Beautiful Easter

I LOVE Easter, but this year was especially amazing. Why?

- Jesus' sacrifice: I am doing something  I have never done before - reading through the Bible in 2013. I am on the journey with 3 other wonderful women from my church and I have felt more enriched through His word than I ever expected. Being in His word daily made me feel even more thankful this year for the my Saviors death and resurrection. I had tears coming down my face through most of our church service this morning as my heart was full of His love and awe that He was willing to die for me.

- Health: It is amazing to feel amazing and to also have a little life growing inside me.
- Family: A dream come true! My sister and her husband living in Dallas, joining us for church, and then a laughter-filled brunch at our home after church. There is nothing in the world like family.

Special note from the Easter Bunny.

It was raining outside so the Easter bunny put the eggs in the house. It meant eggs and chocolate everywhere Sunday morning! 

For Cadie, the Easter bunny brought a sticker doll book, new story CDs and an owl sticker mural for her bedroom wall. For Jack Ranger, the Easter bunny brough a monster bus, dinosaur puzzle and Cars swim trunks.

We love having the Gallet's in Dallas!

A fun lunch with live, magical entertainment by the Great Grantini.

On Saturday the kids and I went to Prather Park for an Easter photo shoot. I had won a photo session in a silent auction fundraiser at Cadie's school. Our kids are VERY challenging to photograph, but the photographer worked really hard and I hope he captured a few good shots. Here are some of my candids just playing around after we were done. They loved these little sprits at the park. Their Aunt Whitney loves them too. (We miss you Aunt Winky!)

Pi Phi Easter Egg Hunt

It is kinda funny because I am a tri-delt, but Dawna is a Pi Phi so every year we have fun at the Pi Phi Easter Egg hunt. They had a little petting zoo, train rides, balloon artists and, of course, an egg hunt. This was the first year that Cadie really knew what to do and she collected a lot of eggs. Ranger was still interested in each egg, opening it, browsing through the eggs, etc. It isn't yet about quantity for him. Since Cadie collected so many I was happy that the eggs mostly contained stickers, stamps, crayons and little toys versus just candy.

Cadie and Dad had a date that afternoon to Mary Poppins at Fair Park Music Hall so Jack Ranger and I arrived early and enjoyed the petting zoo until Cadie and Dad arrived.

Cadie only made it through intermission at Mary Poppins, but sounds like they still had a good time.

JR loves the little animals. 

Getting ready for the hunt! Not sure it is really all that much of a hunt though since the ground is filled with eggs every which way you look.

One last train ride. The kids were tired and not all that smiley.

Homebodies

My kids love to play at home. Recently I said, "Let's go to Half Price Books and we can read some books and each of you can pick out a new book!" Cadie responded with, "Or, we could stay home and play!" On Sunday, we were on the way to church and Cadie said, "Can we go back home?" They just like to hang out at our house, and frankly, so do I. We find it VERY easy to kill time outside both in the backyard and the front, playing the playroom, working on projects, making forts, dressing up, crashing cars, etc.

Lovey Dog - check
Little Car in hand - check
Cadie dressed up for no particular reason - check
No shoes - check
BFFs one min. and fussing at each other the next - check

Jack Ranger was very proud of his block/car choo choo train.

Ready to dive down the slide in the backyard!

Ranger moved to a toddler bed on Feb. 20th. He still gets out of bed too much, but he is getting much better. It was so funny because they day before he climbed into his bed, got lovey dog and climbed back out like he had been doing it forever! maybe he had been... We decided it was time to say goodbye to the crib.

Oh yes, and I went to Sao Paulo Brazil Feb. 23-March 2. It was a good trip professionally and meetings went well, but it was tiring personally because I had a cold and was feeling worn out.

Baby Walsh #3

Amazing! It feels surreal that in August we will be a family of 5. I am about 16 weeks along and while life is busy and I am tired, I feel good in terms of the pregnancy. I think Miss Cadie Walsh is the most excited person in the whole whole about the baby. She asks me about "peanut" all the time and wants to know how big the baby is, when will the baby be here, can the baby stay in her room, talks to the baby in my stomach, etc. The other day she said, "Mom, I really really want a baby sister, but if it is a boy I guess that will be ok because at least I have experience with baby brothers."

I have been meaning to blog about the baby for quite a while and finally yesterday got a nudge from Grant to do a baby update because he posted the news on facebook. Once it is on facebook it is official. I only started telling folks at work last week and still need to tell a few of my clients. We told our families over the Christmas holidays because even though I wasn't far along it was so fun to announce it on Christmas day and while we were all together.

The first trimester was pretty normal with some nausea, but the biggest issue during the first trimester was exhaustion. Honestly, that is still my main issue. I lay with Cadie at night and EVERY night I fall asleep with her and have to stumble to my bed at some point in the night. It hasn't helped that I have had two international business trips recently (Spain and Brazil) and I just can't seem to get caught up on sleep or on life in general. I have been fighting a cold for the last three weeks and am planning to just rest this weekend.

Grant is busy with a construction project to turn our back storage area in our offices so that the bedroom that we now use as an office can be a kids room. I am so excited about having a nice home office and it will enable me to work at home more often towards the end of my pregnancy and with an infant. I often find my mind drifting to nurseries, babies and all the preparations for the house and with our family for a new little person to join us.

Each baby is a miracle, but I feel especially thankful for this little person because after all my illness this past summer my doctor told me it may not be safe for me to have another baby. I had an MRI in October and was thrilled when the doctor told me everything was healed and he had no concerns with me and a pregnancy. I think I was pregnant about 2 weeks later - it doesn't take Grant and I long :) God is so good.

The kids call the baby "peanut" because when we showed them this first sonogram picture they thought it looked like a peanut, not a baby.

Peanut, we all love you already and can't wait to meet you in August!

Barcelona, Part 2

Our Tuesday tour was full of laughs! We had a great time with Dana Blankenship and Jay Marshall, Sara and Joe Ratliff, Tanya Allen and Matt and Heather Richter. The first stop was Torres Winery and it was a CRAZY winery tour. It was like Six Flags over Torres and included a video in a plush theater about how the Torres family is colonizing the world, then a creepy 4D experience in a tunnel with smells pumped in which was about grape growing, then a tram tour that included a dark and haunted wine valt and then finally a wine tasting. The staff were so nice to us, but we couldn't help but laugh along the way!

 

After Torres Winery it was on to Monserrat. We made it just in time to see the boys choir sing at the Royal Basilica of Montserrat. Afterwards, we climbed up to touch the famous Romanesque carving of the Black Virgin. The view from the mountain was beautiful! We ate lunch at the top and I bought some honey for Mary from a vendor. We didn't get to linger long because it was on to the next stop - Cava Caves.

The Codorniu Cava Caves didn't dissapoint. They have been making champagne (now called Cava) since 1922 and the tour included a tram ride in their caves which seemed to go on forever!

Cava tasting in the caves.

This was a sort of shrine to Cava.

Barcelona, Part 1

On Feb. 3 Grant and I headed to Barcelona Spain! I had just over two days of work meetings and I had been to Barcelona about a year ago and loved the city. I begged Grant to come along and everyone helped pitch in to make it happen. Big John gave us 2 one-way upgrades so Grant was able to purchase an economy ticket but then get upgraded to sit with me in business class, my parents took Cadie to Florida during our time away, and nanny Mary and DD and Big John took care of Jack Ranger. Grant and I had a incredible time and it was a great trip for me personally and professionally. My meetings went really well and I loved getting to see the city with Grant. I have seen lots of places on work trips by myself, and it is so much more fun with someone you love.

Here was our basic itinerary:
- Sunday: Travel
- Monday: Arrived in Barcelona at about 7am. Thankfully our hotel (Mur Muri - I highly recommend) room was ready and we were able to sleep for a few hours. In the afternoon, we wandered a bit, walked around the outside of La Sagrada Familia and then met Sara and Joe Ratliff for a delicious meal at Catalana near our hotel.
- Tuesday: Rented a van and 9 of us headed outside the city to Torres Winery, Monserrat and Cava Caves. Made it back just in time for our work team dinner event at Costa Gallega Moncho's Tapas Bar.
- Wednesday: I worked and Grant hung out with Jay Marshall and I think they went to La Pedrera and the castle overlooking the city. During the evening Grant joined me for a work dinner event which was a crawl that included Sagardi's, La Luna and a dessert place I need to look up.
- Thursday: My second day of meetings and I don't remember what Grant said he did. During the evening, Grant and I went with Dana Blankenship and Jay Marshall to Grease and it was so hilarious. The Europeans sure have a way of inserting smoking and gratuitous nudity into almost everything.
- Friday: Grant and I both worked from the hotel in the morning and then went to La Sagrada Familia to do the full tour. It was amazing!
- Saturday: Slept until noon! Then headed to Park Guell and then Grant humored me with a little shopping.
- Sunday: Early AM flight back to see my babies!

Highlights:
- My daily (sometimes 2x daily) chocolate filled croissant indulgence
- Traveling with my sweet hubby
- Working with the best group of ladies including Dana Blankenship, Sara Ratliff, Heather Richter and Tanya Allen
- My favorite attraction with La Sagrada Familia - that church is amazing and won't even be done until 2030!

On Monday at La Sagrada Familia. It was too late in the day to catch the tour, but we enjoyed walking around the park.

Delicious dinner with Sara and Joe Ratliff at Cataluna.

Back at La Sagrada Familia on Friday. This time we went to the top of the tower and walked down the 400+ steps.

On the way down the tower.

Constuction on La Sagrada Familia began in the 1882 and isn't scheduled to be complete until 2030. It is beautiful and amazing.

At the top of Park Guell.

On the Gaudi designed mosaic benches of Park Guell.

Entrance of Park Guell.