The weather is FINALLY getting warmer which is amazing! The other day Graham and I met up at the park to socially distant feed ducks with a friend. And then a few days later we went to our future neighborhood and did a great walk around the lake and played at one of the playgrounds! Graham is getting SO brave about the playgrounds and wants to climb up the ladders and go down the slide and it makes my mama heart so happy!

Lately I want to remember how Graham calls McDonald’s “Old McDonald’s” and how he wants to play chase every day before bed. How he loves having the Alexa timer go off and is super obedient when it does. How he wants to cook me food in his kitchen or fight off bad guys in the car. How he still is a little shy and the neighborhood kids know to give him space when they’re all outside, which is funny and sweet. How he’s so particular about where things go on his chair and which outfit he wears which makes me laugh. How he wants to tie his hair up and wear blue light glasses just like his daddy. How he is trying to tell us he needs all new toys because when his baby brother comes, he will get all his old toys 😂 He’s the sweetest little boy and I don’t know what I would do without him.

I was also able to get my COVID shot! What a BLESSING! A hidden blessing of gestational diabetes. I did have a little crying breakdown the other day about not being able to eat a sticky finger salad, but that is what it is haha! In a lot of ways GD is actually harder this time around. My fasting numbers are little bit harder to control and I learned that in subsequent pregnancies it can be harder to manage overall. So I’m going to keep doing my best and we’ll see where we land.

Graham still loves his little preschool that we do at home every day, I still love work and it’s going really well, Randy is almost done with busy season HALLELUJAH and we are getting excited for everything ahead! Graham’s birthday, our anniversary, warmer weather, then BABY BROTHER, my sister coming home from her mission—it’s going to be an amazing spring and summer and I couldn’t be more excited for what’s around the corner.

Birthday cake and celebration with Grandma and Grandpa! We love them and had a great time spending time together.

Gestational diabetes round TWO for this mama. I went in for the test at the normal 24 weeks and lucky me, I developed if later in pregnancy. So back to finger pokes and low carb. But this little boy will be worth it! I feel much more in control of it this time and like I can manage it.

Graham wants to be just like dad! He loves taking his glasses, wants his hair tied up, wants to sit in his office, it’s too cute!

Gestational diabetes means lots of walks and runs for me and Graham and Randy are great to tag along! The weather is getting warmer and I love spending time with them outside.

We had an early Easter celebration with Melanie because she would be gone for Easter and it was so fun! We went to Top Golf for Grandma and Grandpa’s birthday which was great, and then we dyed Easter eggs in the evening. Randy did a Jazz theme for his eggs this year and they turned out AWESOME. I love how engaged he gets in making the eggs and how much fun it is for everyone.

It’s been one year since the pandemic started and it’s crazy to think how things have changed. I wonder how Graham is affected because we haven’t gone to play with friends or done other activities that we normally would do. I look at our home church and think about how it has changed the way I feel about the Gospel. I’m hoping so many things are going to be part of our new life, like working from home and taking things slow and being cautious when we’re sick. It’s crazy to think that we had no idea how long this would go on and what it would mean. My heart aches for all the things we have lost. The people who have died, the families that have been forever changed, jobs lost, lives permanently altered. We’ve been so insanely lucky. But I hope we take every day moving forward in stride and know how lucky we are have it.

I can’t believe it but we are building a house! So many things have shifted and come together for this to work out for us and we are so happy! We were under contract on another home and didn’t feel great about it, especially after the inspection. So we backed out and we were sad. I was feeling pretty hopeless and unsure that anything would ever fall into place. The housing market is so crazy and I wasn’t sure how we could afford anything. I had liked the neighborhood in Syracuse and had toyed about building there a year ago but it hadn’t seemed right. The prices kept rising and I just wasn’t sure how it would work out. I’d been looking at smaller houses and decided to look at some of the bigger ones instead. The smaller houses had a 3 month wait and then an 8 month build which was really crazy. When we started looking at the bigger houses we found the waitlist was much shorter and we could maybe have a lot in just a few weeks. So we started really investigating it and pricing everything out and it just seemed like a good fit. The builder was SO great working with us and let us know that a lot would be available in a couple of days. They got us the lot we wanted with the color house we wanted and everything. The day came and we were able to sign the papers just hours after the lots were released!

I went to the design center a few days later and picked out allllll the stuff we wanted and it was so crazy and stressful and also fun! It’s so fun to envision all the things that will come together for our home. We are so excited. It won’t be done until October or November which is sooo long to wait but it’s also not too bad in the grand scheme of things. I can’t stop myself from driving over to the lot even though they won’t break ground until May! We’re just sure it will be a great house and neighborhood for our family.

We took Graham and Mel to Disney on Ice and it was AMAZING. They loved it so much and they were so cute and excited. They loved the music and were dancing in their seats the whole time. Graham loved Malificent blowing fire on the ice, seeing Ursula fight, he was obsessed with Micky and Minnie, and the entire crowd of kids went WILD when Frozen came! It was interesting to do it all with COVID but the kids were SO GOOD at wearing their masks and it all felt really safe and great. Graham alternated between having to stand up to watch, leaning back in his chair, sitting on the edge of his seat, and more. He also was waving at the characters the whole time which was adorable! There was a boy behind us with a Buzz costume and in some ways I think that was Graham’s favorite part!