Surprise visit from Grandma and Grandpa! (and Aunt & Uncle, of course)

I can remember three (maybe four) times my family drove to go on vacation. So imagine my surprise when my family decided to drive to visit us in North Carolina! I was thrilled to have them come and they did not disappoint - we had a blast.

This is essentially the only picture I took while they were here, but it sums up their visit nicely - playing with Benjamin. He absolutely adored his Uncle Daniel, frequently preferred Sarah over me, cackled with his Grandpa, and snuggled with Grandma. I absolutely love visiting and being visited by family. Plus things are "accidentally" left at my house: chocolate covered blueberries, milano cookies, a $20 bill, apples, yogurt, Twix, a pair of darn tough socks (??). Does everyone's mom do that? :)

Our weekend (and bellies) was filled with food from Durham's best eateries: Q shack, Tonali, Sitar, Ox and Rabbit, and homemade pizza. We toured Duke Gardens, went swimming, and watched General Conference.  My favorite talk was Elder Jeffrey R. Holland's talk from Sunday afternoon. I can't wait to read it again. I don't know how anyone gets through 8 hours of conference without busying their hands or "resting" their eyes.  This year I worked on burial gowns for UNC hospital. The pattern I used was quite simple and it went faster than I anticipated.

I think it looks precious though my heart aches for the parents who need it.

On a happier note, my sister got engaged! Wahoo!

Congratulations you little lovebirds.

Summer plans

Oh my goodness. Time is going by so stinkin' fast! I seriously feel like I don't have time to read all the blogs I want to, crochet fun things and play with my sewing machine, make the dinners I should, keep the house as clean as it needs to be, and make all of these baby-related decisions in 3 months (or less!)! Not to mention I haven't even looked at our budget this month... Maybe that has something to do with it's the end of March and I still accidentally write 2011 sometimes, that Doug's birthday/April/General conference is on Sunday, this belly keeps getting bigger without my permission, the groceries disappear before I can go shopping again, and that we'll be in NY for the summer in just over 6 weeks.

Does anyone else feel this way? It's a little exhausting.

Don't get me wrong, I'm super excited for everything that's going to happen in the next few months, it's just scary to think that maybe the next three months will go by just as fast as the last three months did.

So, on to the title of the post - want to know what we're doing this summer?? Because we finally do :).

source

Doug will work as an intern at GE in NY again. It's a relief to actually have the paperwork saying he's been officially offered the position so we can finally make plans. Granted, he still has to pass the drug screening...good luck, babe. We'll live at my parents' house (I bet they're super excited to have a super-pregnant woman live with them for a month and then a newborn for the month after that, haha - fortunately for them they can escape to the lakehouse after the kids finish school) and I'll have a baby (thought not at their house). Anything else? We'll stay in NY until the end of August and then move back to NC where Doug will start school again and I'll stay home with baby.

Sounds like a plan.

I've been busy...

Hooray for a new skill and lots of time to practice! Below is my FINISHED cowl and some crochet projects I worked on this weekend.

I FINISHED!

A cute free baby hat pattern I found and wanted to try.
And, in case you're wondering, no.

Another free pattern
It was such a pain I didn't do the other bootie, haha

Um, this is supposed to be a washcloth
I don't know what I'll use it for, if I do..

Did you notice the color pattern? Essentially I picked out the colors for the cute hat, then I wanted to keep my hands busy during General Conference (and stay awake) (which by the way, was totally awesome) and so I ended up making other stuff with the same colors - because, duh, I don't have lots of yarn yet. That was a super long sentence, sorry if you had to read it twice! Anyway, are you proud of me yet?

Now I'm unstoppable, I can do anything.