Happy St. Patrick's Day!

1 month later and things are going pretty smoothly here. I had Avalyn to the doctor last week and she is up to 8lbs, 3 oz and is 20 3/4 inches...a whopping gain of 2 lbs and over 2 inches since birth...how do you make things slow down???

We had a busy weekend, which was wonderful! Friday night we had dinner at the Turk's house, which always consists of quite the culinary spread. For the menu and pictures to go with it, check out Turk Talk! Owen had fun watching 101 Dalmatians in their "movie theater" and we had fun being captivated by Nancy's stories. (Seriously, Nancy, write a book already!)

Saturday, we celebrated Easter at the Hostetter's, complete with an egg hunt (over 130 eggs!) and a BBQ chicken dinner. We also celebrated Bailey's 2nd birthday! From there, we headed to Jon and Angie's to celebrated Jackson's 2nd birthday. (He and Bailey are 2 days apart!) After more cake and ice cream, we were all ready for bed.

Sunday was church, the weekly trip to Giant for groceries (which has become my outlet, rather than a drudgery each week. :-) And at life group, they had a Welcome Avalyn party. We came home with lots of diapers and wipes (HUGE blessing!!!) and had red velvet cake with pink icing...thanks Nancy! It was a fun evening and I was reminded, once again, how blessed we are to be a part of such an awesome church.

Which reminds me of the few random things that I think of at the 2 am feedings that crack me up in the morning.

1. I wonder if I would do better or worse on the SAT's than I did in high school if I were to take them now?

2. I wonder what Ryan would do if I kicked him so hard he flew out of bed?

3. I wonder how many ounces of milk Avalyn's actually getting?

4. I wonder if Avalyn is going to feel rejected because of the huge difference in the number of pictures I'm taking of her verses the ridiculous number I took of Owen? (Note to self: Take some pictures today and get yourself to Picture People this week.)

5. I am so lucky to have the friend and family in my life that I do. (Now getting teary and can't reach tissues)

Anyway, this is going to feel like a short week, cause Thursday morning, Owen, Avalyn and I are headed to the cabin with Peeps and Nena. Ryan, Joelle and Marc are coming up Thursday night. This is one of my all-time favorite traditions...Easter at the cabin! I had better start packing now, but the thought of the enormous list I'm going to get to make is getting me excited already! This year we're leaving a day early and will be back for church and the big Easter dinner at Ryan's aunt's farm in Landisville...another tradition we love about Easter!

One last thing before I finish cleaning and begin making the list of all lists...

Avalyn Jean was named after my grandma Brandt (Jean) and I only found out after I named her that I was also named after her...my Gramps always called her "Jenny" and (fun fact for some of you) my parent actually named me "Jennifer" (don't know if they were going to call me Jenny or what) but ended up having it legally changed to "Jena" after a couple of weeks because they decided that they were going to call me Jena anyway and there were too many "Jennifer's" and they wanted something different. All this to say, I love this fact that I was named after my grandmother (makes Joelle furious with envy...cause she got the passed down middle name of Louise from my mother and grandmother and I got the "good " name) All to say, it made naming AJ (Jean) all the more special. And all this randomness to explain the above picture...Gramps with AJ. I love this picture!

*Sorry to anyone with the name, Louise...it's a good name, Joelle just likes to pick fights.