Baby Even's Baby Shower

Our very good friends Kate and Ryan are due with their first sweet baby girl at the end of November right around Thanksgiving! We are over the moon excited for them and I was so happy to throw them a baby shower. I love baby showers, but this one meant more to me than most! Baby Even is already loved so much and we cant wait to meet her!

I love details at a party, so early on I asked Kate and Ryan what the nursery would look like. They decided to use a baby animals theme with pink, yellow, mint, and grey. The nursery turned out gorgeous and gave me a lot of ideas for the party. My silhouette came in handy while planning this party, along with Etsy and Pinterest (of course). Have I said how much I love baby showers?

The shower was at nine in the morning at our house, so Kate and I decided on a brunch - also one of my favorites! As guests arrived, we asked them to write their address on an envelope for Kate's thank you cards and to sign a frame as a guest book. Guests ate, we chatted about birth and baby things, and then the games began. We played  Baby Gift Bingo (with prizes) and then wrote messages to the new mommy and daddy for midnight diaper changes. What a fun morning of all things Baby Even! Congrats Kate and Ryan, we love all three of you!

Pilcher Baby Shower

Yay! A new cousin is due in July! A few weekends ago, the family gathered to celebrate Baby Pilcher! The ladies attended Beth's baby shower while the men had a Beer and Diapers shower for Gene. When we arrived at the shower, we all wrote a note to Baby P on a chalkboard and took a picture with it. Karen is making a book out of all of the photos for Beth and Gene - what a great idea! We had delicious food, played a few games, and watched the future Momma open presents. It was a wonderful afternoon and we had a great time celebrating Beth and Gene's baby BOY!

After the showers, the whole family gathered at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Dayton met his Great Grandma and Grandpa Rominger that day and we took photos of Gma and Gpa with their 6 (almost 7!) great grandchildren (here). Our family sure is growing and we could not be any more excited about Beth and Gene's new baby boy's arrival!!

Karen & Beth | Kristen & Beth | presents!

Great Gma R & Dayton | Beth & Gene | the babies | guarding the diapers | Abby and her baby from the ice

Karen took some adorable pictures of Momma B and Dad with their grand babies!

Baby Shower #5 ~ Co-Workers

My last baby shower was supposed to be my work shower. It was scheduled for April 10th at 4 pm after school. Unfortunately, little man cam early and I had my "shower" in the hospital with just my grade level team. We are planning on having a "Meet and Greet" at the end of May so that all of my co-workers can meet Dayton and we can have some snacks together as a faculty to celebrate little man.

My awesome team came to the hospital Wednesday night and brought the gifts. My team thought it would be a great idea to take a collection and then buy a large item from our registry. We agreed! Our gist ended up being our baby monitor! Yes!! They also included an outfit, a book, and a few other small items. My team also brought a dozen sugar cookies from our favorite spot, Main Street Sweets. These cookies are a-ma-zing! Brad is not a huge fan of sugar cookies, but after eating one he said, "They must have crack in them. These things are awesome!" Haha...not that either of us know what crack is like... The cookies are really good though, seriously.

I love these girls!!

Baby Shower #4 ~ Classroom Baby Shower

My sweet little kiddos and 2 of my classroom moms threw me a Baby Shower. It was so sweet and I know I will miss all of my little ones so much!

We started out the Baby Shower with gifts. The kids made me an Alphabet book for Baby Bishop. They each drew a picture for a letter of the alphabet and one of my room moms scanned them, put them all together in the book along with each kiddos picture. There were also some class pictures and some of our favorite memories from the school year. The best part of the book, the kiddos drew pictures of things that I love or "do." For example - a few of my favorites:

• B is for beach - with a picture of me and baby at the beach
• F is for football
• G is for gym  - with a picture of me in the school gym
• I is for Iowa State (bless)
• J is for jogger - with a picture of me running with the baby
• W is for working out - with a picture of me in the gym working out! so funny and adorable!

Seriously, this book made me tear up a little. It is adorable!! and such a sweet keepsake for me. Baby Bishop also got a Iowa State onsie and a gift card to Target! This class knows me well!

After we opened presents, we played "Put the Diaper on the Baby" - or the cabbage patch dolls - while racing and "Guess the Baby Food." We also had some healthy snacks while we were guessing baby food. Such a sweet shower and I enjoyed the time with my little ones! They all hold such a special place in my heart. It's going to be hard to leave them, but I am very much looking forward to maternity leave. I promised them all I would come back the last day of school with Baby D so that they could see me, I could say goodbye, and they could meet little man! I mean, they have watched him grow all year! Best. Class. Ever.

Isn't that adorable?! Love it so much!! Thank you 2nd graders (and the wonderful moms who put this together for me)!!

Baby Shower #2 ~ Bishop Family

We are so blessed! Both of our families have thrown us the most adorable Baby Showers! This weekend, we enjoyed spending time and celebrating our Baby Boy with the Bishop side of the family. The shower was at Matt and Karen's house, so we drove down Saturday morning. When we got to the house, the first thing I was ecstatic about was the monogram wreath hanging on the door! Love love love it! Everything in the house was decorated in navy blue and orange - our baby room colors. Gorgeous.

We ate some yummy appetizers, played a few fun Baby Shower games like, "The Price is Right - Baby Edition," "Who Am I" with baby pictures from everyone attending the shower, and "Finish that Phrase" to see who could guess what Brad and I would answer. All of the family also filled out a list of wishes or hopes for Baby D too. Some of them made me tear up from the sentiment and some of them made me tear up from laughing! I know I've said it before, but I have the best in-laws ever! I love them all so much.

Thank you Sisters Beth and Karen (and Momma D) for the adorable Baby Shower. You two are amazing and I am so lucky to call you sisters! (and thank you Karen for taking pictures for me!)

The whole Family!

And one more fun one...Prego sisters! Me: 34 weeks / Sister Beth: 23 weeks! Both BOYS!!

Surprise Baby Shower! for Azia

I know I've said this before, but I will say it again (and maybe a thousand times)...I adore our church small group. Our church group might be the best thing that has happened to us in CF. I love love love all of the precious couples in our group. They are amazing and they have been a huge part of our spiritual growth since we've joined this group. I cannot say enough good things about them! I especially love the ladies. They are my bunch and I love "doing life" with them. I've never had this many girlfriends who are also spiritual friends. It's just amazing. Aaaand a bunch of us are pregnant! which is even more fun.

This week, we decided to throw a surprise Diaper/Baby Shower for Azia. Azia is having a baby girl in May and this will be her 3rd baby! All of us ladies got together (behind Azia's back) and planned to shower her with baby girl clothes and diapers. We had lots of goodies, mounds of diapers, precious baby girl clothes, and plenty of labor room war stories to go around. Such fun! Congrats Azia!! We can't wait to meet Baby girl!!