a baby shower, for thing 2

24 and 26 weeks pregnant with second cousins.

My cousin Randi is in town from Tacoma. It's always great to see her and this trip out was extra special because I got to see her and her precious baby bump. Randi is due with her second child 10 days before my due date with baby #2. It's been fun being pregnant with a family member. When I am dealing with something (morning sickness, swelling feet, food cravings, crazy pregnancy hormones, feeling the baby move for the first time) I can almost always text her and she is dealing with the same exact thing, it's pretty awesome. She's having a little boy and although they won't tell us what his name is going to be, I think I'm already in love with my little second cousin growing inside Randi (yes I know that sounds weird...). 

My sisters and I knew that when she came to visit we wanted to throw her a family baby shower. Since her first born (precious Scarlet) had a Dr. Seuss nursery and was 'Thing 1' we knew that we would be doing a 'Thing 2' Cat in The Hat theme for the shower. As a teacher who loves Dr. Seuss I was very excited about it, tho I wish my classroom wasn't all packed up because all my favorite books didn't get to make their appearance. 

Dear old Cat in The Hat welcoming guests to my aunts house

 (Thanks Auntie for letting us use your house)

 Gift table when guest first walked in. We used some of Randi's favorite Dr. Seuss books and of course a 'Thing 2' running a muck.  

Guest book. Family and friends wrote sweet notes to the baby and signed their name. 

 My sister Ann did most of the decorating and I love how she even added a gold fish to the center piece, I mean how can you have a Cat in the Hat shower without the goldfish in the bowl?

 Thing 2 and Green Eggs and Ham cupcakes. Easy, quick and yummy to make. 

What is better than cupcakes? Cake pop favors to take with you!

  Scarlet playing the 'measure how big the belly is' game. She is just precious.

Cousins, friends. Same thing. 

The whole group.

I was great to have some girl time and some amazing food (cause we all know that's why people really throw parties). It made me even more excited about my own shower (and yes, maybe I'm most excited about the cupcakes than anything else).

What is your favorite part about baby showers? Is it the fellowship with friends? The food? Gathering of family? Or the horrible, terrible baby shower games?

divorce. it's part of our life.

This week Monkey is at “The Happiest Place on Earth”, Disney World. She is there while I... am not. She went down to Florida with her Dad, Nana, Papa, aunt, uncle and cousins. I’m both excited for her and beyond sad at the same time. Oh how much I wish I was with her to see her face and hear her squeals when she sees Mickey and Minnie for the first time. They are currently her most favorite things in the world. She also adores beyond measure princesses. She is pretty much going to be in complete love with all things Disney World, especially Magic Kingdom.

I’m glad she is getting to experience and enjoy all these things, but at the same time I wish I could be part of it as well. While she is having probably one of the best weeks of her little 2.5 year old life I, her mommy, won’t be there to experience it with her. This makes me sad. Really sad actually.  Thankfully her dad and I have a fantastic relationship so I can talk to her daily, I’ll be able to see all the pictures taken, and probably a few video clips from the Iphone. But, will I be there to experience the pure joy alongside her? No. Will she be able to point out a princess to me? No. Will she share an ice-cream cone with me as we sit on a park bench people watching? No. And because of this I struggle with being absolutely happy that she gets to see the wonders of Disney World for the first time without me.

I’m sure the feelings I’m experiencing are normal for divorced parents. I knew when her dad and I divorced that she would have two different families and do things with him that she didn't get to do with me, and vice versa. I knew she would be experience things for the first time without me, but that still doesn't make it any easier. Maybe as the years go by things with get easier and hurt less. Whose house will she be at the first day of kindergarten? How about when she learns to ride a bike or goes to the hospital for stitches or her first broken arm? Whose house will she read her first book at? Or go out on her first date? Knowing that she will have firsts at her dad’s house that she doesn’t at mine hurts, but at the same time I know that she will have plenty of firsts with me too. I mean she did take her first steps at my house and a few nights ago she said her first little bedtime pray all by herself (which by the way was beyond adorable “Dear Heavenly Fadder, I love you. Help me sleep good. Jesus is my friend. Amen”). This is something all divorced parents and kids of divorced parents have to go through right? Monkey has a split life. Her parents are her family, they just happen to live different lives in different homes.  

When Monkey's dad and I decided to get divorced we talked a lot about Monkey and what this would mean for her life. Even tho she was only 6months old we knew it wouldn't be easy for her but we decided we would do everything we could to make her life as 'normal' as possible. She hadn't asked to be born into a family that wouldn't last and she deserved to have a 'normal' a life, and as hard as it's been at times I think we have succeeded so far. Monkey is with her dad 50% of the time and with Brandon and me 50% of the time. She has two homes with 3 parents that adore her and she knows it. Both homes are hers and she loves it and I love it for her. I have seen time and time again kids who don't get to see their dad (or mom) more than once or twice a month. I've seen kids heartbroken because the parent who was going to come visit, never showed up. I have friends who have practically no relationship with his or her dad because when the parents got divorced they saw dad only a few times a year, or even worse the ones who once the parents split the dad never came around again.  As much as I know divorce sucks for kids, it doesn't always have to. If the parents can get past their own negative feelings towards each other (at least in front of their kids) and realize that they still have a child to raise together then I think things could end up more "normal" than not. 

my favorite day

This blog isn't only about our home renovation, it's about our life. One of my favorite things in the world are Sundays with my little family. It is the one day that is truly relaxing. We make it as much as we can about family time. As members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints we try our hardest to keep the Sabbath day holy. This means no shopping, no running errand, no working on the new house. I love this because we have no distractions.

Here is how a typical Sunday goes here in the Lunsford household. Today we woke up lazily, ate waffles and blueberries, then played around the house. Monkey has a new favorite thing to do during play time. She will put on one of my hats and walk around telling us over and over that she isn't Monkey she is Mommy. She won't respond to anything but Mommy. She "cooks" us food, brings us babies to rock and feed, and will push her shopping cart around "shopping" throughout the house. I'ts pretty adorable. We have afternoon church that starts at 1pm so after a quick pb&j sandwich we head off to church. Monkey loves church.

She loves her Sunday school class and all her little friends. She loves singing and learning about Jesus, or as she says it her friend Jesus, and who doesn't like coloring, playdough and stickers? Monkey loves church and her friends there so much this is typically the face I get when I tell her it's time to go home. She would honestly love to stay there all day and never come home! I'm glad that she loves it, I hope that as the years go by she will continue to love going to church and learning about Jesus. I look forward to the day she makes the choice to be baptized and grows into a strong, spiritual young woman.

By the time we get out of church we have dinner. Today we went to my sister in laws house and had dinner with them. Spaghetti was on the menu so this meant naked dinner was happening. The Monkey loves food and one of her favorite meals is spaghetti. As an Italian, I'm proud that she has inherited my love for pasta.

Today was a pretty perfect Sunday. Great family morning time, an amazing church service that was all about how prayer can strengthen our lives and our families, and a delicious dinner with part of our extended family. Brandon and I are about to sit down with a bowl of popcorn and a movie, I can't imagine any other way to end our weekend.

hanging windows, instead of hanging by the pool

Before we bought the house the 4th of July meant sleeping in, relaxing at the pool or on the lake, lots of family lazy time, a BBQ and fireworks. This year, with the purchase of the house, it turned out a little different. Brandon was up with the sun and heading to the house to work. Monkey and I were up and out of the house by 8 for the church pancake breakfast and then it was off to the house to help work. Thankfully Mae'mae offered to watch Monkey so she would be out of our way. My Dad came over to help Brandon at the house and they had already mowed the lawn, torn out most of the ugly laminate and were moving appliances by the time I arrived. Dad checked on some termite damage that we uncovered (thankfully he is a pest and termite guy) and we made a list of things to pick up at Home Depot.

After the trip to our second home Home Depot Brandon, Dad and David (Brandon's dad) started installing the new windows in the house. Y'all I'm so excited about the windows. Not only are they pretty and energy efficient, but I found an amazing deal on them! I had terrible insomnia when I was pregnant with Monkey and this pregnancy has proven to be no different. So on one of my sleepless nights I decided to check Craigslist for windows. Why I even thought of it I have no clue. I've never done anything on there. I have always thought Craigslist was only filled with serial killers and scam artists, BUT I actually found something that looked promising. Someone had special ordered windows but when they got them realized they weren't what they needed so they were selling them for an amazing $75 a piece. These windows retail for around $210 each! The windows just happened to be exactly what we needed for both the existing house and the new addition. We met the guy last week and he turned out to be neither a serial killer or a scam artist so we bought windows from him. We calculated that with all the windows we bought we saved around $1700! I for once am thankful for my baby insomnia. Anyways... instead of getting all the windows installed today like we hoped we only got one installed, but now the guys know what they are doing and the rest of the windows should go in pretty easily.I am so thankful for a husband, dad and father-in-law that are all handy and can do so much of the work themselves to save us money. 

We ended the day with a delicious BBQ at my in-laws complete with BBQ chicken, hot dogs, grilled corn on cob, my homemade potato salad and the traditional American flag jello cake. Sadly we didn't have any fireworks because of the extreme drought we are in and the burn ban that has been issued, but we did have the sprinklers on for the girls to run through. All in all it was a wonderful day. I hope all of y'all had a fabulous Independence Day filled with fun, family, friends and food.