My wonderful friends Christina, Tracy & Charlyn hosted a baby shower for me (and Maggie!) this past weekend and it was so great! It was a murder mystery shower and I had no clue that this was going on. When I arrived I was given my costume (an apron) and name (Candy Cane).

I love themed parties and I also love playing games – who can resist a murder mystery? I have the greatest friends because everyone was up for the game. I can’t believe that nobody spilled the beans, everybody knew weeks before I did. I had started to wonder why nobody would talk to me about the shower…now it all makes sense.

There were little touches of pink and brown sprinkled all through the house with a table of tasty treats to die for. I think I inhaled no fewer than 9 marshmallow bars and 6 pieces of chocolate. Tracy made her famous punch which was pink, rather than the traditional green. One activity was to make bracelets to wear until Maggie arrives, which we all did; however, mine popped off yesterday as I was carrying groceries. Perhaps Maggie is closer to arriving than I originally thought!

It was a fantastic day from start to finish with some of my very favorite people in attendance:

The crew from Hilltop: Charlyn, Christina, me, Trace, and Jenica.

Pregnant Friends: me, Lara, Erin, Cole

Anacortes Friends: Kara, Katrin, me, Lara, Erin, Nicole, and Jenni

Pre-posted picture….just kind of funny.

****Not pictured in a posed shot: Darcy, Chach & Deb****

As I mentioned before I work with a crew of people that are extremely creative and generous. Last week the staff at my school put on a shower for HB’s impending arrival – Little Miss Maggie. I received so many gifts that will get put to use, but what was really touching was the amount of things that people made. Here is a quick recap of those items.

Cupcakes made by a parent of one of my students. Cute and delicious!

A sweater knit by Susan, our splendid principal.

A diaper changing bag/pad made by Jenna, who teaches 3rd grade, and Kylene, our Music teacher.

A sweater knit by Jenna.

A little bunny blanket made by Kylene.

A knit hat made by John’s sister-in-law.

A sweater knit by Ceres, our Developmental Kindergarten teacher.

A scrapbook display made by a parent of a former Destination Imagination student.

A fleece blanket made by Debbie, an Instructional Assistant.

A diaper cake made by Angela, a kindergarten teacher.

A tag blanket made by Pam, another Instructional Assistant.

THE quilt  worked on by Ruthie, Karen, Cheryl, Jenna, Peggy, Martha, Karen, Annette, Pam, Kylene & Katie. I was mostly along for the ride on this one.

See, I work with creative and generous people. I held it together and didn’t cry over this outpouring of love until the shower was about 2 minutes from being over and John, our fantastic librarian, came up to me and handed me a gift card. He’d already given me the knit cap pictures above, but something about his matter-of-fact way of giving me a gift card put me over the top and my eyes started welling up with tears.  Of course it wasn’t the gift card that did it – it was everything.

Maggie is such a lucky girl already and knowing how many people are excited and thrilled to welcome her into this world amazes me.

Sydney’s eyes bugged out of her head – more than they usually do – yesterday when I came home from work because the staff at my school showered me with a baby shower and all the new gear came home.

It was overwhelming, as the people that I work with are extremely generous and creative.

More on that later, but I wanted to share with you Sydney’s reaction as Barry and I unloaded the car.

Not to worry, her eyes have popped back into her little head and she’s snoring right now, so I don’t think she is too agitated over all the new things.

We’ll just have to make sure she stays out of the baby bath tub.

My friends Christina, Tracy and Charlyn are throwing me a baby shower this weekend!  This week leading up to the event Charlyn has been sending me picture clues about different things that will there that I might not otherwise notice – as I’ll be belly bumping with the guests. For the most pat I’ve been able to decipher what each picture is, but the last one I’m clueless!

Obviously this one is a gift box of some sort. I love the pink and brown.  Since Charyln is SUPER creative, I’m almost certain she made the paper boarder thing. (Can you tell I’m not sure what to call it?)

Oh, I loved this picture. This woman could be considered part of my mom’s side of the family. My Grandma and Grandpa Lowman started a relationship with Mrs. Sees that has carried on for generations now!

And who can deny the goodness of a great cupcake? Certainly not me.

Diaper cake galore!!!! I won’t be eating, but know that I’ll be enjoying…in the very near future.

And this picture, I have NO clue. I’ve made a number of guesses and don’t think I’ve come close. Any thoughts feelings or concerns from the faithful HB readers?

While Barry and  were taking some pictures in the middle of the Skagit Valley this weekend Sydney was understandably upset that she was not the focus of many of the photos.

Barry had to take a few minutes and talk her down from the rage that she was feeling.

Have you ever seen an upset Pug? It isn’t pretty.

She’s going to have to share the limelight very soon – thats the message we’re sending her.

Ohhhh…..it gets her blood boiling!!

I’ve waxed and waned about how I lack the crafty bone, but apparently when it comes to Mod Podge I’ll sit down and cover myself in the gooey mess with the intent of creating something. This past weekend I found myself, again, in the paper section picking out delicious colors to add atop a barn star.

I kid you not when I say that I saw no fewer than 5 other pregnant ladies wandering around the store with craft-lust in their eyes. If you feel the need to see a pregnant woman I suggest going to a craft store.

Anyhow, last night I sat down and hammered out a bumpy, sloppy, not-straight-even-though-I-used-a-ruler, paper & Mod Podge covered star. I’m happy with it, but now wonder what I’m going to do with the rest of my massive bottle of Mod Podge.

Back to the paper section to hang out with the other pregnant ladies at the craft store, I suppose.

While the Miller Men went to enjoy the Chilly Hilly, Darcy and I decided to get crafty and drown ourselves in Mod Podge. Both of us were in uncharted waters in terms of the steps needed to take to create the final product.

We were covering the letters of HBaby’s name and it wasn’t until we got to the final letter that we discovered the most efficient way to add the modge podge without impending disaster or bumpy, choppy edges.

By the time Barry and Brian made it home – after both completing the 33 mile Chilly Hilly(!) – we were ready to show them the completed project. I’m certain that Martha Stewart isn’t going to be calling anytime soon (Sorry, Darcy) but it was fun to do and I’m really excited about how the letters turned out.

Many people have asked us about what type of hair we think our daughter will have. Barry and I both live with heads of hair that tend to have their own life , or perhaps we just don’t care enough to ‘do’ our hair each day.

Either way, if we let months go by with out maintaining our manes, our hair becomes out of control. Looking back at old pictures this much was apparent for both of us at a young age. Barry’s curls didn’t show up for quite a while, but he’s always had a nice mound of hair atop his dome. My hair, on the other hand, looked like a Kewpie doll from the get-go. Thankfully the sides have since grown in and I no longer have the swirl of curls at the tip-top.

I have no idea what our sweet little girl’s head of hair is going to look like, but boy am I excited to find out.