tea cup face

vacation top ten

10 of My Favorite Memories from our Family Vacation:

10. How it was the perfect blend of relaxation on the beach (St. Augustine) and adventures in the most magical place on earth.
9. Experiencing it with friends in the same life stage. Potty breaks, pool floaties and sand castle building make for instant bonding. Plus Chica LOVED having girls there her age.
8. Eating like kings (the fresh fish was unforgettable!) at the beach. Because our friends are the grill masters we weren't living on PB&J for the week.
7. Push the talking, robotic trashcan. He lives in Tomorrowland. I loved him so much I went back twice to try and find him.
6. Watching Chica collect autographs. She was big into meeting the characters. She made sure to sign the first page of her book before the trip started.
5. Getting Chica ready for her day at Magic Kingdom during the 90 second monorail ride. Clothes, shoes, socks and hair were done by the time we reached our destination.
4. How well our Big Girl traveled now that she's older. She slept great in the big beds and used the hotel restroom all by herself.
3. Watching Chica go down her first water slide alone. Her smile was so big. Watching Dan catch her over and over. If ever there was a Daddy completely smitten with his daughter.
2. Not wanting it to end.
1. Escaping for the week with my two favorite people. We got to play hooky from the rest of the world, enjoy each other, laugh, make memories and remember what drew us together in the first place.

Thank you family members and friends for helping us have an incredible week away. Whether it was the birthday gifts or bearing with us while Danny was out of the office, we are grateful and better off as a family. Much love and appreciation to you!

29 weeks

I can't believe it, but I'm twenty-nine weeks along and well into my third trimester. (Sorry the picture is a little funky but it was the best I could do. Dan had already left for work so I had to set the camera timer. Chica was in the bathroom plastering stickers over every square inch of her body Kat Von D style and we were supposed to be somewhere in ten minutes.)
Mama update:

I'm not sure if it's from coming off of vacation or being nearly 30 weeks pregnant, but fatigue came back with a vengeance this week and I think I have a bit of a chest cold. Poor Dan has had to listen to me hack all night long these past couple of nights. Other than that I'm feeling great and I can't wait for my pair of Ebay maternity jeans to come in the mail. :) I failed my one hour glucose test and had to take it again on Friday. Thank goodness, I passed my second time around.

Baby Hinton update:

Our (still nameless) baby is an active thing! I can tell she's getting stronger and we'll go back to the doctor in a couple of weeks for a routine growth ultrasound. Even having gone through this once before, it's still hard to believe a little human is growing in there. I've started to wonder what she's going to look like and what kind of personality she'll have. We can't wait to meet her!

may {so far}

Since May rolled around, our little family has been on the move.

We took Chica camping (twice). The first trip bad weather sent us home in the middle of the night, but the second trip we made it through until morning. When Chica wasn't too busy overseeing her Daddy's work, she helped pitch the tent, found sticks for the camp fire and hunted for frogs with her flash light.


One weekend Danny flew to Atlanta for a ministry trip and us girls got to tag along. We visited the aquarium and went to a Braves game where Chica learned how to eat peanuts.




Chica had her last day of school for the year. The night before I took her I thought about how much she's grown since her first day of school last fall. I cried about saying good-bye to her incredible teacher. She's the first teacher Big Girl's ever pretended to be. One afternoon we saw her at Chic-fil-A and Reesie was completely star struck. Oh how she will miss going to school this summer!

(First day of school.)

(Last day of school.)

While Danny worked, the Hinton girls road-tripped to Missouri to attend my brother's college graduation. We spent the weekend celebrating Uncle Bubby with the cousins.

We spent Mother's Day with friends. It was the first year Chica was able to sign the card all by herself. Then Danny turned 26 years old so the best cake in the world (Hy-vee brand with whipped icing) made its way from Missouri to our happy home.
We dipped our toes in the Atlantic Ocean.
Mingled with royalty.
And even got autographs from some famous people we ran into along the way.
All in all, it's been an eventful May. I better go tackle some laundry before I'm tempted to eat a second (ok, third) piece of Dan's birthday cake.