It's raining baby showers!

This last weekend we had 2 more baby showers. Saturday was my girlfriend's shower and Sunday was a joint shower with my sister with my mom's nursing school friends.

Saturday's shower was at my dear friend Kelly Morgester's house. Of course the decorations were so cute and the spread of food AMAZING! Kelly got these delicious little cakes that had champagne in them from a place called 3 women and a bakery. They were so good, I had to have a couple of them. :) Kelly and her mom Lynn just breathe creativity. Kelly made a really cute sign and some puffy blue decorations were hanging from her ceiling over the food table. Over the mantle was a clothes line of a bunch of onsies her and her mom made. I think my favorite was the tie onsie! There was a great turn out of friends.... mostly Gracelanders. It was great seeing everyone and celebrating the upcoming arrival of Baby P! We played a couple of games...... filling in the blanks on nursery rhymes and a funny relay race. The stations included diapering a baby blind folded, matching up the socks, guessing the baby foods, and who could drink from the baby bottle the fastest. Kelly always made me the winner of the games and gave me a couple of cute little gifts. The first was some sticker tags that can go in Baby P's books that say, "This belongs to________." She took the animals from our bedding and put a different one on each sticker. She also made us Babysitter sheets that would give the babysitter our cell phones, emergency contacts, feeding schedule, etc. I'm telling you guys, this girl is talented! We got a picture of me, Rebecca, and Kelly. Kelly was the lovely hostess and is expecting Little Mo on Thanksgiving Day. They are also keeping their name a secret. We didn't get Beth in the pic who is expecting her 2nd daughter just a little over a week after my sis and I. I told you, there are tons of pregnant friends!

Sunday's shower was at Cheryl's house, our mom's best friend. All of these women have been friends since they went to nursing school over 40 years ago. They always have such a great time when they are together. This shower was a joint one for Baby P and cousin Sam. We got so many great things including some BEAUTIFUL quilts that my mother-in-law is making both of us. She used the same fabric from our bumper pad. She bought one of the sheets from Sam's bedding set in order to match his room. They are still in progress but I have included a sneak peak pic. My dad couldn't stand missing out on the fun so joined the shower. I think he was jealous that Rebecca and I had "Expectant Mother" crowns so he made himself a "Grandpa" crown. Here is a picture of my sister and I at the end of our 32 week, soon to enter our 33rd week.

It was a great weekend filled with so many generous gifts, delicious foods, and more importantly great time spent with such wonderful friends and family.

32weeks and Busy, Busy

Things are finally slowing down on the house renovations and both rental houses are on the market. Both have had several showings but no offers so far. It's hard to be patient but in reality they have only been on the market for 2 weeks. I'm enclosing some pics of the Waldo house. If anyone is interested in a Waldo or Indep house for sale, send them our way! My dad was nice enough to come over and mow the lawn at the Waldo house today. I decided I should be productive too so I de-weeded and swept the sidewalk areas out front. Thanks Dad P for your help!

We've also been busy with weddings and wedding and baby showers. This pic of me is at the end of our 31st week of pregnancy. This was the day a good family friend got married and then we headed off to Max and Liliana's wedding shower. Had to get a pic since I was dressed up! I've also attended cousin Sam's baby shower and Shelley's shower for Oliver and Lucy. It's been fun sharing in all of these exciting times with friends and family.

We have completed 2 weeks of our child birthing class. Russ and I sure do giggle a lot! I thought Russ looked a little queasy when they showed the video of the live birth. Hopefully he will be fine on Baby P's big day! Russ got to practice giving me back massages at the last class. Can't say I hated that too much!

Mr. Baby P's room is really coming together. We have all of our furniture, walls painted and our bedding is almost done. We got to see a sneak peak of it last weekend and it is so cute! Once we have that, I will post some pictures. We have a couple of projects in the making for some wall decorations. Guess I won't be able to unveil the one project since we are keeping his name a secret! :) Sorry!

Is it too early to nest? I think I've been doing it. One day I told Russ we needed to organize the baby's room. We spent an hour in there and all I did was look at things and scoot them around. Absolutely nothing accomplished! Russ probably thinks I'm crazy but I made a to-do-list the other day and even categorized them by priority. I am beginning to feel like this little dude is going to be here before we know it!

Welcome Baby Madison (lots of new posts below)

Russ's cousin Madison was welcomed into this world on Friday shortly before my work baby shower. Mom and baby are doing fabulous! I forgot her exact stats but I know she weighed 6ish lbs and was 18ish inches long. We made it up to the hospital today for a quick visit. She is SUPER cute and has a perfect little, round head. Here is the future daddy Russ getting in some practice. So, Madison will be first cousins, once removed with our baby boy. We are excited for our kiddos to grow up together. I couldn't get enough of her, she was just perfect! We are so excited for Lynda and Gary, congrats on your new bundle of joy!

Painting Party.... hardly!

We have been working feverishly (well more Russ than me) on getting our rental houses ready to go on the market. Yep, we are going to try and sell these bad boys. We had a "painting party" on Saturday to get our Independence interior re-painted. I told Russ I HATE it when people call it that. It's not fun. When we sent out an email asking people to help, Russ made a joke about there being a pinata. Our old neighbors Max and Lilo gave us one a joke so we brought it along. I told my dad he won first swing for being the first helper to show up but then lost his privilege when we was a bad boy for painting on areas that had not been taped yet. We actually never even got the pinata out. Russ and I worked for over 12 hours. Everyone who showed up was much appreciated and very helpful but we have to give a HUGE thank you to Carolyn, Mark and Sue who stayed till about 10pm that night. We couldn't have done it without the help! So, if you know of anyone needing or wanting a house, we know of 2 going on the market really soon.

Work Baby Shower

This last Friday my co-workers and good friends, Amanda, Mindy, and Tahisha threw me and Baby P a baby shower at PF Changs. It was so much fun! These girls were like a well-oiled baby shower planning machine. They were so cute and kept high fiving each other every time something went well. There was a great turn out of current and a few past co-workers. I really appreciated everyone being there but especially those who were headed into work that night. I know it's a sacrifice to do that! The party planning girls made super cute little rice krispy treat baby rattles. They even made a letter P with the extra treats. The food was super yummy and the cake DELICIOUS! Yes, me who never liked deserts CANNOT get enough of them right now. They got an ice cream cake with birthday cake flavored ice cream and red velvet flavored cake. Yum. Thank god I passed my glucose tolerance test! :)

We had to get a group shot of the pregnant co-workers. Tiff is expecting at the end of August with her 2nd child, a baby girl. Shelly is due a couple of weeks after us with twins, Oliver and Lucy. Kyla is expecting her first, Baby Austin around Thanksgiving. I realized we didn't get Elizabeth in the photo who is also expecting her first. Crazy, so many pregnant people!

There were a couple young attendants at the shower, Tony almost 8 months and Evan almost 4 months. Evan was sporting a really cute little hat.

I was really glad that my sister-in-law Carolyn was able to come join in the fun. She decided to come to this shower since she will be headed off to Rolla to start her trek to become an engineer in August. Good luck Carolyn!

We got so many great gifts.... cloths, shoes, sunglasses, a hand crafted photo book, bath and nursing necessities, books and toys, our high chair seat, pack-n-play, and penguin humidifier. I'm sure there were more wonderful things so I don't mean to leave anything out. We are so appreciative of every one's generosity. I feel so blessed to work with such a great group of people! Thank you!

PG friends

I think I have mentioned that we have a TON of friends and family member's pregnant as well and it has been alot of fun sharing in this journey with them. My good friend Kelly is expecting their first baby girl on Thanksgiving day. Its been fun shopping and dreaming up their nurseries together. She is my super creative friend that makes all of our invites and thank you cards. Here we are a few weeks ago after going out to eat for her husband John's birthday. The future daddies didn't want to be left out of the picture taking. Who do you think is winning the "most pregnant" one here?? :) We can't wait for our babies to grow up together and for us all to get to enter this next phase of life.