{"id":232,"date":"2011-10-05T09:47:52","date_gmt":"2011-10-05T14:47:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shereadsinthedark.com\/?p=232"},"modified":"2011-10-05T14:26:41","modified_gmt":"2011-10-05T19:26:41","slug":"picture-round-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shereadsinthedark.com\/?p=232","title":{"rendered":"Picture Round-Up"},"content":{"rendered":"

It really feels like everyone was just here a minute ago, but really – it’s already been a\u00a0 week since the last of the family left after the Great Baby Shower Weekend.\u00a0 It was a great visit, and while chaotic at times, it makes me even more aware of how fantastic my family is, and how truly excited and happy everyone is about this baby.\u00a0 The family time was fun, the baby shower was great and my feet only barely swelled up one time during it all!<\/p>\n

My mom is a picture taking machine, which comes in really handy for a time like this – even though we all grumble while she’s snapping shots, I’m always glad we have them later on.<\/p>\n

Lisa and Ada got into town first (Lisa and I may have both cried when we saw each other at the airport.\u00a0 We’re calling it pregnancy hormones for me and postpartum hormones for her.\u00a0 Ada, the BABY, was the only one who managed to hold it together emotionally). Mom and Dad arrived a couple hours later.\u00a0 Ada wowed everyone with her ability to sit up totally unassisted at only 4.5 months!\u00a0 And she’s been doing it for weeks now. But she still needed the pillow fortress for the occasional topple-over, which was, really, so hilarious every time it happened.<\/p>\n

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Reading with Gram. Look at those rubber-band wrists!<\/p><\/div>\n

This trip was extra special since Dad came – it was a good opportunity to see all three girls, one son-in-law, 3 granddaughters and one great-grandson all at one time, so he couldn’t pass it up.\u00a0 He was a hit!<\/p>\n

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On Saturday morning Ali, Grace, Meredith and Tripp arrived and we had some good visiting time around the house.\u00a0 With Tripp being quite mobile this visit, it was a good chance to get a baby’s-eye-view of what things drew his attention that Scott and I will eventually need to relocate out of reach once our little one reaches the investigating stage.\u00a0 It was sort of like a baby-proofing home inspector!<\/p>\n

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Tripp and Ada's first meeting<\/p><\/div>\n

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The Oklahoma bunch<\/p><\/div>\n

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Later that afternoon though, I had a friend’s baby shower to go to for a bit, and it actually worked out perfectly, since my mom and sisters and nieces wanted to do a little shopping without me present, so we left Dad in Scott and ESPN’s capable hands, and the girls headed out to spend money and I headed out to drink punch and watch someone else open tons of baby presents.<\/p>\n

At this time, I would like to state for the record, that apparently I excel at baby shower games.\u00a0 Maybe it’s my one true calling in life. (If that’s the case, though, I need to find a lot more friends that are having babies and baby showers, because a true talent is a terrible thing to waste.)\u00a0 Anyhow, I won the game at the Saturday shower (and at my own shower the next day!), and if I can manage at some point to get a copy of the story I wrote that won the game, I will post it here for you all to enjoy.\u00a0 The game was a take on the old standby of writing down some advice tidbits for the new parents-to-be, and you had to use as many candy bar\/candy names in your advice as you could.\u00a0 They provided the list of candy names to choose from, and I think I used about 23 or 25…something like that.\u00a0 Enough to make me the winner – and enough to prompt them to tell me to read my advice out loud in front of the whole shower, which made me start to sweat and made my throat close up a little bit, so that I had to keep swallowing in order to finish, and I KNOW without even looking, that my cheeks were probably bright pink by the time I was done.\u00a0\u00a0 I’m such a dork.\u00a0 Not a fan of speaking in front of groups, that’s for sure.<\/p>\n

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After the shower on Saturday - am I indicating how wide I am? I don't know.<\/p><\/div>\n

A friend of mine that was supposed to come to the shower on Sunday ended up not being able to make it due to a really bad sickness, and sadly that also meant no baby shower cake, since she had offered to bring it.\u00a0 I was sad to not have her there, and I know she was so upset to miss the shower and to not be able to give me the cake, but thankfully I have a professional baker for a sister and she took control of the situation on Saturday and whipped up the cutest baby shower cake in no time at all!\u00a0 Both Scott and I just stared at her icing job and couldn’t believe that she got it so smooth so quickly – we’re used to my cakes, where I ice and ice forever and it NEVER comes out like that.\u00a0 We were impressed, to say the least.<\/p>\n

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The finished product - Welcome Baby Boy!<\/p><\/div>\n

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Not my most flattering angle, but it was a mid-cake decorating sisters moment. You can see the piping bag in Lisa's hands!<\/p><\/div>\n

On Sunday it was baby shower time!!\u00a0 Scott’s parents drove up and we left Jim and Dad and Scott at home and all the girls (and Tripp) headed out to the shower.\u00a0 I can’t say thank you enough to Kristi and Elizabeth for hosting and to Martha for welcoming us all into her home.\u00a0 It was a great shower and we had a blast!<\/p>\n

(Sorry – a lot of the shower pics are blurry, but they are the only one we’ve got!)<\/p>\n

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My lovely hostesses!<\/p><\/div>\n

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Ali, (Ada), Mom, Me, Lilly, and Elizabeth.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Look at all that loot! Thanks everyone!<\/p><\/div>\n

There was lime sherbet punch (YUM) and I do believe that Kristi said that every single food item they served was vegan, expect for one, which was so great – Lisa was so excited!\u00a0 We ate and had cake and opened presents, and played a word scramble game (winner winner chicken dinner!) and just sat around and chatted.\u00a0 A good time was most definitely had.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Mom and Dad and the Oklahoma crew all left to go home – but Lisa and Ada and I had one more day to pal around.\u00a0 We took advantage of the time and finally managed to satisfy the sno-cone shaped emptiness in our tummies (Tiger’s Blood for Lisa and Lemon-Lime for me, in case you were curious) and checked out a thrift store in town and took a nice long, leisurely stroll through the BabyEarth <\/a>retail store.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday afternoon, the house felt SO empty!\u00a0 But Scott and I both know that now it’s only a matter of weeks until the house never feels empty again, so we will enjoy it while we’ve got it!<\/p>\n

35w5d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It really feels like everyone was just here a minute ago, but really – it’s already been a\u00a0 week since the last of the family left after the Great Baby Shower Weekend.\u00a0 It was a great visit, and while chaotic at times, it makes me even more aware of how fantastic my family is, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[13,14,10,12,3],"class_list":["post-232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-3rd-trimester","tag-baby-shower","tag-family-fun","tag-me","tag-pregnancy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shereadsinthedark.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shereadsinthedark.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shereadsinthedark.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shereadsinthedark.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shereadsinthedark.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.shereadsinthedark.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shereadsinthedark.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shereadsinthedark.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shereadsinthedark.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}