Hosting a Baby Shower

A couple weeks ago I helped host a baby shower for my friend Chanel, who is having a baby boy and is due just a few days after me! It was so fun to come up with a theme and decorations and food!  We decided to do a winter theme with a hot chocolate bar and yummy treats.

Hot chocolate bar: chocolate chips, marshmallows, whip cream, cinnamon, crushed peppermint, pirouettes.

Dessert table: Peppermint bark, chocolate covered pretzels, andes mint cookies, coconut cupcakes, sugar cookies, muddy buddies, caramel corn and rice pudding!

This was the only picture I had with the hydrangeas that I thought were beautiful!

Take home gift of hot chocolate cone.

It was a really fun night! Thanks for having a baby Chanel so we could have a party!!

Gavin's First Shiner

Gavin got his first black eye. I am surprised that it took him this long to get one!

We told him that it was time for bed and he went running in to our room. The lights were off and he tripped on something and landed on the corner of our nightstand. He's such a tough little guy!

Shower for Baby Girl!

My awesome friends were so sweet to throw me a baby shower! It was so much fun and they went all out! Because it's going to be a February baby (hopefully) there was a cute Valentine's theme. The food and the decor was amazing!

I love the pink and red striped straws. They are so fun!

We had delicious butternut squash soup, a yummy salad and really tasty rolls for dinner.

The chocolate cupcakes and strawberry shortcake were perfect for dessert!

I loved all of the flowers and cute decorations.

They had these cute and delicious jars of strawberry jam for a take home gift.

We played a fun game and then opened gifts. Everyone was so generous and it was fun to open all of the cute baby girl clothes and accessories!

I am so grateful to have such wonderful friends. I meant to get a picture with all of the wonderful ladies who hosted the shower for me, but I completely forgot. Thank you all for such a wonderful and fun night!!

Happy New Year 2012

Happy New Year!!  Because New Years Day was on Sunday this year the Rose Parade was moved to Monday. So Sunday was a pretty relaxing day. We went to Church and then hung out with the Jarvises until it was time for them to leave. We had a great time with them here and were sad when they left!

The morning of The Rose Parade we had a super lazy morning and slept in! We then decided we should probably take advantage of living here and go see the Rose Parade. Luckily our friend's Dave and Brittany live a couple blocks from Colorado Blvd. (in our old apartment!)  They saved us a spot near the parade and we headed down there. We actually only ended up staying for about 10 minutes because it was so hot!! Last year when we went to the parade we were freezing. This year it was 85 degrees!!  But we were able to see some floats and a marching band.

We are excited about 2012!! I have to admit that I am not sad to see 2011 be over. It was a difficult year. It will always be a great year because we found out we were having our baby girl. But the rest of the stuff was not the best. 2012 will be a great year for us!!

38 Weeks

Not a lot of changes this week. I had another doctor appointment yesterday and everything still looks great! I am still having contractions, but nothing serious. Her head is still pretty high, but I am dilated to a 1. Doctor said he thinks I will go at least one more week. But this is exactly what I was at with Gavin and he came 3 days later.

I got my hair done yesterday so I am okay for her to come at any time now! Last year I had a hair appointment scheduled for the day after Gavin decided to come. I didn't want that to happen again! (Although they are having a shower/going away party for me at swim team on Tuesday, so I guess I should be there for that!)

Yes, I made another skirt. What's wrong with me??

I am feeling pretty much as ready as I am going to be. Now I have time to just sit and be nervous. I haven't really thought much about the actual delivery. Part of me just hopes that it is exactly like it was with Gavin. That way I will know what to expect. But I know that it is different every time and I need to be ready for that.

I am also starting to be nervous/anxious about Gavin's reaction to the whole thing. Although we talk about the baby all of the time, we know that he has no idea. I just worry that his little world is going to be completely changed and he will be sad. I don't want him to feel ignored or neglected. Right now he gets all the attention from both me and Andrew all day long. It is going to be a big change for him. It wold also be very helpful if he would stop fighting his naps and just sleep!

I also started worrying that I have been so focused on making sure she doesn't come early, but what if she comes late? What if she doesn't come on her own and I have to be induced? I just have too much to worry about now!!

But at least for now, things are going great and we are all healthy!

December phone pics

Here are some more fun things we did in December, courtesy of my cell phone pictures!

One of our very favorite hamburger places, The Habit, opened up in Pasadena! Gavin loves the milkshakes!

We took a quick trip out to Las Vegas for a couple of days to see Josh, Hillary and JJ. We had a  lot of fun, although it was freezing cold!! I thought Vegas was always warm! Gavin was in absolute heaven with all of JJ's toys, especially his "Cars" toys. He would line them all up in a row like this. 

We had fun with some Christmas crafts and goodies.  I loved making this handprint Christmas tree with Gavin. He had fun at first, but got a little bored at the end. I think it turned out great!

I made these cute reindeer cookies for a Relief Society cookie exchange. They were fun, but probably not worth doing again. The pretzels melted and had to be kept in the fridge.

But Gavin enjoyed eating them. (and apparently his car did too)

Gavin met with some friends and decorated these cute sugar cone Christmas Trees.

I went ice skating downtown with the Young Women. (I didn't actually ice skate, but it was fun to see them!)

We got our early Christmas present from the Jarvises, a double jogging stroller!! Andrew was so excited and couldn't wait to try it out. We invited Betsy over for a little jog.

After the jog they went and watched the construction trucks at work. Unfortunately we have had constant construction on the street just outside our house for the last 6 months. The gas company, city, cable company and someone else have all been working on it. They tear it up, patch it up, then tear it up again. You would think that they would coordinate and do it all at once. Fortunately Gavin absolutely loves the "dump trucks" and wants to go see them every day.

We did a little Christmas shopping at Paseo one night and had a delicious dinner at Rubios. Gavin is a big fan of the black beans there. He wanted to make sure that he got every single one.

December was a good month!

Trains and Fondue! A New Years Eve celebration!

The Jarvises met us back in California for a few days after Christmas. We had a lot of fun while they were here. On New Years Eve Day we decided to take the train to South Pasadena for a fun afternoon.

Gavin had never been on the city train before and he was very excited once he realized what we were doing. He kept saying "The train!" and "all aboard!"

Waiting at the train station.

South Pasadena is a cute city with a small old town feel. We walked down Mission Street and checked out some antique stores and other cute shops. We ended at the Fair Oaks Pharmacy for a delicious lunch and ice cream! Unfortunately by then Gavin was a little bit of a wreck.

Riding the train back home.

That night we had a delicious New Years Eve celebration dinner at The Melting Pot!  Our friends Dave and Brittany were nice enough to watch Gavin for us so we didn't have to worry about him sticking his hands in the fondue!

The food was delicious, although I was a little disappointed that they had a set menu so I couldn't have my favorite salad there! Oh well. Everything was still amazing!!  They even provided these fun hats for us!

We didn't want Gavin to feel completely left out, so we let him try on the hat when we got home!

After putting Gavin to bed we watched "Charade." I didn't quite make it to midnight, but I tried.

It was a great end to 2011 and a fun beginning to 2012!

Dinosaur!

While in Utah we were able to go to the Dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point. Gavin absolutely loves dinosaurs so he was excited to go!!

We first spent some time in the little science area. Gavin had fun running around and playing with all of the experiments.

Then it was time to go see the dinosaurs!

This picture was very fitting. Gavin would not stop running the entire time!

They have this very cool play area where the kids can play with sand and water. They also have little dinosaurs to play with. Gavin loved it!

He also loves sharks!

Afterwards we checked out the gift shop. Gavin pulled out all of the toy dinosaurs and lined them up. Grandma and Grandpa let him choose one thing to buy and he surprisingly didn't choose any of the dinosaurs. He chose a snake.