Spring Time Baby

Turning Twenty-Four

A week ago this past Friday was my twenty-fourth birthday. I wasn't too excited for this birthday, since it has no real signifigance other than another year of life gone by. This past year has been a blessed one, and a busy one and I am very ready to see what this next one has in store. The day was a quiet one, with Savannah and I spending the early part of the day with Blake. Savannah wasn't feeling well, she was running a temperature so even though we had planned to go out for dinner I decided I would rather spend a quiet night at home. Kevin was coming down to spend a few days with us so he was at the house when I got home from work. Brad came home from work at the usual time and picked up a yummy pizza from a local place for my birthday dinner. After we ate we spent most of the evening cleaning the house for all the company we had coming over the weekend- so much for that quiet evening!!

Brad's parents and grandmother came down on Saturday. It was the first time his parents had been to the house since the weekend we moved in- they hadn't even seen the furniture!- and his grandmother had never been down so they were excited to see everything we have gotten done (and I know I need to get pictures posted, I am such a slacker I still haven't taken any!) We had a nice afternoon, though Savannah still wasn't feeling well so she wasn't up to doing any of her "tricks". We went into Tampa and had dininer at the Cheesecake Factory which was absolutely wonderful. I hadn't had a birthday cake on Friday so I got 2 pieces of cheesecake- one for there and one to go- and they were just delicious.

On Sunday my parents came up for the afternoon which was great. I was so excited about my birthday present- they got me a sewing machine! I don't exactly know how to sew but Mom brought some scrap material to practice on and I ended up buying "Sewing For Dummies" later that day. I haven't tried to sew anything yet, I am still reading the owner's manual and my Dummies book but I am super excited about trying. I want to try to make curtains- so it's a good thing we aren't in a rush to get the curtains up!! They also got me a sewing table that is going to work out great doubling as a scrapbooking table, too. Now that I have my own little craft area set up in the office I have no excuses now for not getting things done.

I do have to say, though, that the best part of the weekend was opening my gift from Brad. He really outdid himself this year and got the best present he's probably ever given me for a birthday- a gift certificate for a 3 1/2 hour day of beauty at the top rated spa in Brandon. I am so excited and cannot wait to call and schedule a day to go and get my massage, facial, manicure and pedicure!

Last week was a pretty busy week. Kevin stayed until Wednesday, and Jaime and Shawn stopped for a quick overnight with Miss Madalyn on Monday night on their way to Cape Coral to visit Mom and Dad. It was so good to see my little niece, she is growing so fast!! I am really hoping they stop back by on their way home so I can see her again!!!

When we built the house Brad had the upstairs loft prewired for surround sound as well as running all the cables for his projector so we wouldn't have any wires running up walls. He has been having a lot of trouble getting everything to work since we moved in and someone from the company came out twice and supposedly fixed it, but it still wasn't working right so last Tuesday they send out someone else and they discovered the cables they ran won't work properly. Brad was pretty upset about this so the solution was to have the guy cut holes in the drywall and use the old cables to pull our own cables through the ceiling. Nice, huh? They were supposed to have a drywall company come right out that afternoon to patch the 4 holes he cut- a week later and we still have holes. Supposedly the drywall guys are supposed to come tomorrow. I really hope so- holes are not so attractive!! Not to mention we have to repaint all the places they cut out!

Then this past weekend Chris and Julie came down with Grace and Caleb to visit. It was the NFL draft and Brad and Chris have sort of made a tradition out of watching the draft together. It was a great weekend, we had a lot of fun. Julie and I took Grace and Savannah to the pool and playground on Saturday afternoon which was really nice, I hadn't been up to the pool yet. Grace had a blast and Savannah really enjoyed the water- she hadn't been swimming since last summer! We went out to eat Saturday night and then yesterday we took the girls outside to play in the sandbox and then we all ended up back in our bathing suits- Grace and Savannah were playing in the baby pool and Elmo sprinkler and Julie and I got some much needed sun! After the kids got tired, the dads took over for an hour so Julie and I could just sit outside and talk in the sun. I actually got some good color!!

The last month has brought a lot of growth to Savannah, too. She has five teeth now(!)- three on top and two on the bottom and they are just so cute. She is just about walking 100% of the time now, which is just so fun to watch. I can't believe she is already walking!!! She has learned a lot of her body parts- she can identify her eyes, ears, nose, hair, sometimes mouth, belly button and toes. She says "toe!" when she is finding them, and sometimes calls her ears "eye" but she calls eyes "eye" too. We are still working on the crib, and it is very slow going but we are just praying and hoping that she will get used to it soon. We are also having a lot of challenges with food, she is a very picky eater and it is hard to find things that she likes to eat (that's healthy, too!) I bought some dried blueberries today which she loved, and she likes Nutra Grain bars for breakfast, even though they make quite the mess. She hates whole milk, too, but she is just going to have to get used to it because it is definitely time to wean her!!!

She is growing up too quickly though- I never thought it would go this fast!

I'm an Aunt!!!

Madalyn Jean Swanson arrived on April 8, 2007 at 1:04 am weighing 8 pounds, 8 ounces and measuring 20 1/4 inches long. She isn't nearly as big as she sounds- she is so tiny!! My poor sister had a really tough time of it, starting with an induction around 2 am on April 7th and ending with a Cesarean section in the early hours of Sunday morning. But we have out Easter baby- the first of the day the hospital!- and she is healthy and just beautiful. Brad and I were able to go visit for a few hours this afternoon and we got to hold her for a few minutes. I have a lot more photos but wanted to at least get one up tonight while I make a slideshow of the others. I have a TON of new photos of Savannah as well that I need to add so I am probably going to end up making a few different slide shows. I promise I will add them soon!

Thank you for all of your prayers and I will add more photos soon!!