Spring makes my heart go pitter patter

"When Aslan Bears his teeth winter meets its death. When he shakes his mane, we shall have spring again." 

—C.S. Lewis

Spring DOES exist here in Massachusetts! I am so thrilled to have flowers in every nook and cranny of our apartment. If you know me, you know that when I am driving around town I am constantly on the search for flowers in "no man's land" aka not in someone's yard. I made Thomas slam on the brakes the other day in order to pick daffodils that were growing on the side of the road. When we were married in college, we lived near hundreds of hydrangea bushes in the botanical garden. I would walk over under the cover of darkness and cut hydrangeas. Don't judge me. The tendencies live on and I must have flowers and I won't pay for them at the grocery store. Mama, if you're reading this, don't be ashamed of me. Be proud that I am attempting to carry on your green thumb! 

Also note that we have our old trunk/coffee table back and all of our kitchen items! We brought back a huge load of things after spring break and I'm thrilled. We got rid of everything else that we owned, besides a couple of boxes in my brother's attic. I've learned that you don't "need" much stuff in order to live comfortably, and simplicity is ALWAYS best. 

We had a baby!

 We decided to keep it a secret for 9 months...we did pretty well, huh?

KIDDING! We did, however, welcome to the world yet another nephew. My sister birthed sweet little  9.9lb David last Monday, and we got to swing by her house for a couple of days on our way back up the east coast. We now have 12 nieces and nephews between the two of us. I gave up a long time ago on giving birthday gifts to any of them, there are just too many to keep up with. But we absolutely love hanging out with them and got to spend time with many of them over Spring Break. We like being the "fun" aunt and uncle!

Thomas and MJ "stretching" after his workout. She even has her own band so that she can be just like him. 

 These two little sweet cheeked fellows were so cute together. Matthew (the one in the red shirt) kept calling the baby Uncle Miles. He just kept forgetting he is his COUSIN, not his uncle. We had such a sweet time catching up with family and friends over our break!

And now, back to the real world.

Wedding Bells

Last Friday we began quite the marathon of a trip down the east coast to attend a wedding. My friend from high school married Thomas' buddy from Clemson football, and it was such a fun time! We got to see so many dear friends that we haven't seen in awhile and the location was like something out of a magazine.

The weather turned out perfect!

We loved seeing Sarah Kathryn and Jordan, two of our dear friends from college who are now happily married. :) Thankfully, they spent the weekend at my parents house so we got some extended time with them all day Sunday. Thomas and Jordan ate the majority of my mother's Sunday dinner. 

Thomas and I showed off our superb dancing skills. No joke. 

These two have been my sweet friends ever since EIGHTH grade! It was so much fun to see everyone and celebrate Brooke+Rendrick. 

Feeling special=the best

I have so very many things to be thankful for.

These amazing ladies had a little birthday dinner for me at a local inn this week, and it really filled my heart up with thankfulness. I was reminded of how quickly the Lord gave us friends among the team here and the wives bible study just really invited me in so sweetly. 6 months ago, I'd never met any of these girls! Although we missed our other friends who are living elsewhere during the lockout, it was such a special dinner. Look at everything they showered me with! Flowers, a cake, cookies, an easter basket and (not pictured) homemade salsa and cinnamon rolls. Thank you Lord for going before me and picking out people like this to fill up my life.

We heart food

Our dear friends Danny and Stacia flew in for the weekend to speak at the annual Worth It conference that our Pats bible study leaders put on, and we had a really fun 3 days with them. Danny and Thomas revert to 5-year olds when they are together and were out of control the entire time, while Stacia and I are MUCH more mature and reserved and look down on their behavior....

 We had two amazing food experiences with them, the first being our MAJOR discovery of real, authentic Mexican in Providence at La Lupita Tacos. Thanks to Stacia and her pregnancy cravings, we stumbled upon La Lupitas website and decided to give it a try. It was everything we've been hoping for and much, much more. We all ate a ridiculous amount of food but Thomas and Danny really ate about 20 tacos between them. I love this photo in which Thomas and I are stuffing our faces and Danny was hyperventilating because the sauce was so hot. Or was he wondering how Thomas could really eat that.much.food?

And then the next night we exposed them to Chick-fil-A which happened to be on the way home from the conference site. Thomas and Danny ate 3 sandwiches apiece, staggered throughout the evening of course. Do I even need to tell you that they loved it?

Last but not least, here is a shot of Stacia's belly....disregard the disheveled apartment in the background. We can't wait for the arrival of baby Wolfgang in the fall!

Oh, and Thomas woke us all up at 5:45 this morning screaming like a girl in his sleep because he was dreaming that someone threw a snake on him. What a way to end our weekend together!

A birthday+a BIRTHday

I got a really, really SWEET birthday present last Friday. My newest nephew Finley Paul Rue was born at 9:08pm April 1, and the best part was that I got to be in the delivery room to welcome him into the world! Our brother-in-law Micah is serving overseas, so Thomas' sister Keri had asked me to be in the delivery room with her since I'm a "farm girl" and could handle it. I reminded her that watching a cow birth or death is a LITTLE different than watching a human being born into the world, but I went into the delivery room anyway. I really was fine with it (much to my surprise) and it was such a special time! Sweet Thomas was at home babysitting our niece Skylar and was a stellar uncle all weekend--he even attempted to assist Skylar in her potty training. Let's just say it didn't go so well.....

The labor and delivery crew: Thomas' mom, Keri's friend and myself. We were armed with every sort of documentation possible so that Micah wouldn't miss a thing!

Skylar was hilariously excited about baby Finley. She kept saying "I love my new baby brudder! He is so HANDsome. I want to kiss him. Let's take him home!" Hopefully her attitude will stay that way....

Action photo of Thomas being Super Uncle. 

This photo was taken about 5 minutes after Finley was born. Happy April Fools Day to US!

And on a side note, poor Thomas was having major problems with his contacts right before we drove to Keri's and could hardly see a thing. He finally bought glasses and I think he looks pretty fine in them if I do say so myself.