Showered with Love

My baby shower was on Sunday, January 5. It was hosted by the best hostesses, Mom & Megan...with the help of many others. Laura was in charge of the cupcakes, made my Cakes for ME. Val brought her awesome buffalo chicken dip. Janae brought these yummy brownie bites. Crystal brought cucumber sandwiches since she knows how much I love cucumbers. Nana brought her famous potato salad...but left out the eggs just for me! Carol brought fruit and bought the prizes for the games. I think Aunt Sharon brought something but I can't remember what it was. I'm sure I'm forgetting someone, blame it on the pregnant brain. 

When I arrived everyone was working together to get the tables and chairs set up and bring out the food. The decorations were already set up and I loved them! 

Everyone ate and then they played a few games. It was fun to hear what people put as their answers for the first game. Nobody got them all right but Laura got 8 correct so she won the prize for that game. 

ANSWERS: 

1. February 15, 2014

2. Camden Levi

3. Piney Hill Bed & Breakfast (Luray, VA)

4. Spotsylvania Regional Medical Center

6. Carol

7. Wine (Moscato) 

8. No

9. 3D/4D Ultrasounds

10. Having to pee so often

11. Cinnamon

Another game was to see how many words can be made out of "Camden Levi". Sarah P. won that game with 44 legit words in like 2 minutes! Go Sarah!

Of course Val was listening for the word "baby" all day and collected the most clothespins so she won that game. 

When it was time for cupcakes, there were baby names on the bottom of each plate. I was handing out plates asking if they wanted chocolate or vanilla. We told everyone not to throw their plates away. Heather had the plate with Camden's name under it, yay Heather! 

We pulled a raffle ticket for the diaper raffle and the winner was...Julie! Thanks to everyone for bringing all the diapers, we really needed them and think we have enough to last us a long time. Then again we have no clue how many we're supposed to have so we could be way off and not even know. 

Here are the advice cards. Thank you ladies for all the wonderful advice!

Of course we had to take a million photos...

You wouldn't believe the amount of gifts we received...look at this! 

From Auntie Val

From Aunt Dev Dev

Handmade by Charlene

From Auntie Sharon 

Handmade with love from Nana

Allison put her own blood sweat and tears into making this awesome gift. It hangs proudly in his nursery!

Handmade by Ashley's grandma, so sweet! Booties to match too! 

Look at the cute outfits!!

I decided that Camden's daddy needed some sort of special gift to show my appreciation of how supportive he's been throughout the whole pregnancy. I put together a little basket of his favorite things and some things he would need as part of survival once the baby arrives. The kit included: coke, energy shots, energy drink, kit kat, slim jim, reese's, advil, face mask, air freshener, rubber gloves, first aid kit, lullaby CD, wipes, a book, and hand sanitizer.

 I also included a shirt for him to wear on Camden's birthday (the day of his birth) that says "I MAKE ADORABLE BABIES" and a pink onesie that says"DON'T LAUGH DADDY DRESSED ME".

Everyone got a kick out of the survival kit, it was fun to put together too. Mark has already eaten most of the candy that he was supposed to save for when he's up in the middle of the night with the baby. He did save the energy shots though so those will come in handy at 3am.

Mark, Camden, and I really appreciate everyone who came out to celebrate our baby boy. We can't say thank you enough for all the wonderful gifts, all of which will definitely be put to good use. Thank you cards are in the works, but this Momma never feels like writing when she has free time...goal is to get them out before Camden arrives though. Thanks again to everyone did the planning, brought a dish, helped set up, and cleaned up without letting me lift a finger...I was out of my element since I'm usually the one hosting a party so it felt weird (but nice) to just relax and let it all be done for me for once. It wouldn't have been possible without you all, we love you so much! 

Anything we received doubles of went back to Target for store credit. We used that to purchase the things we didn't get but still needed (and got 10% off since it was on our registry...plus there were some awesome clearance sales going on at the time so we got great deals).

Camden is so spoiled already, mostly with love. He is super lucky to be a part of our family and to be surrounded by our wonderful friends, who we consider family. 

Happy New Year!

 HAPPY NEW YEAR! 

2014 is Camden's birth year and it's going to be the best year ever! 

Charlie and Jenn were in town from South Carolina so we knew we wanted to spend New Years Eve with them. We had been trying to figure out what we were going to do and nobody had any good ideas. Finally, Jenn came up with the crazy idea to go to the casino. When Charlie told me I said "let's go!" and he was shocked. He didn't think I would want to go. I knew Mark wouldn't argue with a chance to gamble so I told him we're all in and wanna go.

Mark had orientation for his new job that day and got home around 4:00. I tried to take a nap but couldn't fall asleep. I was mad at myself because I was already sleepy before 6pm and knew we had a long night ahead of us. So, I started getting ready soon after since we were meeting there around 8:00. We picked up Tommy and Shannon on the way (I offered to be DD but Mark ended up driving anyway). I wanted to drink soda or something to wake me up but that would make my bladder miserable on the ride up so I just toughed it out and tried to stay awake. 

When we got to Maryland Live! Casino it was nearly impossible to find Charlie and Jenn so we ate dinner at Phillips Seafood Buffet and then eventually met up with them. Jenn's parents, Shannon, Joe, and Dillan were all there too. When Allison and Tony arrived, we met up with them too. 

I had bad luck from the start. I put a $20 in a penny slot and within 5 minutes my $20 was down to $0! I was depressed that it took my money that fast and didn't want to gamble anymore. When we were moving from one area to the other it was like we were an elementary class walking from the classroom to the cafeteria. Charlie was the line leader and I was the caboose. They walked way too fast for my pregnant feet and it was nearly impossible to keep up with them. The place was hot and my feet were swollen, like always.

11:30 rolls around and I'm dying of thirst. We tried to get a drink from the waitresses who were walking around but that wasn't easy. Then we went to the bar and there was a super long line, annoying! I just wanted some water or a coke. Finally, after waiting at the bar for about 10 minutes, Tommy snagged a water and a soda from one of the waitresses, yay! By the time we walked around a little more to try to find the rest of the crew, it was almost midnight so we just sat down where we could see the TV screen for the countdown. When midnight struck, everyone kissed and hugged and of course said Happy New Year!

Mark made me put another $20 into a slot machine (probably because I looked miserable). I actually kept getting bonuses and turned that $20 into $65, won my money back and some more so I was happy. Mark broke even too so we basically played for free which was nice. Actually, he won a little so we ate dinner for free, that's how I look at it. It worked out great because we didn't have a ton of money to be spending anyway so we were happy with not losing. 

After midnight, the place seemed to suddenly get super crowded. Out of nowhere, herds of people just started coming in and there wasn't an empty slot machine in sight. We left around 1am and there were more cars coming into the garage at that time than there were going out.

It was a LOT of walking and my feet and back were screaming at me (especially the next day) but I'm glad we went, it was really fun. I'd like to go back there again when it's not a holiday and maybe when the minimum bets at the blackjack tables aren't freakin $50! Next time Camden can't come though, hehe. This was his first and last casino trip for at least 21 years. 

We can't wait to see what this year has in store for us. I know there will be lots of new things to adjust to such as sleepless nights, baby puke, crying, poopy diapers, and tons of frustration, but all of the love and joy we will have for our baby boy will be totally worth it. Can't wait to meet him! The best is yet to come. 

2014 - The Year of the Horse

1982 is the year of the dog (Daddy)
1984 is the year of the rat (Mommy)
2014 is the year of the horse (Camden)

According to traditional Chinese belief, a baby's character and his life's journey are influenced by his zodiac sign. It is said that babies will develop the special gift and personality traits represented by the zodiac animal he is born under. 

Babies born in the year of the Horse (January 31, 2014 to February 28, 2015) are said to be energetic extroverts who are clever and competent. Indeed, in the Chinese view, the positive qualities that lead to health and intelligence are so thoroughly associated with the horse that a person full of vigour is often described as "long ma jing shen" - "long" meaning dragon, "ma" meaning horse, and "jing shen" meaning vigour or vitality. In other words, this person is as vigouras and high-spirited as a dragon or horse. 

There is a Chinese saying that goes:

“不孝有三，无后为大.”

It means that among the ways that one can show unfilial conduct to one’s parents, to have no descendants is the worst of all. The arrival of a newborn brings great joy not only to new parents, but also to the rest of the family! If you are planning for a Horse year baby, you are in the right place!

Let’s take a look at the personality of babies to be born in 2014, the Year of the Horse.

Strengths

The Horse year baby is generally energetic, warm-hearted and intelligent. Besides being cheerful and talented, he loves to be in the limelight. His positive outlook in life will make him popular among his peers. Horse year babies will grow up to be working adults who possess great passion for their work. Coupled with a “never say die” attitude, they will not give up easily in the face of adversity.

This is why the Chinese often describe a capable person as “Qian Li Ma” [千里马], which literally refers to a swift horse that can cover a thousand miles a day.

Weaknesses

If you wish to have a Horse year baby, be prepared as he is likely to grow up as an impatient child who enjoys freedom and dislikes restraints. Being fast learners, their interests are usually superficial and they tend to have short attention spans. At times, they can be quite hot-tempered and unreceptive to advice.

Baby Pool - What's your Hunch?

I thought it would be fun to do a baby pool for everyone to guess Camden's stats. It's really neat to see what people guess. 

Luckily I didn't have to do a paper one because I remember how much of a hassle that was with Megan's for Logan. Although we did collect money for that, I remember Uncle Jon won some cash because he guessed the right date. 

Here's Camden's baby pool on a website called babyhunch.com. It'll be fun to add this to his baby book and show him all the hunches when he gets older! 

Gosh I hope that kid isn't over 9 pounds like his daddy was! I'll be just fine with a 7 pounder, hehe. So, I really hope Cousin Barbie is way off with her guess of 9lb 9oz! I told Charlie I'm gonna have some explainin' to do if that kid comes out with brown hair and hazel eyes...Mommy & Daddy are blondies with blue eyes!