Baby Shower!

My best, most sweetest, darling-est, TALENTED girlfriends threw me a fancy baby shower a couple weeks ago.  Can I tell you I DID NOT SLEEP the night before because I was so excited!  

It was held in the Porter's backyard beautifulness.  

The ladies made darling boxed lunches with the BEST sandwiches inside! 

Yummy fixins for it all.

And some of the BEST.  No really.  The best.  Cheesecake-strawberry-crumbly crust- dessert I have ever had.  

The whole place was all "adventure"-ish.  Since we are about to embark on our biggest adventure with baby boy! 

Andrea took all these pictures for me (amongst other talents she shared.)

Thank you forever, dearest friends!

What Hunter's Been Up To

 First of all.  Hunter had a birthday! He is now 28.  Little man.  

I got him some presents. 

He's been wanting to swim more at the gym.  So I got him some swimming apparatus.  I realllllly should have gone with the speedo too. 

His favorite Costco snacks... gummy bears and crumbled bacon. 

Looking all good and ready to swim!  Really tho.  Are his goggles and cap too small? yikes. 

Birthday dinner at his family's house.  My parents came along too.  Whoever's birthday is that week gets to choose Sunday dinner.  Hunter always chooses chicken fried chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy and corn.  And cheesecake with canned blueberry topping.  

Everyone is singing Happy Birthday to him above. 

Enjoying his cheesecake:

Back to the actual birthday...  We met his parents and sister for some yummy breakfast and the weather was PERFECT.  

My 33 week belly is hiding behind the picnic table.

Hunter went to work on his actual birthday but took Friday off instead.   So we did some fun errands (not fun to me.) but he loved it.  Like Harbor Freight Tools.  

Then we drove out to the Phoenix Temple.  We decided we should go before we have a baby or we might not ever go! It is FAR AWAY.  Traffic was bad but we still made it on time! Whew! 

When we came out the sky looked like this:

And then last Saturday my Man Your Man Should Be (as he like to call himself) took our old 9-drawer dresser and painted it for baby boy. 

Hunter has perfected his working space.  And finally got serious with an air respirator so he doesn't die. 

He set's up real good.

This is him putting the finishing touches and new hardware on.

Ta da! 

This photo is in the dark garage after the sun went down.  But there will be LOTS more nursery photos coming very soon that will highlight this beautiful dresser!

Great Job, Hunter man.  And Happy Birthday!

I love you. 

Brown Paper Packages!

Things are HAPPENING over here.  

It's pretty fun to get packages in the mail.  I've never been much of an online shopper, but it is REALLY fun to go to the door and see boxes!

In the past few weeks we've gotten some really sweet baby presents from loving family and friends, my breast pump, a huge box of mommy recovery cold packs (I've read their a dream for post-partum), a waterproof mattress pad for our bed (for baby and mommy leaking that will happen),  and some other pharmacy/ medical stuff for baby and me.  

Who would've thought that these mundane items are SO FUN!  Each package just makes me feel more and more prepared for little boy to come! 

Hunter and I also took a day out last Saturday.  Like a long all-day date plus, baby shopping. Of Course.  This baby is all $$$$.

Phoenix Flea was lovely. Lovely weather.  Lovely shops.  Lovely venue.  

Baby got stuff.  We did not.  :-) I am okay with that. 

Rafterhouse was having an open house.  This place was GORGEOUS.  We spent a good hour examining the brilliant details.  

At Portillos for lunch, the guys at the counter gave Hunter a hat.  It was weird.  But funny. 

Does he look like he's 5?  

Our last big stop was Buy Buy Baby where we added a few big items to our registry.  I came out of the bathroom (for the third time) and Hunter had managed to find a baby carrier, open it and try it on. 

He is so ready.

After that we TRIED AND TRIED to find ourselves some bedroom lamps.  Where do people find affordable lamps?! And then had a late dinner at Pei Wei.   

Youth Conference

Over this past weekend our Stake had a wonderful Youth Conference for all the kids ages 14 to 18.  Being in the Stake YW now, I was able to be a big part of the planning and carrying out.  Because we held the conference locally, we had a nice big budget.  The decision was to cater all the food from local restaurants.  I volunteered to be the "food person" and order all the food, gather all the supplies, make the assignments etc. for all the meals.  It was actually pretty simple.  

During youth conference itself though, it was a lot more work!  Once we finished lunch, for example, we cleaned up, and started getting ready for dinner!  There was so much help and it all went really well because of that.  Hunter spent all day Saturday with me being the boss.  He helped SOOOOO MUCH like he always does.  

It was difficult being limited so much by my pregnant body.   I came home each night totally spent and seriously got to the couch and then barely made it to the bed a little later.  I think baby was all "What in the world did we do today?!"  He was tired too.  I just know it.  

In the midst of all the work, I didn't even get ONE photo.  NOT ONE.  Grrrrrrrrrrr.  I've realized that I am being very lazy about taking pictures lately.  I HAVE to fix that!  

It is just a joy to serve and to serve in the church.  I love the youth.  It was especially cool because so many of these awesome kids were my students a few years back at the junior highs.  And it's cool how many of them you get to know pretty well even just after a few days.  I ache for them to be strong in their busy, worldly lives.  I hope they are figuring out their testimonies and their roles in life.  

I am blessed to be with them so much!  

What a great Youth Conference.