Showering Heather and Lincoln (March 22)

Can I just say how much FUN it is hosting a baby shower? It's really probably one of my favorite types of showers to throw (the second being bridal showers), simply because baby stuff is just so darn cute!

These guys {almost*} had the most adorable baby.

*Sorry guys, but I have two of my own, who are THE most adorable babies already :)

Jamie and Heather have been our good friends for almost ten years. Heather and Jamie met within a week of when Mark and I met, so we've been double-dating (and triple-dating...and quadruple-dating) with them and our friends the Studes and Breukers ever since! Jamie and Heather are the last of our little octet to have a baby, so we joke now that they finally "get" what we've all been privy to for the past few years :)

But enough reminiscing, and more about the party!

Disclaimer: I apologize for the quality of the photos this time around - there are some pretty pathetic ones, but I was in such a rush to get out the door that I forgot to grab my DSLR, so these are off my camera on my phone.

The Decor

The decor was simple and understated, but with Sue's gorgeous home, we didn't need much! I borrowed some decorations from work, actually, from when they threw my baby shower when Cashel was born, and it was just the right touch!

I also designed this cute little name/stats wall art as part of my gift. It looks so nice next to the gorgeous tulips Sue had there.

I found these adorable green poms at Walmart for a buck (so cute, right?)

And really, cake pops are always the cutest decor, aren't they? I went with blue velvet and tinted the white chocolate with a tiny bit of turquoise gel coloring. These got RAVE reviews, and everyone thought we bought them. Heather's sister kept asking me how much I owed her, and I chuckled. I think they cost me a whopping $5 to make - they're super easy. I need to write a post on them soon because I get compliments on them ALL the time. Thanks to my sister, Amanda, for introducing me to them so long ago!

And, of course, who can have a baby shower without a diaper cake?

The Spread

Heather's family took care of the food, and it was SO yummy! Homemade rolls, two kinds of quiche, fruit cups with chocolate covered strawberries and some delicious mimosas made the event memorable :)

The Games

I headed up two games for the party, and they were both a big hit. The first one I thought up randomly and threw together pretty quickly. It was a quiz about Lincoln and little random facts about the whole labor/delivery/post-partum experience for them as a family. Some samples are "What was Heather doing when she felt her first contraction?" to "How much did Lincoln weigh when he was born?" to "How many poopy diapers has Jamie changed?"

The second one was one that I played at another baby shower a couple years ago, matching baby terms to candy bar names. An example would be "11 pound baby" and the match would be "Whoppers". Also another big hit, but fortunately I didn't have to do any work for that one :)

The Guests

We had a great turnout with about a dozen guests or so, although we were bummed to miss a couple good friends. It was understandable, though, as one was already 2 days past due and an hour away, and the other was also an hour away,had a 10 day old and toddler to wrangle, and her grandfather had just passed away the day prior. Regardless, we had a great time! Heather had a great turnout, though, with cousins, sister and sister-in-law, niece, mom, aunts and friends.

Of course, the guest of honor slept the entire shower!

Gifts!

I swear the baby gifts just keep getting cuter and cuter as the years go by. The clothes and toys are just so cute :) Heather got some really adorable clothes, a fun Hape toy, some super desirable gift cards for a massage and portraits at Ricker's in Worthington, and lots of diapers, wipes, and fun textiles (towels, washclothes, blankets, etc.) all of which I failed miserably at taking pictures of, sorry. I have no doubt that baby Lincoln will be well-cared for :)

What a sweet little family :) Congratulations again, you guys! I know it's a rough going right now, but eventually you WILL make it out alive, and hopefully a little less sleep-deprived :) (That is, unless you decide to have another one, because in that case, I can't guarantee anything, as we haven't even made it out on the other side yet haha)

March Update

March was finally slightly better both health-wise AND weather-wise for us, and for that, we are so thankful! We were super busy doting on new babies (Collin and Jace) and bringing meals to their families as well as celebrating with a fun baby shower. We finally got outside for multiple walks and thoroughly enjoyed our new double stroller, which makes taking both boys a BREEZE!

I changed up the format of some of my blog posts this month, since we didn't really have too many actual events this month, so I posted a couple times with just some photo updates from the month (This Week, Lately in Windom). I did a few little organization projects in a couple of our closets, and am always, always working on trying to make our house work for our growing family.

Overall, we're filling our days with chaos, lots of walks, spending time outside when it's warm and dry enough, and just making it through the day to day right now :) Here are a couple recaps of the major events of the month. Enjoy!

Baby Shower for Lincoln (March 22)

Click here for a full recap with pictures!

Birthday Parties in Iowa (March 23)

We made a day trip down to Iowa to help celebrate Caleb's 5th and Caitlin's 1st birthday parties.

Click here for a full recap with pictures!

Looking Ahead...

April promises to be busy! I'm hosting two small family baby showers for our new nephew Johannes (who we are DYING to meet!). We initially were going to get down to meet him the first weekend in April, but with two sick little guys and another 6-8 inches of snow on the ground, we thought it'd be best to just wait.

We have 15 adults and 3 little ones (which makes 5 under the age of 3) coming for Easter to our house (where on earth will we put them all? haha). We should have a good time, I think :)

The first Saturday in May, we will be attending Mark's cousin's wedding in Mankato, but beyond that, no big plans. We tend to keep things low-key in the Spring and Fall, since we never know when Mark will start out in the field. I AM planning a couple fun events (one for the Tuesday after Easter with some co-workers, and a fun spa/dinner evening with a larger group of co-workers at the end of the month), but that'd be out on my own. I am SO thankful for a hubby who is so great with our boys :)

Until next month... :)

Meeting Baby Jace (March 31)

It has been baby central in Minnesota and Nebraska lately. Like...INSANE baby central. and ALL of them boys!

Our lives have been BUSY lately, and since our weekend was packed, we didn't make it down to meet the newest baby in our crew of friends until he was a week old!

All that hair!! I'm so in love :) Meet baby Jace!

I may or may not have given him a mohawk. Okay, yes, I definitely

Jace's Daddy and Mark grew up together in Worthington, so it is really fun (albeit apparently really dark) to watch our kids interact together. Cashel was talking about "Alisha" (Aleigha) the whole way home :)

Unless someone has been hiding a pregnancy from us, this is the last baby from close friends and family that we know of in 2014!

Congrats, Jed and Kris on your sweet baby boy!

Birthday Parties in Humboldt (March 23)

I just absolutely love my nieces and nephews, and it's always a fun time when we make it down to Iowa for their birthdays. Caitlin celebrated her first birthday in mid-March, and with Caleb turning FIVE in mid-April, Amanda decided to have a joint party for them, which worked well :)

I am still trying to cope with having left my DSLR at the farm after this party. I realized it too late, and have been missing it for too long! However, I'm going to post what I have from my camera on my phone and probably just update once I get the camera back :)

The Guests

There were 16 adults and 12 kids for a grand total of 28 people for the party. My goodness! It was nice to visit with everyone a little bit, although we had two tired boys who were boycotting naps a bit, so we didn't get to visit as much as we would have liked, because we spent a lot of time trading off doing this:

The Food

I only got pictures of the food on my DSLR, so I'll be back to that when I get those pics :)

The CAKE!

My sister discovered THE best cake recipe ever, and she made white ones for Caitlin and blue ones (blue velvet) for Caleb. They were so yummy!! It was fun to watch Caitlin demolish her cupcake, and Caleb really enjoyed blowing out his candles :) Of course, I have those fun pictures...on the DSLR. :)

I may have definitely had too many cupcakes.

The Gifts

Gift opening was crazy! I, once again, have some great pics of this and will post later, but here's what I had off my phone.

We had a nice, albeit a little crazy time celebrating with Caleb and Caitlin! It was a long day since we decided to just make it for the day, but we're looking forward to the next time and having a little more time to visit and not have to rush home.

Happy (Belated) Birthday, Caitlin, and Happy (Early) Birthday, Caleb!

Us: The Photobook

Click here to view this photo book larger

The new way to make a photo album: photo books by Shutterfly.

Us (A family photo shoot by Red Barn Photography in Windom)

We had a wonderful (albeit freakishly short, considering we had a crazy toddler AND 6 month old AND whole family shoot planned - excellent job on that, Heather!) photo shoot with Heather from Red Barn Photography in mid-February. The pictures are absolutely going to be ones we cherish for years to come :) They turned out SO great!

If you want to check out Kendrick's 6 month and Cashel's 2 year pictures, you can find them HERE (Cashel) and HERE (Kendrick).

And if you are looking for a photographer in the Windom area, I (once again) highly HIGHLY recommend Heather. She's great to work with, has a great turn-around time, won't break your piggy bank, and takes incredible pictures :) Check out her Facebook page! And seriously - she's just building a clientele right now, so what I refer to as her "introductory pricing" can't last forever: She's too darn talented!

Now...to get some of these up on our walls! Poor Kendrick isn't in any of our other family photos on the wall yet, and here he is six (almost seven!) months old.

Lately in Windom

Puddles and running water are super fascinating to a toddler. On a related note, our snow is finally melting!!

This little monkey child thinks pulling mama's hair is SO FUN!

Visits with Dada

CHEESE!

Super sleepy dude

Tackling cluttered closets in this house!
(Before/After; Before/After)

I got to meet O'Neal Hampton from The Biggest Loser season 9 when he spoke at the Windom Home and Garden Show!

We are going to be SO busy very very soon, I have a feeling.

They are getting less and less chunky, it seems. :(

Spending a lot of time in the kitchen these days between normal meal planning and meals for new parents!

Warm footie jammies are going to be a thing of the past soon, I hope!

Lunches at work on the days we have no leftovers

Something tells me this kid is going to go NUTS on the jet ski with Dada this summer.

LOVING our new double stroller! We took it out for a jog already last week when it was nice out!

This face. Swoon!

Toro Century Baby :: This guy wants to be treated like a baby lately.

Prepping for a baby shower this Saturday

White Chicken Chili was on the menu Sunday the 18th

Chubby baby fingers learning to turn the pages. He's not nearly as big a book person as big brother was.

Kendrick likes to grab my face and hair when he's having his diaper changed or getting into PJs.

Got to meet a sweet new baby boy this week - congrats, Nance and Curt!

Finally snuck away for my 2nd and 3rd postpartum miles this past week - was a little sore afterwards, but it felt so good! Cannot WAIT for Spring to finally stick around!