Birthday girl

We had so much fun celebrating little Meggie's birthday yesterday. And thank you all so much for the kind comments you left for her! I pretty much followed her around with the camera all day long, but wouldn't you know that I didn't even think to get pictures of the activities in which I was a participant? As such, I have no photographic evidence of the cuteness of her helping to make chocolate candy teddy bears, or of her "helping" to frost her cake. (This entailed large amounts of icing being consumed by all of my children, sometimes squirt directly into their mouths from the bag I was using to decorate the cake. Too, too cute!)

At any rate, here are some of my favorites:

Sweet Sisters

Dylan reading Baby Bear's Surprise, a tradition for every birthday child.

Taking baby shopping with a brand new grocery cart

Two!!!

Playing with Charlie, my brother's new puppy. Isn't he just the cutest?!

And in other wonderful and exciting news, my mom is home! We hadn't seen her since June, so we are all just thrilled that she'll be in town until after Christmas. She spent most of yesterday afternoon and evening at our house, and she offered to babysit for us tomorrow so that Darren and I can celebrate our anniversary! We'll probably use the opportunity to finish up our Christmas shopping, but I think that even that can be wonderfully romantic. Time alone with my hubby, no matter how we choose to spend it, is always a perfect gift!

AND, perhaps the most thrilling thing about yesterday! I had been feeling for the past week or so some vague fluttery sensations that I knew must be the baby moving, but nothing very distinct. Last night, though, after I got into bed, I spread my open hands against the growing swell of my lower belly and immediately felt several definite thumps...little punches or kicks! The absolute wonder of it nearly took my breath away. I couldn't stop grinning! I almost can't wait to go to bed tonight to see if it happens again. :)