Our Official Baby Predictions-

Maggie- girl (named Katlyn.....or if it's a boy named Jack)

Gracie- girl (named Lily)

Mommy- girl 

Daddy- girl

Family of 4.....

Last week when I went to the doctor she told me to have my bags packed and be ready to deliver baby Chip.....she was just kidding. While it wasn't a nice joke and I was disappointed at the time, we have really enjoyed this last week as a family of 4. We've spent lots of time outside (when we weren't blowing away), we've ridden the horses, we went to our first horse show (just to watch) and we've CLEANED and ORGANZED :)  (who doesn't fill dumpsters and power wash anything that will sit still when they are about to deliver a baby!)

I'm not sure she could add another accessory or color if she tried!

 

Gracie has been carrying a baby around with her everywhere and she really enjoys using all the stuff in the nursery. The other day when she
was napping I found this in the baby's room :)

 

What Princess doesn't need a unicorn :) Gracie got this horn for her Birthday and was so anxious to use it. Breezy was
thrilled as you can tell.

 

Maggie forgot to grab her helmet on the way into the arena. While it's not how I'd like her to ride, it was nice to get a picture of her without it on!
She and Jude have made a ton of progress in the last few months. Her riding has really improved and they are working like a great team. It's been
fun to watch her confidence and enjoyment increase.

 

 

 

The girls have been getting along really well, it's fun to watch them be friends.

 

One of the many benefits of having an older kid when you're 39 weeks pregnant. She offers to help with my shoes every day :)

 

Sunday we cleaned the garage, as you can see, Gracie was a huge help!

 

 

They sprouted bean seeds at school, so yesterday we HAD to get them planted.

 

Since Maggie started school Gracie has really been my shadow. She goes to meetings, helps with backpack stuff, works in the yard, whatever
I have going on, there she is.....and yesterday was officially our last day just the 2 of us (she has preschool today). It was a little sad for me.
I know we will LOVE having baby Chip with us, but I've really enjoyed having one on one time with her. Maggie is really a Daddy's girl,
but Gracie is still very much Mama's girl, the baby might be a harder adjustment for her then she's ready for.

Today was St. Jude Bike-A-Thon day at Gracie's school. This was our 6th Bike-a-Thon, 3 with Maggie and now 3 with Gracie. The kids love it and I've enjoyed getting to help with each one. We had great weather this morning and Gracie was all about riding.

 

Gracie and Lily

 

Gracie and Lily again, "taking a break" :)

Tonight Mom will come to Norfolk and Arnie and I will head for Omaha. Assuming all goes well, first thing tomorrow morning we will meet Baby Chip. Maggie is adamant she doesn't want us to tell her if Chip is a boy or a girl until she gets to the hospital (and that she HAS to be the first to know), so everyone will have to be patient until tomorrow evening for our big announcement. Say a prayer for Chip and I, tomorrow will be a big day. Less then 24 hours until we are officially a family of 5!

Gracie is 5!!!!

Gracie loved every minute of her Birthday (week)! I always want the girls to feel special and celebrated on their big day and I think that was even more true this year. Gracie's little life is about to get rocked by baby Chip, so her Birthday came at a perfect time to shower her with a little extra attention. For her Birthday dinner she picked Pizza Ranch and she was so lucky to get to have all 4 of her Grandparents accompany us. At school on Wednesday they sang Happy Birthday TWICE! and it was nice enough they could have their ice cream outside. She doesn't always love being the center of attention but she seemed very excited about her day at school.

Gracie couldn't wait to start getting Birthday cards in the mail, she checked every day. The first card that came was from ELSA! It
doesn't get any better then that :)

 

We started letting her open presents that came in the mail on Monday, so she could spread out the fun a little. We've had lots of tea parties!

 

 

 

"Mom, I need to take my last 4 year old selfie!"

 

Apparently even her Birthday isn't exciting enough to make her hop out of bed without a fight.

 

I'm 5!!!!!!!

 

The last link on the chain had to come down.

 

The girls get out of school early on Wednesday's so we had a little extra time. We used it
wisely for Birthday pedicures :)

 

 

She even got flowers! She was so excited they were for her.

 

She wanted ice cream cake for her actual birthday. When we picked it up I asked if she wanted Happy Birthday
on the top, she said, "Nope, just a big 5!" So that's what she got :)

 

 

Maggie was such a good big sister all week. It's hard when someone else is getting all the attention but she was
an awesome cheerleader for her little sister.

 

Lots of new toys to play with!

Gracie has never had a Birthday party with her friends before but she's been begging for one since about August. Thankfully we planned it for Sunday because she spent Friday and Saturday on the couch with a fever. After lots of hard thinking she decided on a Frozen gymnastics party :) Unfortunately whatever Gracie had is going around at preschool so a couple of her friends had to cancel at the last minute, we missed them, but I think she had a GREAT time. She loves being with other kids and did a great job being a party hostess.

She was very particular about what she wanted for a cake (Chocolate, of course!) and it had to have Olaf and Sven.
The cake lady did an awesome job! It was so cute Gracie wasn't sure she wanted to feed it to her friends.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gracie, Lauren, Gracie, Aniston, Tatum & Lily

 

Daddy and Maggie went and played a little golf during the first part of the party and joined us for
cake and presents at the end.

 

 

The whole week was great. It's so fun to watch her grow and to see her personality really come out when she's with her friends.

 

On a side note, so I don't forget to write about it....Gracie has a new obsession with step families. She has a couple of friends who are step sisters and she is SO confused by the whole thing. The other day she asked me "if you get remarried can you be my step mom, that would be so fun. Maybe I could even have a step dad and some step sisters. That would be fun." After lots of talking I figured out she didn't realize that Arnie and I could only be married to one person at a time so she was thinking her step family would just live right along side our family.....It's so hard to explain those kind of things to a 5 year old, you never know what she might go to school and repeat to her friends, but I wanted to be SURE she understands that's not how her family is going to work. Another point for home schooling :)

Easter

Easter was so early, I kind of felt like it snuck up on us this year. Friday we continued the tradition of dying eggs at the Carlisle's...because of the early Easter you'll notice there were no dad's in these pictures. They were watching basketball and groaning about broken brackets :)

 

 

 

We were planning to leave for Omaha Saturday afternoon but about 11am the snow really started falling and we decided we better get going! It looked more like we were leaving for Christmas then Easter. Thankful Northeast Nebraska kept the snow to itself and by the time we got to about Westpoint it was just raining. We had about 10" of snow the Wednesday before Easter and then another 3-4" on Saturday....needless to say, they haven't gotten the work done on our new house that we had hoped. Everything has melted now and it's been pretty windy, so hopefully this week it will be dry enough they can get back at it. I might need to remind them that they promised we'd have a hole in the ground before we had a baby (I'm thinking someone forgot to mention the promise to Mother Nature!)

 

Gracie is such a little Mommy, even if she's making up the story :)

 

 More Eggs!!!!

 

 

 

 

Sunday morning started with church and probably a few more Easter pictures then the girls would have liked. Then they got to hunt for the eggs and baskets the Easter Bunny hid.

 

 

 

 

We finished the day with dinner and the big egg hunt at Aunt Trisha and Uncle Jeff's. This crew just keeps growing. They might need a bigger porch (and more big kids to hold babies), there will be 3 more before next Easter. Whoa!

 

 

Thankfully the girls had Monday off school, so we had a little time to rest and recover from our long weekend.