Busy, busy! So much to catch up on

We have been so incredibly busy the past few months, and so much to catch you up on!  Last time we caught up it was APRIL!  Fast forward a few months and we are in the thick of the summer.  So here's what's been going on...

We celebrated April birthdays at work with a traditional pizza party:

One of our favorite little guys, Reed, was thrilled with the balloons his momma took home to him..



what a fun snapchat :)

the balloons went everywhere to him... even into the bathtub!  adorable

And they even ate dinner with us while D & I were watching him

We threw Ashley/Jacob a baby shower.  Unfortunately, I didn't get many pictures, but here's a few

 

cute little diaper cakes on the tables - nautical theme to match the nursery :)

complete with a baby carriage fruit bowl

adorable cake pops shaped like sailboats

I made him a big personalized toy bucket

and a matching smaller one!  they went with the monster growth chart

And unfortunately that was all... I know, I'm a slacker.

Last year when I went to my favorite hairdresser for a trim, I decided about 5 minutes before the appointment that it would be a good idea to cut enough hair to donate.  Well, unfortunately, I was on the fence about how much hair I could spare, so I decided against it.  This time, you better believe I went into the appointment fully prepared.  I researched causes and found Pantene Beautiful Lengths uses the majority of the hair that's donated to them, and I only needed to have 8 inches to donate.  Why exactly did I want to donate?  First of all, it's only hair - it'll grow back.  If I don't enjoy short locks, then I could just wait a little bit and it would grow.  There are many people out there that need a wig because they are going through something terrible, and it's the least I could do.  Second, Robin's mama was the recipient of a wig she affectionately named "Suzie", and if I could help give someone their very own Suzie, then why not?  And the good news - I LOVE it!  I've literally never had short hair.  Ever.  My mom said the last time she can remember was when I was itty bitty and my hair was growing.  No joke.  The rule growing up was, your hair has to be able to fit in a pony tail.  Daniel wasn't sure about short hair, either.  Now, he loves it, too! 
Well, with no futher ado, here you go:

Before

Right before the big snip!

Yep, that's a long pony full of blonde locks!

After

Nine inches later

and off she goes!

The weekend after the shower, Annabeth graduated from Longwood!  She is the third Sink to call Longwood her alma mater.  Fortunately/Unfortunately (depending on who you are), Matthew has decided he does NOT want to call LU home.  He's looking more at VT, JMU, George Mason, etc. He's now a senior, so it's time to start getting serious for him!  Anywho, I digress, we had a fun time celebrating Annabeth as she finishes up college to become a teacher.

snapchats from the pretty graduate!

graduations = boredom = selfies

marching in!

Sink siblings

Annabeth and J <3

with the pretty grad!

 

Aunt/Uncle love all the way from PA

proud parents

We celebrated Annabeth all weekend, and even snuck in Mother's Day on Sunday.  The weekend after, Daniel attended Bobby's bachelor extravaganza in West Virginia.  Unfortunately, Kristen's bachelorette weekend conflicted with Annabeth's graduation, so I couldn't go :(  The boys did so many manly things - white water rafting, camping, ziplining, and smoked cigars and drank to their hearts content.

they had a blast!

We celebrated May birthdays at work with a fun "May Flowers" party.  It was complete with cute handmade flower spoons and make-your-own dirt cups!

 

dirt cups with all the fixin's

adorable spoons

Speaking of flowers... I woke up one morning and decided I was interested in container gardening.  Where the heck did that wild hair come from?  Anywho, I looked into it a little and realized it is really pricey to start-up.  So, I called upon a fellow gardener, my dad, and knew he had several containers just hanging around.  He let me have his stash that has been sitting unused for probably a decade.  I tried my best to clean them up, visited our favorite garden shop, and here's the pretty finished product!

 

neglected containers about to have new life breathed into them (a touch dramatic??)

Applying some Commet and a lot of scrubbing

our bounty from the garden shop

voila! front porch prettiness

back deck - elephant ears and sweet potato vine

pretty petunias

And since it's been almost two months post planting, I'm happy to report all of the plants are still alive and are growing, with the exception of my dahlias, who were murdered after an incident involving our house being powerwashed (RIP).

After we had some very busy weekends, it was nice to sit on our back deck, enjoy the nice weather (and flowers!), and consume some margs with my favorite person ever.

<3

After the sun had set, we discovered a POSSUM under our deck.  Seriously - check out that scary glare we caught on camera

Alright folks, that's it for now... there is so much more to update you on, so check back real soon!

Made From Love

Who doesn't love Pinterest?  I mean really, it's like every magazine you would ever want to read... all wrapped up into one place!  And instead of tearing out pages and keeping them, you can organize all of the good stuff into one place. 

Anyway... I had an idea that was birthed from something I saw on Pinterest.  A man had gotten a tattoo of his baby's heartbeat.  His baby had died of SIDS... so sad.  Now, I'm not one to get a tattoo, but I loved the idea of having that precious heartbeat as a keepsake.  So I had an idea to frame Baby Sink's heartbeat and give it to Daniel as a gift.  Read: secret mission.  I called the doctor, spoke to the sweetest nurse, who was able to track down our baby's heartbeat!  I was so excited, and told her I would pick it up at my scheduled appointment the following week.  The morning of the appointment, I couldn't wait to see what they had... and much to my dismay, they didn't have it.  In fact, the nurse told me they only save ultrasound information for 24 hours.  Queue tears & disappointment...  My doctor is amazing and said they would look into it, and that afternoon, they were able to track everything down!  She sent it to me via snail mail, and when it arrived, it was perfect.  Now remember.. this is a surprise to Daniel, so this roller coaster was done under wraps, and he probably thought I was just a nut job.  I found someone on etsy who does prints of heartbeats, and she so graciously and patiently worked with me to give Daniel the most perfect gift:

With a few beats of your heart, you changed our lives forever

Daniel loved it.  Really, really loved it.  To us, it is a reminder of the happiness this precious baby had given us.  At seven weeks we saw the heartbeat, and we were amazed.  At 12 weeks we heard the heartbeat, and we were on cloud 9.  We created a life with a beautiful beating heart.  We will treasure this forever - and will keep it in our room as a reminder that together we made a perfect human being that never felt pain, anger, or heartache and only experienced love.

April Funsies

We've had a fun & busy April!  We started out the month at Busch Gardens & celebrating Robin's birthday (updated in the last post).  The following weekend we spent lots of good family time in Pennsylvania with Daniel's family.  We spent lots of time outside - playing and catching up.  We did some shopping, ate lots of really good food, and visited with Franco and his girlfriend :)  We had a really great time.

Annabeth & Kinsey being silly

Daniel & I with our treasures Kinsey had us wearing - a necklace and flower pin

Lots of back porch sittin' with my favorite SIL

:)

Painting Kinsey's fingers... after she served us lots of "food" made from pinecones

Daniel & Nicholas playing hockey

We met Franco & Chrissy at Primanti Brothers.... such good food & enjoyed a long dinner with them!

My sandwich - corned beef.  All sandwiches come with coleslaw and french fries... take me back!

On the LONG car ride home from PA, Daniel received the happiest news - he was offered a promotion!  I'm so, so proud of him.  He has worked so hard since he's been with the government, and I'm thrilled he has something to show for it.

April 16 has always been a day I dread.  The weeks/days leading up to it are actually worse than the actual day.  But this year, it wasn't nearly as painful.  I took the day off, like usual, and went to the gym.  For the first time ever, I ran a 3.2 for 32!  I was determined to do that, ever since the first year they did a Rememberance Run.  I was so proud.  And as if that wasn't enough, I did an hour-long body pump class.  I went home and thought I was meeting Daniel for a quick lunch, but he surprised me with gorgeous flowers & came home to telework the rest of the day.  It was such a nice surprise!  And I ended up having a not-so bad day :)

Beautiful flowers

Ran my very own 3.2 for 32

We had a fabulous Easter weekend.  We kicked off the weekend grilling out at the Sink Household.  We had our families over to celebrate Daniel's promotion.  We grilled chicken, roasted potatoes and corn, fruit... and ended the evening with s'mores around the campfire!  I didn't snap any pictures, except for this gem:

Daniel celebrated with an entire bottle of champagne, so he spent Saturday morning on a serious recovery mission.  We spent the afternoon celebrating Easter with the Trevillians.

Sunday morning we woke up, watched Sunday Morning & drank coffee/tea (our favorite Sunday morning activity), and went to church.  Abby started out in the church nursery, and ended up coloring with us!  She did as good as a two year old can do in church :)  After everyone went home and changed out of church clothes, we enjoyed a nice Easter lunch/dinner in our newly completed dining room (read: chair slipcovers are FINALLY done... and beautiful), and we played outside.  The weather was gorgeous, and Abby was so cute hunting for Easter eggs and "codoring" with Guncle outside.  What a fabulous day!

coloring on the floor during church

me and my main squeeze... unintentionally matching

beautiful dining room - complete & all ready for Easter dinner!

Fails/Trevillians/Overstreets/Sink clan

Abby on an Easter egg hunt!

"Look, I know how to open them..."

Found one hidden in the Baby Sink tree!

"codoring"

best pals

she's unbelievably cute

So we had a cookout Friday... break Saturday... Easter dinner Sunday... break Monday... naturally, let's throw another party on Tuesday!  This year is Annabeth's golden birthday, meaning she turned 22 on the 22nd.  It was a big deal to her, so I made it my mission to celebrate like it's a big deal!  Ashley & I surprised her with a fun little dinner party... and the cherry on top was Jarrett surprising her, too!  She thought we were going to Don Jose (typical!  and her birthday is anything but typical), but we surprised her... mission accomplished :)

lemon cupcakes with lots of fun gold accents!  gold ribbon on the plate, gold cupcake wrappers, and gold toppers



Making good use of our dining room... complete with gold chargers, napkins in the shape of bows, and gold ribbon on the candles

Pasta bar!  Complete with two different pastas, grilled chicken, meatballs, marinara sauce, alfredo sauce, and cheese.  We also had salad, garlic bread, and desserts!

"Everything will be alright if we keep dancing like we're twenty-two" - Taylor Swift

Annabeth is just so sweet, and I hope that we made her feel as special as she really is.  She is always there for us - dropping everything and doing what we need/ask, especially with all that happened in December.  We love, love, love you to pieces, and are so appreciate of all you do!

Coming up: Ashley's baby shower, Annabeth's graduation, and weddings!

Birthdays & Busch Gardens

Today's blog update is brought to you by the letter B!  Since my last update, we've celebrated a few birthdays, enjoyed some beautiful weather, and played with Elmo at Busch Gardens.

Kelly turned 30!  Her birthday celebrations lasted all month long!  On her actual birthday, Derek treated us to dinner at Bonefish, which was yummy - per the usual.  A few weeks later we threw her a surprise night out (pictures below)... then after that, we enjoyed our traditional birthday meal complete with cake and presents.  We even had special guests - Tracey & Claire were visiting and joined us!  Turning 30 is a big deal, and I'm content not being there yet :)

We surprised Kelly in front of her house in the limo!  She was definitely surprised/shocked/excited!!  Surprises give me anxiety, so I'm glad it worked out.  We picked her up and headed to Yamato, a delicious & fun start to the night.

casusally sippin' some bubbly in the limo

hanging out in front of our ride for the night 

our fun japanese dinner

lady friends

 After stuffing our faces with sushi & hibachi food, we headed to Dave & Busters for some more drinks & fun


Kelly & Derek killing zombies.  Daniel is creeping in the background



Derek won the BIG jackpot!  See that teeny tiny green slot?  That's what he got and a gazillion tickets!

Sarah & Henry doing some motocross racin'



It was such a fun night with good friends, lots of alcohol, and even more laughing.  Happy 30th to my fabulous sister!

At our March Friends Game Night, we celebrated the March birthday kids.  We also grilled out, enjoyed the beautiful weather around a firepit, and played Jenga and Slap Cup.  Oh, and then the cops were called on us.... no big deal.  I mean really, it wasn't a big deal.  They received a noise complaint, showed up at the gate, and realized there were 12 almost-thirty-year-olds playing a game outside.  They immediately felt bad and left us alone.  If they were off duty, I'm sure they would have wanted to hang out with us.

March Birthday Kids

 Speaking of March birthdays... Facebook (thankfully) reminded me of this important birthday:

We celebrated with his family at Don Pepe (where else??).  It was a casual week-night, nothing fancy.  And he received the CUTEST birthday wish ever...

Happy Birthday, Guncle!

 We did some more grillin' and gamin' with some good friends, and the only picture I snapped was this gem...

Katie in her smoking chair acting like a grandpa

 Last weekend we spent the day at Busch Gardens.  The weather was PERFECT, and we enjoyed some good quality time with family :)  Abby LOVED Elmo and asked for him over and over and over

Quality time on Mach Tower

there we go.... [insert anxiety]

Abby rode her first ride all by herself!  She got off the baby swings and wanted on the big-kid swings.... Kelly's in for a real treat :)

A very tired Abby enjoyed watching Elmo party rockin'

We left Busch Gardens and celebrated Robin's birthday.  I don't have any pictures, but we went to Riptides and enjoyed really good seafood/margaritas and even better company.  I hope Robin had a fabulous day - she deserves every single bit of happiness on her special day (well, and every day).

Last week, we finished up everything for the Anencephaly study at Duke University.  We had a 45-minute interview with the genetic counselor, Heidi.  She's so sweet, and made the whole process easy.  I feel a little bit more peace knowing that we have potentially helped others in the future.  My hope is that people who want to be moms & dads in the future won't have to live this nightmare.  High hopes, I know, but I wouldn't wish this pain on anyone.  So I feel good knowing we did all that we could.  Maybe we are one piece of the huge, confusing puzzle.

Now, it's time to start closing some of the grief doors and open some of the doors of possibilites.  We have started thinking about trying for our rainbow baby - a baby after a loss.  Because you know, there is always a rainbow after a storm.  Maybe in a few more months, we will feel like we are at a good spot - mentally & physically, and will be able to enjoy a happy, healthy, & uneventful 9 months.

I'm currently blogging from Greensburg, PA!  We are spending the weekend with Daniel's family playing games, eating good food, and making memories.  We are supposed to have gorgeous weather (when we normally come, it's snowing).  Daniel & I are going out to meet Franco & his girlfriend, Chrissy, tomorrow.  I'm excited - we haven't seen Franco in a while, and I've never met Chrissy.  I'll try to remember to snap a few pictures! 

Our weekends are booked from now until the end of June... Easter, more birthdays, baby showers, a college graduation, and several weddings!  We top it all off to a trip to Corolla, NC with the Sink clan.  I can't wait for the sun, sand, and a week full of fun :)

xoxo