Our Cute, Happy Little Guy!

Life continues to move forward as it should-- relatively quiet and steady. Until summer finally arrives to shake things up, it's the up and down moments of daily life that bring us our stress and happiness. Some of our ups: Dustin has found a great summer job as a community college teacher for Anatomy! The schedule is minimal hours and the salary is fabulous. We feel blessed! I am 34 weeks along, which leaves "only" 6 weeks left. There's a light at the end of the pregnancy tunnel! We also recently bought a great piano and just got it tuned! We love it!

Our greatest and consistent "up" is our cute, happy little guy. Benjamin brings us so much joy every day. He is so helpful and cheerful. He loves Elmo, cars, babies, playing outside, music and dancing (especially to Gipsy Kings), wrestling with Daddy, reading stories with Mommy, being silly (like stuffing all sorts of everything into his Little Tykes car and riding around-- see pic), carrots and ranch dressing (ok, anything with ranch dressing), playing the piano, reading his books and all the magazines he can find, singing "I am a Child of God" and "ABCs", watching Sesame Street and Curious George, crayons and coloring, bubble baths, animals, and being a helper--- which, for a two-year-old, he is really amazing at! He always puts away his toys at the end of the day, loves to unload and load the dishwasher, and he seems to live for when we go grocery shopping so he can bring in bags of groceries and then put them all away. We are confident he will be a wonderful older brother.

My favorite moments with Benjamin, though, are those sweet times when he just feels so happy that he comes and gives me a big hug and kiss, just because. His smile, chatter, laugh, and love help me let go of those little toils in life and feel so full of joy and gratitude. I can only imagine the addition of happiness that will come to us with our new baby. So, amidst Dustin's seemingly endless studying and the general "fun" of late pregnancy, we are so grateful for our constant reminder of our tremendous blessings--- our wonderful, adorable, happy little guy!

Celebrating Easter

Decorating Eggs

This year we actually did dye Easter eggs, but instead of the typical dip-dye we had this neat set where you can sponge the dye on the eggs. It made it a lot easier and more interesting for Benjamin. He took his egg decorating very seriously, but then, I've learned the concentration face really means he is enjoying himself thoroughly!

Higgins & Lucas Family Easter Egg Hunt and Mesa Temple Easter Pageant

On Saturday, Dustin's parents and siblings and their families and his Lucas cousins and their families had the traditional Easter picnic and Easter egg hunt. We all brought a dozen plastic pre-filled eggs for each of our kids and then Aunt Pam and the teens "hid" them (mostly setting them on the grass or near bushes so the little kids could collect eggs more than hunt them). Benjamin had a blast discovering eggs and putting them in his bucket. He would get all excited each time he saw one and yell happily, "Egg! Egg! Egg!" The pics include him egg hunting with his pregnant mommy. :) One of my favorite moments of the Easter picnic was before all the egg excitement when he and his cousin Ellie (about his same age) held hands and seemed to enjoy conversing with each other. So cute!!!

Later that night, after Dustin and I did a temple session, we joined our friends, Sabrina and Kenny Guillen, for the Easter Pageant. It was a sweet experience. It was wonderful to really set the Easter mood and remind us what a special and important holiday it is.

Easter Day

On Easter day, the "Easter Bunny" had filled Easter baskets with treats for us and, after Church and a birthday celebration for me (Dustin made an amazing dinner and dessert for me... what a guy!), we had a family Easter devotional, which was pretty special as we taught Benjamin the Easter message, watched the "Jesus movie" Finding Faith in Christ and bore testimony of our Savior's love and mission. It was a very appropriate and sweet close to our Easter weekend.

Our First Post

Well, due to Susan's encouragment and the success stories I've heard, we finally have created a blog! This is our first post, so please forgive my inexperience! Life is good. Benjamin gets smarter and cuter everyday, Dustin studies day and night for med school, and I'm 34 weeks pregnant and very anxious for April and May to zoom by so we can meet our new little boy!
We'll say that's it for now. ~Melinda