Birthdays and Baby Showers

Saturday was my birthday, and the day started out wonderfully. Josh made me breakfast in bed, and he even washed all the dishes and put them away later in the day. What a guy! Then I got ready for my baby shower at my church. It was so much fun. The theme was fish, because I like Finding Nemo and becaues I called this kid fishy earlier in my pregnancy. The decorations were mostly blue. One, cause I'm having a boy, and two, because the ocean is blue, so it worked out great :). There were blue balloons, blue tablecloths, and even blue punch with vanilla ice cream floating on top. It was really good, by the way. But I also drank water, like a good pregnant lady is supposed to :). Oh, there were also splashes of orange in the decorations. Orange balloons, and orange goldfish crackers on each of the tables. I thought that was a cute idea. And you wanna know how creative they got? They put live goldfish in little bowls on each table! It was so cool!




The food was great. They ordered Subway sandwiches with toppings, and then people brought in side dishes, like fruit salad, pasta salad, veggie trays, chips, jello salad. Everything tasted so yummy. And they ordered a cake that was delicious too. They even bought me a pint of my favorite ice cream to eat with my piece of cake. Anyone know what my favorite is? Ok, I'll tell you, black raspberry. It's purple and perfect :)



The festivities began with prayer for the food, and then we got to eat. I got to go first-yay! Then while we were eating we played a game. There were 10 baby pictures of people in the church, and we had to match them with which person we thought it was. I didn't do so great, 6 out of 10. But it was fun. And when someone won the game, I got a little gift too, so that was fun. Then we played the next game. There were six sealed bags passed around, and we had to guess what baby item was in each one just by feeling it and shaking it, no peeking. I did bad on that too :(. But the good news is that I got to open them all and keep what was inside. Some of the items were bibs, pacifiers, Desitin, teether toy, stuff like that. Next on the agenda was our special speaker, my very own mother-in-law. She told me she was nervous, but it didn't show at all. She spoke about different types of bird's nests, like making your nest (marriage), filling your nest (babies), and leaving the nest (grandparenthood--is that a word?). Each stage is special in its own way, and she was saying that the last stage some people get sad about, but she's happy about it. Cause as a mother you are working at it full-time for years, so when the kids move out, you get to retire. Your job of raising children is done. And your reward? You get to enjoy grandbabies :). At the end she had me open a box, and it was full of Josh's baby things. There was his baby blanket, a couple outfits he wore, and even pictures of him wearing them. It was such a special gift, and I told Josh we'll have to dress our boy in his clothes and take a picture. Then I can compare my two men and see how much they looked alike at the same age :).

The next and last part of the shower was opening gifts. But first I needed a potty break. But after that, I got to sit in a rocking chair and read cards and open presents. I got cute clothes, many practical things from my registry, quite a few hand-made things, including a diaper stacker, a blanket, a quilt, and a quilt made by my baby's grandma. So this kid now has blankets made by his grandma and great-grandma. I think it's awesome. I opened a lot of bath items, which was great, cause that was something I didn't have a lot of, and we got baby wipes, our diaper pail, highchair, swing, nursing stool, and even some gift cards and checks. Oh, and two people made me diaper cakes--those were cool. I just can't believe everything fit into my car to bring home! Josh was excited to see everything, so we started to organize some things so he could see who got us what. I was so tired by the end of the day, but it was a fun day. For the most part my husband and I ignored the piles of baby things invading our space and chilled on the couch for a while.

The duck on top of the diaper cake has the cutest giggle when you press his foot-very adorable!


Isn't this bag cute? That's totally me, pregnant and eating ice cream :)


Here I am holding up some stroller toys in my right hand and some baby blocks in my left.


Yay for clothes! I needed more sleepers for this baby, and I got my wish.


The box with the baby swing in it is there on the left side of the picture. It's Baby Einstein brand, so it's very colorful. The unwrapped gift is the highchair.


This is the baby blanket my mom-in-law made. I love the colors she used.


And here's my family. My mom-in-law's in the middle with me, Hannah's on my left and Beka's on the other side of Mom.


These are the three fabulous ladies that made this day possible. They planned the day and put it all together. From the left, Janelle, Cathy, and Lisa. Thank you guys! I had a wonderful time!


Oh, I have to add this. These are the favors. Lisa spent hours and hours making these by hand. She had to cut out the paper, stamp on the decoration, fold and crimp it, fill them with mints, plus she hand-made the tags and tied them on as well. You know you're loved when somebody puts so much time into something for you. I think they turned out so beautiful.


Is everything organized and put in its place? Not yet, but I'm getting there. My mom-in-law offered to wash baby clothes and burp cloths and blankets for me, so I've got those in a bin ready to give to her. And I pulled out the clothes I already have and the new stuff to count how many onesies and sleepers I have and in what sizes, to see if I need to get anything else like that. Now I'm working on thank you notes, because I'd like to get those done before the baby comes. I feel like I'm working so slow on this stuff, but I have to remember that I am a lot slower at things because I need more breaks, and it's harder to get up from the floor, and I get tired easier. Plus when my pinched nerve bothers me, I need to try to relieve that, and when the swelling gets bad, I need to put my feet up. Sometimes I feel like all I'm good for is sitting on the couch, propping up my feet, and drinking water. It's gonna be so nice to be back to my normal self someday.