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.

Baby P's bedding and wall colors

Many friends and family have been asking what our colors or theme of the nursery are going to be. Well, we finally know! A family friend (the same lady that makes the hooter hiders) has graciously taken on the job of making our bedding. This is the best picture I could find, although we are using only 3 of the 8 fabrics in this picture. The 3rd one down is called Alexander Henry Briquetage Torquoise which will be the inside of his bumper pad. The 5th one down is called Michael Miller Zoology Brown and will be the outside of his bumper pad and we are also going to have two pockets on the inside of his bumper pad and this print will be on the inside of the pockets. The 7th one down is Alexander Henry Anjou Stripes and will be his bed skirt. Russ and picked the wall colors: a light blue above the chair rail and taupe below. We also got our furniture a few days ago which is an espresso color. The furniture is still in the boxes in the garage until we get the room painted. We are excited to be making progress!