baby shower

i think it's about time we talk about this baby shower that my mommy threw for me when craig and i drove up to washington on the fifteenth. she had a nice, sweet evening planned, and then it turned into a wild, crazy party. but i won't show you any of THOSE pictures, too many people would just be so embarrassed. just kidding. but really, maybe i'm not, how are YOU supposed to ever know for sure?

i guess you'll just have to take my word for it. and here's the side of the story i will tell you:

first of all, long before we ventured up to washington my mommy mailed/emailed all the invitations out. i drew the picture on the cover, here's what they looked like. look familiar at all?

our friends the carters let us use their big, pretty house to hold the shower in. it was in a really great location, much less up in the mountains and far far away than my parent's house is. so all these pictures were taken in their fancy home and you can contact them for decorating tips and secrets. i know you'll want to.

 my sweet husband craig is responsible for almost all the photography. what i would give for a good camera, he's so skilled at taking pictures and i wish he had the proper equipment to help nurture his talent. i'm SO glad he came to the shower, i've never been to a baby shower before with the father present but i know it happens more and more lately, and i honestly loved it. he was an extra super helper that we all could boss around all night. and when he wasn't getting bossed around [by me, i kept leaving my water bottle where i couldn't reach] he spent his time just being completely charming, i love how involved of a daddy he is. he could probably be the best dad ever AND a better mom than me, at the same time.

my mommy, craig, big sister drashell, and little sister ahnahceleh were all there as part of the genius team behind the shower. our guests included my big sister jolain and my niece sierra, our dear friend jane nelson, the always amazing renae swecker, ,leslie ostrum, a friend of mine since i was a little one,
barbra hoffer, a friend of my mommy's who did all the decorating for our washington wedding reception back in the day, and my bestie bethie!

my mommy slaved over a stove all day and did all the delicious baking. she made her gourmet lemon bars recipe and apple crisp [the perfect dessert for fall, i'm so glad i got some of that home baking, i miss getting fed by my parents]. there were bowls for mixed nuts and lemon drop candies. i made some lemon cupcakes and little flags to go in them out of paper from a childrens songbook. we drove them up unfrosted from oregon to spokane, and my sister drashell frosted them for me when we got to the shower. she also helped set up and took charge of the two kinds of delicious punch we had and then took the job of cleaning up after all of us party animals. isn't she sweet!

my little sister ahnahceleh spent the day helping me put together some decorations for the shower. all the mason jars/vases were decorated by us, she held a LOT of things still for me while i tied bows on them. she usually had to hold them upsidedown because my most perfect bows somehow naturally come out upsidedown so we had to trick them into submission. ahnahceleh also sorta participated in BEING a decoration. look at her. she's so fancy. she's the one in with the spikey hair and the japanese dress thing. if she was here she could tell me what it was called.

as part of the shower decor we had a little photo album with all of our ultrasound pictures of kahree so far and then some baby/little kid pictures of me and craig. instead of a guest book we had a big jar for people to leave notes/drawing in. i accidentally left the jar in washington so i still haven't read all the notes yet! i can't wait though. i think it'll be a sweet thing to have in kahree's room. craig drew the sweet little drawing on for the jar of us as lemon-headed people with a little lemon baby on the way. we also had a little box of envelopes for people to address to themselves, since i'm so bad at making sure thank you notes actually LEAVE my house after i write them. hopefully this helps ensure that they all get where they're going!

for the first game there was a candy guessing activity. my mom and sister picked out a pretty vase and we filled it with lemon drops and had all of our guests guess how many where in there. the winner got to keep the vase and all the candies! my niece sierra guessed the closest, everyone else guessed high and she was only about ten off of the real number. i very dramatically handed the vase over to her.

our second game was another guessing game, this time our guests had to guess how big they thought my tummy was using a length of yarn. this was a simple game but very amusing. i was barely six months along at the time so i was just starting to get pretty big, to the point that you could tell it had to be a baby and [hopefully] not just think i was getting chubby. our dear friend jane nelson guessed it just an inch or so off and won. it was one of the very lowest guesses, so that made me happy. i love to hear i don't look very big still, so please, when i'm ten months and counting, do me a favor and tell me i don't look a day over eights months? thanks, you're a doll.

our next game is one of my favorite baby shower games ever, i think it's just hilarious. mommy picked up diapers and ten kinds of chocolate candy bars to put inside them. to prepare this game you just need to put the diaper with its candy bar into the microwave until it's melted and maybe even a little explodey. after we did this craig passed all the very gross, poopy looking diapers around and our guests had to try to figure out what kind of candy bars were responsible for the diaper mess. isn't that SO funny? i gave everyone permission to tastes the candies to help them guess but no one went for it. it was still an amusing sight to see everyone passing around dirty diapers to each other and staring at them quizzically.

for our last game some guests brought a baby picture of themselves and we layed them all out and everyone had to guess who they thought was who. not everyone brought one and i threw craig's and mine into the mix even though we weren't playing, so it made it extra tricky for everyone. i love seeing pictures of people as babies and seeing what features they've had since they were born! i also love seeing what other people see in faces that are already so familiar to me that i don't notice the little things, like how bethie knew which two pictures were me and ahnahceleh but she couldn't tell who was who exactly, she had it right until the last second when she switched them around. and i never knew how alike we looked as babies! my favorite picture was of my mommy when she was little, i don't think i ever saw a picture of her as a baby before now. it was SO cute, she was so animated and so obviously her, i loved it.

we wanted to have party favors and so i stole a really neat idea from my friends jessica's baby shower. we had a bunch of lemons with recipes for my mommy's lemon bar recipe attached to them, so that our guests could use the lemon to make the recipe. we originally planned to use apples to match the apple crisp but when i found out we were having a baby girl everything kind of just led into a little lemon theme and we ran with it. craig drew both the pictures for the recipe, the one of the dad tossing the lemon up in the air is my very favorite.

craig's camera died in the middle of the whole gift opening bit, but you can see a couple of my favorites here. was really so grateful to have cute little girl things for kahree when she gets here and things to help me take care of her and make her happy. and it was so amazing to see friends and family from home again, i don't even know how much i REALLY miss them until i finally get to visit and then have to go back home again.

being in the presence of close friends and some wonderful, experienced mothers and getting to hear about their experiences and advice was such a blessing. i hope i can manage to be like them someday, raising children who are loving, good people despite the mistakes i know i'll be making. carrying this little girl right now the thing i keep thinking i want the very MOST in raising is not for her to turn out "just right," but for her to grow up knowing how intensely loved she is. for the first time ever i'm realizing hugs and snuggles may be more important than rules and good behavior. now that i'm almost a mommy i know how much of a perfect mother mine was to me, even though i didn't know or appreciate it at the time, and i have to stop myself from panicking every time i feel that i might not be able to do as good as she did. i mean did you see this baby shower? what if i can never throw the perfect baby shower for my daughter! i guess she'll just have to ask her grandma to do it. that's the only sure way to get a really rockin' party.