Family and Friends Shower

On Sunday afternoon my Mom and sister threw me a baby shower at my Mom's house. I think we ended up having close to 40 guests and it was a really fun day! Mom and Steph did an amazing job putting everything together. We had delicious food and all the decorations were perfect and really went with our owl theme. I was just so taken aback by the amount of people that came out to support us and even more overwhelmed by all the gifts they brought! It's pretty crazy to see everything piled into our tiny nursery and wonder how a 6-8 lb baby could possibly use it all!! Thank you to all who came out, your presence was greatly appreciated and it was definitely a day I won't ever forget!

The centerpiece that Steph made for the food table. All the fabric matches my choices for the nursery! And the two little owls on top are from Schoolhouse Earth in Deep Creek Lake and will be in the nursery as well.

Steph put together a station where you could place your vote for what you think the gender is... when everyone left we counted them up and it was tied!

Here are some of the onesies that everyone decorated...

The candy favors to take home...

The cards that told you what yummy foods you had to pick from...

The onesie decor station...

This the painting I did for the nursery which will be explained more in my soon to be nursery post. They asked all the guests to bring their favorite childrens books as a gift for the baby and here are Steph's choices on the mantle.

Bowie High School girls. Jo, Becky, Kyla (sorry Kyla, I only have one pic of us and your eyes were closed!) and Kristen. I found out that day that Kyla is 20 weeks pregnant with her first baby and it's a boy!

Steph, Emily and my cousin Katie

The lovely hosts of the day. They look pretty stress free and put together at the end of the day, don't they?? They hid it well!

Thank you so much Mom and Steph! I had a great time and all your hard work was so worth it! I have more little surprises to show you from the shower in posts to come.

Work Shower

The girls from the Square threw me my very first baby shower on Saturday. Thank you to all who came to celebrate the soon to be arrival of Baby I! I had a great time and was overwhelmed by your generosity and kind words of wisdom! Here are some of the pics from the day...

The gift table complete with owl napkins and tablecloth!

Baby Balloons

Gina made the cute diaper cake in the background and painted the piggy bank. One side is a Dad, Mom and baby owl and the other side says Baby Iskow with a little owl on top. So creative! She gave me the extra paint so I can put the baby's name on it myself once he/she is here.

All the ladies that came to celebrate!

Isktoberfest

Right after Joe's 30th birthday last year, he came up with his birthday party plans for this year. He really wanted to have an Octoberfest in our backyard with kegs, lights in the trees, tents, brats and everyone in liederhosen. It was a great idea and we spent a lot of time this past spring cleaning out the backyard area with some help from friends. But when it came down to the expenses and time to plan such a grand event, we both just knew it couldn't happen this year. It will happen in the near future however!

To compromise, we invited some people out to the Biergarten Haus in DC. I didn't know when I made the reservation that it was the same day as a major music festival on H street where the restaurant was located. The entire street was closed to cars so that people could roam the street and check out the stages and stands. It was crazy!! But it added great atmosphere to the day that's for sure. Almost everyone was able to come out to celebrate and it was so much fun to have everyone all in one place to catch up.

Even Reed made it out to the party! He took it easy on the milk drinking since he had his baptism the next day.

We were all very proud (and a little shocked) at our tab for the night. All I can claim is Jagerschnitzel and water!

31 Weeks!

I can't believe how fast the time is flying now! When I think back to March when we found out we were pregnant it seems forever ago. But here we are almost 2 months away to meeting baby girl or boy! I have only had to buy ONE maternity item so far... my stretchy straight leg jeans that I love. I hope everyone else likes them because I wear them ALL the time! Now that summer dresses are put away I am living in these jeans, scrubs and pajama pants. All my tops still fit for the most part! Everyone wants to know if I have a feeling for what gender the baby is, but I really don't. We have been hard at work on the nursery and all the projects have taken up all my time during my days off but I totally brought the extra work on myself. But I love doing it and it's a good excuse to try all sorts of new arts and crafts skills that I haven't ever tested myself on. I will share very soon!

Alpine Adventure

We headed up to Alpine Lake with the Iskow side for Labor Day weekend. Now that Joe's parents, Aunt Kathy and Uncle Sam and Uncle Gary and his wife Debbie all have houses there, it's a great place for a long weekend with family. We don't go up in the summer very often so I am so used to cool weather and even colder weather at night since it's in the mountains of West Virginia. But the weather was amazing! We were able to get in the water and even got sunburned the first day. I didn't bring a bathing suit and was kicking myself the whole time for being so silly. I packed scarves and a fleece:) But I am notorious for packing the wrong things for trips so it shouldn't have come as a huge surprise.

Highlights of the weekend:

1. Playing with Mason at the beach.

2. Walking sans leash with Roxie in the woods. And getting her on the Kayak.

3. Meeting Sam, cousin Matt's fiance.

4. Coffee every morning on the porch. (I treated myself to one cup a day while we there)

5. Going over baby registry items with Beth, Kris, Jenn, and Aunt Paula and realizing all the tons of crap I forgot to add!