Baby Shower...

My sister, Britni threw me a beautiful baby shower on July 5th!

Everyone was very generous and we received many wonderful gifts for baby Emma! We only have a few things we have to still pick up! We barely fit it all in the car. If we would have gotten everything that was shipped to us in advance as well that day, there was no way we could have fit it all in our car. Our car was completely packed!
It was so much fun to get it all home and put away in Emma's room! I am beginning to feel more prepared! (Now if I could just get my crib and recliner to arrive!)

Below are some pics from the day.

My sister, Britni and I

My sister, Britni - 26, Me - 24 and my brother, Jared - 29
It took several pictures to try and get a picture of us 3 without Jared looking like a dork, or Britni and I keeping our eyes open, or one that was center b/c Missy, who was taking the picture, couldn't stop laughing about it! This one was the best shot!

My pregnant cousin, Tracy and I

Missy and Me
This picture is pretty rare...I have numerous pictures of where Missy was the pregnant one!!!
We thought it was strange to actually be taking one where the roles were reversed!

My niece, Kenna and I

Kenna and Missy

Me and my mom

My friends Tonya holding Jacob and Codi holding Haley.
I had to get a picture of this!!!

Tonya, Codi and my cousin Tracy

Aunt Sara holding Jacob, and Aunt BeckyAunt Becky, and good family friends, Vanessa & Izzie Mays

Dorothy, my mom, Aunt T, and Kris (friend of family)Izzie and Vanessa Mays, Shane's mom - Sharon and sisters - Lindsey & Janice, and Shane

Shane and I
All I wanted was one decent picture of us from that day, but we forgot and it was last minute, so we didn't get a very good one.

Me and Shane

Britni w/ her girls Haley and Zoe

Codi, Me and Tonya

Me with all my baby loot after the shower!

Wipes, dishes, swaddle blanket, boppy, healthcare set, baby manicure set, lotion, soap, bathtub, diapers, drying rack, dishwasher holder, picture frames, food processor, thermometers, pacifiers, and sun shades

Onesie and Sleepers

Long sleeve onesie from my best friend Heather!
Its my fav...I think because it looks like something similar to what I would wear, with the layered long sleeve look! (she thought the same thing, thats why she bought it!)

Sleepers

Booties, burp rag, sleeper and wash cloths

Sleepers

Clothes, blanket, shoes and bibs

Baby shoes, socks, dress, headbands, burp rag/bib set

Blanket, book, and toys

Receiving blankets, lap pads and hooded towel/washcloth set

Baby Clothes

The other weekend I found this brown changing pad cover. And we got the cute little stuffed frog from my Aunt Sara.

Our Pack'n'Play we got from my gramma Joyce, granpa Dave, Aunt Cami, Uncle Mike, Morgan & Chase and my Uncle Wes and Tim.
We feel so blessed to have received all of our large items, which included our Stroller & Carseat, Highchair, and we exchanged our extra stroller for our Swing (plus had a little left over to pick up the bath tub and a blanket I registered for)( there are pics of those items in previous posts). I will post a picture of our swing when it arrives, they didn't have it in the store when we stopped in Lincoln on our way home, so its being shipped to us!
We also received cash, and gift cards to Target and BabyGap!
Thank you so much to the 20+ who attended and for all the wonderful gifts, love and support! Especially those who had to travel! Baby Emma is very blessed to be born having such wonderful family and friends! And thanks, sis, for throwing me the shower and to all that helped out!

4th of July Weekend in Nebraska...

Shane and I made a trip home to Nebraska for the 4th of July weekend! Shane took Thursday afternoon off and Monday. We planned to get a good start on Thursday, but were delayed when I fell carrying some stuff to the car. My street has been getting worked on, and I hadn't been able to park in my driveway for almost 3 weeks, and Thursday morning they finally poured the cement for my driveway, and the crew left a long pole laying in the grass while they moved down to the next driveway, which I managed to trip over. I fell straight forward on to my hands and knees. It became extremely hard to breathe, and I was experiencing back and stomach pain, most likely from my ligaments being pulled. I called Shane, who immediately left work, and then called my doctor who said that I needed to go to the hospital to be monitored. Little did I know until I got there that I had to be monitored for 4 hours!
Baby Emma checked out just fine and I had no bleeding, so we were given the okay to travel. Shane and I finally figured out where labor and delivery was and I also got to experience hospital food (definitely not looking forward to it again!) So I guess all is well that ends well. I know I wouldn't have been able to make the 10 hour drive without knowing baby Emma was okay! We ended up still driving the entire way home and finally arrived at 2am.

All of our siblings also were home, so Shane and I kinda split up and each spent most of the time with our own families, since this was pretty much the last time we could do that, since we will have a kid soon!
We spent the 4th shooting off tons of fireworks (which was nice, since we can't do that in Iowa).
My baby shower was on the 5th, and Shane and I also went to a demolition derby with some of his family. We headed back home on Monday morning. Thankfully, traffic wasn't bad either coming or going and we were blessed with a safe trip! Below are some pics of the weekend! You can tell who gets to take the camera when we go home, because they are all of my family!Jacob sitting in my lap!

Missy and I thought putting Jacob in his diaper bag would make some cute pics!

He looked so 'adorable'!

Jacob

Zoe

Baby Jacob's foot & Baby Haley's foot.
Jacob is 4 months older than Haley, but her feet are just as long as his. His feet were twice as thick and wide though! We have a feeling that Haley will be tall like her dad!

Jacob, Zoe & Haley

Baby Haley & Baby Jacob

Getting the pool set up!

Luke & Kenna

Zoe

Missy & Nathan

Gramma Joyce holding Haley Mae

Granpa Dave & Gramma Joyce

Matthew
He wore Kenna's shoes all weekend long, and clothes and diaper were optional!

Luke

Mom and Dad parked their camper in the back so Britni, Brad & the kids could stay in it, and Jared & Missy brought up their camper to stay in! It was a little redneckish, but you should come to expect nothing less from the Blackman family! I wish I would have taken pictures of the different vans as well! Jared & Missy drive a monster of a family van, and Brad drives a big sized van decked out in flames!

I don't think Britni & Missy were ready for this shot!
Of course, Bella is sitting in the middle begging for food!

Jared w/ baby duty...I think he really enjoys it!

Nathan & Matthew

My Family

Another Family Picture

The Blackman Zoo
Jared, Nathan, Luke, Kenna, Matthew, Missy & Jacob

The O'Keefe Family
Zoe, Britni, Brad & Baby Haley

A whole bunch of stuff...

Okay, where do I begin?
Lets talk about my much anticipated rocker/recliner that we ordered back on April 19th! I called last Friday to check up on it, since it had been a little over 8 weeks (which is what we were told it would take to get in) and I hadn't heard anything yet. Well, the guy who sold us the chair couldn't find the information he needed and asked if he could call me back. I said sure...about an hour later I get a phone, and his first words were "I hate to have to tell you this, but...your order for the chair didn't get put in." I said WHAT! When we first ordered the chair, the guy let us select a fabric that a week later come to find you cannot order that chair in, so I had to reselect a new fabric...well, he did not get the reselect put in, therefore, I have no chair coming! My options were:

1) he could talk to his rep on Monday and see if there is anything they could get their hands on in a chocolate brown color that would work (he was unable to do that!)

2) Get my money back (I paid in full back in April) and try and find something somewhere else. (Shane and I hunted the QC this past Saturday, only to find the exact chair I want, in the exact fabric I want at Lazyboy Galleries for $200 more between their price and the delivery fee. They wouldn't even price match and I showed them my receipt for what I paid for for the exact chair, plus Shane and I had seen the chair back in April at Lazyboy, and decided to try and find it somewhere else b/c these people there are complete jerks, and they were no less jerks this past Saturday...so we didn't really want to give them our business.)

3) Put the order in for the chair and wait 7 to 9 weeks (LazyBoy manufacturers close the whole week for the 4th of July Holiday) and pray it gets here before the baby. The guy did offer a loaner chair if the baby arrives before the chair.
I went with option 3 b/c we couldn't find anything else, and we didn't want to spend more money at Lazyboy Galleries on the chair when logically we don't 'need' to use the chair until baby Emma arrives. (Its hard for my logical thinking/engineer husband to understand...I NEED the darn chair for EMOTIONAL reasons! ha ha!) But I didn't let the hormones over take me, and I am handling the whole situation quite well! Oh, and I told the guy not to be surprised if we called next week to make sure our order had been placed!

Crib Update:
Well, I put in a call last week to check on the status of the crib. The customer service rep called the manufacturer while on the phone with me, he said it would be another week. So the rep said she would call in another week and get back to me as to what they say. She actually called me back, and when she talked to the manufacturer this week, he said the crib will not be ready to ship for another 2 weeks now, maybe a little less. I asked the rep if I would really see this crib, she said she was confident that I would 'eventually' see the crib, she just didn't know when. So I decided I could wait 2 more weeks for this crib, and then I would probably need to go to plan B in order to have a different crib here in time. Which plan B is a very similar looking crib, but costs $100.00 more and a different brand, so I don't know for sure if the whites will match. I did call the website I would order it from, and it is in-stock though, so I could probably have it within 3 weeks of placing the order.

We have ANTS!
Talk about wanting to drive a pregnant woman crazy!!! I have little brown ants swarming around one window where the ledge and the side moldings meet. So yesterday, I bought some bait food/ant kill, which brought them out in the multitudes, and they were even worse today! I couldn't stand it anymore and called Bosch Pest Control at 2:15pm today. There was a guy actually at my house by 2:40pm! Talk about service. He put out his own bait food/ant kill, and said I would see a difference by morning (he said the stuff I bought would work, just take longer). I have already seen a huge difference!!! And I was so relieved that he said they were just a typical house ant...and not doing any destruction (I was so afraid they were eating my wood, cuz they weren't interested in food that was sitting nearby). I asked the guy the cost of his routine spraying and how that worked, and then asked what I owed him today. He said they would bill me and it wouldn't be much, and if I went ahead and called the office to set up a routine spray that he probably wouldn't even charge me for today's visit. So thats what I did. I have some friendly spiders that I would like to see gone too, and with all this wet weather I guess the bugs are worse. I was very happy that I experienced some good customer service!

UPS man stopped by again today:
Today he brought me my high chair! yeah! Below is a picture. It didn't have a note or anything as to who it was from, so I had to call the Kids Stuff Store to find out who purchased it off my registry! Shane and I have his mom, Sharon, sister's Janice & Lindsey, and his gramma Patty to thank for the cute high chair! So thank you guys for the gift, it is greatly appreciated! I really have no idea how Shane and I would have fit all the large items we have already received in our car if we would have had to haul them home from Nebraska.

Below is our little bench /chair we picked up on a garage sale a few years back that we have sitting in our bedroom. Its where Shane sits to put on & take off his shoes everyday, and it currently serves as my way in and out of bed, since our bed sits on 8 inch risers and being pregnant has presented quite the challenge getting in and out of such a high bed. And if you are asking yourself "why do they have such a high bed?" I just like having a high bed, I think b/c I had to sleep on a top mattress layed on the floor the first 8 months we lived in Muscatine, b/c our queen size box springs would not fit up the stairs at our townhome (even though the landlady swore they did) and it took 8 months to discover they actually make split queen size box springs (I had no clue!) Plus, I like being able to store totes and Bella's kennel under our bed.
Anyway, I just got done covering it in the same material we did our headboard in.

And for my fellow pregnant women I know (Tracy & Kandice are all that come to mind):
The Philadelphia Cracker Spread - Pepperjack w/ Jalapeno is quite yummy on club crackers! Its a good prego snack! It comes in 3 other flavors too that I haven't tried!

Okay, I think that about covers all the news for now. We will be heading home tomorrow for the weekend to spend with family! Hope everyone has a good 4th of July!