Easter 2011

What a wonderful Easter weekend we had!

We started out the morning with an amazing Easter service at our church, The Vine, and were reminded again of how thankful we are to be part of such an amazing church family. For as long as I can remember, Easter services have always been one of my favorites to listen to. There is always such an excitement in the air on Easter morning and people tend to be much more open to the Lord, the sacrifices he made for them, the idea that he died for them and then rose again just three days later so they can eternal life with him in Heaven. This Easter was no different, in fact it was more for me. As I sat there listening to our pastor David, sitting beside my husband, surrounded by our best friends, and feeling our unborn son kicking in my belly, I was completely overwhelmed by the blessings in my life. Thank you Jesus for ALL of it!

Easter morning was crazy at our house so I got zero pictures of the craziness the Easter bunny brought with him or how adorable Addison looked in her "church clothes" but I did manage to snap a few photos throughtout the rest of the day as we hunted eggs at cousin Melette's and then MawMaw and PaPaw's.

Ready to hunt some eggs's...

And the boys are off! They knew exactly what to do this year!

Addison got so excited she took off without her basket and came running back with a handful of eggs!



Addison got Thumper from NaNa and PopPop and she was THRILLED! Her reaction when she opened him was PRICELESS!

My sweet Daddy and I...

Hard to believe she will turn FIVE this year! She is growing up so quickly!

Addison and her Great Granddaddy who is 82 years old...

So thankful he was able to be with us this year...

Sweet Cousins...

After Melette's, we headed over to Duke's parents for more yummy food and more egg hunting. Addison found one of the "Golden Eggs" this year and was so proud of herself!

Daddy caught eye-ing her prize money...

What a wonderful Easter we had! Hard to believe next year we will have another little bunny to chase after!

A Sneak Peak at Our Maternity Photos

I have to admit, I was SUPER nervous about having these done but I am SO glad I did now! We met the most precious lady named Lindsey one hot Saturday evening and she did a fabulous job of capturing this special time for our family. I sent her a few photos that I liked a few days before we met her, told her the only thing I wasn't comfortable with was "showing" my belly and she went to town.

Thank you Lindsey for providing our family with these memories!

Breakfast With The Easter Bunny

Mom, Addison and I ventured to the mall early one morning to enjoy breakfast with the Easter Bunny and Addison had a BLAST! She couldn't have enjoyed it any more and literally GLOWED the entire time we were there.

She was so excited when she saw him coming her way!

As you can imagine, the kids were all over him but Mom managed to snap this shot of her that shows just how excited she was...

After we visited with him, we made some cute crafts and enjoyed yummy Chick-Fil-A...

Even NaNa got in on the craft...

What a fun morning with my sweet girl!

37-ish Week Appointment

I had my 37-ish week appointment this morning and everything looked great. Dr. Graham did an ultrasound to get a sneak peak at baby Braxton and see how much he was weighing these days. It was so amazing to see how much he had grown since our last ultrasound at 20 weeks. He was practicing his breathing (yay!) and the ultrasound tech commented again on how "active" he was. Another thing she kept commenting on was how big his feet are! This was funny to us because at our 20 week ultrasound, the lady made the same comment. It seems that our little boy already has a foot that is measuring right at 3 inches. Maybe he'll be tall??? We shall see!

One thing for certain is that he looks just like Addison did! We have wondered from the very beginning if he would look like Addison when he was born and from what we can tell, they look just like. What do you think?

And here is a shot of Addison when she was just a few days old...

They have the same chubby cheeks and the exact same mouth. Oh I can't wait to hold him!

Right before the ultrasound, the lady asked me if I wanted to guess the weight of the baby and I guessed 7lbs. She sort of looked at me like I was crazy, but sure enough, Braxton was measuring right at 7lbs. Dr. Graham wants to do another ultrasound at 39 weeks to see what he is measuring then but right now, we are still praying over whether or not we will elect to have a C-section with him. I have so many girlfriends that have had wonderful experiences with C-sections and we absolutely do not want to experience everything we went through with Addison EVER again but either way it's a big decision. I have to admit that I keep looking for things that will help make the decision easier but so far, I haven't found it. So prayers for knowledge and wisdom are greatly appreciated in the Skalon household right now.

In the meantime, we are counting down the weeks until Braxton is here and getting VERY excited! All of us simply can not wait to have him in our arms!

Out Of The Mouths Of Babes...

Addison: "Mom!"

Me: "Yes, honey?"

Addison: "You're like a kangaroo and Braxton is your Joey!"

...Love her!!

A New Toy for Brownie

Addison and I got Brownie a harness last week and she is LOVING it! It's so funny to watch her hop around with it on.

Addison thinks its the greatest thing to be able to walk her and it's been nice to have her in the back yard with us while Addison plays on her swing set or the trampoline. Even Belle is loving being able to play with her!

What a fun summer it's going to be!

36 Week Appointment

I had my 36 week appointment today and everything is looking good! I am almost 2 centimeters dilated and 50% effaced so things are moving in the right direction. Dr. Graham also said that he was much lower and he could feel his head (a little weird, I must admit) so we are excited to see how things progress over the next week or so.

Next Thursday we get to have an ultrasound done to check in on this little (PLEASE be little and NOT has big as your sister!) guy's weight...Yay for getting a sneak peak at him and for starting my weekly appointments! He's almost here!!!

Look Who's Almost Here!

A few weekends ago, Jessica and Liz threw me the sweetest baby shower in celebration of Braxton's upcoming arrival. The shower happened to fall on my birthday and was the perfect way to kick off my last year in my 20's!

The theme of the shower was Owls and everything turned out absolutely adorable! Look at these precious invites...

The beautiful food table with lots of yummy food...

The precious Owl cupcake cake that Jess made!

Soooo exciting! He's almost here!

Sweet little clothes...

And yummy favors for everyone to take home...

I say all the time how blessed I am to have such wonderful friends and all of these sweet ladies completely blew me away with their excitement and love for our growing family...

Addison was so excited to help me open all the gifts for Braxton and it was so special to have her there to share in this special time. The bear in this photo is a special gift that Mom took her to make as a gift from her, to Braxton. She was so excited to give it to me and it is so special. She made the bear at Build A Bear and when you press it's leg, it has her precious voice saying, "Braxton, I love you so much!"(and making a kissing sound) Melt my heart!!! What a wonderful big sister she is going to be!

Mom was able to come and meet some of the ladies that she's heard so much about but never met. So glad she could share in this day with me! Think she is a proud Nana???

What a special day this birthday was for me! Thank you so much to the sweet hostesses for pouring so much love into this shower. I love you both so much!

A Peak Into Braxton's Room...

Here's a quick sneak peak into Braxton's room as we try to put the finishing touches on everything before he makes his big debute...

It's no secret that Duke and I had a tough time agreeing on bedding that we both liked for this little guy, but we both agreed on this set and I couldn't have been happier with it when it arrived.

Duke did the wainscoting on the walls and we chose a green to go on top so the room wouldn't be "so blue"...

Next, I set out to make this cornice board...and I have to admit that I'm pretty darn proud of how it turned out since I am probably the least "crafty" person you could know.

First, I measured (yes, Duke helped with this part) and cut two pieces of foam board the same length has the windows in his room. Then, I used Duct Tape (Yep! Duct Tape) and taped them together. Next, I wrapped the foam board with batting and covered it with Burlap. Time consuming, but Pretty Darn Easy!

It looked like this when I was done...

I measured out circles using newspaper before I cut them out of brown fabric so I could play around with the placement a little bit before I attached them onto the cornice board.

After I decided exactly where I wanted them to go on the board and how big I needed them to be, I cut the circles out of brown fabric and took them and had them monogrammed.

And this is the final product! Not too bad, huh???

Then my "Oh So Talented" girlfriend, Melissa, painted these two pictures to hang over his dresser and they look adorable in his room. Thanks Melissa!

We have added a few things that I need to snap some photos of but it's coming together slowly but surely. Can't wait to have him in this room, hope he likes it! :)