Babies, babies, and more babies

It seems like everyone I know is pregnant including my sister, Bonnie. Our sister, Melissa, and I decided we should give Bonnie a baby shower so she could receive some much needed items for her soon-to-be addition. Bonnie is due the end of August so time was ticking away and we needed to get the ball rolling.

Finding a date seemed to be a challenge working around everyone's schedules, but we finally decided on July 10th. I volunteered to host the shower at my house. It was a big surprise to find out....well, you will just have to read on to see why I was surprised!

After some thought, disussion, and SHOPPING, we decided to go with a "duck" theme. We were fortunate enough to find decor that matched at one store. The hard part was, how many people do we account for? If anyone knows my sister, she invites anyone she talks to and we ended up sending out about 70 invitations! Yes! About 70 invitations (now you know why I was surprised after I volunteered to host the shower at my house). So, Melissa and I decided about 25% would come to the shower.

Our next dilemma, what do we do for prizes? I've been to showers where the gifts have been for the mother-to-be and other showers where the prizes were for the people that won the game. Melissa and I decided to do both. Bath and Body Works was having a GREAT sale on their lotions, soaps, and sanitizers so we got one of each for each every prize that would be given. Also, we chose a small gift from Bonnie's registry and placed one item from Bonnie's registry and a lotion, soap, and hand sanitizer into each prize bag. So in the end, each prize included a gift for the winner of the game and a small item for the baby.

The shower was good. All-in-all, there were about 15 people that showed up and showered Bonnie with baby gifts. Both of my grandparents were there along with my Aunts, cousins, Bonnie's mother-in-law and a couple of her friends. We played 4 shower games and enjoyed a wonderful duck cake made by our Aunt Stacy. Stacy is taking cake decorating classes and wanted to put her skills to work. She did a wonderful job! Thanks Stacy. I thought I got pictures, but I must have used someone else's camera.

I'm glad the shower is over. It is a lot of work and costly to plan and host a baby shower. Now, I just have many to attend between now and the end of September. As I mentioned earlier, almost everyone I know is pregnant. Maybe I'll be next!!!!

The decor in the living room. It's difficult to see the ducks, but everything looked great.

These are the balloons we put in the front entryway.

My grandmother Machacek and my Aunt Stacy.


Back from L to R: Grandma Spulak, Bonnie's friend, Bonnie's mother-in-law
Front from L to R: Bonnie, our cousin Michelle, and our cousin's wife Mindy

Bonnie is opening gift and our cousin Lillie is helping!

One down, a couple to go

As I'm sitting in my hotel room in Denver, I thought this would be a good time to update the blog. It's only been about 3 months! Yikes! I'm behind. There has been a lot that has happened since the last blog, but I will just update you on one of the project we had for the summer and upload photos of the project. What we thought would be a weekend project turned into a month long project. It took a while, but I finally got Jason to draw up landscaping plans and decide what he wanted to do. (Yes I said what Jason wanted to do.)

The weekend we started the landscaping my friend, Tammy, came to help. It took nearly all day Saturday to get the ground level and lay 5 feet of brick. Just when we were beginning to roll, a storm came in out of nowhere and washed out all our dirt work and bricks. So Sunday after church, we took the bricks out that were laid the day before and started over. Finally, we were on a roll and got the front of the house done on Sunhday. Well, needless to say, once we stepped back to look at our hard work, we discovered it was slightly uneven. From where we started to where we finished on Sunday, there was nearly a 2 inch elevation. Although that doesn't seem like much, we could tell it was uneven and once again, decided to start over.

After beginning the project 3 times, we were finaly able to complete the brick work in about a week. Now, everything is done: the brick work, the caps, the planting, and the mulch. Whew! I am so glad that project is completed! Now for the next one.

The third time is the charm. We were going to get it right this time.

Jason was bound and determined to get this project done! Even working late at night.

I had to make him come in the house so the neighbors wouldn't get upset by the noise.

The finished project in the front of the house.

The front of the house and part of the side.

The back of the house. I actually got to pick out the plants for this part of the house.