Easter Week (Daddy's Home!)

We had the best treat ever. The week of the Master's is apparently crazy in Augusta, so Matt and his classmates were given the option to take leave if they wanted to. Matt said heck yes, he would love to come to Savannah and hang out with us for a week and go fishing for the first time in months. It was like a dream having him home for 9 whole days. Coming home from work to a "normal life" was not taken for granted, that is for sure!

 Another thing I enjoyed a lot of was this sight. Matt grilling dinner!

 Finn loved having his dad there to play with every day. 

We even got to go visit the easter bunny at the mall. Finn loved it and of course I shelled out the $18.95 for the picture. I will try to find a way to post it. They also had the "hatchery" there, which consists of the cutest little chicks EVER, most just a day or two old.  I guess it's there for educational purposes but they were letting mall-goers hold them, and I was not going to miss out on that opportunity! I love all things tiny and fuzzy, furry, or feathery. Note that this does not include reptiles and amphibians, which I do NOT like. Anyway, Finn was mesmerized and wanted so badly to squeeze the poor little guy. I didn't let him touch it though. Although it was precious, it also screamed "I carry yucky germs and diseases!"

Matt had a few different fishing partners during the week. My favorite was his sister Rebecca and her husband Josh. It was awesome having them! They didn't have great luck fishing but we did very much enjoy their company. Then on Friday my mom and granny came. Finn was so excited to wake up from his nap and find them there. 

There were some furry folks who were also glad to see their nana. 

And then all of a sudden, it was Easter Sunday! He is risen! Of course we went to church to celebrate the resurrection of the One who loves us best. But before that, we had easter bunny time. And by the way, I don't think that Jesus and the easter bunny are contradictions. I think you can partake in the fun cultural traditions while still recognizing the real meaning of a holiday. I'm not sure we had enough baskets though.....

Finn loved his basket and looked at every single thing individually. This weekend he just started being able to really sit up if he had something to hold on to and the basket was exactly the right size.

The bunny had brought all this super cute easter-y stuff, like squishy baby bunnies and little chicks that hop, but Finn's very favorite thing was this dumb light saber with blue candies in it. And naturally, in the thousand year old tradition of babies everywhere, he liked the grass better than anything else.

Here he is with all his treats. Poor thing, next year we'll have to get him some more to play with. 

After church some friends joined us for lunch. Megan and Brian Bickel have these adorable twins. I mean they are precious! They were scared of the dogs last year so we didn't know what to expect, but this year they made fast friends with Myrtle.

We tried to get a good family picture, but it was too close to nap time and this was the best we could get. 

After his much needed nap, I was able to to get some good pictures of Finn in his adorable Easter outfit (thanks Nest Boutique....check them out on FB, they have the cutest personalized kid's stuff ever). This longall says "Finn" under the bunny but you can't see it in these pics.

This is Finn's sad face. But I think it's cute. 

By the time everyone left, my exhaustion only left me time to feel the loneliness set in for a few hours before Finn and I both hit the sack. It was a GREAT week. I can't wait for Matt to be home for good.

A real hoot!

So seriously, I really am gonna post the Easter pictures. But today I finally caught Finn on video laughing....really really laughing. And all I had to do was make this silly clucking noise. Who knew how hysterical I could be! He is also demonstrating his new-found ability to spit. Yay!

Memories

Ok, so I am fully aware that y'all come here to this website to see pictures of Finn's sweet little self, and I know that I am woefully late posting his 6 month pics. And don't even think for a second that I didn't take 400 pictures over Easter weekend. I'll post those I promise. BUT I just have to pontificate for a moment (big word for so late at night) and maybe even slightly defend my tiny tendancy toward.....umm....hoarding.

Matt and I have decided to put our house on the market. Even if (which is actually "when" in my head), he gets stationed back here at Ft. Stewart, we need a bigger house if we want to grow our little family with more kiddos and dogs. Which we do. Of course if the unfathomable occurs and we have to move away from Savannah and heaven FORBID, the south, we will definitely have to sell it. So we are getting a head start hoping to at least break even with what we owe. Fingers crossed on this one!

We had a realtor come over to look around on Friday and before she even came I made sure to tell Matt "I KNOW she is going to say I have to get rid of a lot of/most of my crap so we can show the house, so don't even start with me." I followed that with "And it isn't crap to me, so don't start on that one either." Turns out I'm clairvoyant. She was sweet about it though. "Less is more", she said. I read her loud and clear. I knew I had to give away/throw away/store/goodwill 90% of the stuff in this house, but getting started was totally overwhelming. So in true Gaston fashion, I made a check-list of "areas to vacate of their junk" as long as my arm and dove in. Finn and I spent alllllll day on Monday and accomplished almost nothing. Seriously, 2 closets and a quarter of the guest bedroom. This is going to take longer than I thought.....

One reason for the large time consumption though is that I am such a sentimental sap! I can easily trash or donate clothes that don't fit, games we don't play, books we don't read, etc, etc. However, any item bearing any meaning gets saved. Birthday and Christmas cards, letters, postcards, invitations, thank you notes, newspaper clippings, birth announcements, movie tickets, wedding programs, valentines, the little cards that come with flowers that people send you, boxes and boxes of pictures, coloring book pages from friend's kids, I mean just everything. But I have to say that the past two days have confirmed why I do it. I LOVE LOVE LOVE looking back at all of that stuff. It warms my heart to read over all the special things that people have written to me over the years. I look at the invitations and remember fun times. The birth announcements are some of my favorites. Homemade gifts from Dody when she was little are some of the most treasured items. Monday I found the congratulations card my mom gave me when Matt and I got engaged. She told me that I had chosen my partner in life well and to be kind to each other always. I want to remember that advice. The Halloween picture that Tiffany and I took of Harvey and Toby (our doggie children) dressed as little Frankensteins was a tough one to look at. It was taken the last year (of 8!) that we lived together and Toby died a year and a half later. Tonight I came across the sombrero from my surprise 30th birthday party that Matt threw me. My 29th year had been an especially tough one and it brought tears to my eyes thinking about how he wanted to make my 30th a new beginning for me. How can I throw that away??? I can't. I can't part with any of it. I love memories and I love remembering. So I will get the so-called crap out of here so we can sell our house....but it won't be too far away. I rented a storage unit that's about 2 miles from here to house all of our "extra belongings". Trash to some, but treasures to me.