a belated birthday recap

I was about to post a recap of last weekend until I looked at the calendar and realized what I was going to write about actually happened two weekends ago. What's the source of my lapse? Well, recently I've been exploring a new interest. I hesitate to qualify it as a hobby because knowing me I could drop it like a hot potato at any given point. Here's a picture hint at my latest infatuation that's eaten into my blogging time in a major way:

(Indeed I have lost my ever loving mind.)

Moving on with my two week old post that's possibly irrelevant and probably breaks all kinds of blog laws.

The first weekend in March we celebrated my birthday. I woke up to a huge box of donuts, some with sprinkles! We stuck some candles on top and ate them too fast to bother with plates.
It would have been a pretty low key weekend, but look who came all the way from Oklahoma to help us celebrate! Poor Mr. Justin went through the ringer on his first trip to the Hinton home. It didn't help that Chica continued to call him "Aunt Jess." (?)Like anyone else who comes to visit, Chica showed no mercy on our guests. There were epic triumphs and defeats over Candy Land, Sequence and Cootie Bug. One night it was warm enough to play outside, so Chica loaded up four bags worth of stuff she "needed" to survive the three feet trek down the sidewalk to the lawn. (Makes her mama proud.) Mr. Justin threw pitches to our (as of now) little switch hitter. (Makes her daddy proud.) About ten minutes later the baseball game turned into a shopping trip up and down the sidewalk.
Meanwhile I forced our other guest to make me a birthday cake. Actually, she bossed me to sit in my seat while she did all the work. She's a firstborn you know. :)

The night I turned the big 2-6, Dan got a babysitter and we met some friends for dinner. I've grown so accustomed to wrangling a toddler wherever we go that relaxing during an entire meal is a bit foreign. In a way it's almost like I've forgotten how to be completely present and carry on one continual conversation without being interrupted every few minutes. Think the onset of old age is to blame? :)

Thank you Debs and Mr. Justin for coming to see us. It made this birthday extra special!
Daniel, thank you that during such a heavy work week you took time off to bless your wife with extra of you. Thank you for your patience and mercy as I continue to grow up. I'm so grateful I can harass you to "be nice" to me on my birthday because the truth is you lavish me with kindness all the other 364 days too.

My hope for my 26th year of life is this:

"You crown the year with Your goodness, and Your paths drip with abundance."

Psalm 65:11 NKJV

week 18

Time for a Baby Hinton update! Yesterday I went to my monthly check-up. The baby's measuring great, had a strong heartbeat of 150 and is moving all over the place. (I started noticing movement at 15 weeks but it wasn't until this week that Dan could feel the baby too!)

The doctor noticed that I haven't gained any weight yet. I told him my children are stealing all my food. Whatever I'm eating, Chica claims at least half of and then Baby Hinton mooches the rest. I'm a little relieved though because when I was 18 weeks along with Chica, I had already gained 15-20 pounds. (And I kept packing them on until the very end.) (Somebody saw her Daddy taking pictures and wanted to get in the shot.) :)

I asked her what it was like living in Mommy's tummy. She said, "It was like toast" and dissolved into a fit of giggles.
The most exciting part about my appointment was that my doctor scheduled our big ultrasound for March 23! In just over a week they'll examine all of Baby's major organs and tell us the gender.

Speaking of gender, a few weeks ago my mom came to visit. She had heard about this test that claims to predict your baby's gender. When we saw how much it cost at Walgreens, we went home empty handed. This morning my mom sent me a birthday package and lo and behold, look what was included in the envelope:
Of course I HAD to take it right away. And the result:

We won't be decorating the nursery or picking out a name for at least eleven more days. But if this test turns out to be right, Dan is going to have to pick me up off the floor.

And then tend to his toddler who is thoroughly convinced God is bringing her a baby sister.

We can't wait!!

school picture day

Last week was school picture day for Chica. I'm hesitant to purchase school pictures because they typically don't capture Chica with an authentic smile on her face. It's usually more like an I'll- sit-here-and-grit-my-teeth-if-it-means-I'll-be-done-quicker expression. Funny, her Daddy makes that same face when he's forced to take our quarterly family picture. It's torture I tell ya.

However, I couldn't let a freshly ironed outfit (a phenomenon around these parts) go to waste so we had a short photo shoot before we left for school.

Bingo! If the $36 wallets don't work out I can always send one of these to the grandparents.

spice castle & pajamas

Before cooking dinner last night I pulled out all the spices in the cabinet to find the one I needed in the very back. While I had my back turned working at the stove, Chica pulled a chair over to the counter and went to town. At the sound of her enthusiastic, "TA-DA!" I whipped around to find a great wall of spices stretching from the sink to the fridge.
She was so proud of her "Spice Castle" I made her climb right back on her chair for a picture.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Today, in honor of the great letter "P" Chica's class had a pajama party. They celebrated with pizza for lunch. It's not every day you get to wear your jammies to school.
Thanking God for today and hoping to remember all the little things that make life with my favorite girl extra sweet. I love her so.

meeting Pioneer Woman

So there's this blog. And pretty much if you have a blog, you know about this blog and you read it on a regular basis. Most likely your mom, your sister, your math teacher and your second cousin three times removed read it too.

Its author (Ree Drummond) goes by Pioneer Woman. She lives on a cattle ranch and writes about her life in the country. She's a fabulous photographer and recently she wrote a cookbook that landed on the New York Times Best Seller list. Friday night she paid our town a little visit and Whitney, Chica and I were there to welcome her. Along with half the city. :)

It was my first time attending a book signing so I wasn't sure what to expect. Dan was out of town for the night which meant he couldn't tease me too much about being a crazy groupie. I told him earlier that afternoon I was going to meet someone I had met on the Internet. (One of my favorite things to do is to say something outrageous just to try and get a rise out of him. Aren't you so glad you're not to be married to me? It's become a bigger and bigger challenge to get the kind of shocked response I hope for. After four and a half years of marriage I think he's caught on to my ornery, tormenting ways.)

Here's my Internet friend. And she was right on time!

She answered a few questions from the audience.
She brought her husband. He's a real life cowboy. I wanted to ask him if horses really can sense human fear but I chickened out. Google before you speak and all.
I am so grateful the bookstore people didn't make us wait in one long line. Instead they called us up by groups according to the letter on our ticket. Whit, Chica and I were in group "M" so we had some time to kill. Thank goodness for the fabulous children's section of the store. It kept us busy for (literally) hours. Chica found this Duck & Goose sign and wanted me to take her picture. They are two of her favorite storybook characters.
Three hours later it was our group's turn!
This picture makes me giggle. Ree was completely warm and talkative but having stayed up way past bedtime, Chica gave her a slight stink eye.
Times it's worth waiting for three hours:

1. Riding Splash Mountain

2. Getting front row seats at a women's conference.

3. Giving birth

4. Meeting Pioneer Woman
Can this count as Baby Hinton's Week 16 belly picture?
I asked Chica how she felt about being done with the bookstore and this is what she did. (Again, waaaayyy past bedtime.)
She wanted to take a picture of me too. (Ten years from now it'll be easy to recognize which pictures she took because they're all of me with my giant face taking up most of the shot.)

Thanks Pioneer Woman for visiting our neck of the woods! We loved meeting you! (And also, sorry about the stink eye thing.)

only one you

*The following is an excerpt from Francis Chan's book Crazy Love.

"Oswald Chambers writes, "Never make a principle out of your experience, let God be as original with other people as He is with you." To that I would add, "Be careful not to turn others' lives into the mold for your own." Allow God to be as creative with you as He is with each of us....We have a God who is a Creator, not a duplicator. He's never made a Francis Chan [or Chica] before."

You, my daughter, are the only you there will ever be.

May the world never be the same once you're through with it.

photo fun

First of all, thank you to everyone who voted for Chica's picture last week. She made the website! You can see her snapshot by clicking here. If you don't see it right away, wait a few seconds, it will scroll through several that were chosen. How fun is that??

Today I went to MOPS and we made the cutest magnets with family pictures. Normally a tad cautious when it comes to crafts, I was totally into this one because I knew Reesie (our little comic) was going to love the final product. Can you tell what they are?

These

+

these

=

silly pairings galore!

I couldn't wait to see Chica's reaction to her mama's craft project.

It was love at first giggle!!

(And totally worth the additional 45 minutes I had to drive to get to MOPS because I had left my pictures at home. Sometimes I want to put myself in timeout.)

Here's Chica's first arrangement:
She was in self-induced stitches over giving her Daddy a Woody body.
The Hinton girls share the same sense of humor. What can I say? We bond over anything and everything that's the least bit silly. I'm pretty sure our love language is making each other laugh until it hurts. Even when the joke's on Daddy. :)