It's been a busy month around here! We celebrated Antony's birthday this week, have been preparing for Compassion Sunday, and Antony started his new job! Layla is also working on crawling and pulling up and loves to roll around the floor!

Antony's Birthday

   Tuesday we went out to dinner with my family to celebrate Antony's birthday! We ate at Olive Garden and had a good time celebrating and eating amazing food :)
 

   Wednesday was his actual birthday but it wasn't the best day :/ Antony got in a car accident that morning on his way home from work so that just made for a crazy day. He is fine and didn't get hurt, thank goodness! But it didn't make for a very good day...
   That night we both went to youth group at church (he goes every Wednesday to record). I spoke at youth about Compassion and encouraged the kids to get involved. Some of them were very interested but, of course, we told them they needed to talk to their parents before deciding for sure to sponsor a child.

  Thursday I made him his birthday dinner - steak, garlic mashed potatoes, and green beans! And for dessert we had brownies with reeses cups! VERRRYYY good! Unfortunately we didn't wait long enough before putting the candles in so they melted in the brownies :(  Despite the wax, they were still, good! Ha!

Compassion Sunday

   Compassion Sunday is this week! I'm really excited to see how it turns out and I'm praying lots of people respond. I'll be speaking at church briefly about Compassion International and will have a table set up with pictures of children in need of a sponsor. Be praying with me that the church responds well.

Layla
   She's a growing girl! Actually..her growing has slowed down significantly, haha. But she's learning so much these days and is very close to crawling! She's such a happy little girl and loves her mommy and daddy. Her favorite song is Jesus Loves Me and it makes her smile or calm down 99% of the time.

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Busy, Busy, Busy

   It has been super busy around here lately. Last weekend I helped my sister out with her big garage sale and was able to sell some of our stuff, too! This week the in-laws visited and I've been preparing for Compassion Sunday at church. Layla is also fighting a cold and has another tooth coming in. Lots of crazies around here.

Garage Sale

   The garage sale was a huge success. It was really busy Friday and decently busy Saturday. I sold most of the stuff I took (just a small car load) and Kourtney and Chad were able to sell a huge chunk of their stuff, too.
   The kids were all so good during the sale! Kolton pretty much kept himself busy playing with stuff in the garage and stuff we had out for sale :)  Layla fought sleep big time but was able to take a good nap in my Ergo, thankfully! Despite her lack of sleep, she was perfect. Macey was also really good and took a couple good naps and played with Layla and Kolton when she was awake.
   My Ergo saved my life that weekend, especially Friday morning! It was so busy at the sale and it was just us 3 girls (me, Kourtney and my mom) so we were running around everywhere, making deals left and right. If I hadn't had Layla in the carrier I'm not sure what things would have been like. She probably would have been abandoned, honestly, ha (unintentionally, of course!). Saturday the husbands were there to help so that was very nice.

Compassion Sunday

   I'm hosting Compassion Sunday at our church this year and I'm so excited! Compassion Sunday is a nation-wide event arranged by Compassion International. The purpose is to help children around the world get a sponsor so they can have an education and receive health and other benefits. Compassion partners with locals churches in the child's neighborhood and that church teaches them about Christ, provides them with an education, food, clothes and other needs they may have. I have sponsored a boy for 12 years now and had the chance to meet him 2 years ago and it was an awesome experience!

Pray that the church will respond well and that lots of children will become sponsored this month! April 21st is the official Compassion Sunday. I have about 100 packets with pictures and info on children ready to be sponsored and I would love to run out of them! 

In-laws Visit 

    Antony's parents and sister came to visit Tuesday and Wednesday and we got to celebrate Antony's birthday while they were here, too. Plus we got our Easter baskets! 

Layla loves her new duck from Aunt Rhea and all the fun stuff that Nana and Papa got her. Especially the crinkly giraffe! 

  We had planned to go swimming at the Y but Layla woke up with a runny nose on Tuesday so we had to cancel those plans :/ But Rhea is coming up again next week so we might try again! 

Random photos for your enjoyment:

Layla loves to stand at her toy like a big girl

Playing with cousin Macey at Grandma and Grandpa's. These two are so cute together! 

We found mommy's camo hat

Silly girl just waking up 

Child Watch at the Y

   Antony and I are considering getting a membership to our local YMCA and have a 3 day trial pass this week. We went this morning and left Layla with their child watch staff (very convenient) and it felt so good to work out! I haven't done too much of that since Layla was born and boy did I feel it this morning. Actually, it wasn't quite as bad as I expected but I just did the elliptical for like 8 minutes and then walked.

    The child watch program is very convenient for parents at the Y but I'm not sure how I liked it. Since I've worked with kids in a lot of different settings I'm very critical about how the staff are, especially now that I have my own child. The Y is set up so that parents can watch their kids from different locations while they're working out so I was able to see Layla from above as I walked on the track and also while I did the elliptical. I love this. I think tomorrow I'll take her swimming, though :)

  So my complaints about their child watch...not once did I see the staff interact with Layla. They sat her down in front of her favorite toy that she also has at home, but she wasn't close enough to even play with it. They also gave her a small toy to play with. She was most interested in just watching the other babies and everything going on around her (thankfully she was content!) I saw one of the staff members walk around her twice and not acknowledge her. When we went in to pick her up after our work out, we could have easily snuck in and grabbed her because the girl that was 'watching' the babies was actually watching the older kids through the window. She only knew we walked in because she heard the door close. That REALLY concerned me.

   I was impressed with their check-in and check-out system. When you check-in they assign you a number and the parents get a key chain with the number on it and the child gets a name tag, which goes around their ankle so it can't fall off. They also have a 10 minutes cry rule where if your baby has been crying for 10 minutes then they will call the parent over the intercom. I also really like the setup which allows me to watch Layla from above or through the window if I'm on the first floor.

  Overall, as a parent, I would rate the Y a 6.5 on a scale of 1-10. Its very, very nice and clean and has a good variety of equipment and classes. The pool looks very nice but its only an indoor...I was really hoping for an outdoor pool for the summer. The childcare is literally a child WATCH and not much more than that but I guess I'm not paying for childcare, specifically, so I can't expect too much from them. They did keep Layla safe and happy. I was very proud of her :)