Baby Showers X 2

This was a long exhausting but super fun and exciting day!  I had 2 baby showers, one thrown by the Whipple's and one by the Winn's.  It was so fun to see so many people I love but rarely get to see and it was so fun to have such support from friends.  By the end of the day I waddled to my bed, Ray helped me in (in all fairness it is a REALLY tall bed!), and Ray rubbed my back while I passed out.  Before heading to bed he even sat down with me in the sunroom and looked at EVERY single thing we got, and even acted excited too!  He even helped me fold all the tissue paper up.  He is such a good man!

First up was the Whipple shower at Brenda's house.  They had lots of really cute decorations and yummy food! We played a couple of fun games, Melissa made a matching game with clever candy bar prizes (ex. Contractions= Whopper's, Baby Giggles= Snickers, College Fund= 1000 grand). Then we played a memory game where we had to name all that we could off of the clothesline after she took it down, my memory is not so great lately so I didn't even come close!  They were really fun and she did great planning them.  The memory game board was cardboard wrapped in a fleece blanket which she tied for me, which was pretty clever and cute! I got tons of cute outfits, blankets, toys, swing/bouncer duo and all the sisters got me the highchair I wanted so I was pretty excited for that!

My mom, Lexi, Jess & Briele were very supportive as usual and they even came to enjoy the party.

Next up we partied at Jess' house!  She did such a cute job decorating! I am a sucker for giant ceiling decor!  My mom made really cute favors that were chocolate covered raisins and peanuts that said "Pregnancy is not easy, so here's the scoop...Nicole gets the baby and you get the poop! Thanks for sharing our special day!  Nicole & Katelyn".  They served yummy sandwiches, veggie tray, and my favorite...brownie sundaes!  Jess found a recipe that you make in the waffle maker, they were cooked as you came so they were nice and warm and topped with delicious treats!!  Yum!  I was so excited at how many friends came to show their love and support!  Friends from my ward (Michelle and Jamie), friends from Alpine (Leslie, Kellie, Jill, Lindsey, Dacia, Ashley, Julie and Brittney) and tons of others and family!!    I feel very loved!  Again I got incredibly spoiled with lots of cute outfits, diapers, wipes, blankets, bath/lotion products, binkies, swimsuits and sandals, bath towels/washclothes, bathtub and toys, burp clothes and bibs, toys, etc.  The biggest surprise gift was from my family, they got us a crib and mattress!! I was in total shock!  Due to tight finances I had talked to Jess telling her I was going to borrow a crib but was torn because of course you want to have your own and pick out the color, style, etc. So Jess was super sneaky and got the exact crib that I wanted!  I am so excited!  

I had some very excited girls helping me open presents, although I did not go nearly fast enough for them! They were so cute though and everything that got opened they would say "Oh, that is so cute, Baby Kate will love it!"  They are right, she will love it all!

After the baby shower the men folk came over (so grateful to them for being at my house and working on the basement! It helped so much!) and we had dinner to celebrate Cody's birthday.  I made a book for Lexi to give to her dad with lots of pictures of the two of them.  I asked Lexi a bunch of questions about herself and then her dad and then what her and dad do together, I put all of her responses in the back of the book. It was pretty cute and it was fun to see how excited she was to give it to him!

I had only taken the prius to Jess' house and boy did all the gifts fill it to the brim!  Once added to the gifts from the Whipple shower the sunroom was overtaken!  It was really fun to go through everything again, I can't wait for this baby to get here and we actually use the stuff!  

I am so blessed to have such an amazing family, they put so much effort and time into these showers and they turned out great! Thank you, thank you! 

Roofin' in Garland...

We spent the weekend up in Garland at my mom's house to put a new roof on.  We haven't been able to get away and try out the new trailer so we decided to take it with us and camp in the front yard, redneck we know, but it was really fun!  The bed is actually pretty comfortable, the furnace works great, the water tanks/toilet/faucets all work fabulously, and we love it!  It may not be the prettiest but it is ours!  I learned after one trip onto the roof that at nearly 8 months pregnant I don't handle up and down ladders very well, so I spent my time below with these crazy kids.  They are so ENERGETIC!  We had so much fun! We painted pumpkins, partied our hearts out, danced a ton, played "school" (Madi's new favorite game since starting school this year), ate delicious food (THANKS TO MY MOM!!), had a great weekend and were able to get the roof done in 2.5 days!!  The men in my life are awesome!  They are such hard workers and do so great!

The girls were quite funny when painting, they were very particular about what colors, stroke and placement of each! Even Briele was quite "professional" about it!

Tanner Blessing/ Halli Birthday!

We had a great Sunday celebration.  First off Tan-Man got blessed.  He is still just a tiny little guy and so CUTE!  He has VERY red hair, I love it!  Jodi just told me today that he is now 10 lbs and in the 1.8% at just over 2 months!!  Yeah he is just tiny but he is trying!

At a dual dinner celebration we partied with Miss Halli for her birthday!  She turned 4!!  Holy cow!  She wanted a Minnie Cake with strawberries, I asked her is she meant Strawberry Shortcake and she looked at me like I was slow...she said "No, strawberries, like the red ones".  So that is what she got!  I think her cake turned out pretty cute and her party was pretty exciting! There were lots of crazy hyper little girls running around!  She got lots of fun presents and was so EXCITED to finally be 4, she has been waiting all year for it! When it came time however to blow out the candles she was very shy and needed a little help from her dad!  

The night before Steve tried explaining to Halli that she wasn't going to wake up and be lots taller and bigger but the next morning she woke up, stood up really tall, and said "LOOK HOW BIG I AM CAUSE I AM 4!'  She is hilarious!  She is so sweet and is always willing to give loves, she loves to dance, go to school and be with whoever wants to play.  I love when she calls me to "just see how its going"!  Hall-Bug, you rock!!

Jeni's Bridal Shower

I volunteered to throw a bridal shower for my cute cousin Jeni who is marrying Andrew.  I think the decorations turned out way cute and kind of fun, I did the table in her wedding colors.  She seemed to have lots of fun and got some really cool gifts.  I got to snack on some really yummy food so it was all good!

Domestic Me...

I am quite proud of myself.  I canned potatoes.  For the first time ever.  By myself.  And I lived.  It wasn't actually very hard.  Just takes alot of time.  I also made a HUGE batch of Baked Potato Soup and froze numerous bags for future use.  Jessica and I even froze a 50 lb bag of potatoes into fries, scalloped potatoes and hashbrowns.  We loved it so much that we are going to do another 50 lb bag.  That will be 150 lbs of preserved potatoes and 50 lbs in the cold storage for future use.  I would say that I have supported our wards scouts (in truth I only did it because it is my husband selling them, which means me also, and I still have 25 bags sitting in my living room).  Very excited and strangely domestic.

Maturo's/Family Dinner

We had a very busy Sunday but one we definitely enjoyed.  I had worked the NOC shift so I grabbed a quick 3 hour nap while Raymond attended church meetings then we headed down to Salt Lake.  We met up with some AMAZING people whom we see far to little of.  Roxanna & Mike Maturo, who are from Glendora CA.  Raymond met these 2 while on his mission, baptized them, returned after his mission to see them sealed in the temple and together we have visited them in California on a couple occasions.  They are the type of people that you LOVE to be around, time just flies by because you are having so much fun talking to them.  Once you leave them you feel so happy and at ease, grateful that you could spend time with them.  They were in town for the weekend with friends and met up with us for lunch.  We went to Z'Tejas and it was delicious!  We grabbed a Rocky Mountain Apple afterwards and parted ways.  I could kick myself for not getting a picture of them but they will be coming out for Baby Girl's blessing so we will definitely get one then!

We headed to Morgan for dinner that night with the family to celebrate Jodi's birthday!  The entire group was there and we had a blast!  These kids are CRAZY and LOUD and PLAYFUL and ENERGETIC!  Most of the pictures we tried to get were blurry because they could not hold still for a second!  These are the best we got! Tanner is starting to smile and he happens to think I am hilarious, unless I have my camera on!  It was such a fun night, I don't see these guys nearly enough these days!

Learn To Sew...

You know how when you try and try and try to do something for years with no success you kind of just apply that to every aspect of your life.  Then when that one thing happens it is like the world is full of new possibilities.  Pregnancy is just that for me.  It was something that was unreachable and then completely disastrous once it was achieved. Not this time though.  Things are going great, baby girl is growing and getting stronger each day.  I feel great (other than some pretty typical complaints). And now, I can move mountains.  Or so I think.  I haven't "crafted" in years and now I spend a good chunk of each day working on some "project".  All of which are for le bebe and I am certain once they come together they should be great.  They would however be disastrous if I did not have a team of "do-ers"!

My mom, Jessica and Leslie are AWESOME!  They spent a day with me sewing a bumper set and crib skirt which look fabulous and my mom is making an awesome blanket for baby girl as well!  Leslie and Jess did most all the sewing, I was the runner for when we ran out of stuff, manned the ribbon, ordered the lunch...real important stuff, right! I have so many more projects going on and things I want to do so it was great to have helpers who knew what to do!  Briele was even a good helper...she kept us entertained!  

Fun...

Kinda random but...

1. We went to Dickey's which we love and now have it conveniently located a short jaunt away.  They have delicious BBQ and free soft serve ice cream and free giant pickles.  Really how much better does it get.  They are great, really! See how excited he is!

2. I went to pick out some yarn with my mom and sweet Briele. She is hilarious!  She was grabbing as many as she possibly could and started throwing them into the cart, she was a little bummed when we didn't buy them all!  I also stopped by her house and she proceeded to treat my car like a giant jungle gym and kept saying "bye" and kept trying to buckle her seat-belt so we could go "bye-bye"! Then she would thrust her fist into the air and say "Go"! She is so fun! 

Progress...

Raymond is amazing.  He works so hard all day and then he comes home and keeps it going.  Me and Baby Girl are very lucky to have him in our lives, he is doing everything he can to make things comfortable and ready for her debut. There are still alot of man hours needed on the basement but he has (almost) single handed-ly torn apart our basement, built walls, wired all new lighting, installed duct work to vent the entire basement, insulated and he has now started sheet rocking!  He is amazing!

Mini Cheer...

My mom and I headed to Morgan to go to Halli's dance class.  It was her first tap class and she did awesome! She is lucky to have Madi ahead of her because she already knew how to do all the moves and skips and got to be line leader, she was so excited!  We hung out with Baby Tanner for a bit then went to a football game in which Madi performed the cheers she learned at Mini-Cheer.  She is such a nut and was yawning out on the field just chilling but she did a great job at her cheers! It was fun to watch both the girlies dancing it up!

Ray's New Toy...

Raymond has wanted a trailer forever and ever...and now he has one...it isn't the most beautiful thing but we LOVE it! It was a screaming deal and will be perfect for us for the next couple years!  We have lots of hopes and dreams of remodeling it (because our house isn't enough of a remodel) but we will see about that, life is super busy and is only bound to get busier!  Raymond is very happy to have it, although he has had no time to poke around it but I am happy that he is happy!

State Fair 2012

We love the state fair or more correctly, fairs in general!  It might make us trashy but we don't care!  One of my favorite treats in the world are roasted almonds and the fair and Christmas are the only times of year I get them, so I indulge myself! We headed down to hang out with my dad, Steve & Jodi and their adorable kids.  Madi and Halli were so much fun as usual!  Tanner is just awesome, he has the cutest little mohawk!  As we were leaving my dad wanted some kettle corn and Raymond thought it was a GREAT idea!  My dad got a lot of popcorn but Raymond, of course, wanted so much more! He got the M.O.A.B (Mother of All Bags)! After he laid in bed and ate it for nearly an hour, without making a dent, he realized he probably didn't need that big of a bag!  Oh well, it was fun!

10 Year Reunion!

We were able to attend Raymond's 10 year high school reunion!  Man, we feel old! It was fun to hang out with some of his friends I knew and to meet new ones.  We toured the new and completely different high school which reminds us so much of High School Musical--the movie!  Raymond is such a great guy and it was fun to meet others that knew that about him long before I came around.

We had so much fun with Clint & Tiffany!  We always like hanging out with them! We grabbed a couple cartons of ice cream, tried to drop in on Dallin & Darla but they were unavailable so we returned to our house to hang out and indulge ourselves with a delicious sweet treat!  We are very sad these guys are moving to Sandpoint, ID which happens to be 12-ish hours ago!  On the up side, we have always wanted to go there so it should be fun!

Before the reunion we hit up peach days for a minute, had some delicious cobbler, bought some adorable hair bows for baby girl and our always favorite seasoning, Wild Bill's Garlic Pepper!

The Baby Moves...

We got home from camping in good time so I cleaned up the house, Raymond mowed & edged the lawn, and then we snuggled up to watch a movie.  We decided we are going to only watch movies that are un-opened and this is the stack we ended up with!  We were surprised especially since there are still several opened movies that we have never seen before!

Raymond has felt the baby moving for a couple weeks now and I feel her getting stronger everyday but as we were laying there watching a movie the funniest thing happened...

Raymond had his hand on my stomach and she gave a GREAT BIG KICK!  He hadn't felt her that strong before and it scared him so bad!  He jumped clear up, rolled over, was squirming and squeaming and "wigging out" as he puts it!  It was hilarious! He just kept saying "I have felt her before but not like that, that was weird!", "I don't want to be a bad parent or anything but that was just freaky!"

I admit,dear Raymond, feeling a baby move inside of you is quite amazing but different and kinda creepy at the same time!  So excited for our baby girl!

Labor Day Camping...

Due to work schedules we were only able to spend one night camping but we still had a blast! As usual they little girls were the life of the party and kept us on our toes!

Briele kept kicking her feet up to relax while reading maps, coloring, etc.  She LOVES to go on razr/4-wheeler rides and screams "RIDE!" whenever she wants to go out and whenever you stop she will yell "GO!" while thrusting her fist in the air!  It is hilarious!

We rode over to a lake and had a picnic, it was so pretty!  The girls loved throwing rocks into the lake!

Lexi never stops!  From the moment she opens her eyes she is running, jumping, dancing, singing, talking, and exploring!  She is so fun to be around!  Her big accomplishment this trip was she learned to drive the 4-wheeler all by herself!  She was so excited!  She promised me that she "won't be a crazy driver, ya know!"

We spent the least amount of time there and I was the dirtiest by far.  No matter what I do, I'm a magnet for dirt every time!

There was a river we got to cross and romp through.  Raymond was nervous with me on the 4-wheeler so we just sat in the river and watched everyone else romp around.  It was fun to watch them all and we stayed dry!

My mom & Dayne...they succeeded in making the largest splash!

Briele loved going through the water but also loved watching everyone else make giant splashes!

My dad was romping everywhere not just in the water!  Cody and Lexi made a pretty big splash and she was so proud to do it all on her own!  She also loved that her dad let her push the gas ALL THE WAY DOWN, whereas normally she is reminded to only push it a little!!

While we were up there we were able to see a few moose and dear which was fun and it was beautiful and not too chilly!  It has rained on them for the first several days so we were glad we got there just in time for good weather!