Fingernails, Food, and Friends...

For the second weekend in a row, I was blessed with a baby shower. This one, hosted by my dear friend Gwen, included my family and closest friends.

My mom, Abby, Jayne, and Gwen kicked off the morning with some manicures and pedicures at a super cute salon near Gwen's house. Man, do I love manicures & pedicures :)
Once properly pampered, we headed back to Gwen's house where several more friends joined us for lunch. Gwen's classy and modern decorations...and thanks to everyone who helped with food...(I think I ate enough for four...:))
Anne, Kacey, me, and Anne (I'm not intentionally trying to hide my belly in these pictures...so far the chair and coffee maker have been conveniently placed!)
We retired to the family room for gifts and games...Anne, Kacey, and Lindsay...
My beautiful sister-in-laws...
Mom & Aunt Peg...
Our son will definitely be in style.
And, although I closely resemble a beached whale in this last picture, I included it anyways because it's the only one of the hostess, Gwennie. Let's blame it on the angle, or the turtleneck, or the horizontal stripes, or....
Anyways, I had a wonderful time. Thank you so much for a great day. We are so blessed to have such caring and supportive family and friends. So, now that we are overly spoiled, let the countdown to baby begin!

Volleyballs, Dirty Diapers, and Charades...

On Sunday evening, my volleyball players and their moms hosted a baby shower in my honor. It was truly one of the first times, other than remodeling the nursery, that I have gotten to sit down, relax, and celebrate the upcoming addition to our family.
Everything was awesome. We started with a delicious dinner...the weather was still warm enough to eat outside. Man, do my players look different when they're all dolled up!
The other half of the team, or should I say, the trouble-makers. All drinking sparkling apple cider and lemonade. I'm actually so thankful that this is their version of living dangerously!
After dinner, the girls played some baby shower games. This was my favorite part. I got to sit on the couch and snap pictures. They got to demonstrate their knowledge of all things pregnancy.

Game 1: Charades. I'll let you see if you can figure out which words the girls are acting out. Answers to follow.
The Answers. Pic 1: Contraction, Pic 2: Epidural, and Pic 3: First Steps. I kept it G rated and left out Water Breaking, Breast Feeding, and Pregnancy Test :)

Game 2: Guess which candy bar is melted in each diaper. A baby shower classic, but even better when played by high school girls!

Game 3: Chug the bottle full of Ginger Ale. Again, SO much better as a spectator/photographer!

The girls were also asked to write "words of wisdom from a varsity warrior". These were so cool, so I thought I'd share a few of the things the girls wrote:

"Don't pull your sister's tail..."

"I may or may not have accidentally hit you with a volleyball while still in the womb. Sorry!"

"Always respect girls (including your mom)"

"Always listen to your mom because she might make you run stairs if you don't."

"When I was a kid, I did a lot of things to get myself in trouble..learn from my mistakes...don't color on the wall, don't carve your name into the antique table, and don't eat your mom's lipstick."

And to top it all off, the team and their parents spoiled us rotten with dinner gift cards, cute outfits, and must-have baby gear. It was a great night, and I am extremely grateful!

The ONLY positive thing about fall yard clean up...

Our Hallow-Weekend.

We had an excellent Halloween weekend full of all sorts of fun and festivities.

The weekend began Friday at school. I heard my volleyball players whispering Thursday after practice, but wasn't sure what exactly they had up their sleeves. When I got to school Friday morning, this is what I saw...
Yes, there were 13 pregnant-puff-wearing-me's walking the hallways of Arapahoe all day...they actually looked pretty funny with volleyballs stuffed under their shirts. If only that was actually what my belly weighed...

After a full day of Saturday volleyball (we lost and now the season is officially over), Mark, Abby, Nolan, and Heath came over for some pumpkin carving fun.
The finished masterpieces...thanks to Abby for printing out some templates!
Sunday, Halloween Day, we made our traditional visits to Grandma Tammy at work (who showers the kids with full buckets of candy and balloons), Grandma Inge, and then off to my parents' house for soup and more trick or treating with the family.

Payton the Black Cat and Brady the Pirate were greeted at the door by two people they did not recognize...
I think they're looking pretty good for 60 don't you?!
Susie-Q joined in on the fun as well...
...and Wes enjoyed his red-headed company!
We also loved having Brad, Jayne (aka Mr. Schu and Rachel from Glee) and Cohen (aka Mr. Skunk for Part 1 of the evening and then my twin for Part 2) here for their first Halloween!
And if all of this wasn't fun enough, throw in Nolan the Fireman, his Puppy Dog Heath, Ella the Bunny, and Rylan aka Buzz Lightyear (and their parents of course!), and you've got one rockin' Hallow-Weekend!

A Perfect Day To...

No school for Payton or me today.

What a perfect day to...

go to the park...

pack a picnic lunch...

enjoy the sunshine and fall temps...

play on the playground...

snap some pics...and be super thankful...for these two awesome kiddos...

Home Depot Fun

Happy October (FINALLY)! Yesterday we enjoyed a volleyball-free Saturday by cheering on Payton at her soccer game. She scored another goal (yeah!) and had two assists. I'm not sure she knows what that means, but she dribbled all the way down the field and then lost the ball. Her teammates kicked it in for her, so we said that was just as important as scoring :)

Afterwards, we headed to Home Depot to look at paint colors for the baby's nursery...we didn't know, but on the first Saturday of every month, there is a free kid's workshop. This week they were recognizing fire safety, so Payton and Brady got to see a firetruck, get in a Hummer police car and play with the lights (Brady LOVED that), and build their own fire boats. They got aprons and pins that they are supposed to keep and bring back each month, they wore safety glasses and used hammers, nails, glue, and a screwdriver to put together their boats. They both thought it was SO cool, and they did a great job!

1st Day Of Preschool!

There have been several consecutive posts about Payton, so it's time for one about Brady. Last week, he started preschool at Denver Christian. He is going every Tuesday and Thursday morning, and he is VERY excited about it. His teacher is Mrs. Lewis, and he has six other students in his class. After our initial parent meet and greet last Tuesday, Brady had his first "real" day of school on Thursday. He was really brave and ran right into the classroom. No tears or fears. His only complaint is that the frog nametag labeling his coat hook is blue, not red :). Good job Brady! You are such a big boy, it's hard to believe you are already in school!