One busy weekend!

My mom, grandma, little brother, and niece (both kids are 10 years old) all came to visit this past weekend. We had a houseful with 7 people staying there all at once! Maybe it doesn't seem like a houseful to some, but for us, who usually only have 2-3 people there at a time, it was! It was a wonderful time visiting with family though and I'm so glad they were able to come. My mom and grandma hadn't seen our new house yet, so it was fun to give them the tour! They loved it. And of course...we got to share our big news with them!

Everyone arrived to the house around 10 am on Saturday. We showed everyone around the house and got them all settled into the rooms they'd be staying in. Then I told everyone to gather together at the table in the breakfast nook because I had a little "treat" for everyone. Do you remember reading about the fortune cookie idea I had for telling DH about my BFP, but I was too excited to wait? Well, I saved them to tell our family. I wrapped each of them up and put a name tag on them for each person and passed them out. Everyone opened theirs up, and I think they were a little confused about why they all had chocolate covered fortune cookies to eat at 10 am before we had even gone out to breakfast! haha. My grandma was the first one to read the fortune out loud: "A new addition to the family is on it's way." Everyone broke into huge smiles and there were hugs all around. My mom swore that on the drive up to visit us she knew I was going to tell her I was pregnant this weekend. Unfortunately, we forgot to take pictures of this momentous occasion! But I do have pictures of the fortune cookies that I will post later. DH didn't eat his fortune cookie and gave it to my mom so she could take it home for my stepdad to open up Monday night so he could find out the news the same way. On Friday, we mailed fortune cookies to DH's parents, his brother, and my sister, along with a photocopy of the ultrasound with a little note from the baby inside. They received them Monday night. More about that later.

We went out to breakfast/lunch at Cracker Barrel with the family, and my grandma just couldn't resist telling the waitress the wonderful news. I'm not exactly telling the whole world yet, but apparently grandma is! lol. It's okay, she was just so excited that she had to tell somebody, even if it was a complete stranger! After we ate, it was about 12:30 so we went back home and hung out for a little bit, then we all went to the Butterfly Rainforest at the Florida Museum of Natural History until about 5 pm. My grandma just loved seeing all of the butterflies and the beautiful flowers (she used to be a florist). We got a lot of great pictures, and the butterflies really seemed to love landing on grandma's butterfly t-shirt!

Afterwards, DH took the kids home so they could go outside and play, while mom and grandma and I went to Bealls Outlet to do some maternity/baby shopping! Woo hoo! I found 3 cute tops (2 maternity, 1 regular) and 2 maternity tank tops. But I swear, it felt like I tried on clothes for 3 hours straight! Mom bought a 2 bib/burp cloth sets, 2 pairs of footed pajamas, 2 sleeping gowns, a pair of booties, some bath toys, and a teething ring for the baby. Everything is yellow and green so it's neutral and will work if we have a boy or a girl. Grandma bought the baby a yellow fleece blanket with a little duck on it. I'll post pics soon. Then we stopped into Publix, and grandma had to share the news with the cashier. lol. More strangers in my town knowing the wonderful news! We ran home to drop off the groceries, and then headed to Texas Roadhouse for dinner around 7:30. Finally, a chance to sit down! Being on my feet all day really wore me out and I was tired, hungry, sore, and cranky! We had a yummy dinner, and then headed back home. The kids showered and got their pj's on and vegged out on the couches watching TV while I made them some break-and-bake chocolate chip cookies. Yum!

On Sunday, DH made breakfast for everyone, and then we all headed to church at 11:15. Grandma seemed to really enjoy our church, even thought it's probably a lot livelier than hers is! We headed home so the kids could get changed and head to a neighborhood kid's birthday party that afternoon. I made a delicious dessert called Dirt Pie. I'll post the recipe later. Then I did some laundry and put my feet up for a few minutes so I could rest. The kids got home and were FILTHY! I knew there were going to be water games, so they all wore their bathing suits, but they were covered in mud from the slip-n-slide in the backyard! They all went straight to the showers. I set them up in front of the DVD player watching the movie Bolt, and then mom and grandma and I headed to Target for another marathon session of shopping!

I tried on nearly everything in the maternity section at Target, and ended up with a lot of great stuff! I'll post pics of all of it later. I got a lot of shirts, a couple more maternity tank tops, and 1 pair of dress pants for work. Grandma bought some Easter bibs for the baby, along with some mittens to keep the baby from scratching it's face. All yellow and green! :) Then we ran to Publix to pick up some stuff for dinner, and headed home where my wonderful DH had yummy lasagna waiting for us. We ate dinner, got the kids to change into their pj's and finish watching Bolt, and I started the endless amount of laundry that had started to pile up! Then everyone dived into their Dirt Pie for dessert. A couple that Grandma is friends with stopped by for a short visit that evening around 10 pm so we chatted with them for a bit.

We finally crashed into bed late that evening. I was in so much pain from being on my feet for so long and constantly being on the go that weekend that I had to take a Tylenol and I just laid in bed, unable to fall asleep because everything just hurt so much. I wasn't eating regularly or drinking much water with all of our shopping marathons, and it really caught up to me that I wasn't taking very good care of myself over the weekend. I definitely need to remember to do that!

Monday morning came, and I felt terrible. I took SS to school at 7:45, came right back home, said goodbye to my family, called into work, and fell back into bed at 9 am. I slept until 12:30 pm when DH came home for his lunch break. We ate lunch together and I continued to work on laundry, but pretty much just rested all day. I didn't even get out of my pj's. I definitely needed that extra day to recuperate.

On Monday, DH's brother called us because he received his package. He is very excited to be an uncle again! My sister called us later that afternoon when she got hers and was excited as well. My stepdad called once he got his fortune cookie from my mom. His response? "I know what it takes for this to happen, and you tell (DH's name) that I'm not too happy with him about that!" Haha. He was totally kidding. DH's parents called us that evening and were thrilled with the news as well and so excited about the creative way that we told them.

I'm back to work today, and feeling much better since I got that extra day of rest. I updated our private family website this afternoon with the news and called my Dad and my Aunt D to tell them to check the website while I was on the phone with them. They were both thrilled with the news. My dad's reaction was the complete opposite of my stepdad's. His comment on our blog? "Good job, Son...Dad..." Haha.

I emailed our extended family and told them to check the website for updates...now I'm just waiting for them to email me back or call me once they've read the news!!!