Baby Shower

Last Saturday my awesome sister-in-law threw the best baby shower ever!

Her parties are always spectacular, and I was honored to have one thrown in my honor

Can you tell the theme yet? Everything was covered in cupcakes!

The best was, we didn't even eat cupcakes! We had little cupcake pops from Bakerella. (Which are DELICIOUS by the way)

She made my apartment look so cute

Can you tell? I got a hair cut!! Three inches off the bottom, and lots of layers! My hair feels so light now. It's great with this Texas heat.

Sadly, I didn't get a picture of everyone who came! We took pictures of all the decorations before the guests came, and then once everyone left we took out the camera again. But the actual party you will all just have to imagine.

Isn't this quilt adorable? My sisters are in Utah, so they made it for me and then shipped it to me so I could open it at my shower. Don't I have the BEST sisters? I can't wait for them to come in October.

Look at all these cute baby clothes! I LOVE tiny baby clothes! I just love reorganizing the baby's closet and drawers, refolding everything, looking at all the darling teeny tiny clothes. I think I'm all set for baby clothes now. I may have to change the baby's outfit three times a day just so she can wear all her outfits before she outgrows them! 

The shower was fantastic! and I hope that everyone who came had a great time. It was fun to hanging out with all my friends. When Ali goes professional with this party planning I will be sure to let you all know because I'm sure you will all want her number. 

27 weeks

Okay, time for an official belly shot.

note: these pictures were taken 3 weeks ago, I'm now 30 weeks!

What I've been up to

Several people have commented that I haven't posted for quite some time now. Well, it's because I haven't been up to much! I left my job at the end of April. It was a tough decision to make, but I have had such a hard time with this pregnancy that Jeff and I decided it would be for the best. I liked my job and I will miss bioethics (and let's be honest, I am REALLY going to miss the paychecks.... Hello student loans!).

The morning of my last day of work

At the beginning of May, Jeff and I both flew up to Utah so I could attend Women's Conference with my mom and sisters. We bought the plane tickets before I started having contractions, so I was really worried about taking the trip. But luckily everything went well and my medicine was able to keep everything under control.

Women's Conference was great! This was my third year, but first time with my sisters. I enjoyed going back to BYU and seeing the campus, I have so many memories there. We attended several great, inspiring talks. I am excited for the talks to come up online so I can listen to the lectures I missed. If you want to listen to talks from previous years they are available here. I love to download the audio versions and load them on my ipod to listen to during the day.

 One of my favorite parts of Women's Conference is the service projects. This year for my take-and-make projects (service kits that you pickup at the beginning of the conference, make while you attend all the lectures, then return your finished project at the end of the conference) I crocheted a pair of slippers and crocheted a border around a flannel baby bib. Then for the big Evening of Service event we all made tutu's that will be donated to little girls in hospitals or domestic violence shelters. 

While I was at Women's Conference Jeff hung out in Layton documenting that it SNOWED while we were in Utah! (It was a climate shock compared to our nice Houston temperatures in the low 90's)

On the last day of Women's Conference, Jeff drove down to Provo to pick me up and go visit his sister Amy, and then some of our dear friends who live in Springville.

We are so excited that Amy will be leaving to serve a mission in Brazil this September.

After our trip, things have been a bit on the boring side. Jeff does homework and I work on little embroidery or cross-stitch projects that I can do sitting on the couch with my feet up. Yes it stinks, but I am just grateful that I am not on bed rest. I have to do what is best for the baby!

This is a cross stitch project I am working on, I'll post a picture when its finished.

This is a little bib I made for my friend Kristin who just had a baby girl.

And when I feel well (which is a lot more often now that I have quit my job) I like to cook. Here I am making Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls (I love PW's cookbook). I like this picture because I actually look pregnant. So far I think I just look fat and I can't wait until I have a huge belly that people can't possibly mistake for anything but a baby bump. I begin my third trimester in a week so hopefully that belly bump pops out soon!

Ultrasound Yesterday

Yesterday we went to the doctor for an ultra sound. As you already know, last month we were hoping to learn the gender of our baby but the little one was modest. So, yesterday I was hoping the baby would get over it's shyness. And.... SHE decided she would let us have a quick peak. She was in a really odd position (odd enough that the doctor commented, "Wow your baby is in a weird position"- what can I say, she is working on her flexibility!) Anyways, this odd position meant that the doctor told us there is a 90% chance it is a GIRL

Well baby? Is the doctor right, are your a girl?

Is that a thumbs up or thumbs down? (Do you see the little hand?)

Well, the baby is upside-down... so I think it means thumbs up! That's confirmation enough for me, gotta go- lots of pink and frilly things to buy!!!

P.S. For the Hamakers with bets on the baby stats, we did measurements yesterday too. If the baby continues to grow as she is now, she will be about 7 1/2 lbs when she is born.

The Amazing Book Sale

My sister-in-law Ali told us about a booksale that they do at the local library twice a year.  She said it was a great place to pick-up children books for cheap... but what she didn't say was just how AMAZING this book sale is!!

I've always enjoyed getting a good deal on stuff, but in Angela's family, bargain searching is somehwere between an art and an obsession.  So when she heard about the bargain booksale, that bargain buying blood started boiling in her and she could not wait to find some amazing deals.  

My family is famous for turning everthing, everywhere into a competition!  So I decided that we should take seperate bags and see who could find the best bargain book!!

With the competition brewing in my head and the bargains in Angela's, we didn't sleep much Friday night.

We got up early on Saturday to be the first in line.  Well, technically I was the first in line and Angela was second in line.  All rules of "girls go first" and "be a gentlemen" and "don't push the pregnant lady out of the way" don't apply when there is a serious competition at hand.

When they finally let us in, we made a mad dash for the children books, and here was our loot!

This version of Green Eggs and Ham has pop-out flaps and has thick board pages.

All in all we bought 43 books.  Since we only had about 5 children's books before, this was a significant improvement.  Some of them needed some taping and cleaning, but I think they all are in very good conditioning.  How much did we spend to get all these books....... $11.50  That's right, we could not believe it.  You can't even buy one nice children's book for that price, and we bought 43!

But we still have a problem.  Who won the competition?  We can't decide, so we put up a pole on the side of this blog so everyone can vote on which book was the best find. 

We need your vote, or we won't know who won (anyone that knows the Hamaker's knows how important it is to have a winner!)