Job Change

Late in April, Patrick was contacted by Amazon to interview for a job position. He had loved working for Cracker Barrel but when Amazon contacts you you tend to have your interest peeked.  He excitedly prepared for each round of the interviews and by mid may had a job offer that pretty much seemed to good to be true. He hoped that Cracker Barrel would at least attempt to match the offer, sadly they didn't try very hard to keep him.  He sadly parted ways with the company and so many people that he had worked with and developed great relationships with. I sadly parted ways with my 35% off discount. 

He'll start his new job in a couple weeks. We are very excited. I'm not much of a risk taker so I always get nervous when Patrick changes jobs or is interviewing. After praying and pondering we feel that this will be a beneficial move for his career and for our family. 

Will's Preschool Graduation

St. Mark's hosted a family picnic to come watch the children graduate. They marched and sang songs (my favorites were Our God is an Awesome God and Color My Life with Love) and then they recited the Lord's Prayer. We have enjoyed our year here. Will has learned a lot and made new friends. We will miss coming here next year.

Mother's Day

After church on Sunday, we went to deliver some flowers to Grandma Miller and Grandma Hitchcock. Grandma Hitchcock wasn't home so we were only able to visit with G'ma M. Love being with her.

cousins!

so sweet

This has NEVER happened before...my kids just don't fall asleep on the couch.

This face makes me happy, happy, happy!

3 Piggy Opera

Will's preschool has an opera each year and he was able to participate in it. It was so fun watching him (sometimes) sing and act out the music. We had been waiting for weeks to get to see it. He would sing the fun songs at home so much that even Jack knew lots of the words. I know it can be scary to be in front of large crowds, but Will was very brave. So very proud of him! 

Easter Weekend

Great Grandma and Papa Hitchcock

Samuel's Newborn Pictures

I really wanted to have Samuel's newborn picture made, but couldn't bring myself to spend $300+ on pictures. Not really in our budget at the moment. It's so pricey! With the help of my bff Miranda we staged a little photo shoot. I know the quality isn't amazing and there is a definite lack of talent and experience, not to mention editing skills, but I'm very pleased with how they turned out. I must have taken close to 300. He gave me lots of smiles. I finally narrowed them down to about 100 shots, but it's just been too hard to go any further. He's just oh so, so, so, so, so cute!

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Will asked, "Mom, can we name him Hiccup?" No. "Well, how about Dragon Master?" 

New Baby

After being in early labor for a week and a half I decided to be induced. Each night my contractions would be so intense for a few hours and then stop. I had had enough of that. I was scheduled to go in on Wednesday morning at 7. For one last rendezvous as a family of four, we took the boys to Cheddars for dinner. I tried my very best to savor the time with just the four of us, but about the time we got there I started having contractions that were pretty intense. They lasted through our meal and a little while after we got home. Mom came to spend the night. We finished up our last minute preparations and got to bed around midnight.

After taking a family photo and Jack not liking it one bit, Patrick and I headed to the hospital. Around 8:30 the doctor came in and broke my water and around 9:30 I got the epidural and by 12:30 our sweet baby was here. I noticed right away that he was much bigger than Will or Jack were. He had very big hands and he reminded me of William. They let me hold him and nurse him and just breathe him in for about an hour, and then took him to the nursery for a couple hours. We got settled into our new room and I was able to hold him again. He weighed 8lbs and I was very thankful that I had an epidural this time. He was just so so cute! When I saw him this time though he reminded me of Jack.

I was a little, okay a lot, selfish and held him most of the rest of the day. Kay came to the hospital right after he was born but since he was going to be kept in the nursery for so long she left. Mom brought Will and Jack to meet him and that was lots of fun. They loved him right off the bat and really liked looking out of my hospital room window. I was on the top floor and they thought it was really neat to see the cars and trucks below.

We of course couldn't decide on a name the whole time at the hospital so we left without naming our baby.

I am so in LOVE with this sweet little thing! I heard new moms can actually be "addicted" to newborns. There is a chemical that the brain releases similar to what drug addicts have when a mother smells a newborn. I'm a believer. It was hard for me to be away from him for any time at all. Even when we were in the same room, I wanted him next to my skin, his head close to my lips so it would be easy to give him all the kisses I couldn't resist giving him. Love. Love. Love him!!

Family of Four

We wanted to take one last picture of our little family of four before we left for the hospital. Jack was not too happy about the status quo changing. 

A little SNOW!

Discovery Center

I took the boys to the Discovery Center here in Murfreesboro on Martin Luther King day. It was lots of fun and they had all kinds of neat extras to help celebrate MLK day.  I'm trying to give them extra one-on-one time and fun outings with just the three of us before our little cutie pie makes his debut. I'm going to miss these outings with just the three of us, and how easy it is with just the two of them.