I'm SO excited . . . . .

. . . . I could POP!!!!

Wanna know why?!!


Tomorrow morning we are leaving bright and early (sometime before 7am) to go down to the Illinois State Square Dance Convention!!!! We are going down with several friends (there will be about 20 of us total) for a FULL day of fun and dancing!!

pictures from last year's convention
for an entire post on last year's convention, go here, here and here!!

SURPRISE!!!!!!!!!!

On Friday we had a surprise baby shower for my Mom in our barn. I've been planning it with a friend, Mrs. Gumness, for a little over a month and it FINALLY happened!! We've done all the planning via e-mail which was tough! We invited several Mothers along with their older daughters, and had about 20 people come. Mom was curious as to why I was on the computer much more than normal, and thought I was doing a LOT of blogging! Which is the main reason I haven't been blogging much - I was doing other stuff on the computer.

The big day finally arrived, and it was a bit hectic getting everything ready in time. I worked at our friends' store earlier in the day, and then in the afternoon brought two friends home "to sew". Once Mom and Dad left for their date we all went out to the barn and for the next two hours worked like crazy - cleaning, decorating and getting everything set up.

::SETTING UP::

Tara (shown putting up balloons) and Dana did all the decorating - THANK YOU GUYS SO MUCH!!

They did a fabulous job . . . .

. . . . there is NO WAY we could've done it without them!!

Helium balloons - which provided LOTS of fun and laughs later in the evening!

The "fancy" food table

Yum!! It looks really good!

Punch (if you look closely, you can see a little ducky that was floating in the punch - at least it was supposed to be floating, but it was "diving" the entire time!)

The cake made by Sarah and her Mom - it was delicious!!!

::GIFT OPENING::
Instead of gifts, we asked people to bring either a freezer meal, or a restaurant gift card to help make things a little easier after the baby is born. A few people brought baby gifts too, and they were SOOO cute!!


The gifts - how cute!!

Let's see who it's from . . . .

Awww . . . . . .

TOO CUTE!!

::FUN AND FELLOWSHIP::

Okay, so there was one boy!!

Playing games . . . . . .
Lindsey, Emmy, Nikki, Me & Mrs. Burant

Dana and I getting one of the games ready

Mrs. Siegmann & Mrs. Burant

Laura & Aleks

Mrs. Chudy & Mom

Mrs. Vagnini & Mrs. Gumness - thank you both SO MUCH for ALL your help! There is no way this could've happened without you!!

We also inhaled helium balloons, which was a BLAST!! I'd never done it before, and it was SO FUNNY!!! We didn't get any pictures though, just videos.

Game Night

On Wednesday we were invited over to our friends' house for a game night. It was LOTS of fun, and here are some pictures.

::VOLLEYBALL::

Me (trying VERY hard to make sure the ball goes over the net!), Steven, Maria and Tara

NOOOO!!! (a couple of us have our head in our hands, as the other team gets yet ANOTHER point!)

Girls (and a guy) against Boys

Serve it up good!
Maria, Steven, Me, Tara, Libby, Abby and Dana

The guys: Joe, Tom, Alex (on the ground!) Zack, Caleb and Noah

The Girls w/ a guy: Libby, Dana, Abby, Aleks, Tara, me and Steven

We also played some Football before it got too dark to see. It was lots of fun, and the teams were pretty even (I think we lost by 1 touchdown)

After going inside there we played lots of Ping-Pong, Foosball, Pool, Sequence and Sheepshead.

::PING-PONG::

Christina and Carey

Erin and Sammy

Aleks and Abby

Libby and Hannah

::POOL::

Hannah, Laura, Allison, Marissa and Libby

Me and Dana played Pool against . . . . . .

Emily and Tara

Breaking up the balls

Concentrating on a shot

We stayed until 12:30AM!!! No one got much sleep that night!!

Thanks to Amy for the pictures!! They are GREAT!

Too cute!!

It just melts my heart to hear this little voice "I oub oo" (translated: I love you!). I'm tellin' you, it is way too cute!!

All you have to do is turn the camera on her and she gives you the cheesiest grin!

Father's Day

I know this post is late, but better late than never - right?!

On Father's Day we had Dad's side of the family over for the day.

Eating - we grilled out and boy! was it good!

Elsie (2 1/2) and cousin Brodie (1 1/2)

We played "Wiffle Ball" for a while, and it was really fun! (and HOT!)

Anja (1) and Brodie - aren't they cute?! We all think they look like they could be siblings.

Then we went swimming - it felt really really good!!

The "on-lookers" (Zack, Ike, Dad and Grampa)

Uncle Mike and a bunch of kids having fun!

Thanks Aunt Julie for the pictures!!