Baby Shower #1 / Halloween

Last weekend was my first baby shower. It turned out fabulous! It was held at one of my favorite restaurants, Cannoli's. My mom and mother-in-law did an excellent job of hosting. The food was delicious, the guests were many and the gifts were generous. This was a family baby shower; my friend shower is next week. And I think I will have a work shower in December. Nathan and I are very blessed to have such wonderful family and friends. Here are a few pictures from the Shower #1. (Again, ignore the date stamp!)

Cupcake Cake

Me opening gifts

Crystal and Aunt Carol playing a game

My diaper cake

The sheet/pillow case gift that made me tear up!

Aubrey, Rachel, Bethany, Jessica and me

Some of our loot!

The sock bouquet that my mother-in-law made

*******

Nathan and I attended two Halloween parties this year. The first one was at Ann and Tim's house last weekend. I dressed as Miss Piggy and Nathan wore some big, old man hands. Don't ask! Looking at the pictures, I realized that Miss Piggy wasn't the most attractive costume for a pregnant lady to wear. And I should never dye my hair platinum blonde!

Last night, we went to a Halloween party at my brother's friends' house, Jason and Amanda. It was also a 30th birthday party for Josh who officially celebrated 30 years of life on Wednesday, Oct. 28th. Happy Birthday to my little bro! Anyway, this Halloween party was one of the best house parties I have seen in a long time. There was food, free drinks, games, costumes, great decorations, lots of people and an awesome DJ that had many people up and dancing. We decided to go the easy route for this party and dress as a biker couple. (Nathan didn't look much different that he does most days though! ha! ha!)

Miss Piggy

All of the dressed up ladies

Wacko Jacko!

Bun in the oven (Toni is pregnant for real!)

Nathan, Jason (aka: Buddy from Elf) and Josh

Josh with a HUGE tennis racket

Christa

Josh and Nathan playing beer pong

me and Christa

me and Nathan ( Bikers! :) )

Josh's bday cake

Josh cutting his cake

Today is actually Halloween. Since Graham doesn't want to dress up and go trick or treating, we are handing candy out at home and then I think we're heading over to my sister-in-law and brother-in-law's house (Rachel and Eric) to hang out with them and their kids. Hope everyone has a fun and safe Halloween!

-Dawn

Third trimester, Baby!

So as of yesterday (10/22) I am 27 weeks pregnant. However, as of Wednesday (10/21), I am officially in my third trimester (according to me since I'm 3 months from my due date). So I guess I'm in the home stretch. Since it seems that almost everyone I know is having baby boys, I keep thinking that there is something going on to cause this. I have no idea what it is but I've just never heard of so many baby boys on the way (or maybe I've never quite paid attention like I do now). But I was reading a blog post from www.dooce.com and found this story to be pretty funny regarding the drama/intensity/craziness of raising a girl so I thought I'd share. Maybe you can comment if you agree or not. I know when I was hoping for a baby girl, a lot of my friends told me that their baby boys are so sweet and less dramatic. Although if Graham has his way, our baby boy will be a drama king (He told Nathan and I one night that he hopes the baby is dramatic!) Anyway, here is the post (Leta is the 5 1/2 year old daughter of Heather and Jon Armstrong. Katey is Heather's assistant):

All grown up
Jon calls me into the kitchen where Leta is having a snack, and our assistant Katey has just finished up some paper work. I ask what's going on, and he motions for all of us to look at Leta. The three of us surround her as Jon tries to stick his finger in her mouth, a risk not unlike trying to pet an alligator.
"STOP IT!" she screams and immediately covers her mouth with both hands.

"Leta," Jon says with a tone of exasperation that has filled this house for oh, five and a half years. "Show them your tooth."

She vigorously shakes her head without removing her hands as Jon explains that her front left tooth is loose, and both Katey and I cannot help but SQUEEEE!!!! Our little baby Leta is about to lose her first tooth! We both remember when she had none!

Leta interprets our squeeeing as mockery, and hops off her chair. "IT'S NOT FUNNY!" she yells, temporarily letting her arms hang by her side. So we explain in great detail why we made that horrible, high-pitched noise, tell her that this is a Huge Event In Her Life, and doesn't she know? Oh Leta! THE VERY BEST PART! The Tooth Fairy is coming!

"But I don't want the tooth fairy to come," she says, only because that's what girls do. They want drama, they thrive on irrational thinking, they want you to scratch your head and go WTF?!!

"Leta," I start to explain, "the Tooth Fairy comes and leaves you money. MONEY. M-O-N-E-Y."

"But I don't want money!" she says. "I want presents!"

That's when all three of us, Jon, Katey and I, we simultaneously groan, "YOU CAN USE THE MONEY TO BUY PRESENTS, LETA."

She stands there blinking her eyes for several seconds, and then she reaches up into her mouth to feel her loose tooth.

"Okay," she says calmly. "I can work with that."

Are you pregnant and expecting a girl? GOOD LUCK.

So, I guess what I'm saying is that I'm probably going to be thankful for having a baby boy who will hopefully be a little less dramatic and a little easier to deal with. I can tell you from working all females, that I know women can be moody, catty, crazy and just dreadful sometimes. In fact, the book I'm reading right now is called, "Men are Stupid, Women are Crazy". (So men shouldn't be all high and mighty either! :) )

Looking forward to my family baby shower this Sunday. I will hopefully take some pictures to post next week!

Have a great weekend,
Dawn

Pumpkin Patch

So we took our annual trip to the Pumpkin Patch this past Sat. but we tried a new place this year called Eagle Fork in Troy, MO. I liked it but the pumpkin selection wasn't the greatest. They either had ginormous pumpkins or small pumpkins. My sister-in-law said they had a lot more when she was there a few weekends ago so maybe they just can't keep up with the demand. But we had a good time and it wasn't as cold as I thought it would be. Here are some pictures. Ignore the date stamp on them!

L-R: Graham. Lexie, Clayton & Elaina

Adelyn

Graham

Lexie and Graham after Rachel dumped corn kernels down his back

Chantel

Clayton

Graham

Elaina

Nathan

Graham running through the corn maze

Graham and Clayton in the corn maze

Heavenly Fried Twinkie! Yes, I ate the whole thing by myself!

Sunday we picked up the dresser we bought for the baby's room. We love it but it sure does seem a lot bigger in the little room than it seemed at the store. It almost matches our crib perfectly. I'll post some pictures of the room when it's finished. We have a few things to hang up in there still, need to get some curtains and need to get the bedding at one of the upcoming showers (hopefully at the one this weekend!).

Have a great week!

-Dawn

Weekend Recap

So what's new? Not too much. On the baby front, he is moving and kicking up a storm. Graham got to feel a kick for the first time this past weekend. It's so cool to feel but I have to admit that it's sometimes annoying - especially at 4:30 or 5:00 in the AM!!! :) But it's also good reassurance that he's doing good. My last doctor appt. went well. I did my glucose test and haven't got a call back so far so that's good. No news is good news for that sort of thing. I also got the flu shot while I was there. The baby's heartbeat was strong and of course he kicked while she was listening to it so she commented that he's quite the kicker. I felt like saying, "Tell me something I don't know, doc!"
Next month I am going to see Dr. Durer so I can be sure he's the one that I want to deliver the baby. I've been seeing a Midwife but she doesn't deliver babies anymore.

This weekend was a nice one. We didn't do much on Friday. Sat. I had yoga and then Nathan, Graham and I went to the Halloween store. We really didn't see any costumes that excited us though. And it's extra hard for me this year to think of what to be since I'm preggers. That night the 3 of us went to dinner and then saw "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs". It was a cute movie. Sunday, the 3 of us, with my mom, went to the Botanical Gardens. It was a beautiful day and they had the Missouri's Best event going on. I actually took lots of scenery pictures so I'll post some of them here (and a few with people!).

Graham with the pumpkin he decorated in the Kids Corner

Graham, Nathan and mom

me and mom

Graham, Nathan and me

Graham jumping from rock to rock

Hope everyone has a nice week!

Love,
Dawn