I can't believe I'm actually doing it!

So I've been wanting to start posting on my blog forever now, but keep letting the "moments" I want to post pass by. I decided I wouldn't put it off any longer and to just dive into it. I thought I'd start with a couple of memorable events that have happened this month. Starting with....

EVENT #1...

My favorite man in the world's birthday!

It was on the 3rd of this month. I feel so bad 'cause I was so busy with my calling at church (2nd counselor in the Primary presidency, we had a quarterly activity March 28th) and with planning my friend's baby shower (it was April 4th) that I totally overlooked his birthday until the last minute. We ended up just looking for a new washer/dryer and for DVD players for our new (used) car. I was a bit surprised when he said that's what he wanted to go do. We must have pretty exciting lives when that's all we can think of on the fly to go do for our date! I didn't mind though. I love just hanging out with him and talking. We also went to eat at Chuys. They have the best queso that we absolutely LOVE there. When we were finishing up our meal Eric leaned over and told me to look at the rice on his plate. There, barely visible at first glance, was a inch long course black hair! For some reason we both just burst out laughing. It was so gross! We weren't really going to say anything to the waitress, but I couldn't help myself. We were laughing and really nice about it. We even told her that she really didn't need to worry or do anything about it, but she went and got the manager anyway. We ended up getting half our meal for free and our appetizer for free (since our waitress had forgotten to tell them to make it until we reminded her). It ended up being a memorable birthday dinner for sure. After almost 11 years of marriage we still have fun just being around each other. :) I'm so grateful for that and for the man that he is! He takes such good care of us. I know the kids appreciate him so much, actually, I think they might even love him the most out of the two of us, seriously. Anyway, HAPPY (late) BIRTHDAY, ERIC!! I love you!!!

EVENT #2...

Baby shower for my good friend, Lanae.

When it comes to planning parties I can't help but go a little overboard, okay a lot overboard. Eric never gets why I put so much time (and sometimes money) into my kids' birthday parties and holiday parties for them. I can easily devote hours upon hours to finding and/or making just the right items, decor, games, prizes, etc. for their parties. I try to explain to him how it's one of my only creative outlets as a busy mom of 4 kids! Plus, they appreciate it so much, or at least they will when their older, right?! ;) It's just too much fun to pass up. Anyway, my other friend, Lyndsee, and I put together Lanae's shower. I think Lyndsee thought I was a bit crazy half of the time, but she was really good about letting me do my thing. This was the first time I've ever planned and hosted a baby shower before, so I was a little nervous at first. I wanted it to be perfect for Lanae and for it to make her feel like the awesome woman and mother she is. Hopefully, I achieved that at least a little. Here are some pics of the shower that I stole off of Lanae's blog, actually I think I might just steal some of the descriptions too (thanks, Lanae!). ;)

This is the walkway up to the front door. Lanae and I made these for her daughter's birthday tea party last year. I think they add just the right touch when you want to have that whimsical feel. The theme or feel we were going for was a mommy & baby bird/garden theme with bright springy colors with lots of bright flowers.

Here is when you first walked in to my house; with the present table, and the party favor table. We made these cute little flower hair-things and wrapped them around little boxes filled with robin eggs.

I had looked everywhere for some little birds like these and could not find anything! Lanae is like me when it comes to party planning, so she totally understood my dismay when I couldn't find the perfect birds. She ended up making these adorable birds out of felt the night before the shower. She had planned on using them for her daughter's room afterwards (which happens to be birds and birdhouses). It worked out perfectly! I was so happy when I saw them. They were exactly what I was looking for. They actually are just like the birds that were on the invitations. Speaking of the invitations, here they are below. Oh, also, I had planned on growing wheat grass to stick them in, but totally forgot until it was too late! I was so sad! Oh well, this grass worked just as well I guess.

Since you can't really read it, it says:
Please join us for a
Baby Shower Luncheon
Honoring
Lanae Monson
She will soon add a little Birdie to her Nest.
On Saturday, April 4th
beginning at 1 o'clock pm
at the Mott Residence
If you want to help the parents to be
instead of a gift, a package of
diapers will bring them Glee!

Lanae's sister made these adorable invitations and then sent them out. Seriously, the picture does not do them justice. They were the cutest invitations ever! Notice the cute little bird paper along the top. It went perfectly with the bird/garden theme.

Views of decorations. I had wanted to make some pompom things to hang around, but I thought they'd be hard to make and expensive to buy. But Lanae ended up finding instructions on how to make them. We made a few of them together and then I ended up making 10 more later. It was actually really fun making them. I love that Lanae had a great variety of cute maternity photos that I was able to use as part of the decor. On the clothes line I was going to have 2 vintage pillowcase dresses on it that I was to make for Lanae, but I ran out of time, so she had to get them after instead. I ended up just using my samples of the dresses, pantaloons, and diaper covers I used to make and sell.

The food table. I used some birds and birdhouses from Lanae's daughter's room to put around with the food and throughout the rest of the rooms. I'm so glad she had so many things I could use.

This is the game table. We played three games. We tried to keep them simple and quick. The first was they would get a clothespin pinned on them when they first arrived. They couldn't say "cute" or "awww" or they would get it taken away. The person with the most at the end of the shower would win the prize. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be. It made me realize how much I saw "awww"! The second game was we had little plastic babies frozen in ice cubes. The first person to have their baby melted out of the ice cube, or their "water break", won the prize. The last game was we melted 6 different candy bars in a diaper for each and they had to guess which diaper was what candy bar. I couldn't get over how much the candy bars seriously looked like real baby poop! It was so gross, but so hilarious. The person with the most right would win.

Since this was a mostly bring diapers instead of gifts shower, I had to make some diaper cakes. I love making them. They're so easy and make such fun decorations.

Then Lanae opened her gifts. That's the part I always love! :)

I had so much fun putting this shower together with two of my dearest friends. I'm so glad to have them both in my life!