Finally a nice day!

Finally a beautiful day that we were able to enjoy outside!  I met my friends Melanie and Jody (and Brie's friend Erin of course!).  We had a great walk and enjoyed some time at the park playing.  Brie loved the swings!  She was laughing and smiling so much, it was so cute.  

Going away party

Well it is crunch time!  We move in only 10 days.  I have been starting to get more serious with packing.  We have a wedding this weekend, after that though I am putting everything is boxes and I think we are just going to eat pizza 5 days in a row...

I am definitely feeling this move coming now.  I'm getting stressed about everything falling into place and the huge change coming.  I feel like I'm back in nursing school; not sleeping well, headaches, heartburn, and just sprouted a new canker sore....basically just stressed and worried!  I sometimes wonder why God made us have family in one state, and amazing friends in another state.  I keep reminding myself that we can visit and people can come visit us!

Our friends had a going away party for us last weekend.  It was SO fun.  Good food, good friends, good memories....what more could you want.  Everyone came with some of their favorite memories with Alec and I.  We laughed and laughed, oh my word we have had some good times with our friends here! 

So excited for baby Bennett!

My good friend Jessie had her baby boy!  Poor girl was 10 days over due and got induced.  But she had a pretty good experience (as good as can be going through labor and delivery ;) ).  She did great though!

We are so excited for them to welcome Bennett James into the world! He is such a cutie and little guy born at 6lbs 15oz.  Yes, 2 whole lbs less than Briana.....haha, so cute!

                                                

We are doggie sitting their Cockapoo, Cooper, while they settle in at home with their newborn.  He and Josie are good friends and love to run around outside together and bark at everything that moves or makes a funny sound.....crazy animals.  

So fun going to the hospital to see Jessie, Brad, and Bennett!

So crazy to think these 2 are only 6mon apart.  They will be the same grade someday!

We are absolutely thrilled for our friends and know they will make amazing parents to this little guy.  

With all this moving prep stuff I have been doing pretty good keeping my emotions in check.  The only time though I started crying so far was when I was talking to my sister on the phone and telling her about Bennett, I just started crying thinking about how I wasn't going to be able to see him very much and how much I am going to miss them.  Lots of mixed emotions for sure as we are getting closer and closer to the move.  

Random Photos from my phone

Every once in a while I plug my phone into my computer and get the pictures off my phone I have taken.  This always amounts to a bunch of random pictures that I have no idea what to do with!  So I am going to put a bunch up here.  I am realizing how fun it is to look back on my blog!  I have to try harder to keep up with events, it is amazing how much you forget looking back!

This is a really random post, but wanted some place to dump all these pictures!


This is Cooper, one of the therapy dogs at work!  He is so cute.  Patients really tend to love when the dogs come in and say hi.

She has been getting so much better at entertaining her self.  We set her on the floor with toys or in the exer-saucer to play.  It has been great!

This is a picture of my second to last day of work.  My last day was April 7.  I rarely wear scrub tops, just the scrub pants and then a sweatshirt usually.  Its just so much more comfortable!  Probably won't be able to pull that anymore though since I know most of the hospitals in the greater Grand Rapids area are far more strict about dress code (at least they were when I worked there a few years ago!).

This is how Brie woke up one morning.  I had worked the night before and Alec gave her a bath, then styled her hair like this and put her to bed.  Sure enough it stayed that way!  Oh mercy.....

She has a little Michigan outfit, so I put her in it for the final March madness game! GO BLUE!  Too bad they didn't quite pull it off, but we are still Wolverine fans :)

Yikes, I swear we don't give our kid booze!  Funny picture though :)  Alec had a beer one evening with dinner, and sure enough she was just constantly reaching for the bottle!

Brie at the doctors office for her 6mon appointment:

My friend Jody has an 18mon old.  Erin looooooves Brie.  'Bebe, bebe, bebe' is what she says the whole time they are together.  Here she is giving her a little kiss.  So cute!

Fussy baby taking a nap by daddy:

Getting better and better at sitting up!  We still use the boppy pillow behind her since she topples all the time.

Back at the pediatrician to get her 6mon shots:

Another happy baby picture:

Her hair is getting a little crazy, and I'm not really sure what to do with it.  It is to fine to hold a bow in, but is starting to look a little bit like a mad scientist.  Here I did get a bow in but it fell out shortly afterwards:

She is starting to think about crawling, she certainly is assuming the position but no forward movement yet. 

She definitely knows who I am and gets very excited to come by me.  She doesn't really have a problem though being held by others, she just likes to be held period.

Easter Weekend

We spent Easter weekend in Michigan with family.  We also used the long weekend to do some house hunting (see previous post).  It was a nice weekend though, we got a small glimpse of nice weather and got to see both sides of the family!

All ready to go to Michigan for the weekend!

Is that nice weather we detect?!  Fire up the grill!!

We spent some time in Hudsonville at my Grandparent's house with the DeKruyter clan.  Every year my mom still gets us all Easter baskets, we would all throw a fit if she stopped.  And every year she hides them and it is this race to see who can find a basket first.  You just do NOT want to be the last person to find it, because then you are total loser.  Well guess who was the last one this year.....me.  Sad.  Technically I was the second to last one, but I found it and announced it too soon, so then Allyson's boyfriend (Mike) came over snatched it from me!  He's bigger, he won the battle.  So off I went to go find the last basket while everyone laughed at me.

The soon to be hubby and wifey!  Wedding plans are coming along nicely and we are SOOOO excited for their October wedding :)  (Impossible to believe I will have a ONE YEAR OLD for their wedding....)

Briana even got an Easter present, a bunch of books!  She isn't really into having books read to her yet, she just tries to eat them and if you don't let her eat the book she gets mad and arches her back.  We are just saying forget the books for now....

Kid is six months old and this was probably the longest period of time she had spent outside....really depressing.  She liked it though, she loved watching all the commotion.  

Then we filled 100 Easter eggs and hid them all over outside for my little cousins.  Hiding eggs is SO fun.  We had some advanced level hiding for sure!

We spent the rest of the weekend in Grant with the DeLange crew.  For Easter Sunday they had a sunrise service, breakfast, and then another service.  I was able to attend part of the sunrise service and the breakfast....fail.  Brie was just NOT having it.  She needed to nap SO bad, and is the lightest sleeper in the world (totally gets that from me).  So I ended taking her back to Alec's parents house (all the way across the street, haha).  

Our nephew Gage all dressed up like a little stud for the occasion:

Auntie Lauren giving Brie some Easter hugs :)

We all gathered at Anne and Rob's house for lunch.  Brie and Evelyn were SO funny together, both were reaching out for each other.  Brie got ahold of her feet and was so determined to stick them in her mouth.

Making poke cake:

Jordan's new toy:

Brie was a pretty good traveler.  She had a couple fits, which are pretty horrible to deal with in the car when there is really nothing you can do about it.  We certainly will NOT miss making that long drive all the time like we do now.  I don't even want to know how many times we have driven to and from.

Looking forward we are going back for one more weekend end of April for my good friend Julia's wedding. Then the next weekend we move!  Lot's of packing needs to get done between now and then....