Straight from the Hart: October 2014

October 2014

On October 4th, Shawn and I had our marriage blessed at Prince of Peace Catholic Church in Birmingham. This has been something we had wanted to do for a long time and I am so happy that we found a wonderful church family in Birmingham. Prince of Peace was the best thing about our 18 month stay in Alabama.
Maddie was baptized. We shared the special day with a few moms from the MOMS group at church, G-ma, Uncle Brett, Aunt Jenn, Vivian, and Michelle. It's so nice to have friends and family even when you are far from home.
Spent a Saturday night out at the Greek festival with Aunt Jenn and Uncle Brett. We ate some great food (especially the yummy donuts) and listened to fun music. Opa!
Maddie is getting really into dress up. The transition to becoming a big sister and moving to Georgia is taking a toll on Maddie and she has been acting out more with daddy being gone during the week. One night we decided to get out of the house, so we went to Target for a dress up dress and then out to dinner. Our new princess Sophia dress opened up a whole new world! I'm not sure if she took the dress off at all the entire week.
Went to the pumpkin patch. Alabama has great farms that do huge pumpkin patches with hayrides, petting zoos, cotton jumps, etc. This is so different from Florida and something I have really enjoyed. Our first year it was a very chilly October at the patch...this year it was super HOT! Maddie enjoyed herself even more this year and wanted to stay and do everything...of course on a super HOT day while mommy is 35 week pregnant. Luckily, there were lots of hay barrels to sit on!
Went to the zoo and out for BBQ/cupcakes. With our time as a family of 3 running out and our time in Birmingham running out, we decided to spend a Saturday at the zoo and eating out at our favorite Birmingham BBQ with cupcakes for dessert. The weather was super nice and with me now being full term we figured the worst thing that could happen after a long day of walking was for us to have a baby. We didn't anticipate this actually being our last weekend out as a family of 3!
Maddie got her first haircut!! Finally, after basically a full year of being bald, Maddie has grown tons of hair! I have plans to cut her hair myself, but a friend from church is a hair dresser and agreed to cut Maddie's hair and show me how the first time. She did extremely well and thought her new hair cut was just great!
Daddy came home!! In anticipation of the new baby, Shawn came back to Birmingham on October 15th. He will work from the Traveler's office starting October 17th until we move to Atlanta in a month.
Ethan was born! On Monday morning, October 20th, we got a big surprise when Ethan decided he was going to make his arrival! We couldn't be happier to have a healthy baby boy and beautiful family of 4!
Had visits from Granny and Grandpa Hart with the arrival of Ethan
Had a very Happy Halloween! With Ethan being only 11 days old is was a big different than we imagined but it was super fun! Maddie dressed up as Cinderella. She had a costume parade at school on Wednesday and then Friday she had a party at the MOMS group followed by trick or treating that night in our neighborhood. We went to a friend's house for a party before hand and then trick or treated with friends in our neighborhood. It was super COLD so we couldn't stay out too long. Ethan did very well for his first Halloween. I wore him in the Ergo carrier and he slept the whole time. Maddie really got into saying "trick or treat" at every house and she loved all the treats! M&Ms and the tattoos were her favorite!