Beautiful Saturday

I can't believe it's been almost a week since my last post. Life has been SO crazy this week! This was mostly due to school. I love my job, but I am SO ready for summer break! The end of the year is always tiring, but this year with being pregnant and having a 19 month old, it's been exhausting! But only 7 days left!! :-)

Speaking of being pregnant, we find out the gender of our baby June 16th! We're very excited about this and have had so much fun thinking of baby names. We have a beautiful baby girl name picked out. However, if our new baby is a boy, we'll have to get to work as we have no baby boy name picked out. So it's a common occurrence around our house these days to throw around potential baby boy names. Brian recently thought he had one:

Brian: How about Harold?
Melissa: Harry Hines?
Brian: I guess that's a no.

Weekend Fun

This weekend we went to visit Grandma and Grandpa Hines in Winston-Salem. We spent time with Grandpa, Grandma, and Aunt Marie. Some more of Brian's family came over last night for a cook-out. It was a fun visit!

Hanging out in Grandma and Grandpa's sunroom.
(Check out that crazy hair!)

Molly, Aunt Marie, and Daddy

Grandpa cooking hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill.

Great-Grandma Hines

Molly on Uncle Roni's motorcycle. She loved it!

Tonight we went out for Anna's birthday. We had dinner at Outback and then did a little shopping at Kohl's. We also got to see James' and Anna's new house!

19 Months!

The countdown to the end of school year has begun! We have about 2 1/2 weeks left of school and I am READY for summer! I'm ready for some downtime and ready have the days at home with Molly. She will be 19 months old tomorrow! I can't believe that it has been 9 months since we left for Vietnam! She is growing and changing so much! She is talking up a storm and beginning to put two words together. Typically it's when she's commanding us to do something she wants us to do, but it's still pretty cute. For example: Dada, bye bye! Nana, more! Mama, open! I don't know where she got the idea that she's the princess. :-)

Our Little Gardener

Molly and Nana planted some flowers last week. As you can tell by the pictures, Molly had a great time! She LOVES being outside! She helps us water the garden everyday and loves playing in the yard. She's quite the littler gardener! :-)

15 Weeks

I'm currently 15 weeks pregnant and beginning to get out of that "yucky" stage where you are sick and exhausted all of the time. I'm a little less nauseated and beginning to feel more like myself. We had a doctor's appointment today and we got to hear the heartbeat again. Everything looked great! At our next appointment, I will have an ultrasound and hopefully we will get to find out if we are having a boy or a girl. They will also be checking the health of the baby. I'm beginning to get a little anxious about this appointment, but trying to put everything in God's hands and trust that He is in control. (Easier said than done sometimes!)

We're excited about the newest Baby Hines! :-)

Funnies!

From school...

T: Mrs. Hiiiiii-iiiiiines!! Y has God in his pocket!
Mrs. Hines: I'm sorry. What did you say?
T: Y has God in his pocket! He does!
Mrs. Hines: (T's got me curious) Y, what is in your pocket?
Y pulls out a wooden cross.
T: See! I told ya! He's got God in his pocket. :-)

Mrs. Hines: What are you doing with that big pile of bears, S?
S: You'll see!
Mrs. Hines: (Hoping it's math-related) Are you going to sort them by color?
S: Nope! I'm going to put all of the blues together and the reds together and the yellows together!

From Molly....

Upon pulling into the local grocery store:
Molly: Mmmmmm......snack! (Maybe someone has had one too many free samples lately!)

Getting Molly ready for her bath, I turn on the water and go to get her towel.
Molly: (pointing at me) No, no! Mama! (pointing at the tub) Bath!
Mama: Right away, princess!

(And my personal favorite) From Brian....

Melissa: Do I look pregnant?
Brian: Long pause. Ummm.....do you WANT to look pregnant?

This Weekend

Molly's First Swim

We took Molly to the gym for her first swim. She had a really good time and really liked the water. We didn't get any cute pictures of her in the pool, but here she is modeling her new swimsuit. :-)
I think she was just as excited about the room full of balls (the basketball court)--she watched the guys playing basketball for a long time yelling "ball! ball!" :-)Concord Mills

Yesterday, we went to Concord Mills with our friends the Donahues. The kids got to play in the play area with the Dads while Annie Beth and and I shopped. Molly always has fun with the Donahues and has recently started saying "Ben." Cute! :-)

Mother's DayI had a really good Mother's Day! Molly got me a Jack Johnson CD and a new hairdryer (she's such a thoughtful little girl!) We took Nana out for lunch and then tonight we went to her house where my brother Bob cooked steaks on the grill. Yum! This was my first Mother's Day with Molly home so it was very special. We are so thankful to have her home this year--we just love her more and more everyday! :-)

But I couldn't help but think of and pray for all of the people who are hurting this Mother's Day. The first Mother's Day after Zeke passed away was probably one of the hardest times I've faced. I've spent a lot of time today thinking of those who have lost children, lost mothers, are struggling with infertility, waiting in the adoption process, etc. Mother's Day is such a happy day, but can also be such a sad time. The comfort I've found during these hard times is to trust that God is faithful and HE is in control.

Mommy's Kitchen Helper

Since Molly always wants to see what's going on while I'm in the kitchen, I've been bringing a chair over to the counter and letting her "help" me. Tonight we had some neighbors over for dinner and Molly helped me cook. What a good little helper!

More Fun with Tara!

We've had SO much fun with Tara this weekend! Friday she came and visited her kids at work. It was nice having her back at Benton Heights! Then we had dinner out and Anna and Tara got pedicures while Molly and I walked around.
Today we went to the school carnival. The Browns were in the dunking booth which was fun to watch! :-) Molly had a great time walking around and dancing to the music. We had lunch at a little restaurant beside our school called Dukes. It's not too healthy, but they have amazing BLTs and burgers!
Tonight we had dinner with Court and Laura and their adorable baby Emalyn. It's been such a fun weekend. I am SO sad about Tara going back to Ohio but I guess Justin is missing her so we have to let her go. Molly is also going to miss her Auntie Tara, but hopefully we'll be seeing her this summer!