The BEST weekend EVER!

This past weekend (long weekend, the best kind!) my sister Emily and our niece, sweet 1 year old Claire came from North Carolina to Des Moines to visit. Emily and I had been looking forward to this for weeks since she booked her flight. I think it's safe to say everyone had a great weekend - Claire loved giving Lainey lots of kisses, Emily loved being near Caribou and Chipotle, Grandma and Grandpa came down to visit both their granddaughters at one time, Simon LOVED the extra attention (even though Claire kept calling her "Yacey") and even Jed enjoyed all of the fun, messy chaos in our little house! I was thinking after dropping off Emily and Claire at the airport that I'd much rather have a small messy house packed full of smiles, laughter, and fun, special visitors than a perfectly clean, huge, quiet house. My house looked like it got hit by a tornado most of the weekend but we all had the BEST time!
When we first got back to the house, Em and I were in the other room for literally less than a minute and we heard a little giggle. Claire was trying to tickle Lainey!
Claire is so good at giving Lainey kisses!
And Grandma! Nevermind that she's nearly stepping on Lainey's head!
Wait a minute... that's not a hat Uncle Jed!
I love, love, LOVE babies in jammies. I love babies right when they wake up with sweet bed head. Someday, Lainey will have hair and therefore bed head too!
I don't think the child got put down all weekend long.

One of the *blessings* of living where we do are the great big, giant trees that drop tons and tons and tons of leaves in the fall. Jed and my Dad were just the men for the job! :)
Claire was a big fan of the gorgeous fall weather and the crunchy leaves!
Lainey didn't care all that much but was so content being outside!
Emily brought matching pajamas for the little girls. They looked SO cute. We are trying to find some for Christmas too. This sequence of events was really funny. Claire just couldn't get close enough to Lainey. She was being SO sweet wanting to give Lainey hugs and kisses.


How cute is this picture of Grandma and Grandpa and their granddaughters?!?
Sunday night Emily made her famous home-made pizza. YUM! I should have paid more attention. On Monday, we went to the zoo with Allie, Charlotte, Julie and Oscar! FUN!

Lainey was definitely less than thrilled to be stuck in her car seat in the stroller so she enjoyed most of the zoo in my arms. :)
Allie and Miss Charlotte! Lainey and Charlotte have the same birthday! Obviously a year apart...
Here's Julie and Oscar. On Mondays, zoo members get free passes for the train. Julie was most excited about this!

Everyone loved the train ride!
Claire got to feed the goats too! She thought it was so funny!
Taking in all of the great sights, sounds (and smells) of the Blank Park Zoo! A quick trip to the mall for lunch and an errand and we were back home for nap time for Claire bear. Claire wasn't a super huge fan of Emily holding and loving on Lainey so when she was sleeping, Auntie Em got lots of smiles and snuggles...
All in all, it truly was one of the greatest weekends ever! Emily has been one of my greatest "mommy resources" over the past 2 and a half months so it was really fun to have her right there with me for a few days and watch her love on her daughter and mine. We can't wait to see Emily and Claire again over the holidays!

Happy 1st Birthday Claire!

Happy 1st birthday to our sweet niece Claire! I remember getting that exciting phone call last year on a Monday evening during the middle of Bible study! I snuck out to the guest bedroom and got to talk to both Bud and Emily about their beautiful baby girl's arrival! A few days later, Uncle Jed and I hopped in the car (a sweet rental HHR) and headed to FLORIDA to meet her (read about that trip HERE)! It's been such a fun year! Even though Claire lives far away, we love seeing new pictures and skyping often! Here are some of my favorite pictures from the past year!



Just 2 more sleeps until Claire (and Emily) visit Iowa! YEAH!

April Showers...

Last weekend, some of my cousins and aunts in Minnesota threw me and beanie baby Johnson a shower to celebrate his or her arrival coming up in August. It was so much fun and such a huge blessing to receive fabulous gifts and spend time with family. I hadn't been home to Minnesota since Christmas so it had been quite some time since I had seen even my mom and of course my sister and Claire bear who live in North Carolina. It was awesome that they were able to fly in for the weekend.
My cousin Betsy loves to plan showers and does a great job. She knows I like to craft so she planned for some crafting activities for us to do as stations after we ate all of the yummy food. We decorated onesies and pinned fabric on cloth diapers to make burp rags. It was so fun! Here are some pictures from the shower...
My aunt Barb has a friend make these awesome decorated cookies! They are SO CUTE! And delicious!

My oldest godchild Isabel looking extra sweet and excited.
Some of the onesies. Mine is on the left - I painted the DTC symbol! So fun! Emily made the "wiggle worm" onesie with Claire bear's toe prints and my cousin Lisa made the one that says "Claire's cousin." :)

The burp cloth station!Our pinned projects ready to be sewn!

The rest of our weekend truly revolved around Claire and Simon. They provided all of our entertainment for the weekend (especially since the Twins managed to lose every game all weekend long...).
Simon looking oh so excited during our road trip north!
Claire checking out Uncle Jed. She thought he was pretty great! He's going to be such a fabulous dad!
Sweet baby smiles!
Claire doesn't particularly like anyone other than her mommy and daddy but there were a few occasions in which she'd led one of us hold her and play with her, so we had to really soak it up! I just love my niece!

Random!

• Simon may just be the smartest dog on the planet. I'm NOT saying that to brag because to be honest, I am not his biggest fan, however it seems he has figured out how to open doors. He has his own "room" in the basement - a big, open space that you'd think would be great fun for a puppy to run around in. Sadly, he truly hates it and avoids going down there in the morning when we leave for work. A few different times, we have come home and been greeted by Simon at the front door. HOW DOES HE DO IT?!? How does he get out? The door to his room latches and has an old jiggly handle. My theory is this ... he is really good standing on his hind legs - he will let you grab his front paws and dance around (Jed does this frequently) and loves to pounce up on you for a greeting (we're working on that one...). One day he wasn't being very patient to get outside and the door was slightly cracked so he got up on his hind legs and used his front paws to swing the door open. I think he probably works in this way to open the basement door. I SO wish we could put up a camera to record just how he does it but that is my theory.
• I get to see Emily and Claire bear in just over 2 weeks when I go home to Minnesota for my baby shower! WOWOW! Here's a sweet picture to remind you all of how cute she is...
• I am 24 weeks today! 24 weeks divided by 4 weeks per month = 6 months! How wonderful! It's weird to think that I'm closer to the end than to the beginning. I know August will come quickly. We are beginning to work on the baby's room and trying to make some decisions about names. Any suggestions? :)
  

So. Sweet.

I just had to steal this from my sister's blog - what a sweet picture of our Dad with his little Claire bear. He's such a wonderful Grandpa!

Slumber party!

This weekend, we fortunate enough to host the Thomas' as they were on their long road trip/journey north to Minnesota for Christmas. They made their first pit stop in Nashville, and then drove to Des Moines on Saturday. It was soooo fun to spend time with them - all 4 of them (Emily, Bud, baby Claire AND their dog Lacey)!
Here are some pictures from our slumber party!
Look at me I really am sassy!I love my Uncle Jed!
Lots of smiles!
Check out my ADORABLE hat!!!!!!!