One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, New Fish Baby Shower!

Today I threw a baby shower for my sister-in-law who is due in February.  I went with a One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish/New Fish theme because I saw a bunch of cute ideas online, AND it's a fun children's book.   :)  When guests arrived, they had three tasks.  The first was signing the mat for a framed baby picture (once baby arrives).  The second was to choose a date on the calendar when they predicted the baby would arrive.  Guests stamped the little footprints on their chosen date and signed their name.  The third task was to write a wish to Kara and her new baby fish and hang it on the tree.  I looked for an indoor potted plant, but time of year, the pickings were slim.  :)  So we got a small Christmas tree that she could plant outside if she chose.  

Food consisted of pasta salad, ham sandwiches, Swedish Fish, goldfish, fruit, chicken salad in little shells, cheese and crackers, and cucumber sandwiches.  Here's the recipe for the cucumber sandwiches.

1 package of softened cream cheese

1 packet of dry italian seasoning

Mix those together and spread on your choice of bread.  Sprinkle with dill weed and serve.  

My favorite part was the cake.  I had someone make it to go with the theme of the shower.

I made little life savers pacifiers with jelly beans to go with the cake.  They're really easy to make.  Just use icing to "glue" two life savers perpendicular to each other.  Once that sets, use icing to "glue" a jelly bean to the other side.  

She got a lot of wonderful things for the baby!  One of the things I liked the best about her wedding shower and this baby shower is that we set out the gifts for everyone to see.  It's hard to appreciate all of the nice stuff people get at showers because you see it for 10 seconds when she opens it and then it goes back in the bag.  By setting it out, you can go look at all of the cute stuff they've received and fully appreciate everyone's generosity.  Here's her loot: 

On the right, you can see the little tree with the wishes.  The diaper cake in the middle was provided by my other wonderful sister-in-law! :)  It was adorable!

All in all, it was a great shower!  :)

New Emmett Pictures

Between our new camera and the pictures we got taken from a friend, I wanted to post a few.  :)

Cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeese!

Greg and I got a new camera yesterday!!  WOOO!! :)  There wasn't much wrong with our last one, but I wanted one a little more sophisticated and that I didn't have to wait 3 seconds for it to take the picture.  I also wanted one that took fancier pictures.  The one we had is still great for point and shoot times, but we figured since Emmett is growing up and we have another one on the way, we might as well invest in one that takes super great pictures.  They're only young once, after all! :)  We got the Canon Rebel T2i, and I LOVE IT!  Here's a few of my favorites from the first day.

I need to play with the settings because I'm still using the basic features.  Hopefully I'll have a few more to show later.  :)

Events of the Past Two Months (well, 1.5)

It's been a loooong time since I've posted on my blog.  Sorry to the three people who read this.  :)  Let's just recap what's been happening...

We went to pumpkin patch #1...no pumpkins actually growing on the vine, but placed out in the field.  It's okay, it still looked pretty.

We also took the annual trip to Carter Mountain with the Starkeys and had a great time!

 
And our most recent development...

Well, not really most RECENT, but probably the most substantial.  :)  I'm about 12.5 weeks along, and I got to hear the heartbeat today.  It's hard to believe that when I went in about 3 weeks ago, all we saw was the little blob with nubs for arms and legs.  Today we got a beautiful baby profile, complete with "regular-sized" arms and legs moving and hiccups.  :)  The whole process is simply fascinating to me.  I can't wait to meet this little person!! :)

Harrisonburg

We had a great time at the JMU game in Harrisonburg this weekend!  We checked into our hotel (Greg chose Super 8....might I add, without asking me), and it was exactly what you'd expect for Super 8.  The doors were not even locked to get into the back part of the building.  The whole hotel smelled like cigarette smoke, including our room.  They had to dig the crib out of storage, and they couldn't even find crib sheets for it.  NICE.  The crib was rickety, there were screws coming out of it, and Emmett could shake it.  Now THAT'S what I want my son sleeping in.  So we politely told them we weren't staying there and would be taking it up with the corporate office.

We also went to the Farmer's Market.  It has some antiques there, a food store with homemade treats, a jam/jelly store, a bookstore, and a toy store.  I don't normally go antiquing, but I have started to appreciate these things more from reading people's blogs and seeing what can be made out of something that looks like junk.  Here are some things I found that I REALLY liked.

Old school desks complete with hole for ink

Butter churn $159

Claw foot tub from an 1893 farmhouse in Port Republic, VA.  

I ended up buying a blue Ball jar (heeheehee...did anyone else giggle??) :) with glass lid and 2 books that I'm using for Christmas gifts.  I asked the ladies what they knew about the difference between blue and clear glass, and they didn't know.  Thanks to the internet, now WE can all know.

Ball discontinued the use of their famous "Ball blue" glass in 1937. They had produced and controlled this color since the late 1890's, and it was caused by the minerals in the sand they used in their glass batch (which came from the shores of Lake Michigan) and also the amount of oxygen used in the furnaces to melt the glass.

I LOVE this jar.  And did I take a picture of it?  NO.  Not yet.  I'll add it later, I promise.  

Here are a few pictures from the game.  :) 

Kitchen Remodel Part 4

The countertops were put in on Thursday.  WOO!!  They're beautiful!  The contractor came back Friday to put in the faucets, and of course one of them is broken.  But Greg is ON IT!  They're already sending us another one.  Here are the most recent pictures of the kitchen and the bathroom.

The only thing we have left to do is to put in the backsplash.  I went to a tile class yesterday where I was the only student.  Apparently other people have a life on a holiday weekend.  :)  So I got to do most of the tiling and grouting at the tile shop, and I think it helped me feel more confident about what we're doing.  Here's hoping it's not a complete fail!