I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter! Due to a second trip to the hospital for contractions coming 2-3 minutes apart, being placed on medication for contractions, failing my glucose screening, and simply being completely stressed out and worn out, our plans to go to North Alabama changed and us three Lassiters stayed put for the weekend. I was sad to miss out on seeing my family but it really was the best decision as I am feeling much better! And on the upside, we got to spend some time with Ben's family which was a lot of fun and you will see pictures of that towards the end of the post. Also, before I go any further, Baby Jack (yes we have a name now!) is fine and I am not considered to be in preterm labor, thank the Lord.
We decided to name the baby Jackson Ellis Lassiter and call him Jack. As I mentioned before, we have had a hard time deciding on a name and I had been praying about what to call #2. The name "Jack," a family name on both sides, had popped into my head but I hadn't mentioned it to Ben. So one day I asked Ben if there were any baby names sticking out in his mind and he said, "Well, I have kind of been thinking about Jack." I told him that I had been thinking the same thing and so we decided that Jack it must be! We got Ellis from my dad's middle name which had been in the running for the middle name pretty strong all along. My only hesitation was that I might want to use it for a girl down the road, but we thought it sounded good with Jackson. All of the family approves and that is the icing on the cake. I am really really excited to finally have a name for this baby! ALSO, this baby now has a birthday all picked out... June 10th! We scheduled the C-section at my last appointment and that means that Jack will be here exactly 10 weeks from today (if he stays put like he is supposed to)!
Now, let's get back to Easter... When I realized that Mason is now old enough to enjoy egg hunting and dying I got a little carried away. I bought 2 dozen eggs and boiled them last Sunday in anticipation for the dying and hunting to begin. I realized that he would not be very entertained by waiting on eggs in cups to change colors and I was trying to figure out what to do when I came across a post on watercolor eggs from this website. Perfect!
So, we added a few drops of food coloring to a few tablespoons of water and then a splash of vinegar and we painted away! Actually, Mason did the painting almost all by himself! He really seemed to enjoy it and also enjoyed moving the eggs around in the carton.
I was a bit nervous about there being a huge mess but Mason barely got any of the dye on his hands and the newspaper soaked up anything that dripped. Clean up was no problem. In fact, we only painted one dozen so we will probably paint the second dozen soon just for kicks.
My parents decided to head up to Nashville to spend Easter with Cara and Matt, but not before bringing Mason his Easter gift. They gave him a new pop up book, which is awesome and has a whale in it (Mason's favorite lately), and some Thomas the Tank Engine pajamas. I will have to get a photo of him in his new PJ's. He loves them and cried when I took them off of him the first morning. He points to Thomas and says "Thomas... blue!" Blue is the only color he knows so it is good that Thomas is actually blue.
On Friday, when Mason was finally all well, we got to take a trip to the zoo with several of our friends. Mason had talked about going to see the animals with Caden allllll week and literally cried when we didn't go immediately at 3:00 one morning when he woke up sick. I was only able to get all the little kids in the picture above because of the lens I had with me, but Hadley and Alex are there too! I kept trying to get them all on one level but as soon as the big kids would get down, the little ones climbed up. Mason had a great time with all of his friends and I loved getting to spend time with their mommies too! All the kids are so much fun to watch and it has been a joy getting to see them all grow up together.
In all the craziness with the pregnancy, I completely forgot about getting Mason something to wear for Easter and getting stuff for his Easter basket like I had planned to do the weekend before. On Saturday I went through his closet to see if he had anything "Eastery" for church the next day. Thankfully I had bought some outfits for him last year when they were on sale in anticipation for this year. I also pulled out some of his 18 month outfits from last summer to see if they still fit. Mason ooh'd and ahhh'd over all the outfits I showed him. Seriously. He really likes all of his clothes, even the dressy ones. All I have to do is say, "Oh Mason! Look at your outfit with monkeys on it!!" And he goes, "oooh!" So, he picked up the one pictured above with machines on it and I tried it on him only to realize it is way to small. However, he refused to take it off and insisted on putting his boots on with it. So that is how he spent much of his morning.... wearing an unbuttoned too small smocked outfit with cowboy boots. He even wore it to eat breakfast. Notice he is also holding his friend "Baby Duck" who he named himself and sleeps with, along with the bunnies.
We convinced Mason out of his smocked outfit and into "work clothes" so he could go out and play and hunt eggs while Ben and I did stuff around the yard. He loved hunting his painted eggs as much as the plastic ones but he kept trying to put the painted eggs inside the plastic eggs and they kept falling out. He would put the painted eggs in the plastic ones and then put them into his basket just like that. The only draw back to the real eggs is that the dogs kept trying to eat them. I would go to a spot where I knew I had hidden an egg and find that it had disappeared. Then I'd see it later covered in dirt somewhere else in the yard where one of the dogs had dropped it.
Working in the garden
Digging in the dirt pile where Daddy has been fixing the fence
Bringing out the heavy equipment
Filling up the dump truck
He was helping me pot the plants, or really just taking out all of the potting soil that I was putting in.
After all, what else would you do with potting soil?
Goodies from the Easter Bunny... clothes, bubbles, golf bag
Mason and Daddy after church on Sunday
The "test picture" I was taking from the tripod while trying to set up for the family photo. I love something about it....
Little man and Me, 29 weeks pregnant... Mason was done with pictures and wanted to play with his golf clubs. He was literally putting up a fight for me to hold on to him so I said "Ben, say something to make him laugh." Ben's response, "Mason, say boogers!" Really?? Haha!!
Getting a golf lesson from Daddy
This is a "before" shot of our yard and garden. We are getting new grass today, but more on that later!
That evening we headed out to Mimi and Pop's house for dinner and some egg hunting with Neal and Tori and their kids. (Neal is Ben's younger brother.) We had such a good time hanging out and watching the kids play. Even though rain was predicted, it cleared up just in time and left that beautiful rainbow for us to enjoy!
We were greeted by Neal and Tori's new puppy, a Bull Mastiff. So cute!
Neely made sure that Mason knew where Bunny was at all times. They were so cute playing together.
Running through the clover to get to Pop and Cole
He loves a tractor ride with Pop!
Weslianne and Neal taking a spin on the 4 wheeler
Neely loved hunting the eggs and was so excited to find them.
Such cute cousins!
Pop helping Mason get to the good stuff... he knows if you shake it and it makes noise then there is a prize inside
Mason loves his Mimi
Mason wanted to go the pasture to look for the "neigh" but there were no horses out this day.
I said a lot of stuff about Easter but somehow failed to leave out the most important part... Jesus!
Because He lives I can face tomorrow
Because He lives all fear is gone
And I know who holds the future
And life is worth the living just because He lives!!
If you have been reading this blog for a while, you may recall my talent and ability for gardening. Every year people beg to receive shipments of my produce but I have to turn them away by the dozens. "I just don't have the time to sustain such high demand." I politely tell them. Uhhh, not really.
By the second month or so my garden is usually taken over by weeds. The produce, if I can find it, is mediocre at best. The squash I planted on year one spontaneously combusted and my tomato plants from year 2 produced mutant dwarf tomatoes. I like trying to grow things, but I lack the perseverance to get out there and pull weeds, water the plants, and research natural pesticides. However, I usually have good luck with growing basil, which happens to be my favorite herb, mint (who can't grow that??), and I have a strawberry plant that has been clinging to life from year one, that little miracle. Everything else usually proves to be a toss up. For example, one year I had bell pepper and jalapeno pepper plants that produced well into fall with no care whatsoever and last year my cucumbers went nuts producing fruit like crazy. Pure luck. No skill.
With that being said, I am giving it another go. This year we are planting tomatoes (heirloom and roma), bell pepper, jalapeno pepper, basil, rosemary, mint, and thyme (and the strawberry plant that keeps coming back). I figured I'd go with that works and try tomatoes again because, after all, what is a garden with no tomatoes (dead or alive)?
So, this past Monday my dad came over innocently bringing us pancakes and unknowingly walking into a trap of plant shopping and garden preparation. He helped me pick out new cushions for the patio furniture, plants for the patio, and garden supplies. Then he hoed the weeds out of the whole garden and some of the other beds. I just watched. Thanks Dad. Just kidding. Dad did do all the work, but I had to make another trip to exchange patio cushions and while I was working on that Dad did everything else. So, the garden is ready for planting but I am waiting on these cold nights to go away before I put them in the ground. Right now, they are all living in the wagon and being carted in and outside as needed per the weather. I might have jumped the gun a bit, but Monday was so pretty it just seemed like the right thing to do.
As you can tell by the pictures, particularly the one below, Mason has inherited my green thumb and my fashion sense (cowboy boots with gym shorts, of course). He LOVED pulling the plants around in the wagon, stopping periodically to unload and reload them about twenty times. You better not even think about touching HIS plants either because he is quite particular about where they go. If I tried to move one from the wagon to the garden he would say "stop!!" or "no no no!" He was also a huge help with the weeding as you will see in the video at the end of this post.
This is his weeding stance.
This is his midmorning snack recovered from the sandbox. It used to be an apple.
On Tuesday of last week Mason came down with a rash which turned out to be Hand Foot and Mouth Disease. This is the second time that he has had it and I have no clue where he picked it up. Thankfully, no one else has caught it (yet) that I know of. Other than the sores in the obvious locations, you really wouldn't know he has been sick other than being a bit more fussy than normal. He has been a trooper and thankfully it all seems to be going away but unfortunately, it looks like it may be closely followed by a cold. Sickness go away!!!
On Thursday of this week I started having contractions while I was at work and ended up having to have a shot to stop them. They were just braxton hicks but they were coming so frequently I called to make sure that everything was ok. To my surprise the nurse said "How soon can you be here?" when I was expecting her to say "Oh, that's normal." So, I had to leave work and leave the other pharmacist by herself and I hated that, but better safe than sorry. Thankfully, everything is fine! Baby looked great! The doctor sent me to the hospital for the shot and monitoring and said he might have to put me on some medication if these contractions keep up. We'll see. On the up side, it turns out I am 29 weeks pregnant when I thought I was only 28. It is amazing how fast the time flies with the second baby as compared to the first.
All of that to say that Mason was sick, I was having to take it easy and the icing on the cake was that Ben had come down with cold and flu symptoms the day before and was feeling really bad. So, we were a pretty puny bunch all weekend. My parents came over on Saturday and mom helped me get groceries and cleaning supplies I needed and then single handedly over-hauled the new baby's room and Mason's room in only 2 hours while I went in to work for a bit. I came home to find the daunting task I had been dreading was already done. What a relief! I can't tell you how much better I feel now that that is done. If I can just find a place to put the junk lining my hallway then I will be good to go! I should probably get on that....
Since Mason was sick, he did not get to participate in our Lifegroup Easter Egg hunt for the kiddos yesterday. I was so sad he had to miss out but he had a big time playing at Mom and Dad's. He had been asking to go to "Nana's house" and Cara was passing through so she got to spend some time with him too! (She texted me the photo above.) After Ben and I left Lifegroup (we were in charge of cooking dinner and had already bought everything for it) we took some eggs over to mom and dad's and let Mason hunt for them. He loved it and kept saying "more" after every one that he found. Then after he found all the eggs, he hoarded them and refused to let anyone else touch them unless they were helping get the candy out of them. We couldn't even re-hide them. My dad kept asking Mason if he could have an egg and Mason would say no. So we told him that he should share with BopBop. Mason's response, "No share BopBop!"
Speaking of candy in the eggs.... Mason's daddy filled them up good. We bought some Jelly Beans at Costco and I had purchased some little Reese's eggs to go in them thinking one Reese's egg or a few Jelly Beans per egg would be plenty. However, upon opening them (after taking the tape off) I discovered them packed full of Peanut M and M's, multiple Reese's eggs, or Reese's eggs and Jelly Beans combined. We all got a good laugh about that because Ben is famous for his love of sweets. Our friends from Lifegroup are always sending him home with their leftover desserts or candy. Just last night he got half a bag of Snickers and half a bag Reese Cups without even asking. Everyone is like, "Here Ben, I know you will eat this." He never complains.
This is a picture I took of our friend's baby, Eli. They had me take some newborn photos of him and I was honored but quite hesitant to do so because that is sort of important and I was afraid I would mess them up or something due to lack of experience. For some reason they trusted me with the task and I worked on finishing them up over the weekend when I was trying to just take it easy. I really love taking pictures and I learn a lot with every new shoot, but I am basically winging it and teaching myself as I go. I tried to take some newborn shots of Mason but after the c-section, trying to pose a newborn and take photos in the first week of his life with me recovering from surgery and having a new baby was kind of crazy (who knew?). That being said, I have no idea what I will do this time around. I may be crazy enough to attempt it again now that I have a tiny bit more experience.
And here is the video of Mason helping in the garden....
I am hoping to post our egg dying experience soon!
