Mom's Birthday Lunch

We managed to get all the Bridge girls together for a short time right before Mom's birthday, so a celebratory lunch was in order. Normally, we all try to get babysitters and head to a "nicer" place for a birthday lunch, but it's hard(and expensive!) to get babysitters during the day, so we just opted for a true family lunch. Yes, we don't have as much time to chat when the kids are with us, but there is truly no end of entertainment. Exhibit A... Nice. Anyway, we really did have a great time gathered at a cafe in a nearby town. Maura was in 7th heaven seated between Aunt Katie and Grammy!

Emily was home on Spring Break and taking a well deserved rest! Lorie and Alex were there, but I'm not sure if Alex was exactly in the mood for photos. My big boy was, though!

Happy Birthday Grammy!! It's a good day for Grammy when she has all the grandkids present. This was the best photo. I promise. Sigh. The kids were up for some more personal photographs when we walked over to visit a caboose that is parked nearby. Tristan LOVED it!

My girl was pretty cute too! She got all excited while we were there because a police officer walked out of the bank and to his nearby cruiser. She just had a police officer visit her school and was feeling connected to the police force as a whole. She started yelling, "Mommy, there's a policeman!" He looked at her and sort of waved and she got so embarrassed. It was really cute!

So glad we were able to have a special event to celebrate such a special lady!

St. Paddy's Day

Brace yourselves for another day of over the top holiday celebrating! We love St. Patrick's day in our family. I'm not sure if it's because Lorie lived in Ireland for a time or that it's the first holiday that begins to usher in the springtime, but we're big fans around here! And, like everything, when we celebrate, we celebrate BIG! We wore green for a solid week prior to St. Paddy's day! The actual day fell on a Thursday when the kids had school, so we had to be ON THE BALL to get our green eggs and ham made and eaten before school. The kids had green milk too. The next few days were...colorful!

I had to get some photos of my little Irish sweetie. They say everyone is Irish on St. Paddy's day, but I think Maura might be able to claim a little more with her smidgen of Irish blood and Irish name. Notice her attire. Crazy spring weather. We had snow just one week prior. I dressed her in leggings and had a long sleeve shirt on her in the morning. By afternoon, she begged to wear short sleeves and her skirt because she was so hot!

Below: I wanted to include this photo montage to demonstrate JUST HOW HARD it is to get a decent photo of my kids.

Well, I'll settle for all eyes on me! My three little Irish cuties!

We headed over to Lorie and Micah's house that evening f0r a St. Patrick's Day party. My sweet niece Alex was there to greet us. Tristan took her "Kiss Me, I'm Irish" shirt a bit too literally!

So did Maura! Lorie was the founder of our feast! I don't remember doing much on St. Patrick's Day prior to her study abroad in Ireland. Since she's returned, we've done a feast every year, complete with Shepard's Pie, Guinness Pie, Irish Soda bread, Potato soup, Mini Reuben sandwiches, Irish Cream cheesecake and more. It's some HEAVY food, but delicious!

Our friend Joanna made this awesome cake! Loved it! There were gold nuggets in the middle of the cake too!

Brent and I loved the chance to love on our sweet kids.

Bennett was pretty happy to have the chance to love on his Aunt Emily...and pull some of her beautiful hair!

Speaking of my Boo Boo, he turned nine months old on St. Patrick's day! It was his inside out day--the day when he's been outside my belly for longer than he was inside. At nine months, he was sitting up very well, getting up on hands and knees and rocking. He can roll EVERYWHERE and can get into anything. He's my mouthiest baby and will try to eat anything. He finds and eats the most random things. I pulled a horseshoe nail out of his mouth the other day. He is starting to talk a little and he says "Hi, mama and dada." He loves to wave at people. He is my smiley, happy, flirty little boy, but he's starting to develop stranger anxiety and likes to play shy when he someone for the first time. He's found his voice and likes to SCREAM. He love to hear himself make noise. He's no longer an easy baby to keep in church with his noise, bouncing and arching of the back. He is very wiggly! He is no longer a truly easy going baby. He has a definite opinion about everything and will make that opinion known! He's finally eating a bit better, but he much prefers finger food to baby food and will gobble down almost anything I put on his plate. He would down a whole container of puffs in one sitting if I would let him! My biggest news for the month is that he's FINALLY sleeping through the night. Hallelujah!! He figured out that he can roll on his belly and has slept soundly every since! Happy Inside Out day baby boy!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone! Luck of the Irish to ya!

Bennett's Baby Dedication

I LOVE Baby Dedication Sunday. Love, love, love seeing all the babies that God has blessed our church family with over the past year. Our church does a wonderful job of honoring our babies and families and lifting them up in prayer. Every year they do a tear inducing video montage of photos from the child's first year and then they bring the families up to pray over them as they raise their children up in the Lord. It's always a big event and I've been so blessed to be able to dedicate all my babies back to the Lord. My family was able to come and be a part of this special service with us. It was a really special day.

You never know what your children will do while up on stage in front of the entire congregation. Our kids were chatty and Bennett threw his paci, but otherwise no major embarrassment! We took the opportunity of being all spiffed up to get some photos.

Before...and after! If there is hair within Bennett's reach, he will grab it. Ouch!

We took the opportunity of having everyone together to go out to Cracker Barrel. Grammy and Pappap got the honor of being out to eat with all four of their grandchildren at the same time. Honor or torture, not sure which one! Four preschoolers at a table...nuf said!

These innocent little faces are truly adorable! LOVE these kids!

We're thanking the Lord for the great gift that he's entrusted us with and we will continually lift these children up in prayer. It is a great honor, responsibility and joy to be Bennett's mother and it's not one that I take lightly. He is truly a blessing to our lives.

That same evening, at home church, the girl's took advantage of the nice weather to skip out on home church and walk the kids to the lake. Bennett shared a ride with John Simon and we had a great adventure. The kids couldn't wait to get there to feed the ducks.

We borrowed this little hat for Bennett and I thought it was so adorable that I just had to snap a few photos. Precious, precious boy!

March Randoms

March was a fun month for us with all the partying we did. I have just a few photos that don't seem to fit in anywhere else. On March 15th, Maura got to be star student at school. I think it's connected with their birthdays, so it was her turn. She was so proud to take her information sheet in and see it hanging on the wall. She insisted that we put butterflies all over it because she wants to be a bug scientist when she grows up. She also drew me a little fairy to put in the middle of the poster. I had to be a bit selective while choosing the fairy to include. She'd been drawing all her fairies with breasts that week!

Tristan visited the dentist for the first time on the 15th. I was babysitting Alex that morning, so I ended up taking three kids to the dentist office. I wasn't sure how that was going to go if Tristan didn't like the dentist, but I needn't have worried. He LOVED the dentist. Perhaps it was being the center of attention, maybe it was the TV on the ceiling, or the Lightning McQueen toothbrush, but he's asked to go back to the dentist's office several times since our visit. What a big boy--no cavities!

Tristan is my musical child. He's loved music ever since he was a tiny baby. He currently loves this "electric guitar" and frequently jams to the music. His favorite is the "party song" which is "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" and he runs around like a maniac while it plays.

Below: Bennett spent the month of March trying to figure out how to crawl. He has the hands and knees part down, he just spends all his time rocking. He'll get it soon!

My crazy girl alternates between hamming it up for the camera and pretending the camera doesn't exist.

Below:March was community helpers month at Maura and Tristan's school. The kids were asked to dress like what they wanted to be when they grow up. Maura immediately decided that she wanted to be a bug scientist. She has a pocket full of (rubber)bugs.

Tristan opted to be a soldier. He originally decided on bug scientist too, but we knew he was just copying. He was awfully cute in his fatigues. Bennett wore his fatigues too in honor of the occasion. This month I've started working in the nursery at the kid's school for tuition reimbursement. I'm enjoying it and Bennett gets to be with me, so it's a win-win situation for me.

March was a strange month for us, weather-wise. It came in mild and beautiful and then proceeded to keep us guessing. It actually snowed on Maura's birthday. We just tried to soak in as much of the sunshine and nice weather as possible. Grammy came over to hang out with us too. Here's hoping for a much warmer spring than what we've experienced so far!!