Blessings Baby Shower!

From the fullness of His grace 

we have received one blessing after another. 

John 1:16

Blessing was the perfect theme my sweet friends, Jenna, Ginger, Nikki & Erica, chose for a baby shower to help me get ready for our new baby girl. 

And I couldn't agree more...I feel that the Lord has indeed blessed me over & over again...with a wonderful & godly husband, with 4 precious children, with a fantastic extended family, with an uplifting & generous church family, and many wonderful friends...and now with a new baby girl due in the next few weeks! My heart is overflowing...

I will praise You, O LORD, with my whole heart;

I will tell of all Your marvelous works.

I will be glad and rejoice in You;

I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High. 

Psalm 9:1-3

After a cold & dreary week, it was such a sweet afternoon yesterday and so fun to be greeted by Spring in a table scape! This gorgeous table greeted guests & set a very festive & cheerful atmosphere! Beautiful pink lilies were in abundance everywhere. 

There were envelopes for guests to address so I can send them a thank you note...I love this because it really helps make the thank you note writing process much more organized! 

At the center of the table were cards where friends could fill out a little card with a little note of encouragement to me or memory of some way that I had been a blessing to them...can I just say WOW! 

I read all of the cards in my "Blessing Box" when I got home after the shower...how humbling, how encouraging, how amazing...everyone needs a Blessing Box!! Thank you ladies for this awesome idea!

 These adorable pink flower pots were hand painted with the word "Blessing." They were filled with little sachets of flower seeds & topped with the cutest paper pinwheels you have ever seen! (I think these girls understand my obsession with pretty scrapbook paper, lol!) At the end of the shower, each guest got to take a flower pot home as the favor! 

The cake was an amazing work of art, almost too beautiful to eat...almost, but that would be a terrible shame because this cake was not only gorgeous, but it tasted out-of-this-world delicious, too! (Oh & did you notice the monogram...we have decided on our baby girl's name! We are not keeping it a secret, but before I reveal it here, any guesses?)

 A beautiful & yummy pink punch...punch is my favorite! If I didn't enjoy going to showers & such already, I would probably go just for the punch! 

I don't know how in the world I didn't get a photo of the food :-( but it was fabulous & beautifully displayed, as well. There was a delicious potato soup, home-made by Ginger...it is also one of my favorite things! There were beautiful Caesar salad bites on individual pieces of romaine lettuce; yummy chicken salad sandwiches, chips & salsa, veggies & dip, Nikki's famous Devonshire Tidbits (maybe she'll share the recipe so I can post it!), warm spinach dip, and a lovely warm chocolate dip with strawberries, pineapple, marshmallows, cake, & more to dip! My girls were particularly fond of the chocolate dip & marshmallows! (Hmmmm, now I'm remembering why I didn't get any photos of the food...once the girls saw the food it was kind of non-stop action for a little while!)

Darcy enjoying her first plate full! 

 Sophie's first round...

 Two very lovely & special ladies, my mother-in-law & my mom! 

Opening the presents with my two sweet & eager helpers! 

 Ever needed diapers!!

 What amazing & generous friends! 

 Me & my girls, can't wait to add another!

 Precious hat & flower booties made by the wonderfully talented Mary Ann!

 Beautiful pillow!

 This was a precious moment, one of the cards played the song My Girl when you opened it. Darcy happened to open that card & was mesmerized by the sweet music!

 Adorable ruffle-bum onesies made by Jenna...

 ...she says it was her first attempt at sewing & I'd say she's off to a great start!!

 Whoo-hooo diapers & wipes, those are always a blessing!

 My mom & I 

The Hostesses with the Mostesses...Erica, Nikki, me, Ginger, & Jenna

The pretty Blessing banner that was hanging over the patio doors...sweet Jenna is going to embroider the baby's name & the John 1:16 Scripture verse on this for me to hang in the nursery...how awesome is that! 

Have I mentioned how totally blessed I was by every aspect of this shower? And the gifts were no exception, I was overwhelmed by everyone's kindness! It's one thing to have a big shower for your first baby, but when it is your 5th, well that is an extra special blessing. I totally love that our Sunday school class recognizes each precious baby the Lord blesses us with & showers the mom regardless if it is her 1st or 10th! (Okay, we don't have anyone with 10...yet!) I think this is a little picture of the way that God desires to bless us...

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever!

Ephesians 3:20-21

While I was unpacking the gifts this afternoon, I took a few photos to show you all of the wonderful blessings for our new baby girl to use & enjoy...

 Wow! Blessing on top of blessing!

 It is always so nice to have some new wash cloths, towels, onesies, etc. with a new baby...those things that get used so often get dingy looking after a while.

 Ginger always puts together the most amazing themed gift baskets!! I'm thinking this bow will look pretty on the front door when baby girl arrives!!

 Here are some more pics of those adorable ruffle-bum onesies that Jenna made. And the beautiful pillow from sweet Erica!

 I think this adorable little outfit from my mother-in-law will make the perfect coming home outfit!

 Sweet smocked romper, also from my MIL

 Super soft blankets, onesies & ruffle-bum leggings!

 Sweet outfit from my mom! I can't wait to put her in this one, too!

 The ever sweet & uber talented Jenny made these gorgeous burp cloths!

 Lots of goodies from my mom! I love the sweet sleep sacks!

Aw, this sweet romper just makes me long for warmer temps! We are all looking forward to lazy summer days with our new little one!

Thanks to everyone who helped make the shower yesterday so special! 

I enjoyed just spending time visiting with so many dear friends...and now I feel much more prepared, armed with all the essentials for baby's arrival! I'm also starting to feel like we are getting things organized at home (just don't judge by the state of the house at this moment!)  Jeff made lots of progress this weekend in Drew's new room...all of the stuff is cleared out & he patched the holes in the walls. He is waiting for the patches to dry & then will sand & paint! He picked-up some paint chips this weekend & I chose a color today. Things are coming together and I hope the progress will continue this week...slow & steady & I'm thrilled with that!

Please pray for us though, as our sweet Sophie came down with something late Saturday & has been laid-out ever since...fever, headache, sore throat, no energy...we will go to the Dr. today to see if it is Strep or the flu which seems to be everywhere right now or something else...pray that we will stay healthy! Thanks & many blessings for your week ahead!

100 Days, Dalmatians, Valentine's, Birthday Parties & Baby Showers!

Just typing out that blog post title, I am aware that this is probably a lot of ground to cover for one blog post...but when has that ever stopped me before, LOL! I kept meaning to get a post up mid-week, but it just never happened. I felt this week like I started a lot of things & didn't finish much...but I'm keeping with my "slow & steady" theme, and I know that eventually I will be crossing things off of my list!
So if the title didn't give it away, we have had a full, but very fun week! We got off to a slightly bumpy start with Sophie home from school a few days with a virus. I don't know if you guys are the same, but having one home from school just sort of throws my whole day off kilter & I wind up being far less productive when I'm out of my normal routine. But that's okay, we got to enjoy some extra snuggle time & I wouldn't trade it...I'm daily reminded that these moments are flying by as our kids grow up before my eyes.
We got things back on track by mid-week & Sophie returned to school on Thursday, just in time to celebrate the 100th Day of School! What a fun day to celebrate & I love how this is such a big deal! All of the kids in class made a 100th day poster with 100 of something on the poster.
Sophie came up with the idea to do 100 jelly beans in a jar, like we have sitting on our kitchen counter.

Sophie & Darcy counted out 10 groups of 10 jellybeans. 

I helped a little by drawing the jar in pencil on the poster board & then Sophie traced over it with a marker. 

Then it was time to get busy gluing!

The finished product turned out great & looked quite yummy! 

Those are some of the posters displayed in the hall at school.

I love the kids' creativity & how each poster is so unique!

Well of course, after 100 comes 101, and we wouldn't want 101 to feel left out of all of the fun...so Sophie's class also celebrates the 101st day of school in true 101 Dalmatians fashion! All the kids dressed up like dalmatians & it was SO cute! I believe they started this tradition the year Jack was in K, and thankfully we still had the "dalmatian" shirt we made for Jack tucked-away stuffed in the depths of the dress-up bin.

I think Sophie makes a darn cute puppy!

Throughout the week I have been working on jazzing up the house a bit with some festive Valentine's Day decor...

As a result of nesting, I have been cleaning out a lot of closets & I found these little crafty hearts that I made last year for Darcy's class. I put them in flower pots that I painted red & pink.

And I used them here with our Blessing Blocks spelling out Valentine!
(We seriously love our blocks & the kids have so much fun finding all kinds of things to spell out!)

A bit of red to jazz up the island.

I also worked on making a heart garland for our new fireplace mantle.

Here is how my desk has looked for almost a week, covered in all sorts of hearts & shapes...

And here is how the garland turned out!

I still need some pops of red on the mantle to jazz it up a bit.

I made a little V-Day wreath from a wreath that I used 2 Christmases ago as a Christmas card holder.

Here it is as it had been hanging on the back of our bedroom door for ages...

And here is the new version! 

I think it turned out pretty cute for using items that I already had on hand...I did purchase the ribbon 2 weeks ago...I had stopped by Michael's & they had clearance bins of full their wide, wired holiday ribbon, but the "holiday" collection had tons of colors like pinks, blues & purples...the rolls were originally $9.99 and I got them for $0.99 each!

I'm not sure if it will stay here on this table or if I will eventually hang it on the front door...

I also found these old candle sticks that my dad found at a yard sale, probably for free...I have been meaning to paint them for ages & you can see that at one time I started to paint one of them brown...Well, now I'm going to paint them red & use them somewhere as part of my Valentine's Day decor...maybe I will jazz them up with hearts or polka dots...I love that I can just repaint them for any holiday!

These are one of the unfinished projects, so I'll have to show "after" pics next time!

So that's pretty much our week...Friday was a very cold, rainy, sleety, dreary day...we were all in & out of the rain all day, so it was a perfect night for a fire, pizza & a family movie! We all snuggled up together with our popcorn & watched The Princess Bride...a favorite from my own childhood! I didn't take any pictures, but Drew was SO adorable at the start of the movie propping up a pillow & sitting down in front of the TV with his bowl of popcorn. In true "movie night" fashion, Drew didn't sit long, but wandered around the playroom eating popcorn & playing with toys. And about half way through the movie, we took a short intermission to put Drew & Darcy down to bed. The bigger kids really enjoyed the movie & I look forward to watching it over & over with them!
Saturday morning the bigger kids woke up & actually didn't wake us up right away! Darcy didn't come in until almost 9 am to tell us that Jack & Sophie were playing a board game & wouldn't let her play. It was nice to get a little extra rest before starting our marathon Saturday...First up, Darcy was invited to a Pink-a-licious Birthday party for her sweet friend, Harper. All the girls dressed in pink & it was so cute! Every detail was planned & perfect!

  Darcy was super excited to get her nails painted pink!

The girls had so much fun just playing & trying on lots of bows & headbands & jewelry!

 There was story time (Pinkalicous, of course!), and crafts, and pink food, and best of all...

...decorate your own cupcakes...the more sprinkles, the better! Not a single sprinkle was safe!

After the party, we came home to get ready for our next fun event...a baby shower for our new baby girl! This required a wardrobe change for the girls & I needed to finish wrapping-up these little hostess gifts for the four amazing ladies who threw me the shower!

Since this post is epic already & since the baby shower was SO beautiful...it really does deserve it's very own dedicated post...so I will sign-off for now with warm wishes to you for a beautiful Sunday afternoon!