Jumping Hot Chocolate Rain

Last weekend, my nephews Conner (7), Micah (4) and, Joey (2) came over to spend the night. They have been asking to do this for a while and it's taken some holding-the-tongue-right to get our schedules lined up.

Rachel brought the boys over after they ate dinner on Friday. They were really excited - or so it seemed. I usually have some toys here for them to play with from my home health job. I have this great game that I haven't used yet because I don't have any kids appropriate for it yet. Sooooo - I decided to let my nephews try it out. They loved it! It was so much fun to watch them play. It's just a little battery unit that spins to bars around for the players to jump over. If someone touches a bar, it buzzes and that player is out. We played and played and played this. Here are a few of the really cool pictures:

Then they big boys played the Wii for a while with Uncle Chris and Joey and I went outside and caught lightening bugs and played baseball with a ping pong paddle. It was fun!

They chose to watch Scooby Doo (some movie about Big Foot in Mexico) from our Netflix. They got all cozied in together and went to sleep in a flash as soon as it was over at about 10:00 - I know. Why would I keep them up so late? So they would fall asleep easily!! :) Joey woke up kind of scared about about 6:00 and watched cartoons with Chris and I until he fell asleep again around 7:00. The big boys just woke up on their own and started coloring. This is how I found them:

Joey just kept sleeping... He slept until 9:30 when we had to wake him up!

While Joey was sleeping, Conner and Micah made chocolate with our new coffee maker and were pretty excited about it!

Then they went outside and sat in the rocking chairs with Uncle Chris who was drinking coffee. They were really excited about putting a few marshmallows in their hot chocolate, too. Then it was eat breakfast (cinnamon rolls), get dressed, and go home!! Thanks for coming boys! I had so much fun!!

The Church Shower

And....Another Shower!! (on September 19th)

The sweet gals I go to church with are baby shower planning pros. They can put together a lovely shower for a lovely low price. We always have so many people volunteer to hostess, so the cost split 7-9 ways is always negligible. It's great. I love helping hostess baby showers with them.

Well, it was finally my turn to have a shower! They asked me to pick a date for it sometime back in the first trimester. September 19th. It seemed like an eternity away. But, August came and went, my Wichita Falls shower came and went, and then I got to have my church shower. I was really excited.

My mom, sisters, and Kelley (the hopefully-future-sister-in-law) AND my mother-in-law were able to come and my best lifelong friend, Ashley, was there. That made it wonderful - PLUS so many sweet ladies from our congregation came with generous gifts for Chris, Griffin, and me. There are some pictures below of all the goods we came home with. I can hardly wait to go through it all.... It makes me consider playing hooky from work for a day to "nest."

The shower was sports themed and we had cute pictures of my really cute husband playing soccer and baseball when he was a little oby. The my sweet friend, Sarah, called my mom and had my mom send her some pictures ofme playing sports when I was little - oh how embarrassing!! It definitely got passed around the shower. Thanks, Sarah! She wanted to frame the pictues for me to use in the nursery, which was really sweet and I'll probably still do that.

Enjoy the pictures!

Surprise, surprise Saturday!!

I had a great weekend. I am just completely humbled by the love and generosity my friends and family have for this new baby!

My mom invited my sisters and I and our hopefully-future-sister-in-law Kelley to come to lunch and get pedicures a few weeks ago. Ummm, yes!! I had planned to got to Glen Rose, hang out with the fam, and then stop by my family friends' home, the Moody's. See Ashley, my childhood friend, started a new job this week so I sent her a text to see how it was going on Wednesday. She told me she was gonna be in GR on Saturday and we could talk then if I was gonna be around. What a coincidence! I was going to GR for a pedicure and lunch with "the girls" of my family. Of course I would stop by and chat on my way back home!


So Saturday came - I went to GR and met "the girls." We got pedicures and ate lunch.

BUT - just before we went to lunch, Ashley sent me a text asked me and my family to stop by at 1:15. What? That's weird. She knows I was going to lunch with my family.... So I sent her a text telling her I would have to check with everyone. I was planning to just go by on my own after I was finished hanging out with them, but I would ask. So I sent the text, then I asked everyone if they wanted to go. "Sure!" they said. They hadn't seen Ashley in a while or her baby and we were in town anyway, so we should just go....
So I sent Ashley another text that we would be there after lunch - was that okay? She said sure! So we took our sweet time eating that lovely lunch. We all got something different and shared our meals. It was so fun. You should read Rachel's blog about poor Kelley's girl talk initiation!

We left Riverhouse Grill and drove to the Moody's... and SURPRISE!! My sweet friends Ashley, Kelcie and Carol had put together a "Welcome to Mommyhood" shower for me. It was wonderful. I got presents for ME to stay sane an be a good mommy to Griffin. Rachel took pictures of how cute it was decorated and I'll post them when I get them.

It was so wonderful. Among other things, I got snacks for breastfeeding, a breast pump, the INFANT CARRIER (wow!), some gift cards for meals so I don't have to cook OR pay for a meal, some fancy fancy chocolates (a mommy special!), LOTS of batteries, some wonderfully comfortable looking pajamas/gowns, and a sweet sweet note from my sister, Rachel, with a Bible especially for the diaper bag. She was a youth minister's wife, too, when she had her first baby. So this Bible is wipe-off-able, has a little latch to close, and is super girly since I will officially be outnumbered by the boys now. It was such a sweet, sweet shower with some of my most favorite people there. It's still hard for me to believe what wonderful friends and family I have!!

I can't wait to post pictures of all of the hard work Ashley, Kelcie, Carol, and Nanny (Barbara, Ashley's grandmother that was kind of one of my grandmothers back in high school) to make the shower decorated perfectly for the mommy of a little boy. Thank you ladies, so much! And thank my sisters (present and future), mom, and friends who came and spent this memorable time with me!!

First Baby Shower!

The real date for this is September 12th

Last weekend I had my first baby shower. It was so much fun! Chris had gone on a dove hunt that weekend with some of the young guys from church so, my parents met me at my house at 8:00 Sunday morning. They drove me to Wichita Falls where we met Chris's parents for church. Chris was still on his way from the bunt in Brownwood. :) It was so nice to have both of my parents to myself in the cart on the way to Wichita Falls just to chat. We had a nice lunch with Chris's parents and then Chris met us at his parents house. Mom and I took lazy little naps and the boys watched some football until it was time for the shower.

I have to admit, I was a little bit nervous about this shower because I don't know the people in Wichita Falls very well and Chris hasn't gone to church there in years. I just didn't know who would show up. (Chris was great and went and stayed the whole time!) But - It was a nice turnout and we were really blessed by the gifts. IT makes me so proud of Chris - They all must really love him to still be supporting him like this!! I'm sure it has something to do with the love they have for his sweet parents as well. Here are some pictures of the hostesses and the "loot."

Changes, changes

Tomorrow Griffin will be 31 weeks along...that means 9 weeks until the due date. Thursday is September 9. That means 2 months until the due date. With that said, it's pretty safe to say we are experiencing changes. The first, and most obvious, being the way I look. This picture was taken about a week ago on September 1. I was 30 weeks and 1 day pregnant. (I look terrible. I had just gone for a walk... and I have this idea that if I make a goofy face and don't try to look good, then I have a really good excuse for NOT looking good...anybody else work like that?)

So - there I am in all my big-bellied glory. I can tell I'm changing quickly now, so I'll try to be more diligent about posting pictures.

Another change that has occurred is my sleeping ability. Those of you who have ever lived with me (I'm thinking ACU and HSU roomies, Ashley, my sisters and family) or know me well know that sleeping has never been an issue for me - likely because I've gotten so little of it, but I could fall asleep anywhere, doing just about anything, and not wake up until someone shook me or my extra loud alarm went off. Well - pregnancy seems to have robbed me of this talent. Not only is my ever-shrinking bladder interrupting my zzzz's, but my hormonal hotness (I guess that's what I'll call it) is disturbing me along with the presence of this firm bulge in my abdomen. So, Chris - on his birthday mind you - went and bought this ridiculously expensive pillow for me today. I've already tested it out and I slept an hour and a half without moving, so let's hope it's a success. It's the Boppy Total Body pillow. They are at Babies'R'Us. Here's to Chris getting some sleep tonight...
We've also made some updates to Griffin's room. I painted some canvases to go up on the wall by his bed. And Griffin's sweet Yogi and BooBoo bought a wonderfully comfortable chair for him and any siblings he may have to be rocked and cuddled in. Chris went and picked it up on Friday and put it together in his room.


Chris and I also went to a birthing class on Saturday where we learned A LOT about what to expect. We learned about different pain management options, that we will have the choice of being induced after 39 weeks, that my doctor won't let me go past 40 weeks before scheduling an induction, that I can chew gum while in labor,.... and all kinds of stuff like that. I'll have a picture of us soon. My friend, Sarah, and her husband Clayton, are due 3 days after us and were at the same class. Sarah took our picture right as we were walking in - which was unexpected, but will probably be really neat to have. Chris actually paid attention and we discussed some of the things we learned. He's going to be a fantastic dad - I have no worries about him. :) Speaking of Chris, he is 32 years old today and bless his sweet, precious heart - we didn't really do anything for him, well - compared to the last 2 years. The first September we were married he turned 30 and I took him to Boston and we went to a Yankees vs. Red Sox baseball game. Last year we were on a lovely cruise on his birthday. This year, his parents came down Sunday night, HE cooked out, we watched a movie that I got him for his birthday (Date Night) and we got up this morning and his parents bought us breakfast. We love going out for breakfast so that was really nice, but I did feel kind of bad that I didn't do more. His big gift was one of those single serve coffee makers he's been eyeing for a while, but I gave it to him a few days early so that was no fun. Anyway - My Chris - I love you so much and am so proud of you and can't wait to see you by my Griffin's daddy. I love that part of my legacy will be being known for picking such a wonderful husband.