit

playing bocce ball with my Mom and Dad - David bought the set for Christmas

Trey bundled up watching us play

Trey went to see Dr. Herron today and got his second round of shots :-( He cried for 2 seconds and was then okay. He slept most of the afternoon away.

He is now 14 lb. 9 oz. (39% compared to other baby boys his age) and 24 inches (16%) - Dr. Herron said everything looks great and Trey is right on track developmentally. She is pleased he is sleeping through the night - she doesn't think it's necessary to rush feeding baby food/cereal if he continues to stay full from breastfeeding. She said we can start some cereal sometime before we go back for his 6 month check up in May.

My parents came through on their way home from Florida - it was wonderful to see them even if it was just for 2 days. We had dinner the first night they were here with David's parents, and we had fun visiting together with them. The second night we went out to dinner and then took a walk and played boche ball. Trey loves to be outside and ride front-facing in his stroller. It will probably be summer before we get to see my parents again.

4 months old and first trip to the mountains

Trey and David hanging out on a blanket in Cade's Cove

Trey turned 4 months old this past Saturday. Some of his milestones are:

• Putting his hands into his mouth - he seems to really love sucking on his index finger
  
• Finding his ears with both hands and holding on tight
• Lots of smiles and the start of giggles (mostly sucking air in at this point)
• Holding himself up and playing in his stationary entertainer (exersaucer)
• Rolling over from his tummy to his back (he's only done it twice)
• Grabbing for his toys that dangle over his head

He continues to sleep 11-12 hours at night and still takes 3-4 naps a day. He is a lot of fun to have in our family. We haven't started any food yet - he still seems content with just nursing at this point.

On Sunday we decided to spend the day as a family and go to Cades Cove in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. It's about an hour's drive from here. We picked up a bucket of KFC and headed for a picnic (David's great idea). It was Trey's first time outdoors (expect for times in his car seat to and from the car). We all had a fun time together and did a little hiking. We look forward to the warm weather continuing so we can do this more often. Getting sleepy...

Finally sleeping...