Wow is is really April already? How did that happen? I have a 7 1/2 month old on my hands, we're embarking on summer, the shorts and flip flops are out and life is flying by!
We've had a lot of fun stuff this past week including a great celebration of Easter at our great church, Gabbie had her first official egg hunt AND went swimming for the first time.
Check out the pics.... (besides, it's more exciting to see what's been going on vs reading about it)

Easter Morning - all dressed up...

Opening her first Easter Basket - this one looks like she's saying, "look what I got, Mom!"



This bunny came from the Chattanooga Easter bunny. Gabbie CACKLED when she saw it!!



RHCC Eggstravaganza!
This year's hunt was moved inside because we had torrential rains move through our area the night before. So all the festivities were held inside our church, which actually worked out really well.
For Gabbie's age group. it was literally a 20x20 square space that they had laid eggs down on the ground (probably 500 eggs - literally!) Brent fought the crowds and took Gabbie - he sat her down and she knew exactly what to do. So proud...

This first one cracks me up - Brent's standing on the right holding Gabbie. Not sure what she was so interested in, but obviously it was not the fact she was about to hunt some eggs...


The crazy crowd - look at all those mamas and daddies taking pictures of their little ones...so cute!


Brent and Gabbie chowing down on their eggs?? who knows...

Last Friday, we said goodbye to new friends: Beck and Johanna. It is very bittersweet to say goodbye, but it's great for this family as they're moving across the country back home to Nebraska. Here are a few pics from the lunch we had at Swanky's. You may remember Beck and Johanna from our very first play date when we had lunch with them at their house.

Beck has celiac disease, so I made her my first ever gluten-free cake! Looks the same as all my others and actually tasted pretty darn good if I do say so myself !



We'll miss you both, Johanna and Beck, but we are so excited that God has taken you back home to be with all of your family!




Ok so Jen and the kids came in for a few days this week while all three kids were on Spring Break. We love going to the pool but it isn't open until after Memorial Day, however we have a great indoor pool at our rec center. sooooo we all suited up and headed to the pool - all kids in tow, Brent, Jennifer and I as well.
I was so excited that Gabbie did so well! She loved the water and even when Brent put her under the water, it didn't really even phase her. Check out the video at the end...

Love this picture: she is no where near a "chunky" baby, but this picture makes her look otherwise. What a cutie pie....

Boo boos. Cheerios. Round toasted oat cereal. Whatever you call it, it's a right of passage for every little one to dig their little fingers into a pile of these and watch them be scooted all over the tray.
Today I introduced Gabbie to her first (of many) experiences with cheerios. To this day, this is my all time favorite cereal. I love it with a banana or some raisins or sometimes just plain.
Today, Gabbie enjoyed chasing them all over her tray and she definitely helped my many reasons why I love this cereal...enjoy!

This is her "I don't know there's a cheerio stuck on my shirt" look

Here, Mom I'll share:

Look at me, I have cheerios in my mouth...wait...what happened to those cheerios that were on my fingers?



Here - she discovered the strap to her chair and the cheerios were no longer interesting





and of course I had to make a video of the experience!

Gosh road trips are fun! Even if they do require being in a car for more than 9 hours at a time, they really can be a lot of fun, especially when you're with good company and you have a great destination in mind.
Visiting my grandparents as an adult causes me to do all sorts of reminiscing - thinking about all the fun times I had growing up visiting my grandparents. They always made Jennifer and I feel so special. Taking Gabbie there now is really special too - I hope she gets to grow up going there and creating memories of her own. They are the "originals" because my parents are also called Mammaw and Pappaw. The originals are in North Carolina though and are Gabbie's great-grandparents.
Mom and I set out to the ol' High Point, NC this past weekend. We spent about four days with my grandparents and it was great. They, of course, ate up every minute with Gabbie girl. I am so thankful for the encouragement of our good friends to do road trips when Gabbie's young because I think she has gotten used to it - she did fantastic in the car! Mom and I were definitely appreciative.

We also went to visit my Aunt Sissy - she's been in a rehabilitation/assisted living facility for several months now and is doing great. She was really excited to see Gabbie (and us also).
Here are some great pictures from the trip....


Hanging out with Mammaw - this was before she realized she could chew on the tubing for her oxygen...

Pappaw and Gabbie girl
We even got to visit with Aunt Sissy both days we were in NC! She loved her time with Gabbie. She would tell literally EVERYONE that passed, "See my baby..." it was funny! (by the way - Aunt Sissy is my grandfather's sister, but she has always been a big part of my life since before I can remember. She's more like an aunt than a great aunt...)

...annnd here she has discovered the tubing is a GREAT thing to chew on. Mammaw doesn't really care - Duke's playing basketball. I think Gabbie could have done pretty much anything at this point because the game was on. (remember, basketball in north carolina is like SEC football in TN = borderline religious.)
She's not really sure what to think of Uncle David - I think she was confused because he has the same kind of facial hair as my dad. I love this curious look though!

This is Serenity - her daddy and I grew up sitting at this exact same table eating ice cream just like this almost every night. (I used to spend summers at my grandparents - one week at a time. My cousin Josh is just a few months younger than me - this is one of his beautiful daughters)
And here's Heaven in Josh's lap - it's so funny because she's just like Josh used to be in that she falls asleep at the drop of a dime. He used to eat dinner, excuse himself from the table and we would always find him sound asleep on the couch by 6:00 p.m. Of course then he wanted to wake up at 4am ... we have some funny stories about that...

Serenity could not keep her hands off of Gabbie and Gabbie was very intrigued with her as well!

When I'm at Mammaw and Pappaw's house this is my breakfast - pretty much every morning. Let me describe it for you: upper left hand corner - crispy bacon; beside that on the right is a single piece of fresh raisin toast; below that - a perfectly cooked egg in a hole. (interpretation: one piece of white bread, the center cut out with a biscuit cutter, the bread slathered in butter, put in a frying pan with a fresh egg cooked right in the center. It is THE best breakfast ever. I make it at home, but it's never right. I think it's the butter....)

This is a fiddle that belonged to my Great-Grandfather. My great Aunt Mary actually was able to fit inside this case when she was three years old - she had typhoid fever and got sooo small she could fit inside!

My Pappaw is known for all the boxed chocolates he always has on hand. This year people went a little over the top and got him two HUGE boxes of chocolate. I mean these guys were GINORMOUS!

Mindy and Aunt Sandra hanging out - this picture cracks me up because Aunt Sandra is cheesing so big and that HUGE chicken sandwich is on the tv at the same time....funny. Not sure why...ha

hanging out on the couch....

I mentioned earlier that I put Gabbie in her stroller for the first time without her car seat. I got a quick picture of it on our trip....she constantly puts the straps in her mouth or at least she's always licking them. (yes, I keep them clean)

Here's my little trooper in the car on our way back from North Carolina. We were in the car for a total of 9 hours each way - she was such a great little traveler! I never heard a peep out of her other than her sweet little coos.