The Catchings Chronicles: Week 21, Another Week of Big Dates!

Week 21 began right where week 20 left off! On Monday, another beautiful baby entered this world as Levi Christopher Taylor was born! He is the firstborn of my friend Katie Taylor, who I've known since Elementary School, and her husband Justin. Take a look at Baby Levi (LOVE that name by the way!)

I just ADORE this picture of Katie and very newborn Levi. You can just so clearly see the love, sacrifice, and pure joy all over Katie's face. From the first second to forever--this is what it means to be a Mom <3

I think baby Levi has already adopted his parents' laid back style!

Am I crazy for missing this?! Look how cute he is all bundled up :)

On Monday evening, I was able to finally meet up with my very good friend, Amy Humphrey, for a laid-back dinner at Tyler's Taproom in Apex. We had to reschedule a few times for various reasons over the past 3-4 weeks, so it was nice to just catch each other up on life and laugh about it together!

On Tuesday, Tommy was able to go to speech, but even by mid-morning he was sounding VERY congested, so he missed OT on Wednesday. It was yet another week of sickness in the Catchings household--blast you stupid gym with your 300+ kids coming in and out of there everyday!! That said, we tried to make our own fun at home the best we could. Ethan is really starting to LOVE books after completely ignoring them for the first 20 months or so of his life, despite our efforts! Here's a little clip of him reading his favorite book, "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?".

On Thursday I was fortunate enough to go visit Katie and baby Levi at home--he was just such a content little guy. Made me miss the ol' newborn days--sniff sniff! Here's a little trip down memory lane!

Daddy, Mommy, and our brand new addition on 03/13/09.
We're thrilled, but Tommy seems to be contemplating his options!

I LOVE this picture of my Ethybear...it's just so him!!
"I'm trying to sleep--your attempts to wake me are futile!"

On Friday, Davey finally got to start the beginning of his birthday weekend!! He had the day off from work, but not the day off from Daddy-duty! I'm sure you all want to know this, but Tommy had just a massive blow-out during nap that day, and it was Daddy to the rescue to give him a quick splish-splash before Grandma came to pick them up for the weekend! So, the big poop was not a great sign as my Mom was watching the boys for her annual birthday present to Davey (watching the boys for a long weekend--yes!!), but more on that later....

For now, let's just skip to the blissfulness of Friday night when we were staring down 3 days and 3 nights of vacationing from parenthood in the face! Don't get me wrong, we LOVE LOVE LOVE our boys, but it's so nice to have a small extended period to just reconnect with each other and relax! We started "boy-free weekend" (as Davey coined it) with a meal at Olive Garden, where Davey's favorite food is.....

Davey eats like 8-10 breadsticks, and maybe like 4 bites of his actual entree--silly boy!

Afterwards, we headed on home to watch "Captain America" in preparation to eventually watch "Avengers" at some point over the weekend. We both barely make it through Captain America because sweet sleep is calling. On Saturday morning, we slept in until 11am--YEAH RIGHT! Davey woke up at 6am (not on purpose of course), and I made it until 6:30, which is my standard wake up time....ugghh!! But, it was still super relaxing to lounge around for a few hours and do absolutely nothing of importance! After leisurely drinking my deliciously brewed coffee by barista Davey, I got to work finishing up some special food requests from Donna and Emily Howard for Em's Graduation party! We headed on over to the Howard's around noon to help set-up the food. I made a Mediterranean pasta salad, cucumber sandwiches on 2 types of bread, and Em's personal favorite--salmon pinwheels! We had a lovely time over there, and everything just looked so nice! Here are a few pics of the graduate at the actual graduation!

The graduate with her proud Mommy (she's not graduating too, she's a teacher!)

2 smart, gorgeous sisters on Graduation night--Em MADE HER DRESS!!

Riggghhhttt Kathryn...we all believe that you're taller than Em now :)

After the graduation party, we searched high and low for "Thor" as it was our final prerequisite for Avengers. We finally found it after literally going to like 5 places, but we had to get it in blu-ray because that was all they had, AND that was the last one! So, we end up watching it huddled together on Davey's laptop! Thankfully it was a good movie and worth our efforts! The rest of the night we just spent enjoying our time together. On Sunday, we headed to church--which has been a rare luxury these days with all of the illnesses. I'm SOOOO glad we went--the sermon was awesome. I don't know that I've ever linked a sermon, but I'm going to because it was so unique and just so true: John and Peter's Interesting Dynamic

After church, we headed out for some good ol' fashioned "man food" at Carolina Ale House in Cary. I have to say, I think the cheese fries we split for an appetizer were the best I've ever had. I had jalepenos on the side, and they were just perfect!

Let's not talk about weight right now...just appreciate the beauty!

Definitely full after that very hearty lunch, we set out for Regal Crossroads 20 to cap our movie marathon with "The Avengers". As many of you know, I didn't grow up watching or reading comics or super-hero cartoons. The whole "sci-fi" genre was a post-marriage acquisition, but I have to admit that I'm really drawn to it!

I thought the movie was great, and can one ever see enough of Robert Downey Jr. anyway?!

Does this picture even need a caption?! SERIOUSLY!

And, this guy is okay too I guess ;)

be. still. my. heart.....thump, thump, thump <3 <3 <3

Sunday night was more relaxing with the birthday boy, and Monday morning brought more of the same. Finally, 4pm arrived on Monday afternoon, and it was time to head over to Grandma and Granddaddy's house to eat dinner and pick up the boys. Since it was Davey's birthday, he got to select the "birthday meal"--a Hayes custom for as long as I can remember that consists of the birthday boy/girl's choice of main dish, starch side, veggie side, and dessert. Davey chose hamburgers on the grill, french fries, garden salad, and strawberry shortcake trifle. Wise choices indeed--everything was delicious!

That said, remember back to the ominous huge poop before the weekend started. Wellllllll, it seems as though our little Tommy had quite the tummy bug over Daddy's birthday weekend. The bad news--Grandma had to do 7 loads of sheets/blankets/towels over the weekend. The good news--Tommy learned how to go poo-poo on the potty (when he was awake anyway!). So, a huge thank you to Grandma and Granddad (we heard he helped with the clean-up several times!) for taking care of business and even not telling us so we wouldn't worry all weekend (no fever so Grandma said she could handle the dirty stuff)! But, it wasn't all bad, the boys had a great time, and despite the sickness, the Grandparents couldn't say enough about how well-behaved they were all weekend--score! The favorite activity of the weekend was running through the rain shower and going down the pool slide (both sets of Grandparents picked out the exact same pool--great minds!).