it's tourney time.

this weekend was a good one. filled with moments where i found myself thinking "don't ever forget this... right here, right now. live in this moment" i do that often. take pictures in my mind of times that i want to hold on to forever. which is one of the reasons i love blogging. i love to try to document special times for our family to be able to look back on in years to come.

this weekend we kicked off our february vacation week and could not be more excited. we have been counting down the days since we both went back to school after christmas break. luckily for us, maine schools have a week off in february and another off in april. every february break the state of maine goes nuts for high school basketball tournaments. if you've never lived here, it's hard to explain. but if you have, you get it. all the games are played at the bangor auditorium this weird shaped landmark in downtown bangor that was built in 1955. it's referred to as the "mecca" of high school basketball and is the home of countless memories for those of us that were privileged to play there.

my dad was a very talented (recognized at an all state level) basketball player when he was in high school, and lead his team to many victories on the floor of the bangor auditorium. i attended a small christian high school and since we didn't have a large enough gymnasium where we could play our home games, we played them all at the auditorium. i'll never forget the first time we had practice there... dad came in with me and wanted to see me make my first shot on that floor. he stayed to shoot around with me for a bit before practice. it sounds totally cheesy, but it was really special for both of us. not only had he played there when he was in high school, but he always took me to tournament games when i was growing up; i think the first one i went to with him i was only three or four.

i've told you how nostalgic i am, right?? such memories.

i hadn't been to a tournament game in a while, and i'd only told nick about how fun this week was in the state of maine. the atmosphere, the excitement, the pep bands and smell of popcorn. the boys team from the high school he teaches at played friday night, so we packed up bella and went as a family. it was one of my favorite times the three of us have spent together. being there opened such a floodgate of memories for me...everything reminded me of the years i had played there. and also of my dad; i wished he could've been there with us. he would've loved taking his granddaughter to her first tournament game.

bella was mesmerized; for the entire first quarter she sat perfectly still, clapping her hands when the crowd cheered and just staring in awe at everything going on. i took her to get fruit snacks at the concession stand when the game went into overtime and she couldn't wait to get back to our seats "ohhhh go watch football, mama!" (she calls every sport football... we're working on it)

as i watched her sitting in her seat, her legs swinging with excitement, her little face lit up as she took everything in, it struck me how much she is looking like a little girl. she isn't our baby anymore. after the game, we went out to one of our favorite local pizza places for dinner. my heart felt so full. i realized i was savoring every moment so much because in less than two months, it will never be just us and bella again. as excited and overjoyed as i am to meet emmy and have her join our family, i am growing increasingly aware of the fact that our time as a family of three is coming closer and closer to it's end.

so i'm making every effort to savor every moment. to make memories with bella in the weeks to come. and as ready as i am to not be pregnant anymore, to enjoy and treasure the time we have left with just her before we welcome another sweet baby girl into this world :)

"yay! clap your hands!"

multitude monday.

201. dunkin donuts coffee.

202. snuggling in bed with my loves. for the two seconds bel will sit still :)

203. corn on the cob with melted butter and lots of salt&pepper.

204. watching bella teeter around the house; walking with her arms straight up in the air. cutest thing ever!

205. family.

206. bella's second birthday party with my side of the family and lots of disney princesses (thanks, grammy!)

207. lupines and other wildflowers growing along the roadside.

208. rainy mornings.

209. aaaand here's to the good guys winning... these two pictures say it all:

happy monday, everyone!

thursday three.

this past weekend we took a road trip to houston to visit my family! we left thursday early afternoon and stayed until around noon on sunday, so it was a great trip. my aunt cynthia lives there as well as my cousins and their families and my mom&dad and gret&jude (my sister and nephew) came down for the weekend too! it was a full house and so. much. fun. not only was our family all together, but the final four was also in houston that weekend.

bonus.

so this week's thursday three are all of our most fav things about our weekend trip to h-town.

nick

when i asked nick his favorite thing about our getaway, he said getting to spend time with my family... talking, laughing, playing games and hearing more stories about uncles, aunts, cousins, grandparents, etc. that just warmed my heart. i love that my husband loves my family so much and enjoys being around them... after all, he is one of us now ;) we do have so much fun together... we are loud, laugh alot, and love to reminisce and story-tell (some of us tell longer stories than others...wink, wink) :) and now with four littles in the mix, it's even more crazy, loud and fun! love it.

meg

my highlight was two fold (besides the obvious... getting to hang with family that i love SO much!!) first, nick and my dad and i headed downtown on friday and took the metro to reliant stadium to check out the final four festivities. this was *super* special for me... i grew up watching college basketball with my dad; it was something special that we shared and loved to do together. when i met nick, one of the things i instantly loved about him was how we enjoyed watching sports together too, and the first spring we were dating, he joined my dad and i in our annual march-maddness-bracket-competition :) it was just so special for me to get to go check out the final four stuff with the special men of my life!! we ate some good texas barbeque, checked out the festivities and went into the stadium to watch team practice (which we figured out is really just team-shoot-around-for-fans-time). still fun. it. was. awesome!

my second highlight? saturday night we packed up the kids and headed to a local outlet mall. i never got to shop with my mom and sister--maybe once or twice a year--which is really just a travesty :( so it was reallllly fun to get to shop with them (well... mom really just pushed bella around forever 21 while gretty and i shopped... but still). looking forward to many shopping trips to come!

bel

bella hadn't seen her grammie and grampy or aunt gret since christmas, and the minute they walked in the door she reached out for them :) she loved snuggling with grammie, singing with grampy and playing with aunt gret. and she got to meet my cousins and see aunt cynthia again (she loves her!!) and of course, she loved getting to play with her cousins! she was the baby, but that didn't seem to hold her back much. she loved trying to keep up with the "big kids" and i've noticed since we've been home she's been a faster crawler, puller-up-er and such a jibber-jabber! she learned alot from her cousins, i think...

we had a great time last weekend and we're looking forward to another road trip this weekend to tyler, texas to see one of my longtime friends and her family... so excited :)

multitude monday.

129. my yellow flowers-and-butterfly starbucks mug. so spring-y and it makes me happy. especially when full of coffee.

130. bluebonnets. i mean, they're no maine "pine cone and tassel" ;) but i love when the state flower of texas colors the sides of the highways and fields. so. pretty.

131. roadtrips with my man. and our ipod. always so fun.

132. my sweet husband. this is a weekly staple in my multitude monday.

133. watching bella explore.

134. snuggle time with bel on the couch while she drinks her bottle. (i'm realllllly dreading her being done with bottles; this is the only cuddle time i get with her now that she's on the go!)

135. MY FAMILY. i love the way we laugh, talk, reminisce, play games, eat... pretty much everything.

136. getting to watch my family with bella... and watching her play with her cousins!

137. being in houston for the final four and going to reliant stadium with my husband and my dad. so special.

multitude monday.

114. family time.

115. my cheap ebay finds: a vintage fan and two antique candle wall sconces.

116. bella's dance moves.

117. watching ncaa basketball with nick: eating chips and salsa and staying up late.

118. cinnamon raisin english muffins.

119. making bella laugh; her sweet belly laugh and toothy grin.

120. rocking my sleeping lil sweet pea, feeling her arms grasping around my neck and holding her tight.

121. good worship time with my jesus.

thursday three.

so this week's highlights are pretty much the same for all three of us (even though bella is not really aware of two of them... i'm still going to go ahead and say that they are some of her top moments. i'm her mama. i can do that).

here is this week's thursday three.

1. welcome, sophia!

our precious niece, sophia joyce cornwell, was welcomed into the world on tuesday afternoon at 5:15 weighing 4 lbs, 11 oz and measuring 18 inches long! she was born five weeks early but is doing splendidly. we are so grateful she is here and that she, jd and stella are doing great! we haven't gotten to see her yet since she is still in the NICU... but we are praying that she will be able to go home with her mommy&daddy on saturday! nick&i cannot WAIT to hold our beautiful niece (our first one!) and--even though she doesn't know it yet--bella is super stoked about her brand new cousin!

2. girls/guys weekend

last weekend was such a gift... for all three of us! nick left friday night with two of his guy friends to go on a camping trip in oklahoma. they had a great time hanging out by the camp fire, rock climbing and hiking, aaaand, you know, other stuff guys do on camping trips out in the middle of nowhere (??). us girls chose a different route: a hotel suite at the omni in las colinas. i know. this was a much wiser decision than camping in oklahoma, right?! my friend, amanda, works for the company that owns omni hotels so she hooked us up with a beautiful room complete with a couple bottles of champagne. yes, please. we had such a wonderful, fun, girly time. we ate sushi takeout, took lots of ridiculous pictures, stayed up late, ate junk food, slept in and had brunch sunday morning. did i mention it was perfect? i felt like i was in college again. minus the animal crackers and frosting-out-of-the-can.

bella got to spend the day saturday with her nonnie (nick's mom) and then spent the night and all day sunday hanging out with her uncle james, aunt jessica and cousin wyatt. she had a ball. i mean, just look at this pic: i don't think she could love that little guy any more than she does!! little cuties!

3. march madness, baby.

oh yeah. ever since i was in junior high this has been one of my *favorite* times of the year. second only to christmas. it's true. ever since nick and i started dating we've competed against each other with our brackets and we spend these days infront of the television, watching games as often as possible! (we are watching now as i type) bella loves it too--i promise. this year is extra special because the final four is in houston and my parents are flying in town! we have family there so we are all meeting up for some family time/final four craziness in exactly two.weeks. cannot WAIT!!

the cornwell thursday three. it's been a good week. so thankful for our family time (nick's been on spring break this week!), watching our little girl grow (full fledged crawling, pulling up, destroying her crib at nap time, shaking her head "no", repeatedly doing things we tell her not to do--while looking at us with a smile on her face, pulling out her ponytail and hair bows...this girl has no lack of personality, that is for SURE!) and praising god for his miracle of life and adding to our family this week! he is *good*

thursday three.

well, it's 11:43 and i had fallen asleep but woke up to a huge coughing fit. we are seeming to pass allergies and colds around this house and it's kind of a drag. i decided to get up and use my trusty netti pot and get some water, while also allowing time for my husband (who i undoubtedly startled half to death with my racking coughs) to fall blissfully off to sleep once again.

and here i sit.

which gives me time to write the thursday three in the fifteen minutes i have left before it is no longer thursday.

nick
miracle of all miracles this week is no guessing game (although i guessed it right on my first try... i told you i know the mind of my husband!) i actually remembered to ask nick today what his top moment of the week was... and alas, it was going to the mavs game last night with three of his best friends for *free*. that's right, people... f-r-e-e. love that! his friend matt won free tickets because he won some score-guessing-contest (and actually guessed the score to a mavs game spot on which is pretty crazy) and was awarded four free tickets to last night's mavs game against the jazz. i know my husband acted like the crazy sports fan that he is; complete with his mavs t-shirt, screaming&yelling and his giant-number-one-foam-hand waving in the air (just kidding on the giant hand... but still.) anyone who knows my husband knows he loves his sports, and i just love watching him in action, as does everyone else. love. that. man.

meg
i would have to say my highlight of the week may sound like a shallow one, but please hear me out... these days shopping for myself is an extremely rare occasion. but as i have been learning over the past several months, the lord reminded me of again this week: god always takes care of our needs... and sometimes he chooses to take care of our wants. this week with some sale-watching, coupon clipping and store credit at the gap, i managed to snag a pair of $70 skinny jeans for a mere twenty bucks. yep, i loved it. almost as much as i love. these. jeans. aaaaand due to a shipping mishap (long story) i also was blessed with a super cute easter dress for bel for practically free. i definitely tend to struggle sometimes with our lack of "things" or the means to obtain "things" especially since we chose to have me be a stay-at-home-mom for our family. i wouldn't have it any other way; it just makes finances a bit tighter. i've been asking jesus to help me with that this week, and to keep my mind stayed on the many things i'm so thankful for. he--as always--has been faithfully changing my heart and helping me focus on the irreplaceable blessings around me that i could never even imagine my life being without. the "things" that are worth *far* more than all the money in the entire world. so that, my friends, is really the highlight of my week :) doesn't mean my struggle is over, but it's always good to have those little reminders... and god is so sweet to give them.

bel
our poor little sweetie has not been feeling so hot the past few days. she's had a runny nose, cough and just doesn't look or act like herself. it's quite sad. but this has also meant more time in her pjs, more cuddle time with daddy and mama, and more "praisebaby" and "baby einstein" (which we ordinarily limit to a few times a week... but this week i think she has watched one or the other every single day. ahhh well.) i think bella's highlight this week was getting a couple new toys from grammie and grampy! they had given bel her first tea set (plastic, of course) for christmas, and i stashed it in the closet to bring out later when the newness of some of her other christmas toys had worn off. we brought it out this week, much to her excitement in only the way a baby can show it. as soon as she saw the box, she began squealing and kicking her feet with a huge smile on her face. so. cute. so we've been playing "tea" which she hasn't quite gotten the hang of yet and certainly has no manners. the english would be sorely disappointed. for valentines day, grammie and grampy gave her an activity walker that we just picked up this week. it makes lots of noises and has tons of buttons that light up and play songs. it keeps her entertained for a while. hard to imagine that she will soon be pushing it all over the apartment as she waddles behind it! it seems like just yesterday when all she did was lay on a blanket and blink. she has been growing up so fast i think i cry about it every day. just kidding, but i do get teary-eyed. a lot.

and there you have it, friends. our thursday three just before midnight. i will now go back to bed and hopefully be asleep within seconds. stay away, cough. stay away.

thursday three.

it's been a good week. nothing extraordinary, but good. spring is in the air... after a couple of weeks of snow&ice, it's been in the 70s the past few days here in dallas.

crazy.

there's something about valentines day that i love, even though i think it's annoying it's become such a commercial "holiday". i still think its fun. i've had to convince nick of this fact a little bit... he always says he'd rather show me he loves me every day, rather than one day dictated by the pink and red aisles at target and flowers-chocolate-and-candy-businesses. true, but i'm still a fan. i've been real nostalgic lately... amazed and thankful at how our life has changed in the past year. this year, i had two valentines; last year one of them was hiding out in my belly:

can't believe how fast time flies... so thankful for where we are right. this. moment. here is this week's thursday three.

nick
as usual, i forgot to ask him about his highlight this week. but i like to think i know the mind of my husband so well that i can figure it out on my own. here goes. nick was the assistant coach for the second year in a row for the girls varsity basketball team at his school, first baptist academy. while he enjoyed it, and it was fun for bel&i to go to his games, the season ended on saturday and i know he was relieved to have a bit of a break! his girls were so sweet and gave him a big bag full of gift cards and other goodies, which was really nice. seriously, i think my husband has gotten close to $100 in starbucks gift cards over the past couple of months. crazy. and he loves it, that coffee addict that i married. i would also guess that another highlight for nick would be our date night on saturday which we used as our "valentines date". we dropped bella off at his parents, went and got take out from our fav sushi place, brought it home and watched a movie on our couch. we've done this alot lately for date night, but it is our favorite. with our weeks being so busy, it's so nice to be able to relax together, baby-free, at home in our pj's. our idea of a perfect date night.

meg
definitely date night would be a highlight for sure (goes without saying). we also wrote each other letters this year for valentines day... which is always the *best* gift ever to me! another highlight for me was some "me" time i was given this past weekend! on saturday afternoon, nick took bella to his sisters while he was at his game and i got to go have some great time with my girlfriends. it's such a blessing for me to have time to myself, and i was so excited! even better: we had an "anne of green gables" marathon. can we say blast from the past?! so fun. i grew up on those movies, so it brought me right back to being an eight year old girl watching them with my sister. we ate snacks all day and got lost in the world of prince edward island. it was pure bliss. so thankful for my girl friends!

bel
baby girl is changing *so* much. it's pretty unbelievable. she has her four front teeth, is eating chicken and toast and graham crackers, and loooooves people; mostly when they're giving her attention :) if she could tell me what her highlight was this week, i think she would say getting to see so much family. she spent the afternoon on saturday with her aunt jessica, uncle james and her favorite: her cousin wyatt :) then, she got to spend the night at her nonni and papa's saturday night, which she loves! and sunday she skyped with her grammie and grampy in maine, smiling, shrieking and kicking her feet with excitement! such a fun weekend for our little social butterfly.

there you have it, friends. this week's thursday three. so much to be thankful for.