Saturday

Saturday our church Easter Egg Hunt got rained out. 20,000 eggs all going to waste! Thankfully, we had not hyped it up too much to Camryn, so she really didn't notice that we didn't get to go. She was just happy playing with her new Easter basket. We also had dress rehearsal for our Easter presentation Saturday afternoon. However, we ended up only making it through about a third of the practice because of the tornadoes in the area. We all had to move to the hallways for 10-15 minutes while the bad weather blew over, and then spent the rest of the time sitting in the sanctuary with the emergency lights on because the power went out. Crazy. I have to say, I was pretty proud my husband didn't completely freak over not having a whole rehearsal right at crunch time since this is his big project that he has planned for a year.

Saturday night we went to Edwards' house for Jeff's 31st birthday dinner. Sarah Ellen made roast, carrots, potatoes, asparagus, broccoli, and macaroni and cheese. She also had Tastefully Simple appetizers and a Marble Slab ice cream cake for dessert. You could have rolled us out the front door by the time we left. After dinner we had a mini Easter egg hunt around the house for the girls. Allen and Kelli didn't want the girls to be disappointed over the canceled egg hunt, so they bought 3 dozen eggs and stuffed them with stickers, candy, money, and hairbows. It was so much fun watching Alyssa, Camryn, and ClaraRose (SE and Jeff's niece) stuff eggs into their baskets. WHY don't I ever have my camera for the really good stuff??

Pregnancy

I have realized I am surrounded by pregnancies! Two of my very best friends are pregnant, girls that I lived with at Winthrop have either just had babies (as recently as Monday!) or are pregnant, 2 girls I work with are pregnant,and I know of at least four people who are currently trying to get pregnant or are planning to start trying later this year. It's enough to make a girl start catching baby fever!! (Just kidding - but it does make your heart melt a little when you buy the shower gifts and start seeing all those sweet baby things!) Until recently, I never really realized how precious a healthy, easy pregnancy is. I guess I just took for granted that if you wanted to get pregnant, you just did! I never really knew anyone who didn't have an easy time getting pregnant. I even had such a great pregnancy with Camryn and am beyond thankful that carrying her was so easy! But, I have seen many people around me struggle with miscarriages, issues that keep them from having healthy pregnancies, and struggle with trying for sooooo long without results. It is really heartbreaking to watch people you love deal with these things, especially when you know how much they would love a child and what a good home they would provide. But, I have also seen that God has a plan and blesses families in His perfect timing! Two of the girls I mentioned above have healthy boys (one on the way!) after miscarriages. I can't wait to meet all of these sweet babies. Many of their mommies and daddies are so very precious to me, and I know these little ones will steal my heart as well!

The Weekend

We had such a great time this past Friday night. Our friends Allen and Kelli hosted Allen's 30th birthday party at Frankie's Fun Park. I had forgotten how much fun that place can be! Even though it was too cold and rainy to go outside, we still had a blast eating the Frankie's food, having birthday cake, and playing in the arcade. The highlight of our night was playing the Deal or No Deal game for tickets! The birthday boy was the big winner of the night and got 200 tickets. Jason and I got 104 or something like that ... we took the deal! I could never play that game with real money! I was freaking out over just tickets! Unfortunately, I didn't take my camera, so there are no fun or incriminating pictures from the night!

Here are a few other pictures I thought were cute. The first one is Camryn dressed up for church in her USC dress Aunt Alison bought her for Christmas. She is all Carolinaed-out, down to the bows in her hair, although you can't see them. A poor, misguided Clemson fan at church told us he was going to take pictures and turn us in to DSS for dressing her like that. I told him if that was the case, DSS would probably call to beg us to foster some children since we are one of the few families in the upstate who don't mistreat our child by dressing her in orange!

The other picture is my favorite from Camryn's party. My brother-in-law got the perfect picture of Camryn and her best friend Alyssa. I can't tell you how many times Kelli and I have tried to get the perfect shot of the two of them, and Justin didn't even have to try! They just saw him taking a picture and cheesed it up for him! These are the sweetest little girls in the world!

The Cake Tragedy

I started planning Camryn's birthday party in December. By the time we went home for Christmas, I already had my cake picked out and visited the lady who made Camryn's cake last year to ask her to make the one for this year. It was a three tiered cake (just what every 2 year old needs, right? Yes, sometimes I go overboard!) that was red and white with stripes and polka dots. I even bought little Sesame Street figurines to place on the cake to go along with our theme.

Camryn's party was on a Saturday. My mom picked the cake up on Thursday evening and traveled with the cake to Charlotte on Friday morning to meet my sister and brother-in-law so they could all ride together to my house. Around 4:00 pm on Friday - LESS than 24 hours before the party - mom calls and says, "I have bad news about your cake." She went on to tell me the entire bottom tier had collapsed, causing the top two tiers to fall into it and over into the cake box. The bottom was basically demolished, and the decoration on the second tier was ruined. The top layer was fine but would only feed a handful of people. I was just totally in shock and didn't even know what to do. After feeling completely helpless for a few minutes, I went to a local bakery to see if they could help me at all and recreate any part of the cake. No luck on such sort notice. I came back home and just sat on the couch in a daze. Finally, Jason gave me a little dose of tough love and firmly told me to get my rear end off the couch and go to Publix.

Long story short, the incredibly nice girl at Publix told me at 6:00 pm, after I told her the story of my ruined cake with huge tears in my eyes, that they could make a cake for me in time for the party the next day. I was at my breaking point by that time, so she must have thought I was a major nutcase, but the Publix bakery people were my heroes for the weekend and saved the party. Plus, they made a cake that I thought was just precious!

Camryn's Birthday Party