Bremerton Baby Shower

Jerel and I spent the weekend up in Bremerton. My sisters threw me a great baby shower. We decided since it was such a short visit and, of course, everyone wants to spend as much time with us as possible, that we would make it a co-ed shower. It was funny to see how excited the boys all were to be there. They did a great job though. They played all the silly shower games and complained just enough to be entertaining. We got so many great gifts! In keeping with the family tradition of torturing me, my mom made a baby blanket with frogs on it...Anyway, we got so many nice things I'm not going to try to name them because I'll forget someone.

My dad and I tried to figure out which of us looked farther along...I think he wins, but he pointed out that he's been working on his gut for years now and I've only been working on mine for 6 months.

Before the shower we went to Lisie's indoor soccer game. It was at 9am so we had to leave the house at 5:30am to get there on time, which Jerel was less than delighted about. But it was fun to see her play. I think she thought she was on a football team though because she was plowing down the other girls and elbowing her way wherever she wanted to go! After her game we went to Mason's 8th birthday party at a bowling alley. It was a party for his friends (he already had a family party) but we got a special invitation to come. We showed up with our own bowling shoes, which always makes people think we're good, but we're not. Well, Jerel's pretty good, but even with my snazzy purple shoes I still average around 80.

Sunday morning was Clara's baby blessing and everything went smoothly there. She was adorable and the congregation did a great "aw" when Josh held up the baby for everyone to see. After church we had a little birthday party for Mom. She's 53 this year. In my family when you blow out the birthday candles, however many you don't blow out is the number of boyfriends you have (or girlfriends if you're a boy). Anyway, my mom either has 51 boyfriends or else emphysema because she took like 7 tries before she finally got them all out. She has started a penny collection so for a gift we all chipped in for her to get a penny she wants--a 1909 Indian Head Penny. I don't know anything about it, but if you want a 6 hour description just give her a call and she'll be happy to oblige.

We had a fun visit and I got quite a bit done on my latest doily during the drive home. It was fun to see the kids, of course, especially since we hadn't been up there since Thanksgiving. Although I'm starting to get nervous...when Jerel and I got married 3 years ago we had 10 nieces and nephews between us and by this fall we'll have 20. If the family continues at this rate of procreation there's no way I'll be able to keep track of all of them!

To see some more pictures from the weekend, click here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ebeegrn/sets/72157616055331886/show/
or here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/28030935@N06/sets/72157616018085535/show/
or here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ebeegrn/sets/72157615966848595/show/

My nephews are geniuses!

Okay, so when we were kids, we used to get ourselves out of school all the time. We never got into any trouble so our parents didn't mind. One time my mom stopped by the high school to surprise Rick & Tab by picking them up early and as my mom was walking in she saw Rick and Tabitha walking out, having already forged her signature on the appropriate paperwork. Another time my mom actually signed a note for Rick to leave school early and the school called my mom to make sure it was real since the signature didn't match the one on any of the other notes they had on file...But like I said, we were good kids and it didn't matter much. Although I did get detention for it once.

Anyway, apparently we were slow learners because we didn't start doing this until high school, or at least late junior high. My nephews Asher and Mason, on the other hand, have already begun and they are only 9 and 8! On Wednesday my brother Rick got home from work around 7am or so and as soon as he got there Ivy left for the gym. Rick suggested the boys get ready for school and they said "No, we don't have school, spring break starts today." Rick was exhuasted from his 12-hour shift and had no reason to think it was anything other than the truth. When the school called to say the boys weren't there Rick was already asleep and no one checked the messages that day. When Ivy got home from the gym she asked Rick why the boys weren't at school. He told her it was Spring Break. She assumed he had checked into this and figured it was okay.

They weren't busted until later when one of Ivy's friends asked her why her kids hadn't seen Asher & Mason at school that day. Now, Rick & Ivy are still thinking on an appropriate punishment and Rick didn't want me to tell the boys how awesome I thought it was that they were capable of premeditated school skipping at such a young age, but I have to say I am impressed! Feel free to leave your punishment suggestions in the comments box!

The Cutest Nursery Ever on Earth in the Whole Wide World!

For Christmas one of my gifts from Jerel was that he would paint the nursery. He (after hours of research, as usual) picked a darling design and then (after long months of procrastination) stayed home this week to take care of getting the nursery all painted. {Jerel's note: I would like to clarify my role in the actual painting of the room. While I did stay home it was in more of a supervisory role while a professional painter did the actual work. I wanted a chair rail installed and the existing trim painted and I wanted it to look good and since I had neither the expertise nor the equipment I decided to pay someone to do it.}

Before the painting the room was rather blah, just all white. Well, mostly white. I think the previous owners must have had kids in there because it was rather dirty. As you can see now it is just so bright and beautiful! Jerel let me pick the shades of yellow and green. I picked these ones because it makes me think of green grass with yellow daffodils. (The shades Jerel wanted looked like puke and pee, but we will be seeing enough of that when the baby comes. {Jerel's note: The shades I liked did not look like puke and pee, just better shades of green and yellow.}) The chair rail really adds a lot of character, the stripes are fun but not overwhelming, and the ceiling is even painted yellow to match the stripes.

Anyway, I think it is absolutely lovely! I'm sure the baby will like it as well. He is kicking all the time now and I think it's because he wants to come out and see the new nursery!