Easter Fun

Happy Easter (a bit late) to all! We're just finishing two fun-filled weeks of parties, road trips, and airplane rides, so here's a quick recap...

Norah had her Easter parties at school before she headed out for a week-long Easter break. (She gets to celebrate most holidays twice this year, since her Monday through Thursday schedule overlaps with both the Monday/Wednesday/Friday party and the Tuesday/Thursday party.) The four-year-old classes decorate Easter bonnets for the school-wide Easter parade... she her bonnet in the picture below. She had quite the audience at this year's parade... Daddy, Mommy, Maddie, Grandma, and Grandpa all made appearances. Norah was very kind to include her little sister during the brunch portion of the party, and Maddie felt like big stuff sitting at the table in her own chair with all the other big kids.

The weekend before Easter we made a quick road trip to Davis for Picnic Day. For those that have never been, Picnic Day is UC Davis' annual open house, and all the departments offer activities and displays. (Plant Sciences, for example, had an exotic fruit tasting, while Entomology offered cockroach races and maggot art.) We had lots of fun visiting with Laura, checking out the exhibits around campus, and - of course - watching the Veterinary School's famous dachshund races.

After a few days at home relaxing and enjoying Norah's break, we headed to Festus on Thursday to celebrate Easter with family in Missouri. Luckily, both girls are good travelers. (Maddie was so excited by all the moving things at the airport... "Airplane! More airplanes! Truck! Bus! More airplanes!") Norah had tons of fun with her cousins - especially since Grammy and Grandpa Mike put in a new play structure right in their own backyard! We enjoyed beautiful weather, great food, and fun times catching up with everyone. Norah and Maddie got not one, but two visits from the Easter bunny, and they definitely ate (more than) their share of sugar. Thanks to everyone who helped make our visit special!

Finally, my spring and summer garden at home is starting to take shape, meaning out with the old (Dan will be sorry to see the kale go) and in with the new (my tomato seedlings are finally ready to move from the patio into the garden). Our blackberries and boysenberries are in full bloom, the apricots and blueberries are ripening, and our strawberries are ready to enjoy. We're looking forward to a tasty (if a bit more drought-conscious) summer!

Vanities

I have now reached the halfway point of my pregnancy... 20 weeks that just seemed to fly by, right? In addition to being thankful that I feel better, have more energy, and finally have overcome my early-pregnancy aversion to chocolate, I also decided that it was time to start wearing my maternity clothes. Dan and I had an interesting conversation about this a month or so ago.

D: (As I'm getting ready one morning) Do you think it's about time to pull out your stretchy pants?
K: (Slight raise of eyebrows, forced even voice, sweet smile on my face) Do you think I NEED to pull out my stretchy pants?
D: (Realizing he has started a conversation which cannot possibly turn out favorably for him) No, I was just wondering. You look great!
K: It's just that most of my winter maternity clothes are for work, which doesn't really fit my new stay-at-home lifestyle. I have more casual things for the summer, but it's not quite warm enough to wear those yet. I was hoping I could wait until I'm about 20 weeks along, and then my clothes should be just fine.
D: (Trying to solve the problem, like a typical male) Why don't you just go shopping then?
K: That's not the point. I still have regular clothes that fit... so I don't need more clothes right now.
D: (Clearly deciding that all is lost anyway, so deciding to go for broke) It sounds like you're just being vain.
K: (Knowing that Dan is probably right, but NOT willing to make that admission) It sounds like you're not helping.

Now this isn't our first rodeo... or even our second. And my last pregnancy was not that long ago. It's lucky that Dan banked some favors while I was down with morning sickness - otherwise I might really have lost it. Alas, I remained (relatively) calm and continued wearing my regular clothes... right up until I was fully 20 weeks pregnant. (So there.) Luckily, Dan has been super-supportive since the above-mentioned interaction and has attacked my nesting list with renewed gusto. All the same, I thought I might offer him a few points of advice:

1. Though I can only speak from my own experience, it is my guess that pregnancy usually does not make women MORE rational. If jokes weren't funny to me before I got a baby-fueled infusion of hormones and grew a basketball in my mid-section, they're probably not going to be funny now... even if you try to use your fancy logic.
2. Though I like to bill myself as a fairly low-maintenance person, I do have my vanities. This is probably not the best time to see if they have suddenly disappeared. They have not. Also, you don't need to point them out. I know they're there.
3. It might be (sort of) cute when Norah or Maddie point out the (growing) size of my belly. More affirmative comments are appropriate from you. However, don't over-exaggerate or outright lie. For example, don't tell me that I don't even look pregnant. (I do.) Just tell me that my shirt looks great or that my dress is really pretty.

Jokes aside, I am so thankful for my healthy pregnancy and growing belly. God has truly blessed us with this new life, and even in my most irrational, vain moments I am so grateful for the baby we are soon to meet. And Dan is truly the most supportive and loving husband and dad any pregnant girl could wish for. But that doesn't mean I can't give him a bad time now and again, right?

Finally, thank-you, Dan, for your advice about going shopping - I may just take you up on it. Except I probably won't get myself more stretchy pants. Now that it's warmer, I have plenty of options already in my closet. Instead, I might just head to the nursery to get another blueberry bush for the yard. I'm sure you'll be happy to plant it for me.

Springtime!

Spring has sprung here in Fresno, and while we're still hoping to get a lot more rain to help with our current drought conditions, we are also enjoying some really nice sunny, warm days. Norah and Maddie love playing outside this time of year... they were nice enough to slow down for a few minutes so I could get some pictures of them with the blossoms.

Dan, Norah, and Maddie also took advantage of the nice weather by running in a race this past Saturday. Norah and Maddie did the 1/8 mile kid's race, while Dan (joined by Maggie, Jake, and Laura) did the 10K. Both girls did great! Norah took a bit of a spill while trying to navigate the crowded starting line, but she hopped up, wiped away the tears, and completed her race. Maddie - as the youngest competitor in the field - was the last one to cross the line... but she ran with determination from start to finish. They both had a lot of fun and were very proud of the medals they got at the finish line. (The adults did great, too, even if their race didn't draw quite the same crowds of spectators as the kid's race did.)

Norah is cruising along through her last few months of preschool (sigh...). She has made some good friends, some of whom will be continuing on with her at St. Anthony's next year. Maddie has been ramping up her vocabulary the past few weeks. She has a few obvious favorites (no, doggie, ball), but also some harder words that are obviously very important for her to be able to communicate (cookie, swing, dinner ["ninner"], sister, yucky, stinky, gunk, shoes, and balloon ["manoon"]). She's even realized that she can convey attitude with her words ("um, no")! It's very cute, and she is surprisingly patient with us as we try to figure out what she's saying.

We have also started preparations for our new arrival, with cleaning closets and organizing cabinets first on my list of to-do's. Maddie will be moving out of the nursery into what we have been using as our office, so there are a lot of things to relocate. As I was moving some boxes of old keepsake clothes from my childhood, I couldn't resist having a dress-up session with Maddie. I was also able to find of picture of myself in one of the outfits (along with some very stylish ladies, I might add!).

Next on the nesting list is wallpaper/texturing removal, retexturing, and painting. Luckily for Dan, I think we'll be hiring a professional on this one. I'm sure we'll think of plenty of other things to keep him busy, though! Happy spring to all!

Shiny & New

As usual, we have lots to catch up on, but we just wanted to do a quick post to talk about two new things at the McCoy house. First, we got a shiny new 2014 Toyota Highlander last week. (Okay, actually KRISTIN got a shiny new Highlander last week, but don’t worry – Dan wasn’t entirely left out of the excitement!) Dan’s car had been slowly dying for the last year or so, and considering that the cost of the necessary repairs was more than the value of the car (who really needs an anti-lock brake system anyway?), it was time to make a change. So Kristin got the Highlander, Dan got Kristin’s RX 300 (still going strong at almost 200,000 miles and 15 years old), and Dan’s Grand Am is on its way to CarMax for auction.

New car!

Farewell Grand Am!

Dan's sweet new ride

A HUGE thank-you to my Uncle Tom, who connected us to Toyota of Clovis where we got a great deal on the car. I’ve never actually bought a car before – so I have no point of comparison – but I have to say this was probably the easiest major purchase experience that we’ve had so far. (Certainly the car was easier than our recent dishwasher and couch purchases, which should have been much smaller deals but were actually somewhat torturous – at least as far as Dan was concerned.)

Norah and Maddie enjoying the spacious interior

Norah loves the new car, especially the third row seat. The third row was the main reason we had put off the car purchase for about a year, since we knew the Highlander was being redesigned in 2014 to add a third seat and more legroom to the third row. That – plus the added trunk space in the redesign – does not disappoint. And while we might not have a lot of occasions where we fill the car to its eight-person capacity, we will soon need regular seating for five. Which brings us to new thing number two… Baby McCoy #3 is on the way! He or she will be arriving on the scene in late July, and we’re all thrilled. Actually, Maddie hasn’t yet weighed in on her new status as big sister/middle child, but we’re guessing that she’s (generally) going to love having a new friend around. I’m finally starting to feel better and get my energy back, which means Dan is off dinner duty and on to nesting duty. He was such a good sport during the first trimester, when he was in charge of all the cooking, shopping, cleaning, and night-time child caring – in addition to his regular responsibilities at work. The downside of my decreased morning sickness, for him anyway, is that I now have more energy to start planning all the projects that we need to do around the house before the baby arrives. Since I’m home a lot more now than I was when I was pregnant with Norah or Maddie, I have more time to notice things… so the list is growing longer by the day.

We feel so blessed to be able to bring this child into the world, especially considering our amazing support group of friends and family. We look forward to introducing him or her to you this summer.

Long-Lost Blogger

After a couple of months of serious slacking - blog-wise - I'm going to try to get caught up on our news and happenings of the fall...

Norah has completely settled into her school year as a Panda (her class is the Prayerful Pandas). She and her classmates are flying through the letters and numbers and are busy practicing writing and pre-reading skills. Last year, they worked mostly on capital letters, but now they're working on the lowercase ones as well and talking a lot more about how letters are combined together to make words. Outside of school, she decided to take gymnastics this year instead of dance, so she's working on her balance beam and cartwheel skills instead of her shuffle steps. She loves the trampoline, bars, and air track (see below).

In other Norah-news, we finally got her first haircut! As you can see, the change was less than dramatic... but at least we got a much-needed clean-up of the ends.

Maddie continues to find new ways to be curious. She's a forward-facing car-seat rider now and is finding new ways to communicate with us every day. She's still not using a lot of words (though "uh-oh" and "baby" have become early favorites), but she has mastered the art of showing both excitement (usually some combination of point, smile, laugh, scream) and displeasure (vigorous head-shaking, animal-like roar, body rotation [away from sister trying to take toy], throwing of self on floor). She has, after all, spent the last fifteen months watching her sister and learning how to act... so cute (or not so cute, depending on the day!).

Our biggest event of the fall was Maggie and Jake's wedding! Maggie, Jake, and my mom planned a really beautiful weekend and it was so fun to have lots of family members in town to celebrate. Maggie and Jake got married at the parish in which we grew up and went to school - St. Anthony's - and had the reception in the garden at San Joaquin Country Club. Norah got to be a flower girl, a duty which she took very seriously. She had lots of fun playing with all the other kids in attendance (Jake has ten nieces and nephews, and my cousin Julia was here with her boys Liam and Owen). Of course, we've been honored to include Jake as part of our family gatherings for many years, but now it's official. We're really happy for Maggie and Jake as they start their married life together. I didn't take many pictures myself, so I'm borrowing some shots from Laura and Maggie's friend Adam (amazing photographer!) to include below.

 

Post-wedding, we shifted to Halloween mode. First on the agenda was the pumpkin patch. We have our old favorite patch, which is a u-pick farm on the outskirts of Fresno. Norah remembers all her favorite traditions there (corn maze, hay ride, etc.), and Maddie had fun getting to help pick and cut her own pumpkin this year.

 

Norah and Dan even carved one of her pumpkins into a jack-o-lantern, a project that apparently grosses Dan out...

Next up was costumes. I usually start on the girls' costumes by mid-September, since a) it takes me forever to figure out how I want everything to work and b) I get interrupted A LOT. This year, though, two and a half weeks would have to do. I ended up having plenty of time (if you count finishing the costumes the morning of Halloween as plenty of time), but luckily Norah chose a pretty easy assignment this year - peacocks for both - or we could have had a major costume disaster!

Norah and Maddie had lots of fun trick-or-treating together. Norah was such a good big sister, taking Maddie by the hand and showing her how to hold out her candy bag. Maddie got the hang of things pretty quickly, and both of them ended up with lots of candy. We did let Maddie have a small taste of a candy bar, then quickly confiscated the rest of her haul for consumption by Mommy and Daddy.

Yesterday, we had the honor of celebrating Veteran's Day with Dan.  We took him out for our traditional Veteran's Day lunch, but he also took advantage of some Veteran's Day freebies this year, treating himself to breakfast at IHOP and dessert at the CVS ice cream counter. We're so thankful to Dan and all the others who have served (including our grandfathers and a few uncles and cousins) and continue to keep current service members and their families in our prayers.

Dan's first deployment to Iraq... with his friend Blair Nahm

Dan's second deployment to Iraq... with his friend Dennis, commander Col. Mitchell, and an Iraqi General his team was advising

Dan's second deployment... he was part of a small team of advisors to the Iraqi Army

Finally, since the timeliness of my blog posting has been poor lately, I'm going to go ahead and wish Dan a happy 9th wedding anniversary in advance of the actual day tomorrow. We've made a wonderful life together, and I'm blessed that he promised to be my husband nine years ago. I will love you and honor you all the days of my life.