Shower commentary by Ellynn

I’m finally getting around to posting which Jason did 2 days ago. He's way more on top of it than i am. It really was a blast though. It ended up being more like a Halloween party than a baby shower which is my idea of a good time! We had a couple games planned but there were just way too many people to even play them. we did play “how big is mama’s belly”. i’ve decided that this is not a good game to play. All but 3 people over-guessed by at least a foot. i’m not even gonna comment on that. but that’s cool.

As Mom said it was a monumental effort to put the shower on but i think i get the gold medal for my brownies. the brownies that never even got served. This probably gets the silver medal.

Jason spent a good 3 hours helping me make the invites. and by helping me i mean i was taking a nap during most of it.

The bronze medal is a three way tie between Darla making the amazing pumpkin soup which we served out of a real pumpkin. Mom with her costume and aunt Joanie’s chocolate-dipped gingersnaps and Cory and Dad doing everything behind the scenes.

Okay so the brownies. Meagan actually deserves half the medal for putting up with and helping me. So i have this amazing brownie recipe with Hershey’s special dark european cocoa. (freaking amazing by the way). I’m adding the last ingredient to this delectable mix when somehow i misconstrue 2 cups with 8 cups. That’s right EIGHT! don’t even ask me how something that stupid happens but it did. luckily we had 24 EXTRA eggs on hand so we could fix the problem. So 3 boxes of cocoa, 32 eggs and a serious test of Meagan’s and my math skills later we have sugar all over the floor and 8 batches of brownie mix. They never got served because by the time we got 2 pans baked, they didn’t have enough time to cool so we could put the frosting on. i still don’t know what on earth we’re going to do with all of it.

This picture doesn’t have much to do with anything except that i love it! Please also notice the color of the walls in the back ground. Meagan spent the better part of 3 days painting her living room so it would be done in time for the shower. Mom and Cory were a huge help and i’m an awesome supervisor/hole finder. The shower was the first time most people in the ward had seen Meag’s house and EVERYONE was very impressed. it really is fantastic.

From all reports everyone had a good time and a couple of them even said it was the funnest baby shower they’ve ever been to. Can’t beat that. So in the end it was worth all the effort. Especially since be scored enough cash to pay for our dresser, order our stroller and still get a few essentials we really need.

The baby finally took…er got a shower!

Well this is gonna  be another picture extravaganza. There was a lot that went on last night and Ellynn had a lot of fun from the sounds of it. They invited about 40 people and all but 3 r.s.v.p’d and eventually showed up. So it was a happenin’ party. Lots of cool pictures to post. I’ll put pictures with a short explanation and I'm sure Ellynn will give you a more in depth coverage later.

So plenty of costumed women filled Meagan and Cory’s house. From what I hear the men had fled to other sanctuaries to wait out the storm.

The Rocker and the Japanese outfit got first and second best costumes respectively for the party.

Lots of food at the party.

 

This is Julia, Brind’s wife, she made some way cool cakes that we’ll show you pictures of later. She works at target and got us a few gifts from our registry so they did a lot for the shower.

This is Meagan’s 80’s aerobics instructor costume.

Bennett was a cowgirl.

 

Darla was an 80’s prom queen. Can you tell we like to rag on the 80’s? Who doesn’t though…such an easy target, kinda like that slow kid in dodge ball. Hehe.

This is Leanne’s Ghoul Bride costume. She has a lot of cool costumes stored from years past and has the makeup for some pretty cool costumes. This is one of Ellynn’s favorites.

Ellynn was a witch…for the party…not referring to general mood. Hehe. She said this picture was flattering, not to mention she’s holding a roll of cash there which is all gonna be spent on our new stroller.

These are the cakes Julia made. Everyone said they should be in a Martha Stewart Catalog. They were very creative. She’s a pretty good cook. We’ve only suckered her into cooking dinner for us once so far. Brind had an idea to make the inside of one of the bellies out of red Jell-O and to put a plastic baby in it so that as you cut into it the red Jell-O gushed out. Pretty creative and totally a Brind idea as Ellynn said. Julia just stuck with cake batter for all three though so people could actually have something to eat.

Ellynn was on her feet for a lot of the day. She had a Relief Society service project in the morning and then lots of preparation for the part in the afternoon. All this led to some very swollen ankles by the end of the day. Ellynn had to document the event for posterity.

Here’s some of the gifts we got, at least the ones that I could easily snap a pic of. People brought some very nice and very creative gifts. It was really nice to get a lot of these things and to not have to worry about having to go buy this now. It was a big help.

This is the Diaper Champ. From what we hear it’s the best thing for throwing away diapers and not having it smell bad. It never really lets air out, kinda has the nuclear waste disposal feel to it which is what diaper changing feels like sometimes…

This was a diaper cake. At least that’s how Ellynn explained it. This gift was very creative. Diapers were wrapped into layers (like a cake) and topped with various lotions, towels and other baby items.

This is a pile of the smaller items and bags we got. Diapers, wipes, some good books, bathrobes, and lots of others things. I haven’t had time to go through everything yet but there were lots of cool useful gifts.

This is the monitor system we signed up for at target. It has the receiver and then two speaker systems that you can set up. Both the speaker systems have lights that signal noise volume so you can tell just by looking at it if there’s noise. These were also recommended to us and are supposed to be very good.

And this is the sweet baby grooming kit from Target. Lots of good stuff in there for first time parents and it’s all neatly put together in one kit which is nice.

So that was the whole shebang. Ellynn is gonna post later and tell all about the shower and different funny things that happened. This post was mainly so you could see all the pictures she took and get a good feel for what went on. Thanks for all your help and support as this baby has grown!

Animal House!

So, we're inundated with animals here! We have Beau (I call him Bandit), who is a handful but very lovable. And then the happy couple, Charlie & Jack. They're buds.
Beau tries to steal the cat food. He does this little stealth move by sneaking up to it, grabbing a mouth full and then running under the table. It's actually quite humorous which is why I call him 'The Bandit." But it's like having a baby in the house again....ohhh... no sleep! Your dad is very attached though and gets after us if we're not doing the correct 'dog whisperer' training. Too cute.

P.S.

The new theme for the blog looks cool. I like the lined paper look behind the text. I’m sure it reminds the kids of their wonderful time in school… hehe.

Baby train’s a comin’!

Ellynn’s belly was pretty big in that shirt so we snapped a picture to give you a good idea of where she’s at. She’s definitely in the “uncomfortably large” stage of pregnancy right now. She’s ready to get this baby out. We’re getting hospital bags ready so we can head out to the hospital if needed anytime over the next month. We took a tour of the hospital she’ll be delivering at and we were very impressed with it. I’ll be taking my camera and laptop bag along on delivery day so we’ll try to get as many pictures as we can and maybe even skype after things are settled down and we’re waiting to be released. (The hospital has free wireless internet). So there’s a little update on us. I’ll keep snapping pictures and update you more later. Take care!

This is a dresser we got so the baby clothes could go in our old one. Ellynn’s in love with it. It only cost 78 bucks so I kinda like it too…

Zion's Vacation

Here's some pictures of our trip down to Zion's. We stayed in Zion's National Resort, outside of the Park. It was beautiful! Our cabin overlooked a field of buffalo, which was really cool to wake up to. The Buffalo Restaurant was incredible.. your dad had elk and buffalo for dinner. The next day we went down to Kanab, which is a fun little, touristy town. A nice, but quick vacation! We decided if we're going to do a Willmore Family Reunion, we'll do it at this resort! They have so many different activities and things close by to do. Maybe next year or the year after! Love you all! mom

Picture Extravaganza

Ellynn is addicted to puzzles since conference weekend. This was her probably around midnight not being able to pull herself away from this particular puzzle.

 

Lewisville Park, a local park that we’ve been to a couple times for walking and such. Very scenic place.