March was an exciting month for our family. We started the month counting down to Dawson's spring break and Clayton's due date!! We had BEAUTIFUL weather for March, and so we took advantage of it and spent as much time outside as possible!
The first weekend of March was Dawson's last basketball game of the 2016 season. It's amazing how much he learned and improved over the course of the season. He really enjoys playing basketball, and we enjoy watching him play!
Here are some pictures from his last game. The week after his last game was the awards ceremony.
The first Friday of March Dawson's school celebrated Read Across America and Dr. Seuss's birthday with students dressing up like favorite storybook characters and then having a character parade through the halls! Dawson chose to be Clark the Shark. Dawson usually doesn't really get into dressing up for all the Spirit Days, but for some reason this special dress up day was really exciting to him-so we tried to find all the pieces to his costume to make it even more fun for him. The kids and I went to his school that morning for a special Dr. Seuss breakfast (at 7:10am-yikes!) of green eggs and ham. Then we stayed and watched the character parade!
Lolly dressed as the I Spy book
Dawson's spring break was 7 school days (thanks to built in snow days) plus 2 weekends, so we had been looking forward to him having ELEVEN straight days home from school with us! We had made a huge list of things that Dawson and Carter had come up with that they wanted to do special while Dawson was out of school. So we were so disappointed when on the first day of Dawson's spring break Carter had the stomach virus! I was panicking that someone in our house had the stomach virus less than a week before Clayton's due date. I kept thinking that if we all passed it around Spring Break fun would be ruined and we could still possibly be sick when Clayton was born. We were praying that no one else got sick...and our prayers were answered!! Carter was the only one who got sick, and while he was miserable and didn't eat for a couple of days, we were so thankful he was the only one to get it!
So even though we didn't get to go many places on Dawson's first two days of Spring Break, we took advantage of playing in the backyard in the beautiful weather! Then by the weekend we were ready for fun!
The kids and I went to a pancake fundraiser breakfast with Lolly while John aerated the yard (poor John, I know!). It was for a little league team, and so the kids were being the servers. Carter STILL talks about wanting to work at the "restaurant where kids work." When we walked in he said, "I didn't know kids could work here!!" He was so excited, and this has prompted him to spend the past 2 or 3 weeks playing restaurant in the playroom.
The first Saturday of Spring Break we took the kids to the duck pond (always a hit, and it's been a while since he had been)
Then we went to Springbrook Park for a picnic and time on the playground!
Another item on Dawson and Carter's wish list of things to do over Spring Break was go to Bass Pro Shop! They LOVE this place! The fish are always a big hit! Here the boys are in front of the fish!
All boy
Nora Kate found this giant 2 room tent, went inside, and laid down!
Every time we go to Bass Pro, the kids LOVE these little bunk beds.
Sunny evening driving home from Bass Pro.
Another item on the spring break list was visit the library to get new books (Dawson had been disappointed that I had been taking Carter and Nora Kate some while he was at school) so we all had to go over spring break! We spent a while reading inside, picked our books, and then walked around the park outside. It was a REALLY hot day with not much of a breeze, but it was so nice to be out in the sun!
You can't tell in this picture, but this turtle is HUGE! I had no idea there were turtles this big in the water outside the library! The kids were amazed!
They stood and watched the big turtle for a while!
Blame the fact that Mommy was pregnant or that it was a really warm day, but we enjoyed ice cream on the patio that evening after dinner! YUM!
Then on Clayton's due date we checked another fun item off the list-visit the zoo! Lolly came with us, and we had a lot of fun!
My last time at the zoo with only three kids!
(exactly 40 weeks pregnant with Clayton in this picture)
Lolly and the kids at the zoo!
Dawson had fun doing a lot of art while Carter and Nora Kate napped on spring break! He was so proud of his poster board drawing of the golf course!
And more outside play time!
On Spring Break we also went to Vonore to have lunch with Daddy, and it was so nice we got to eat outside! We also went to Co-Op to pet the baby chicks-the kids loved this, and I had to explain at least 10 times why we couldn't bring one home. Nora Kate kept saying, "They're so cute and tiny!" Haha Dawson promised her he was going to have them on his farm one day.
By the second Saturday of Spring Break we had checked everything off our fun to do list, and I had honestly not planned much because I thought Clayton would be here...but he wasn't so we found things to keep us busy. John took the kids to the park while I got their closets organized with some warmer weather clothes, then we built this to hold our firewood for next winter! Later Lolly and Pop brought firewood over from trees they had to have taken down-so now it's full and ready for next winter's fires! We also did some yard work and took a lot of long walks...hoping to make Clayton decide to come on! The kids were just excited to play outside.
I didn't think we would be at church for Palm Sunday (thinking Clayton would have come by then), but we were! The kids enjoyed waving their palm branches. After church when two of our kids had broken their palm branches, Dawson made us laugh when we overheard him telling Carter, "These are a little different than the ones they really waved for Jesus. The ones they used to have a long time ago for Jesus, they didn't break this easy." Haha! I think the reason these broke was because rowdy kids waved them A LOT! We got a good laugh out of how confident Dawson was in his answer though!
I had been following my pregnancy with Clayton on this What to Expect App on my phone. After I had been in labor for about an hour and I knew it was the real deal, I opened the app to take one last screen shot. This is my favorite...40 weeks 5 days!
The week that Clayton was born, John took the entire week off work which was WONDERFUL for me and the kids! He did a great job making it a special week for them too. He took the boys to the driving range one day where they all got to hit balls. On the day of Dawson's class Easter Egg Hunt, John got to go volunteer and watch the hunt. Dawson was SO excited about this! After the Easter Egg Hunt John surprised Dawson and checked him out early to have a little special time with him. Dawson's requests on what to do-have lunch together and go for a run-both of which John did with him and Dawson was SO happy! John also took the kids to the park a few times that week and did LOTS and LOTS of playing outside and hiding Easter Eggs. The kids had a really fun week with their new baby brother AND John being home every day. Then that weekend was Easter!
Easter morning!
Carter has been really into games, and he got Guess Who! He loves it!
Someone was more excited with the "pink grass" than anything else!
Dawson was excited with his Lego set and has already finished it!
All dressed for Easter Sunday!
After church on Easter
After church on Easter
Love!
Nora Kate has to constantly be touching Clayton. I was just trying to get a picture of Clayton, but you can see her touching his head!
Sweet girl in her Easter dress.
I decided to see if I could get Nora Kate's hair all in one pony tail...I could! She was proud of it! I think she looks so different without the curls surrounding her face though.
Carter always has fun on the playset! After John went back to work we have stayed home (other than one dr. visit for a weight check for Clayton) so we have spent as much time as possible outside.
Always making me laugh!
I always end up with some pictures out of order! The day before Easter we attended the church Easter Egg hunt. Lots of fun! Inflatables! Here is Carter going head first down the slide!
Ready to hunt eggs!
Clayton was SO worn out after the egg hunt haha!
Here's Clayton in his Easter attire ready to go to church for the first time. We went to service, but not Sunday School yet. He did great though!
After church on Easter we had lunch with Lolly, Pop, and Uncle Logan. Then we went on a big Easter Egg hunt in their yard...90 eggs! I think we only ended up finding 88 of them! Haha!
Carter was all about checking to see what was inside his eggs!
When I look at these pictures from the beginning of March before Clayton was born, it seems like FOREVER ago-I'm not sure why! Looking at these pictures though, I'm reminded that we had a really fun and busy March! The best part was going from a family of 5 to a family of 6 and welcoming sweet Clayton. I'm so glad we got all the special Spring Break time with the kids before he was born too.
