Showers!!!

This has been the week of showers. baby showers and a wedding shower! It has been really fun.

I went to a wedding shower on saturday for my college friend Laura. It was really great to see her and the other girls, Shelly, Stacey and Beckie. The party was in Birmingham at a nice hotel and we had tea and crumpets and various delicacies. Laura got lovely gifts and overall the party was a nice break from my otherwise work/baby/dog/house/husband-centered life.

Last friday Bob & Joy came over for dinner after they visited the art fair. They had a great time at the fair b/c it was not too hot for them (70's not the 90's that it usally is during the art fair). We had a great dinner of good food and conversation at Side Track's in depot town and then they surprised us with a private surprise baby shower for which they brought balloons and gave us some really cute and useful baby items and clothes. I can't wait to see the baby in some of the very sweet little outfits Joy picked for him-little fish and frogs-super cute.

This weekend Bob & Joy went down to DC to the Burns/McDonnell family reunion/anniversary party for Richard & Jane. Bill & I soooo woshed we could have been there too. We miss seeing the McDonnels so much and it would have been really nice to meet and see some of the their family members we haven't seen in years. But I can't travel right now so we are planning to make a visit in the next few months or in the spring-that way they can all meet baby as well!

Then the weekend and week of July 21-29th was filled with PROJECTS!!! We had lots of help from my family last weekend and Bill made GREAT progress on the basmeent and moving his office into my office. We stioll have painting upstairs to do and in the basmeent and yard but we have come very far from where we began back in March!!! Soon Bob will be coming over to help Bill build a new fence-gate entrane to our backyard! the current gate has bugged us so much since we first moved into the house that I am thrilled to know it is finally going to be changed! YEAH

The official office room now painted 2 shades of calming blue and is full of shelves and computer equipment. Bill's new IKEA desk turned out really lovely and he is very happy with it. now the office room gets a bit warmer than the rest of the house due to all the electronics-we may have to do something about this eventually but for now it is nice to have an open room for baby. The painting is done in the baby room and I cleaned out the closet (I finally broke down and had to go through our dreaded files! ugh-not fun but I am so glad it is done now-we have 2 trash bags and a burn pile). I also cleaned and polished the floors in the baby room and it looks awesome.

Then yesterday was my official baby shower at my parent's house. It was a really hot humid day so my mom had 2 window AC untis in the living room and kitchen so the house was very nice. About 25 people were there so we had quite a crowd-including my dad's sisters and their kids and my aunt Mary and her mom Faith and Matt's ad Kelly's mom and Erica, Shelly, Laura, Beckie, my sisters & Kelly of course, June, and probably some people I am forgetting right now. I was bummed not to see a few friends there who Bill & I haven't seen all summer (Jillian, Mel, Sally, Melissa). Everyone has been so busy with their own families and lives that we have all done a bad job of getting together this summer-life goes on. hopefully we'll see them this fall.

My mom and sisters came up with a really cute "guess the babyfood game". It was fun to watch everyone try to guess the food by looking at the mush in the can. Also the flavors were very difficult b/c it was organic food (thoughful thanks mom!)-one of the flavors was spaghetti & cheese, pumpkin & zucchini, banana oatmeal and another was chicken & corn! weird but now we have some food ready for the when the baby is old enough.

The gifts we got were just amazing and sooo generous!!! Lots of cute clothes and little toys for the baby and some diapers (thankyou Erica!). Cute baby shoes and blankets (1 handmade by Faith) and some handmade outfits by Leah (We could not believe how nice her sewing is!!-I can only sew pillows and blankets). We got the baby Papasan chair from Aunt Karen, Tammi & Sherri. Laura & Stacey got us a baby einstein floor gym. We got really cute baby items from my sisters, Kelly & Erica AND they got us the CRIB!!!! (apparently Leah almost herniated herself trying to fit it in her little car!-she was in crazy-determined woman mode-I love her-she rocks)! I could not believe it-my ladies/sisters are so awesome and so sweet and generous-even though they are all struggling with $ and colege and huge life changes right now they scraped the $ together and bought us such a generous gift-it makes me cry. Then my parents gave us the ever imporntant stroller/travel system (THIS in addition to throwing us the baby shower AND giving Bill & I a SUPER generous anniversary $ gift 2 weeks ago!!!!). I can hardly say how much we appreciate all their generosity and help during this time. AT this point I can only hope that the baby is super fun and interesting so he can help repay them (HAHAHA-JK.....sort of).

Well enough is enough. now it is time for Bill & I to step up and fill in the holes in baby item land. Really between the parties in Colorado & Michigan-everyone's generosity has set us up really well-we have alot of the "big" things and lots of little things as well so we don't need that much more (except a million diapers apparently). Although we do need to go get a Pack & Play at some point soon-this is what we plan to have the baby sleep in at night during the first few months.

So now we have a baby room full of boxes and gifts that come from everyone's love and hope for this little baby and Bill & I as parents. I hope we can all come up to everyon'es expectations! THANKYOU THANKYOU THANKYOU everyone!!!