Mother's Day Giveaway!

Wow, what a long couple weeks. I am now a mom. I will have to post pics of the baby and the story of these crazy last couple weeks later, maybe after a nap- HA! But for now, I HAVE to post about a giveaway that my sister in law, Harmony is taking part in. (The button on the left for LaDeLi designs will take you to her etsy if you want to see what types of products she has)

But this giveaway is awesome. It is on Natalie's Sentiments, which is a blog that I admit, I've peeked at a few times. Natalie is a friend of Harmony's from when she lived in Tennessee and from what I've seen of her blog, she has great style and really cool ideas. I'm also loving the yellow and grey- which our the colors of our car seat/stroller system :)

Anyway, there will be 3 winners of 5 different prizes. Go enter for really cute prizes. I love the bird and nest necklace.

Waiting for baby...

Since "Sadie" is now 4 days late (and counting) and my Dr's appointment today was cancelled (so that she could deliver someone else's baby) I have decided it is best to think positively. I am finally going to get a post up here about how lucky I am to have such great family and friends that I had 3 baby showers thrown for little miss (stubborn). ;)

They were all very different from each other and just perfect. The first one was a tea party shower with family and friends from Illinois back when I was visiting at Christmas.

The next shower I had was an awesome surprise~ I knew there was a shower that night, but didn't really know that much about it. Well, they threw the coolest theme shower I'd ever been to. It was held in the super cool lounge area in an apartment building downtown. I'm not very quick and was pretty nervous, so I didn't catch on to the theme, haha. There were top hats everywhere and stars and bunnies. Then Alli told me it was a magic theme. Uh, I LOVE magic. Perfect

Star cookies that Johanna made, they were delicious.

The food (all vegetarian!) was really tasty. And the set up was fancy

There was a cool candy/ cupcake bar set up. Yum

The cupcakes had bunnies and card shapes on them.

Then in walks a man in a suit and I'm thinking... why is there a GUY at a baby shower?

Until it hit me~ He's a MAGICIAN!!! Wow, wow, wow!

The show started and seriously, he did tricks I could not figure out.

Here he is with his magic rope. (You can also see how many of my lovely friends showed up to celebrate this baby girl)

Some of his other tricks included picking and correctly guessing cards, lighting money on fire and then bringing it back (a hundred dollar bill too!). I can't remember some of the other ones he did, but they were pretty cool and even being that close- I couldn't figure it out.

My friends spoiled her rotten with lots of presents.

Unfortunately I am not a good picture taker, so this is the one I'll post. I made a really goofy face, consistently in every picture when posing with each gift. Consistently. The same goofy raised eyebrow-uncomfortable-with-attention face.

After that magical evening, I had yet another fun party in store that weekend.

On Sunday afternoon, my friends from work threw me a great shower with lots of games and prizes.

I was given a crown "New Mom to Be" and a ribbon to wear

This was probably the best tasting cake I've ever had. They got it from Pavilions. It had strawberry/whip cream filling and whipped icing. Seriously delicious.

Sandwiches, fried chicken, chips and salsa, veggies and dip. So much to eat and drink.

I stood by the food for probably 45 minutes just snacking :)

Jami, Tanya, Lauren and Karen

Leslie, Lilly and Mariann (2 of the hostesses) me and Lauren

Cute little Lila wearing my crown.

Lila is the granddaughter of Laura (the other hostess) who opened up her house for us.

I didn't get very many pictures (and even though I tried hard not to make a goofy face in the present pics, I mostly did, so I'll be avoiding those again too) but there were so many sweet girls from the office there. And we played game after game after game. Clothespins, memory, bingo (which I won! haha), chocolate poop diaper guessing game. It was great!

broken machines

Grrr. What's that old saying- Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice...

Anyway, yesterday (during day 2 of housewife-ness) I decided it was a good time to wash the rest of the baby stuff - particularly the outfits CB picked out for her going home choices, so that I can finally pack our hospital bag (I mean, she's due next week right? haha)

So I pack a light, but still pretty good size basket of clothes and walk it down the stairs with my brand new roll of quarters. And the washers are not in use. Perfect.

I have all these motivating ideas of laundry and cleaning the bedroom as I load 4 quarters into the first machine. Shut the lid. Nothing. I check the plug. Well, my motivating ideas are turning into- I just don't want to walk this back up the stairs 9 months pregnant... So I load 4 quarters into the other washer, close the lid- Nothing! By this time I'm frustrated. $2 lost. Laundry down the stairs. I use my phone to call the repair company and file a work order.

They don't know if the repair guy will be by this afternoon, so I begrudgingly walk the basket back up the stairs. But not before I go get post it notes to mark that they are broke, so that no one else has to fall victim to the same misfortune I did.

Flash forward to last night- CB gets home and we decided to go across the street for Thai food. As we are passing the laundry room, we see someone in the room with clothes, so we think, wow- they came to repair it fast. So this morning, as Caleb is leaving for work, I have him carry the basket down the stairs and into the laundry room. The note is on the left washer still, but the right one is noteless, so I think, oh- I guess this one is working. Load in my $1 in quarters and shut the lid- NOTHING!

I can't believe that it got me again! And the hospital bag is STILL not packed. A lot of people requested/predicted that I would have the baby today, but I would rather not, so I'm keeping her in. haha

The Talented Ms Larson

A couple weeks ago, my sister-in-law came to visit with my niece Stella.

We did Disneyland (which was definitely a different experience this pregnant! haha) We ate donuts. And we fit in this photo shoot. What Makaya did in about 30 minutes from 8:30-9am before I had to hop in the car to go to a set- was amazing. And some of the most real pictures that CB and I have ever had taken together. I'm so thankful to have these pictures of "just us" taken mere weeks before our lives will be forever changed.

Anyway, the point of this post is that Makaya has just launched her new website- www.makayalarson.com

Check it out- Her work is beautiful and has real emotion. Congrats on the new site Kaya!

I'm beyond lucky to have her in my family and I can't wait for her to capture our babe. Hopefully she is more photogenic and less whiney of a subject than I am ;)

And just for fun, here's one she took of me on Christmas eve, in the drizzling rain about 20 minutes before she packed up the car to drive 5 hours to her in-laws.

Finally!

We've tried it out for a few weeks. It's been a long road coming, but we finally decided- Unless she comes out looking completely different, our little girl will be named Sadie Magnolia. (Sadie was Caleb's suggestion and one that I'd liked from a book I read as a teenager. Magnolia is one I suggested while he was in Europe and since then I just knew it had to be part of her name somehow.)

It is March. She's coming THIS month. That's unbelievable. Saturday I'll be 37 weeks and she'll be full term. The doctor reminded me this past week that she could come anytime now. I think she'll hang in there for a bit longer though. She's pretty good at minding us already. She flipped when we asked her to get back head down. She stayed in when we wanted her to wait for Caleb to get home. I'm asking her to let me get through my last week of work and I expect her to stay put at least another week or two.

The sweetest thing though- she started moving a lot the first night CB was back from his tour, especially when he'd talk to her. It hit me- she missed him. How adorable. She's already a daddy's girl.

Just a few Confessions:

Whenever I hear the song "Empire State of Mind" by JayZ and Alicia Keys... I want to move to New York City. I have always kind of thought that I would live there someday. Whenever I have pictured it though, I have kid(s) that are a little older- like 5.

I haven't done dishes since Caleb left on Saturday. I will have to crack and wash them tonight though... I'm out of clean drinking glasses and I have to make a salad for a work potluck for tomorrow.

I'm excited for the baby to come but I think being excited for my 5 month maternity leave to start is a VERY close second. She is due 4 weeks from Saturday! This pregnancy has flown by and I really don't see it slowing down anytime soon.

My tolerance must be down...

Day 1 of Caleb's mini-tour and I already miss him...

Guess I've been pretty spoiled having him home for the last 2 months!

At least it is a short one- only a week this time.

I think my melancholy is also due to not getting enough sleep last night.

I'm sure I'll feel much better tomorrow.

He played at an Indian reservation tonight. I hope he finds a cool pair of moccassins for the baby!