26 weeks

Maybe I should catch up on pictures...?

Did I ever mention that Joel and a classmate of his came to visit a few weeks ago?  Well, they did.  We just bummed around all weekend and it was fabulous.  Board games, food, naps..that sort of thing.  Unfortunately, that was a few weeks ago, so all great stories are already neatly filed away.  Lily did get kind of attached to Joel when he started giving her food.  She would get a box of cereal and take it to him to open so she could get some.  It was precious.

Lily wanted to be playing games with the boys

The following weekend, my parents visited.  It was a nice visit, and the first time that they (and Joel, for that matter) had been to our new house.  Nothing too noteworthy, just enjoyed spending time with them.  We did all go down to Partin's to help celebrate Fiona's first birthday with lots of fun and food.  When it came time for the smash cake, Fiona did what everyone expects one year olds to do (unlike what Lily did, if you recall) and when she was done, Lily started indicating that she wanted in the high chair to take her turn.  But, instead of smashing it and making a mess, she took a fork and began neatly taking bites.  Who's kid is this?  How ridiculous.  My parents claim I used to hate getting messy when I was small, too, and I know Jesse was the same way, so apparently she gets it honestly, but come on.  Cake!

Lily "taught" Milly and Poppa how to pop bubble wrap

Fiona with the remnants of her cake

enter Lily with her fork

This weekend, we went to Zanesville to see Jesse's parents.  The plan was for Jesse and me to go [finally] on our anniversary + birthday date and we are so glad that we had a chance to finally do that, even if it was 3 months late..we slept in Saturday morning and then around lunch time, he and I took off for Columbus and left Lily with her Hildebrand grandparents for the day.  Now, I realize that when you read about our date, you will probably judge us that a) it doesn't sound like very much fun or b) we sound pretty lame.  Feel free, we enjoyed ourselves!  Pretty much everything we did was something we had done previously together in different times and places and it was fun to be reminiscent of those.

We started by going to a very nice fish store to peruse the fresh and salt water fish and tanks.  This is the first time in almost 5 years that we haven't had a fish tank set up, and I think we both were missing it when we went through the store.  Our ultimate goal is to set up a salt water tank, and we already have the tank, just buying everything else is the pricey part, so we wait.  But we went to an incredibly nice salt water fish store in Phoenix often, so we had fun finally finding another nice fish shop.  The fish store was also in a strip mall, so we wandered around there for awhile and went and got a snack at a Whole Foods Market.  If you've never been to one, they are really kind of fun and very nice with an incredibly variety and selection, but way over priced and I can't really imagine doing all my grocery shopping there and how much money I would add to my grocery budget.

From there, we headed to Easton.  Since we went to college an hour away from there, we went on several dates to Easton.  We had a hard time remembering the last time we actually had been there, but I think the last time I personally went was my last semester at MVNU right before Jesse and I got married with some friends..but we wandered around and window shopped, and talked about the different stores that held memories of our dates there, like the Build-a-Bear workshop [where he built me a Spiderman-pajama-with-aviator-sunglasses teddy bear] and a jewelry store where we went to look at engagement rings on our very first date.  We passed Auntie Anne's Pretzels for probably the first time ever in that mall, as we always split a pretzel on our way home from Easton.

Apparently, Easton has added a Lego store since either of us were there last, so obviously we went to check it out.  When we walked in the door, we saw a guy around Jesse's age sitting on the floor with his little girl (maybe 4-5) playing with Legos.  It just made my heart smile so much, and I pointed them out to Jesse and said "that's you in a few years with Lily.." he watched them for a minute and then said "yup, definitely is, I can't wait" and then we went off to look at all the big Lego sets we always wanted but never got when we were growing up.  We did a very little bit of real shopping and then went to BD's Mongolian BBQ for dinner.  We went there on our second date ever and it became one of our favorites and have been wanting to go again for a few years.  Honestly, it wasn't as good as we remembered, but we are glad we went and enjoyed remembering going on our dates there.  Since we went on St. Patrick's day, there were lots of green-clad crazies out and about, so we had some good chuckles people watching and checking out some fabulous outfits.  After dinner, we went to a little dessert place where he got a blondie and I got a brownie + a shot of icing.  What's a shot of icing?  Delicious: a 1 oz container of icing, of course.  And I had no regrets when I had my brownie and icing.  We headed home and Lily was still keeping her grandparents up, so we got to see our little munchkin and hear about her day and all the fun she had making messes and playing before I sent her off to bed.  Grandma and Grandpa H have pictures from their play day together, so I will post a few once their favorites are emailed to me, because word has it, they took a bunch ;) 

coloring with Grandma

All in all it has been a crazy busy couple of weeks, but lots of fun and family.  More busyness and family coming up in the next few weeks, so hopefully I will be able to stay on top(ish) of my blogging.

some of my daffodils.  Zeke chased the neighbors horse out of them today.  yes, you read that correctly.

Bob has been doing well; TONS of movement.  So far, no evil kicks or jabs, just rolling around and moving.  Lily did the same, and I'm not sure if my kids are just nice to me or because I have a longer torso they just have/had more room and don't feel the need to try and karate chop me in two?  I've also begun experiencing the joy of Braxton Hick's contractions again, starting about 2 weeks ago..I did some reading online about these little parties in my uterus, and the internets claim that most women don't feel them.  I've felt them significantly with both pregnancies, and from early on, so how is this fair?

Lily watching Zeke play outside