A party worthy of Pinterest!

This past weekend my sister and my mom hosted a baby shower in honor of our new little one.  The party they planned was amazing.  I can't believe the amount of work, time and LOVE they put into making me feel special.  I've got a ton of pictures to share with you all, but this post is dedicated to the little details that made this party special.

Here are a few shots of the table settings.  I'm SO mad I didn't get a picture of the plates.  They seriously took paper plates, hole punched the outside rim and used ribbon to thread a design into them...it was crazy!! 

Here's a closeup of those little fortune cookie things.  Remember them from when you were a kid?  You  numbers on the outside and somehow they predicted who you would marry, or how many kids you'd have, or what your husband would do for a living.  Well, for the shower, mom used them as the menus.  So, on the inside, when you opened the tab that said drinks, the drinks she'd made for the shower were listed there....same with lunch, appetizers etc.  SO CUTE (and painstakingly horrible to format and print, if I had to guess!).

Check out this sweets table...

Homemade cake pops....they were cherry flavored and SO yummy!!

This easy back oven was seriously amazing!  Mom made it from a copy paper box.  When I got home the night before and saw it sitting on the table I was sure she'd bought a kit to make it....but nope, made from scratch!  Crazy right??

This was the sign-in table, along with the shower gifts and the fabric basket. 

For those of you that have no idea why we'd have a basket of fabric I'll explain really quick.  I can't take credit for the idea.  I totally stole it from here, but I plan to copy what they've been doing.  So, each week I will take a picture of the baby with a white onsie on laying on a different piece of fabric.  Then, I will use photoshop to add on "1 week", "2 weeks" etc onto the onsie. I'll take a picture each week of the baby for an entire year, each time on a different piece of fabric.  Then, at the end of the year mom and I are going to turn the fabric swatches into a quilt for the baby.  It's sort of a project inside of a project. 

I'm super excited that we thought to include all of my friends into the fun though.  We asked that people bring a piece of fabric to contribute to the project.  Partly because I've got 52 weeks of fabric to buy, but mostly because this way each of the pieces really means something.  So, the Packers fabric for example, came from my dad, and the fish fabric in front there came from Andy. 

I'm so excited to start this project and I'll be blogging my way through it so you all can see how it's going.  I'll be back in the next few days with more baby shower photos for you!!

Getting the most of our last few "free" weekends

In around a month from now we will have a teeny tiny baby to show off to you all....but for now, we are enjoying the last few free weekends before the baby arrives.  Of course, our fur babies are still in tow!  This weekend is my second baby shower thrown by my mom and sister in Freeport.  I'm excited to share all the details with you in a few days but for now I figured I should finally blog about LAST weekend!  Sorry!  At least I've got some pictures for you all.

We spent last weekend at Koontz lake.  This summer has been crazy busy and we've really only been out to the lake one other time this year so it was nice to squeeze one more weekend at the lake in.

See how excited Ryan was to be at the lake!

We didn't do anything overly exciting....just hung out in the sun, ate too much food, and laughed alot.  We had a great time.

There's a belly shot for those of you that have been waiting for one.  I've been trying to stay BEHIND the camera these days as I feel like my belly isn't the only part of me to be growing.  Is it just me or does my face look chubby?  Ug!  5 more weeks!!

Rocky even got in on the fun this weekend:

Ha!  Our dogs would have NEVER sat still enough to go for a ride.  I was certain this would end in disaster but Rocky did a great job.  They went most of the way around the small section of the lake like this.

What do you think?  I think this looks like a Christmas photo to me guys!!

That's how we spent our weekend (albeit a little late).  How did you spend yours??

You've asked....you've waited....it's finally time for the Baby Room reveal!

Man, if I'd have known that you guys would be so excited to see what we did with the Baby's room I would have had a baby sooner.  I swear, it's the most requested post of all time.  Not sure what that says about my posts (smile) but I'll take it as a compliment.  (You guys enjoy those knitting posts too right??).

It's hard to say when the room is finally "done" but we've come leaps and bounds from where it started so here goes nothing.  We still need a few things, so use your imagination when things don't look completely done.  I'll probably do another update after all the showers and we've finally got everything in it's place, but for now, I wanted to share what we've got done so far.

Imagine a diaper changing pad inside that orange thing on the left, and a ton more books and toys on the book shelf.  Oh, and blinds on the window.  We accidentally bought ones that were too short.  Shoot!

That's the cute Chevron Baby blanket I knit for the baby.  One of the many baby projects I've completed so far.  Maybe I'll do a post with all those things later.

See...more photoshop action!  I've got a ways to go...but here's my first stab at a collage :O) So, here's the details on the artwork around the room:

• Family Rules art:  From TJ Maxx about 4 months ago
• Silly Baby Sayings:  Made by me inspired by art on Pinterest.  Since they are pretty small in the picture here are the sayings
• Red:  Crying is for Babies - other babies
• Blue: Nothing says you care - like a clean diaper
• Green: You're getting very sleepy
• Colorful Fabric Pendants: made by me
• Origami mobile:  hung above the dresser/diaper changing area (found here)  I thought about trying to make it myself, but decided it was WAY worth it to just buy!
• Fabric Owl - found this one online too for SUPER cheap.  Like less than 20 bucks!  I can't find the link though...sorry!

I love love love this crib.  Ry went back and forth about wanting to build the crib.  Of course I picked the hardest one.  On Sunday after thinking it over for awhile we decided it was probably better to just go ahead and fork over the dolla's and just buy the dang thing.  He's be so so busy these days, I'd rather have him hanging out with me, than in the garage building a crib.  So, 2 hours later, we had a brand new crib.  SO much faster than the 40+ hours it would have taken him to build one from scratch!

But...we did refinish this dresser ourselves.  I can't seem to find the "before" pictures I took of the dresser so I guess I'll have to do another post on that later.  SHOOT!  Well, imagine it a light color wood, with ugly hardware and put in the basement of the lake house for who knows how long.  We sanded it down, primed and painted it, added some colorful knobs, bought a new piece of glass for the top, and added a few hooks to the outside (for hanging the diaper laundry bags).  It turned out great!  The whole project probably cost us less than $100 so we sure saved some money here!

Oh, and that mirror above the dresser, that's one Ry made long long ago.  It used to be hung in our bedroom but we moved it in here and it fits perfectly!!

All in all, I love what we've got going on in here. I can't wait to add all the finishing touches.  I'll update it later as we get closer.  Shoot, in 8 to 10 weeks I'll have a little baby to model in here as well (probably in that rocking chair)!

Hope you guys like it! 

Baby Bump!

A few weeks back when we were at the Cabin we staged a little baby bump photo shoot.  I've been trying to teach myself how to use Photoshop so here goes nothing.  I hope you enjoy!!

Ry's hands look like like midget hands...I can't Photoshop that :O)

Couldn't resist getting one of the family!  We NEVER get pictures of us with both the dogs.  They are my first babies.  Fur babies that is!

Here comes the bride...

This past weekend we made our way to Indianapolis for our second of three weddings this year.  I sadly don't have ANY pictures of the bride and groom, but I do have a few of my main squeeze.  Let me explain a bit.  One of Ry's best friends from college, Brownie was back in the Midwest for a wedding.  Frank, the groom, knew that Ry would LOVE the chance to catch up with an old friend, so he invited us to be a part of his special day.  We are so grateful!  We haven't seen Brownie and his wife, Sarah, since their wedding nearly 3 and a half years ago!!  They live in San Diego, so the 3.5 hour drive to Indy was totally worth it.

Here's an updated baby belly shot for those of you that have been patiently waiting.  I love how this dress fits on me....you'll definitely see this one again in two weeks.  I'm 31 and a half weeks now, so that means in 8 to 10 weeks we should be welcoming a little one into the world.  It's getting close now!!

There's not much new to report on the baby front.  Things are going along pretty uneventfully.  I'm hungry for fruit, lemonade, ice cream and anything cold and sweet ALL of the time.  I've been trying to make sure I'm eating more fruit than ice cream though :O)  We are also in the middle of a heat wave these days.  I can't tell you the last time we saw temps below the 90's and most days the heat index is over 100.  I'm glad the air works both at home and at work!! 

I love this guy!  I had to include this one...it makes me laugh!!