Fern's 60th Birthday Party

Jared and I have had a very busy February!  After the Mechanicsburg shower weekend, we threw a 60th birthday party for Fern at our house in Conshy.  She has such a wonderful group of friends (and of course family) that we had close to 30 people at the party.  It was a tight squeeze but fun to have everyone together.  It is amazing how our family continues to grow with more and more children present at these  get-togethers.  We did manage to get one family picture, although Gwen was not cooperating at the moment (it was a long, fun day for her!).  Thank you to Jessy and Matt for their contributions and of course Aunt Robin for the beautiful flower centerpieces! Here are a few highlight pictures....

Mechanicsburg Baby Shower

This past weekend, my mother, Renee, and Megan threw me an amazing baby shower in Mechanicsburg!  I wasn't sure what to expect, but every last detail far surpassed anything I could have dreamed of.  The food was delicious (catered by my oldest friend, Kristen) who knew exactly what to make for my favorite foods.  The cake was from our favorite bakery, the favors were so cute, and the decorations and prizes were even better.  To top it off, I had friends come in from all over the area including DC, Baltimore, Philly, and Indiana.

Overall, it was a wonderful weekend where I was able to spend quality time with college friends on Friday night, and my high school friends on Saturday night.  Weekends don't get much better....

Here are few pictures from the shower.

28 Weeks...

This weekend marked 28 weeks pregnant.  We spent the weekend cleaning out closets and rearranging furniture.  Jared is calling this my "nesting" phase.  He is "nesting" by getting new tires on both of the cars.  We'll have secure vehicles to transport the new baby around!  We spent the day today celebrating the holidays with his dad's family (a little late, but happens with busy schedules!). 

Here is an updated pic of my baby belly:

Baby Girl!!

As 2013 begins, Jared and I are taking the time to look back on 2012 as well as get excited for 2013.  Most noteably, we want to start a blog that will help us document fun events and milestones for our family.  We had an extremely busy 2012 with 10 weddings (including two bachelor trips to Canada, bachelorette trips to Miami, Kentucky Derby, Philly, Ocean City, and Baltimore, and a destination wedding in Punta Cana) and an anniversary trip to Chicago.  Jared and I both turned 30, and had a great time celebrating with our friends and family. 

As we look forward to 2013, our most exciting news is that we are expecting a baby girl in April!  We can't wait for her to get here!!  We are just now starting to clean out the house, get the nursery together, and finish registering.  We had our first sticker shock ordering the furniture for the baby, but we figure this is just one of many expenses that will replace our wedding costs from 2012. We really couldn't ask for a better 5th wedding anniversary gift other than our baby girl.

Here are a couple of pics to get the blog started.  This is the 20 week ultrasound picture of the baby.

 

My sister-in-law helped me to make cupcakes to announce the sex of the baby to our families. They had fun opening the cupcake and seeing the pink frosting!

We have been so bad about taking monthly pictures, but we finally got it together over Christmas and took a picture together of my belly at six months.  I am definitely starting to look pregnant!