Baby Shower! ... AND tummy updates...

Tara and my mom threw me an AMAZING baby shower at my moms house last Friday. Decorations and food were made by Tara and my mom. Some of the delicious food was from my dads favorite restaurant. THANKS DAD!! We played tons of fun games and had TONS of good food, and I think everyone had a great time! Yeah for parties!!

Here's the game where you guess how many M 'n' M's there are in the bottles.

This is where you write your return address on the envelopes and we drew them out for prizes.

We also played "name the baby" where there was a list of animals and you had to name what their babies were called (foxes, swans, etc. It was HARD!!), and everyone had to guess how big my tummy was.

Here's the AMAZING diaper cake Tara made for me. She even SEWED those ribbons! She's SO crafty!

Here's the yummy cake. Yeah for baby Jaxon!



Here's the table full of games and pupus.

Some of the guests roaming around.

Out on the porch where the majority of the food was.

DELICIOUS!!!



The next morning, I went back through everything I'd gotten at the shower. We've got some AMAZING friends around here! We're definitely ready for baby Jaxon now!!!
THANKS EVERYONE!!

Here's a close-up of the blanket Tara made for Jaxon, with his name on it. I tried to do this on the blankets I made for him and COULD NOT figure out how to make it work. She's WAY more crafty than I am!!


NOW ON TO TUMMY PICTURES!!

Since I've updated tummy pictures recently, there aren't many. Here's one from about 36 weeks.


These last 2 are from 37 weeks. FULL TERM!! YEAH! These were taken on the same day. Take a look at the difference a shirt can make. This is why I mostly opt for tighter fitting shirts. I prefer NOT to look like a blimp.


Hopefully this baby is feeling REALLY tight in there and will push his way out soon. We're ready whenever he is!!!

Halloween Stuff: Costume Contest, Decorating Cookies, and Carving "Pumpkins"

So far, Tara and Shawn have participated in a costume contest (which the won FIRST PLACE in), we decorated Halloween cookies, we watched a scary movie, and we carved "pumpkins." Actually, we couldn't fine a pumpkin in time, so Tyler ended up carving a watermelon instead, which turned out to be DELICIOUS!!!

Here's the beautiful family:

First place!

Here I am decorating cookies

Here's everyone, working really hard ;)

Here are the fabulous results! Some of them have already been eaten (who could resist?!), and some have been poked by a very curious little boy, but this is the majority.

The next day, we carved some fruits. Here are the boys with their victims.

A watermelon was a GREAT idea. Yum!

I love how Logan is watching Shawn in this one.


I love Corbin's face in this one!

The boys, joyriding in the back yard.

The results!! It was originally going to look like Jaxon, but that didn't exactly work out...

The boys and their trophies. I wish I'd gotten one with Shawn's eyes opened.


On the back side of Tara and Shawn's pumpkin, they cut holes for Logan's legs to go through. Anticipate some SUPER CUTE pictures to come!!

Every year we decorate cookies, watch a scary movie, and carve pumpkins. When Tara and Shawn lived in Utah, we did it with them. When we lived in Utah, we did it with Kent and Cassie and Travis and Heidi. Pretty much whoever wanted to come. We LOVE this tradition and hope to be able to continue it!

The closet is finally DONE!!!

Before we moved in, my dad said that we might be able to build a closet to give us some more space in the small one bedroom apartment we'd be renting. Luckily, we were able to convince him to do it sooner, rather than later. As an expectant mother, I was freaking out a little about not being ready for Jaxon's arrival. I must have been persistent enough, because we now have our closet! It's AMAZING!!! Here are the progress photos:

Before we started, my mom helped me cover everything with sheets. This is a shot of the corner of the room where the closet door will end up.


This is a shot of the garage once the framing for the closet went in. Look how much of the garage was taken up! My dad is AMAZING for letting us have this much space!

Here's the corner after the hole for the door was cut.

Here's the door hole the next day, after they mudded the drywall, and moved the bed.

Here's a shot inside the closet, with the drywall and mud. They also leveled the floor with mortar. Before this, there was a 2" drop into the closet.

This is what I had for lunch a couple of days last week. I LOVE salad. This one has super low fat chicken, low fat feta cheese, apples, cranberries, and fat free raspberry vinaigrette. YUMMY!!!

Here's a shot inside the closet once the tile went down. No grout yet.

Here's Ty painting the room, after the grout went into the tile.


After everything was done, they hung shelves and put up a pole for clothes, then we put all our stuff in it! It's not super well organized, but it got everything out of the bedroom! YEAH!

Here's what the room looks like now, without all our dressers in it.

Here's the corner full of baby stuff. I"m not sure if it will stay this way or not, but here's what it looks like right now.


Here are some pictures of what the house looks like now, without all the clutter in the living room.

Kitchen

"Dining Room"

"Living Room"

Towards the bedroom (left) and bathroom (right)

Yeah for being mostly organized and ready for a little baby!!

As much nesting as I can do....

So, we're getting a closet in our little one-bedroom apartment. This closet will make a HUGE difference to the amount of space we have, and the way we will be able to arrange our room. Until that closet gets built, we've chosen to keep the baby's furniture in the living room, which makes for some tight living quarters. The kitchen table, which will eventually be against a wall, is currently in the middle of our living room because the crib and changing table are in the way. Once we move things around, we'll have a big opened living room where I plan to have a rug or maybe some squishy mats where the baby can have tummy time during the day.

I've taken some pictures of the baby items I have "ready" and you'll need to excuse the obvious clutter in the background. I'm SO excited for this closet to get finished so I can FINALLY arrange our bedroom the way that it will most likely stay for at least the next 6 months, if not the next year. YEAH FOR PROGRESS!!!

This is the crib. We got this crib at a garage sale for $15 WITH the mattress that looks absolutely brand new. I sterilized everything in preparation for Jaxon's arrival. Because crib bedding is SO expensive, I had decided that we didn't need it. I bought some crib sheets, and that's all we were going to use. When we first got here, I had a little addiction problem with craigslist, and I found this crib bedding on there (never been used) for REALLY cheap. Since I also have an addiction problem with the color brown, and spots and stripes, I honestly didn't have any choice but to buy this crib bedding. I LOVE LOVE LOVE it. And the sheets I bough (one pictured below) actually match pretty well with the bumper and skirt. When (*if*) we have a girl, I'll throw some pink sheets in there and it will work just as well.

Here's a close-up of the crib bedding. This isn't the sheet that came with the set. The one that came with it is white with brown spots, and I love it too. But I thought I'd try out the other ones to see how they looked.

Here are all the clothes I washed. These aren't all my clothes for 0-3 months. I have TONS of clothes... don't ask me why. I'm sure it has something to do with the fact that I've wanted a baby for about 8 years now.... Notice there is only 1 green and blue striped sock.... I looked through all the clothes, it's not in there. DANG SOCK MONSTER IN THE DRYER!

When I finally made it to 36 weeks I made this chain to help me pass the time. The blue and green rings bring me to Halloween, which is signified by an orange ring, then we have 5 days of yellow (get ready.....), then white for my due date. I also added 6 red rings to signify the number of days the doctor will let me go overdue before he induces me. We're at 26 days and counting....

Here is the graco travel system we bought. This is pretty much the only thing we bought new because I know how important a car seat is and I didn't want to chance anything. While it WAS new, it was also a really good deal. Toys R Us had a trade- in deal, where if you brought in a car seat or stroller or..... etc. they would give you 25% off a new one. I got a free swing (from craigslist- of course) and we took that in, so this travel system was a REALLY good deal. WOOHOO!!!

In about 26 days (give or take) we'll have another picture just like this, but with a SUPER CUTE newborn strapped in ready to go home!

OK Jaxon, we're READY!!!