Peanut's SURPRISE!!

About week ago, I got a huge surprise.

My friends, Jen and Laura (who you'll 'meet' below) came to my house around 5:30 last Saturday night to pick me up. We are fortunate enough to have such wonderful hubbies that we get to have a "girls night" every few weeks or so--we go eat, hang out, talk, shop....and have sooooo much fun together.

Love them.

Anyway, Saturday was our scheduled night, and they got here to pick me up, but were acting a bit strange. We weren't going to our normal place, and they, in fact, wouldn't tell me where we were going. They were being very, very secretive.

And it bugged the heck out of me.

I am not one who handles surprises very well. Never have been. If I catch wind of something that even just might be going on, I will bug and bug and bug and bug a person (usually poor Shane or one of my friends) until they just give in and spill it so as to shut me the heck up tell me what's going on.

But, this time, I literally was completely in the dark.

I don't know if it was pregnancy brain or just a really, really well kept secret (probably a little of each, I suppose)--but I had no idea on earth that my closest friends and family were throwing me.....

A surprise baby shower for Peanut!

All of my favorite people in the whole wide world (who live locally, of course) were there!

Kathy, my Pastor's wife, and Charlotte, a very good
friend from church (and my boys' favorite snack supplier) *grin*

My wonderful Aunt Karen and my three cousins, Haley, Hilary, and Hanna

My friend Steph and her mother--also my friend, for the record--Jona

My friends Katie and Steph

We pulled in to the restaurant with Jen and Laura still in silent mode and me still wondering what on earth we were doing here, at this particular place.
It wasn't until I walked in and saw the streamers that it hit me!!

I was so surprised and excited.

{Please pay no attention to the fact that my coat will not button.
Yes, I know it looks awesome, thankyouverymuch.}

The balloons and decorations were sooooo cute!

My friend Jen, and my wonderful Mommy, who was the driving force behind the shower. She was insistent that it all be kept a secret--everyone did a FAB job with that!

Me and my mom, also affectionately known around this blog as "Grandma MJ".
This, my friends, is the famed grandmother of Date Night.

My other two wonderful friends, Sarah and Laura

Me and my cake....

....and so many gifts!

I had such fun opening all the gifts....such girlie, wonderful things!
Headbands.....
beautiful outfits (lots of those!)....

books.....

....and remember my briar.claire wish list!? Steph paid attention, and bought my favorite hat and headband! (It already goes with like, 12 things. I'm so excited.)

Haley got me the self-named 'cutest diaper bag e-ver.' It is, don't you think?

From Charlotte--go Illini!!

Ha! I thought the look on my face was funny in this one.

Deer in the headlights! (That adorable outfit was from Jen)

A handmade blanket from one of the ladies at church that couldn't come

The softest Teddy Bear ever and some more hair bows from Kathy!
{Please let Peanut have hair, please let Peanut have hair....}

One of the outfits from my Aunt Karen--it read, "A wish come true" Aww.

Loaded in another (so cute and smaller--I'll have plenty of use for both!) diaper bag--
Can a Mommy ever have too much Desitin? I mean, really.

Peanut's first pair of jeans (thanks Sarah!)
Pink fleece lined, of course.

And, love at first site--our new carseat/stroller.
Pink and brown...
...and the most girlie, beautiful stroller there ever was.
*grin*
I love it.
(From Grandma MJ)

It was such an amazing night, and the best way for me to sum it all up was that I left the restaurant that night feeling so very loved.

For my friends and family to do all of that for me--on my fourth baby, no less--was just amazing, and I was just go grateful and appreciative. I love them all so much--I'm so blessed to have such wonderful people all around me!!

32 weeks--Peanut and Mommy

{Peanut}

Her little fist

Great profile (see the nose, lips, forhead?) with arm up by her face

Staring at the 'camera' -- you can see all of her facial parts here!

And, she even flexed for Daddy...

{Remember that commercial, where the little babies arm raised
and someone sang "I am woman"?
It's all I can think when I see this picture, and I laugh every single time!}

and

{Mommy}

We had a great sono yesterday--everything looks amazing! Our little gal weighed in at 3 lbs, 13 oz, which is almost exactly the size of all of our boys at this point. She is beautiful...we definitely have a case of love before first site *grin*.

Colin is SIX!

With Colin's birthday being Halloween, we always have the issue of 'the party'.

Should we do one?

Will anyone come, with it being such a busy day?

We've already got a full day of activities....are cake/presents/all-that-commotion just too much?

The answer has been on most years "yes". Including this one.

But, even without 'the party', we still have a great celebration of the day, because that's what birthdays are really all about--not huge parties with too many children overloaded on vast amounts of sugar--but rather, having a special day that honors our special child! And that's what we set out each year to do, and what we try to focus on, official 'party' or not!

We started with a special breakfast, made by Daddy. Shane is the breakfast expert in our house, and cooked Colin and the boys up some of his specialty--chocolate chip banana pancakes (in the shape of Mickey Mouse, no less!) May sound a bit weird, but they are absolutely to die for! Col was one happy guy.

Mommy put the finishing touch on his plate--six birthday candles--so that, at 8:30, we were starting the day off already in celebration mode!

Love that smile--can't believe this guy came into the world six years ago!
(I blogged about his birth story here {day one} and here {day two},
if you would like to read it! Yes, it was a two day adventure to get him here....)

After the candles were lit of course comes the happy birthday song. I sang to Colin, and then looked at Ethan and said, "Say happy birthday to Col, Ethan!" I think he must have thought I said, "SING happy birthday to Col", because he jumped right in singing himself! {Not very clearly, a bit jumbled--as if he wasn't trying all that hard or was embarrassed by the camera or something--but it was Happy Birthday all the same!}

It was so cute to me how E confused the "happy birthday dear Colin" personalized version of the song with our generic church version, "happy birthday, God bless you". He actually sang, "happy birthday God bless Colin!" So, so cute. *grin*

I also loved it when Col said, "I got my own birthday!" "I got my own Mickey Mouse pancakes!" That just made me feel like he felt special, which was our whole goal for the day.

Here's some video....

Then, Colin actually left for a little while to go have some fun
with Grandma Jane, so the littler boys, Daddy, and I did some pumpkin painting!
Cam, starting on "Peanut's Pumpkin"

Ethan LOVED this!

I think what he actually loved was taking the brush, loading up the orange paint, and shoving as much of it as he could inside my belly button. I cleaned and cleaned but....I'm pretty sure that, here in a few weeks when my belly button "pops", there's going to be some orange-y remnants of paint in there....

Daddy and Cam, concentrating hard

Cameron helped a ton by blow drying each layer! Only a couple of *hot, hot!* moments where I had to remind him to keep that blow dryer moving....

The boys, with Peanut's finished 'costume'!

We thought, maybe, that Peanut looked a little scary for a girl....I wanted to go back and add a pink bow or something, but we ran out of time! Maybe we'll do a pink ornament at Christmas...

Then, it was already time for some trick-or-treating!

Dash (the really fast boy from the Incredibles--fits, don't you think?),
a 'fierce' frog, and a lovable lion

In the car, practicing their 'trick-or-treat' smiles!

Begging at doors for candy *grin*

By 6 p.m., this big-fat-momma everyone was pooped. We went around our neighborhood for a little more than an hour and came home with three plastic grocery bags full of candy! (Mommy was ecstatic at the thought of devouring that candy, and hoping and praying that glucose test she would take on Tuesday would come back negative...)

We had dinner, broke out ELF for the first time this season (one of our family favorites!) and had a picnic in the living room with some gourmet frozen pizza. It was a great night, and Colin had a great birthday!

(Colin with "his" pumpkin, painted all by himself at his class' Fall party)

We love you Colin!!
Happy Birthday bud--you are such a special little man,
and we are so thankful God gave you to US six years ago!!