Candlewood Baby-Q

So the park right down the road from us just got a bunch of fun new equipment, a sand volleyball court, a basketball court and a new pavilion. When our friends Jimmy and Beth asked what we'd like to do for our church baby shower in Omaha, we immediately thought that a barbecue in the park complete with fun activities sounded like a great idea. Sadly, Omaha weather had other plans for us. It was a record breaking 100 degrees on Saturday! Apparently it hasn't reached 100 on May 26 since 1912. Go figure! haha. Everyone was still in good spirits though, even with the heat. Instead of outdoor games, we just basically amended the plan to hang out in the shade. Jimmy and Beth also brought a ton of water guns for the kiddos, which really saved the day!

Evite for the Baby-Q. 

Everyone trying to grab any available shade, even if it was on the ground behind the food. We had a potluck of Pulled pork sandwiches, assorted fruit, veggies, and tons of delicious glazed and baby blue frosted cake doughnuts (they were afraid an actual cake would have melted- I think it might have.)

 Everyone was so sweaty I didn't want to make people pose for pictures, so I just took some random crowd shots. 

My friend Lo caught me taking random crowd pics and said I needed to be in at least one "To prove I was actually there and didn't just google image search barbecue" LOL! So here is proof of my attendance, sitting with my friend Kiandra.

Curb side delivery of all our new baby swag after the shower. We really wanted a stockpile of diapers and our friends totally delivered!

 Another picture of the baby swag. All-in-all we received around 2,000 or so diapers in varying sizes and brands. Hopefully that should last us for awhile! We are so grateful for our wonderful and generous church family!

 Me propping my marshmallow feet/cankles after the shower. Casey was kind enough to deliver the presents to me. 

 Eddie was kind enough to be super "helpful" while I opened gifts.

Justin and Alissa's Wedding

Two of our favorite people from Omaha (Justin and Alissa) tied the knot on May 19, 2018. We couldn't be happier for them and had a great time celebrating with them. Casey deemed it, "the best reception ever," since every table had board games on it and I am currently too pregnant to force him to dance with me ;)

Just shy of 33 weeks. Feeling pretty big!

OPL Harry Potter Baby Shower

So my coworkers know I'm a huge nerd, and they are very nerdy as well, so when they pitched the idea of a Harry Potter themed baby shower, I was all in!

Table of snacks complete with funfetti castle and dragon bundt cakes, teddy grams and rainbow chip icing to dip them in (by my own special request, because I am a child.)

Close up on the candy. Everything was from the Harry Potter Universe, even the official labels (there may have been some light copyright infringement LOL)

Close up on the beautiful candy labels. They even made me a Harry Potter themed card. 

My coworkers are not exactly what I'd call "picture people" so here is a sneaky pic I took of them when they weren't looking ;) Note the different colored table cloths to represent the four Hogwarts Houses. They also made tiny buttons for everyone to wear that denote which house we're in. We've all added them to our lanyards that we wear with our IDs. Did I mention we're nerds? haha

Everyone voted when they came in as to what house they thought B.P. would be sorted into. At the end of the party, I pulled one pice of paper out of the cauldron. I am Ravenclaw (Clever) and Casey is Gryffindor (Brave) Looks Like B.P. is going to be Slytherin (Technically Ambitious, but also according to the books, possibly Evil! LOL oops sorry buddy)

 No worries, we will administer the actual test as soon as he learns to read!

Obligatory baby bump pic at home after the shower, 32.5 weeks

Casey had just mowed so I wanted a picture outside in the yard too before we took our nightly walk. He thought it was kind of weird, but I'm pregnant, so he had to oblige ;)

Pretty Sunset in the neighborhood.

A little dark since it was after dusk, but I also wanted a picture with my favorite tree on the Papio Trail. It's also fitting because I am starting to feel as large as this tree ;)

Some gifts from the baby shower, Crystal knitted me the blanket, and Abby knitted me the yellow hat (from One Piece, our shared favorite Anime/Manga series-  haha Super Nerds remember?) and the purple monster booties. Lynn cross-stitched the tea towel and also gave me the baby care set. (The glider and the elephant are from mom and dad/the previous shower)

I also received a Target gift card which had enough on it to purchase our travel system, featured above. I am very blessed to have such wonderful and generous co-workers!

Kansas City Weekend

We had our baby shower with family in Kansas City over Mother's Day weekend. Sadly, I was still fighting the plague, so I sounded pretty pathetic and was coughing non-stop, but we still had a great time. It was the first time we took the Subaru out on the open road too, and it was a really great ride!
The shower was ocean themed and it turned out so cute! A huge thank you to everyone for all of their hard work making it happen. We got tons of wonderful stuff for B.P. and felt very loved!

Adorable Invitation

Casey and I with our lovely shower hosts (aka our sisters) and all of the delicious and ocean themed treats.

 Posing with a homemade quilt from Aunt Margaret. 

 So many books! A librarian's dream ;)

Casey with the Bakers (Austin and his wife Lauren). Austin is one of Casey's best friends from childhood.

Our niece Audrey having fun with the googly eyes from the crab croissants. 

Our nieces Hannah and Olive waiting patiently to grab the next present for us to open. They were great helpers!

 My family, minus Justin and Becky, looking respectable.

 Clearly we couldn't hold it together for long, LOL!

Casey and I after the shower in front of the fountain by our hotel.

Mother's Day Brunch on Sunday with the Prewitts.

And one more, so Bryan can be featured as well. 

Random Kitty Pics

So I was stricken with a cold/sinus infection/bronchitis plague for about a month. While I was ill, Eddie was very sweet about napping with me on the couch, Jules, not so much. I think she's still salty with me for bringing Eddie home, so she primarily will only come snuggle with me when she thinks I'm asleep in bed. Since I will always be a crazy cat lady at heart, here are some random kitty pictures.

Jules typically prefers napping in her own bed.

Eddie loves naps on the couch, especially on this gray blanket.

Eddie in all his napping glory.

He hates the light.

Casey has been traveling a lot, in the last few months, in an effort to get all of his yard visits out of the way before B.P's arrival. The cats never want to be this close to one another, but they do love Casey, so they always double snug him when he comes home. It's pretty ridiculous, then again, I'm also pretty jealous. 

Casey is the lump under the covers they are laying on.

Utterly ridiculous!

New Ride

We've had a small red Ford Focus since 2011, and Casey was very excited to trade it in for something larger in preparation for B.P.'s arrival. We actually did some prep work this time before making a major purchase, which is new for us (haha hurray adulthood!) and looked up a lot of reviews on Consumer reports. Subaru Forester and Honda CR-V were number 1 and 2 respectively for compact sport utility vehicles, so we decided to narrow our search to those two models. I just had my ultrasound, and we actually hadn't planned to look at Subarus that day, but traffic on Dodge was abysmal and there was a dealership on our way home, so we pulled in to kill some time and wait out the traffic jam. Lo and behold they had a beautiful blue Subaru Forester with low mileage and a lot of fun extra features that we've never had before (like a sun roof and heated seats!). It started pouring down rain during our test drive, and then the dealership was about to close, so they let us take it home for an overnight test drive, which I had never heard of before. So we took it home, became even more attached, and the rest is history :) We've already tested the cargo capacity several times now (Lowe's, Sam's Club, Baby shower swag, etc) and have yet to be disappointed. It is definitely going to be way easier to load and unload baby accouterments than in my previous car.

On the overnight test drive (note the dealer plates). We have since switched sides of the garage, which took some getting used to, but I think it will be way easer to get B.P. in and out of the house from the left bay. 

Showcase pictures after my Dr. Appointment a few days later. 

We decided we needed new keychains to celebrate the new vehicle. Since the interior lights are kind of reddish, we deemed it a Sith vehicle as opposed to Jedi,  also Casey is a soon to be Father, hence Darth Vader. I chose Batman, no real reason other than he is eternally Rad ;) 

30 Week Ultrasound

So I am just over 30 weeks and had an ultrasound this afternoon to check BP's growth. The Dr. said everything looks great, which is always a relief. They estimated his weight at 3.9 lbs and placed him at the 58th percentile for size. Apparently they never change due dates but are estimating his arrival anywhere from July 1- July 9. 

We were hoping to get a cool 3D picture of him, but he remains camera shy. Not only was he snuggled in just above my bladder, but he had both hands at his face for most of the time. The tech even turned me to lay on my side to move him, but he remained stubborn. He finally moved one hand, but had his nose pressed up against the front of my uterus, so it caused a weird shadow that actually made him look a lot like Voldermort LOL, so sadly, no cute pics to share. 

We did, however find out that he has some wild hair, potentially a lot of it. I never even knew hair could show up on an ultrasound, but here it is. I believe this is a view from the top of his head. It kind of looks like an eclipse.

Growing Bump

So I haven't been great at tracking weekly progress by any means, but here are a few random ones to (mostly from when I particularly liked my outfit, or someone specifically requested a pic) to show that B.P is actually growing, and so am I.

April 9, 2018 Approx 27 weeks

April 21, 2018 Approx 29 weeks