All the stuff that comes with a baby...

I don't have any pictures to share yet from the baby shower my friends and family threw for me last month but as soon as I have them, I will be sure and put a bunch on the blog. Until then, I do have pictures of Keith and my mom putting together some of our fabulous gifts. Who knew something so little would  "need" so much stuff!! Our house is full of baby stuff and thankfully I have a lot of closets that I can hide the huge boxes in until we actually need to use everything. Keith pointed out to me yesterday that our house isn't going to look as put together for much longer because when Anna arrives, the swings, pack & play, bouncers, toys, etc. are going to be all over the house. I'm going to have a tough time getting the dogs to not want to play with all the new toys so it should be interesting to see how many stuffed animals I find Kayli and Cason chewing on. I already found a stuffed caterpillar (from a book Harriet gave me) in the middle of the nursery with dog slobber all over it. Kayli got a hold of it from a basket on the floor and thought it was her chew toy. Luckily it is still intact...for now!

My mom and Keith putting together the pack & play that Mutti got for us. Thank you! Anna is going to sleep in this for many, many weeks and we'll use it for lots of traveling.

Once they put this together, I quickly asked if Keith could fold it back up and put it back in the carrying case that it came with. He didn't think that was a good idea after he and my mom spent a lot of time putting it together, so it is being stored in the guest bedroom until we need it in a few weeks.

A few days later, next project was the baby swing. My little nephew loved his swing and we are hoping Anna loves hers just as much. It plays songs, vibrates and swings - so fancy.

Kayli and Cason are keeping a watchful eye as Keith works to put the swing together. My only role was documenting the process by taking pictures. I know, I'm so helpful!

Yay, it is finally all put together.

My sweet, precious niece, Tilly, wasn't able to make the baby shower since it was during her nap time, but I got to love on her as soon as we got home with all of our presents. John and Dusty drove in from Austin the night before and were able to stay for a few hours on Saturday after the shower so we could play with Tilly. She is growing so fast and will be a year old in August. She has the sweetest disposition and is such a happy little girl. I am so excited that our girls will be close in age and will be able to grow up together. I have a lot of cousins my same age and it is wonderful!

I really didn't think I was that large until I saw myself in pictures - I really do look pregnant and it is still hard to get used to seeing myself in photos!! Only 4 weeks left...let the countdown begin. :)





Pillows for Anna

Slowly but surely, Anna's nursery is coming to life! I'm about 99% done at this point but wanted to document some of the projects I have been working on lately. As soon as I got back from Midland, I couldn't put my sewing machine away and poor Keith had to listen to it for hours on end for many nights in a row. I wanted to make a couple cute pillows for the nursery and I had a bunch of leftover fabric from the bedding that I could put to good use. I found a really fun pillow pattern online and while it required a lot of sewing, I think it turned out really cute. I had to cut 24 strips of fabric, ruffle each one of them using a basting stitch and then stitch each strip onto the purple fabric. I always seem to find the most complex patterns...

Isn't it so cute?!

The finished product along with another pillow I made earlier. I even stitched the purple cording on the green pillow. I think my mom and grandmother are impressed! Thank you again for teaching me how to sew...now I just need to learn how to sew a zipper so I don't have to hand stitch the pillow after it is stuffed.

I tried my hand at making fabric flowers for this little pillow. It was super easy and I just attached them to the inside of the pillow with safety pins. This one sits in Anna's crib - more pictures of the almost finished nursery to follow!

Mavs vs. Lakers - GAME 4

Keith and I felt SO lucky to be invited to see game 4 of the Mavs vs. Lakers and after the Mavericks had won the first three games, we thought there was a small chance we could see them sweep the Lakers in four games. The arena was absolutely packed full of people and it was the loudest display of fan support I have ever been a part of at the American Airlines Center. Everyone was so into the game and even though the Mavs ended up winning by 30+ points, not a single fan left the game early and everyone was on their feet the entire game. GO MAVS!!

We were lucky enough to be in a suite!!!

For Game 3 in Dallas, every single fan was given a royal blue t-shirt so the entire arena was in blue. We didn't get free t-shirts at game 4 but most everyone carried the trend over and was wearing blue. So exciting!

The Mavs drum line in the hallways after the game - all the fans are still so excited!

This game happened to be on Mother's Day so we had a packed day of church, the Mavs game in the afternoon, stopping to see Vicki after the game and then we picked up Hal/Janet from the airport that evening and had a lovely dinner at Pappasito's. The only thing missing on this Mother's Day was seeing my mom - I wish she didn't live so far away but in just a few weeks, she will get to spend a lot of time in Dallas with little Anna. I can't wait!! I love you Mom.

Crawfish Boil - so fun!

It has been a while since my last post but life has been crazy lately!

Last weekend was Mother's Day weekend and while I'm not officially a mom yet, I got some really sweet cards from friends and family so thank you for making me feel special! Keith and I had an awesome weekend and spent Saturday afternoon at Summer and Charlie's house at a crawfish boil. I absolutely LOVE crawfish (Keith, not so much although he did try one that I peeled for him) and couldn't get enough of the spicy goodness that we feasted on for hours. I grew up eating crawfish so peeling and cleaning them has never been a big deal to me but I can completely understand where some people find it frightening and somewhat disgusting to dig in and get all dirty. I just think that is half the fun! We had a surprise party later that night for one of Keith's friends and I couldn't even eat dinner I was so full.

Summer/Lindsey/me enjoying the feast.

Charlie/Summer bought 120 pounds of crawfish! There were a lot of dogs and kids at their house who were all quite interested in the live crawfish in the baby pool.

Love my girls!!

Candice and her beautiful little one, Abigail

Yay for non-alcoholic beer. I think Sharps is my favorite!

Summer's sister, Amy, is due 5 days after me - also with a little girl.