Strawberry Shortcake Sprinkle for Elizabeth!

My mom's family had a "sprinkle" for Baby Elizabeth last Sunday. Let me tell you, it was much more of a "shower" than a "sprinkle"! We got SO many nice things for Elizabeth, including lots of diapers, wipes, and cute girly things! We also got some gift cards and cash which will REALLY come in handy once Elizabeth is here, we plan to use those for formula and diapers, which can get very expensive very FAST! Gabriel even got a few gifts just for him, including a bear from our preacher. He has named it Sparky and he has been taking care of it this week, he wraps it up in a blanket and it has been sleeping in Elizabeth's cradle!

Thank you so much to Aunt Carol, Aunt Rita, Melissa (aka MeMe), Aunt Christine (hope she is feeling better) and Maria for doing this for us and making it SOOOO special!!!!! And thank you to everyone who came, we are so appreciative. With this being our 2nd child, we certainly did not expect to have a shower, so this was just a WONDERFUL unexpected surprise!

The food was so yummy and of course strawberry themed: pink cupcakes, fresh strawberries with pink creamy dip, strawberry cheese ball, precious homemade strawberry shaped mints, and of course red punch (my favorite!). Also some delicious homemade pickles made by Aunt Rita. They are SOO good! The decorations were vintage Strawberry, including lots of stuff of Meme's. So much fun, thank you to everyone again for such a special party!

A Few Fall Pics

Playing baseball in our yard



Putt-Putt at Captain Hook on our recent beach trip


Ceddy and Gaby spent a LOT of time in the pool together!


Cedric got doughnuts and this hat for Gabriel from KK...everytime Gabriel would eat a doughnut, he would put his hat on, so cute!



Gaby riding his favorite ride at the CC fair

Corkboard

Here is my latest craft all finished (thanks to Cedric for helping me with this)! I got the idea for this on our honeymoon, almost 5 years ago! I have been saving wine corks (and having others collect them for me) for a long time. I finally gave up and just ordered some used corks off of eb*y. I had all these corks probably a year ago, and finally got around to assemblying the board this fall. I think it turned out great and we have displayed it in our kitchen. I love seeing some of the corks that are from places and people that are special to me.

32 Weeks and Counting...

I have neglected the blog lately...No real reason other than things have just been EXTREMELY busy around here. I feel like there is so much that I need to be getting done before E makes her big arrival on 12/6. Not just baby stuff to do, but also trying to get stuff ready for the holidays and for Gabriel's birthday on 1/10. AAAH! I just don't feel like there are enough hours in my day to do all the things that I want/need to do. Here are some highlights of what we've been doing lately:

* Went to the beach last weekend Friday-Tuesday. Weather was awesome and we had such a great time. We spent a lot of time at the pool and made our daily trip down to the ocean. Gabriel wants to go down every day, but he never wants to stay very long. I need to work on this because I love being down on the beach!

* Being sick. Gabriel and I have had a cold for 2 weeks now. I kept thinking we would get over it and it was never really so bad that we just felt horrible (never ran a fever, etc.). Just a lot of snot and coughing, mainly in the morning. I didn't figure I could take anything good anyways (since you can have NO fun when preggo) so I didn't bother going to the doc....Had an OB appt yesterday and he gave me a z-pack. Please let it work. I am actually feeling worse now than I was earlier in the week. My doc said to see if Gabriel's cough improves over the weekend and if not, to take him to the doc on MOnday. So keep your fingers crossed that we both feel better. Sux being sick!

* Murrays Mill Festival and Cleveland County Fair--we had a blast at both of these events, pics to follow later, I promise! Gabriel loved the fair and even talked me into riding the giant ferris wheel with him. These things don't usually scare me, but I was VERY scared the entire time because he was not strapped in. I was afraid at anytime he was going to make a quick move and fall out! Fair food was great of course, the only thing that was bad was that we got rained on. But after the rain, there was the most beautiful, complete rainbow in the sky. I had never seen one make the complete arch before, it was amazing!

*Work-I have been super swamped with work lately. Having to travel a TON to get to all my hospitals before my maternity leave begins. Don't really mind the traveling, but when I am gone all the time I get WAY behind with the stuff I have to do in the office and right now I feel like I am just playing catch-up. Love my job but am really looking forward to getting away from it for awhile and just getting to be a mommy and wife. I feel like I don't do the best I can sometimes (esp. the wife part)because after the end of the day when dinner has been cooked, the kitchen cleaned, and Gabriel bathed/read to/etc. all I want to do is sleep myself (and I usually just go to bed). I remember when I was at home with Gabriel, it was just so nice not to have the constant pulling in various directions from work/home/etc. Now being at home with him was no cake-walk, it was much tougher and tiresome than I thought it would be. But if you are lucky enough to get to stay at home with your kiddos until they go to school, you are one LUCKY person in my opinion.

ALright, that is enough from me for one day...I am having my breakfast of hot lemon tea and dark chocolate (that is what I wanted and thought would taste good--my mouth is so yucky from this cold)...Hope everyone has a great fall weekend!