Let the Pitocin Party Begin!

Our early morning at Baptist Hospital is thankfully going very well. The IV was smooth and relatively painless (last time, horror story).

Julie is still sleeping off a late night with Papaw and Grandma. She's got her "Big Sis" shirt all ready to go.

Thanks to all for the thoughts and prayers.

- Ben

Hawaii

On Sunday we got back home from a wonderful vacation with my family in Maui, Hawaii. It was such a great week and we had so much fun together. The house we stayed in was AMAZING. It had the most beautiful, fun pool that I have ever seen. It also had such a great view of the ocean and the beautiful sunsets. We did so much. Between the 8 of us, we went boogie boarding, snorkling, scuba diving, for a submarine ride, to a luau, zipline-ing, to the aquarium, drove to Hana, swimming in the pool and at the beach, and lots of sand castle building. I, of course, being almost 6 months pregnant now, didn't do the more adventurous stuff but I did enjoy the snorkling and swimming and the luau. I tried the boogie boarding but am terrible at it, even though it was a lot of fun. Julie just loved Hawaii and has said "Hawaii is fun!" many times in the last week. She loved the pool at the house and it was difficult keeping her dry! She also loved the sand at the beach but wasn't a fan of getting in the ocean. She said that the water was too loud. She really enjoyed the submarine ride and was such a trooper during the many shopping trips we took. And she was so great on the plane rides. I was a little worried since it is such a long trip out there and back but she was so excited about being on the plane and riding in the clouds. And of course it helped that Papaw, Grandma, April, Robin and Chris were there as well. We had the best vacation ever, and can't wait to go back! : ) We took over 300 pictures while we were there so here is a sample of our photo collection from Maui 2009.

This one's for April......

The other night after dinner Julie was still a little hungry and was looking in the fridge for something to eat. I asked her if she wanted more dinner and she said "Pickles!" and reached for the pickle jar. I gave her a pickle and she enjoyed the whole thing. I, of course, knew that April would appreciate this, so this one's for you Aunt April! You are teaching her well! : )

The Zoo!

For Julie's birthday, her Grandma and Papaw renewed our membership to the zoo for another year and we have already enjoyed a few visits to see the animals this spring. We all went together yesterday while Ben had the day off of work and we had a great time. There is a new exhibit this summer where you are able to feed birds and Julie loved it. She loved getting so close to the cute birds. Her favorite animal is still the monkeys but lately she's been looking forward to seeing the giraffes and hippos too. We brought a picnic with us and ate under some threatening rain clouds but didn't get wet. It was a really good day. Her new favorite part of the zoo is the choo-choo train so we ride it everytime we go to the zoo these days. Thanks Grandma and Papaw for the fun zoo trips, we will have many more this summer!

It's tough being two

Even two year olds need a break now and then and Julie loves swinging in the hammock in the back yard to relax with her daddy.

Cute things by Julie

In addition to the Julie-isms post a while ago, here are a few more cute things Julie has said or done recently.

Julie has started saying "Oh, yeah" when she means yes. Julie, would you like an apple? "Oh yeah!" Julie, are you ready for bathtime? "Oh yeah!" It's quite funny.

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The other day Julie and Ben were in the yard playing and she brought me some pretty purple flowers they had trimmed from the flower garden. Julie was very sweet about it, saying "Flowers, Mommy!". It was so sweet. And then yesterday they were out again and she came to the door with two more flowers in hand and got a couple feet away from me and threw them at me, saying "Here Mommy!". I had to laugh. I guess it was sweet the first time but the second she was just too busy to be bothered with giving mommy flowers. : )

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This morning I was making toast with some leftover hot dog buns and I forgot about them and they burned to a crisp. So I started over with a couple more and when I returned to the living room Julie asked "Toast ready?" when I told her no, that I had burned the toast and had to start over she put a hand to her cheek, smiled and said "Oh, no!" dramatically. And then she looked at me kindly and said "It happens." She cracks me up!

Horses!!

Those who know us well know that we are horse racing fans. So of course we watched the Preakness this afternoon. We were telling Julie about how we were going to see the ponies run really fast and she said "Ye-haw!" and went and got her pony to ride in middle of the living room while we were waiting on the race to begin. She was just too cute. She really made her Mommy (and her aunts, I'm sure!) proud. : )