Easter Baby!

We had a great time celebrating Bailey's first Easter in Knoxville!

(photos by AK Vogel)

On our first day there, Scott and Mo were nice enough to watch Bailey while having mother/son bonding time:

Which meant that I could go and have some good bonding time with my mom!  First, we went Easter dress shopping for me, because I still can't quite fit into my cute dresses that would have worked  deserved to feel special on Easter too:

Then, we went to get pedicures and manicures (thanks mom and dad)!  It was so fun to just relax and hang out with my mom and get my nails done, and it will be even better when Bailey is old enough to join us.  We both got the gel/shellac type of manicure since it's supposed to last a super long time - but I've since heard from a couple of people that it may cause some issues with your nails when you want the polish to come off.  I'll keep you updated, but I have to say that I'm pretty impressed that my nails still look great now.  That's definitely a record for me, as I seem to always chip and/or smear my nails on the drive home from the nail salon, if I even make it that far:

 (3 days after the manicure! Amazing!)

Then, on Saturday morning, Scott, Bailey, and I had a photo shoot in the morning with the best photographer ever (which was when the above picture of Bailey in bunny ears was taken).  After that, Bailey had a fun playdate with some sweet Knoxville friends, Will Kizer and Anna Kate Petree:

 (I love this picture - Bailey looks so proper and girly and Will kinda looks like he's checking her out, ha!  Thanks Julie)



These cute babies had a lot of fun playing and I had a great time catching up with their moms.  Bailey had so much fun that when we were leaving, she gave Will one of her sweet open mouth kisses on the cheek, it was really cute (clearly I haven't taught her the never kiss on the first playdate rule).  I love the thought that Bailey, Will, and Anna Kate could be future members of the same high school class and group of friends just like their moms (and Will's dad).  I can't wait to move back to Knoxville and have more playdates with all the sweet babies there. 

On Saturday afternoon, Scott (a.k.a. the dog whisperer) started finding chores to do around my parents' house - poor guy has no projects or even lawn work to do since we're currently living in a cardboard box an apartment, so I think he loved getting to do some manly work:

Bailey got to hang out with her Mimi:

While Pops made some Easter eggs:

Then, on Saturday night, Mimi and Pops were so sweet to babysit while Scott and I went out and caught up with a group of my high school friends.  We had a great dinner at Pero's and enjoyed drinks on the patio.  While we may have stayed out past our bedtime, it was definitely worth every second and so fun to hang out!

On Easter Sunday, things didn't quite go as planned - because we had stayed out a little too late and didn't wake her up early enough kept Bailey's schedule on central time, she was still asleep at 8 a.m., and church started at 9 a.m.  (She slept SO well at my parents' house!  What the heck?)  So, by the time we got her up, fed, and dressed, and dressed ourselves, we were already 15 minutes late for church and didn't have time to get any family pictures of us all dressed up.  Then, while Bailey was wonderful and sweet and happy during church, she faded fast when we got out and fell asleep immediately on the way home, so we took off her Easter dress and put her down for a short nap.  By the time she was up, we'd all changed out of our church clothes.  Thankfully, Bailey, Scott, and I had worn our Easter clothes for part of our photo shoot on Saturday morning (in case you can't tell, I am SO excited about our pictures!), and so I'm quite certain that we'll have some excellent pictures of the three of us in them, but I'm kinda sad we didn't get any pictures actually ON Easter of us and Bailey with her grandparents while we were all dressed up.  Oh well, there's always next year.

After her nap, Bailey played with some of her Easter stuff:

And I overcompensated for my failure to get pictures of her in her Easter dress by taking a bunch of pictures of her with her great grandmother and grandparents in her casual outfit which we had to put on after she had a little "accident' on the cute bubble sweet Loucinda got her: 

Bailey and Mamaw (my dad's mom)

Bailey and Mo

Bailey and Pops

Bailey and Mimi

Bailey with Mimi and Pops (I wish this was a video - she kept smiling and laughing while jumping up and down in Mimi's arms.) 

I have honestly never seen Bailey as animated and excited as she was all day on Easter before we left Knoxville.  Maybe it was all the great sleep she was getting (seriously, what's up with that?), but I really think that she could sense that it was a special day, and I KNOW that she loved being the center of everyone's attention at my parents' house.  She was just SO happy - it was so much fun!

Happy girl with her dad!

Family picture! (obviously I should have kept my Easter dress on, as this one looks really tight awkward, and I probably should have showered done something with my hair - oops)

Bailey with the Easter Bunny cake made by Mo! 

(B definitely stuck her hand right into the bunny's ear right after this picture, it was classic)

 "He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay."  Matthew 28:6.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter weekend!