NJ Baby Shower

I was blessed for a third time this past weekend, as my mother-in-law, sister-in-law and aunt-in-law gave me another baby shower.  This one was held in Woodbury, NJ, only about 15 minutes from where we live and was attended by many of David's family members.  My dear friend, Karen, drove up from Maryland for the event, and a few of my good friends from church attended also.  I received many gifts and had a wonderful afternoon.  Thank you Mom, Marney and Aunt Cathy!

David's cousins, Mia and Lisa, along with his Mommom and Aunt Diane.



Enjoying many delicious foods.

 

Crib sheets... one of our gifts from Mom and Marney.



A stuffed animal from Aunt Jayne.



Jade, Aunt Catherine, Pam, Mom and Lisa.



Karen, Maria, Leslie, me, Regina, Shawn and Jan.
(Hmm... I never realized how big a size difference there is between me and many of my friends!  Am I really that short?)



David's Family:
Carol, Mommom, Pam, Aunt Catherine, Mom Cundey, Jade, me, Barbara, Aunt Diane, Aunt Jayne
Mia
Lisa, Aunt Cathy and Marney



Surprise Baby Shower

I work with a great group of ladies, and we always get together and celebrate each other's birthdays with cake and cards.  Therefore I thought nothing was out of the ordinary when we all received an email this past week saying that the conference rooms were booked during our usual meeting time and we'd have to celebrate Joyce's birthday at lunch time instead.  Wow, did they fool me!!  I walked into the conference room today to find out that Joyce had delayed her birthday celebration so that they could throw me a surprise baby shower! 

I've never been a fan of walking into a room and suddenly being the center of attention, but it turned out that it wasn't too bad to be surprised.  It helped that there was a big lunch planned and we only had 45 minutes to celebrate... so I opened gifts while everyone enjoyed the food.

One of my coworkers, Lisa, is extremely talented in making cakes (in fact, usually she charges for them!), and she made the jungle-animals cake that we all enjoyed.

I am grateful to have spent the last 4 years working with such nice ladies, and I am blown away by their generosity and kindness!

Crosby Thanksgiving and Christmas

David and I usually spend our Thanksgiving with his family (and always have a wonderful time!), but this year plans changed.  We found out that Howie's family was going to be in Delaware (visiting Hannah's family) during the week of Thanksgiving, and Alenna's family decided to join us in NJ so they would be close enough to meet Howie's new son, Gavin.  When Dad found out that 3 of his "kids" were going to be in one area, he and Gene decided to drive up from NC. 



Dad and Gene.

This was the first time I'd ever hosted a Thanksgiving, so I was a bit overwhelmed that so many people were attending!  But Alenna offered to help me with the entire meal, so it turned out to be nowhere near as stressful as I had envisioned.  The guys helped out too by frying the turkey out in our garage.  Everything turned out great, and we all enjoyed the company and the food!


Dad and Howie "supervising" the frying turkey.

Our delicious dinner!

Dan and David... relaxing after our big meal.



Howie didn't get too far with carrying this heavy load!

 

Howie, Hannah, Ellie and Gavin

 

Sophie was tired after our long day... so Cora laid down to keep her company!



Dan, Alenna, Aiden, Seth and Cora

We knew that we wouldn't all be together again this year, so we decided to get together on Saturday morning to give gifts to the kids and celebrate Christmas together.  The kids were told that they would get to open gifts from youngest to oldest, and I assumed that Gavin would have the first turn.  But then Hannah told me that our baby had gifts too!

David opening a gift for our baby.



Me with Seth and Aiden.

Ellie opening one of her gifts.

  

Aiden with one of his gifts.

 

Cora shows off a Christmas dress that David and I gave to her.

It's been 10 years since I was with my father, sister and brother for Thanksgiving, and it was wonderful to be together for a few days last week.  Now that I've hosted my first Thanksgiving, I won't be intimidated if my family joins us again.  In fact, I hope we don't let another 10 years go by before we do it again!

30 Weeks and A Haircut

Hard to believe that we're at 30 weeks today!  The last 15 weeks have flown by, just like everyone said they would.  Things have been going well, and I'm really enjoying this pregnancy.  I haven't taken on any water weight yet (that I can tell) so the typical 3rd trimester complaint isn't an issue, and for the most part I'm able to sleep. 

While I'm settling into this new role as a mother (as best I can, since it still seems very surreal!), I decided to take on a mom haircut.  And, I've got to admit, the additional 10 minutes each morning does make a huge difference!  I'm not completely sure that this is the style I want to stick with, but for the time being it's working out well.

Baby Shower

This previous weekend I had my first baby shower, hosted by my sister, Alenna, and one of my best friends, Carla (with help from my cousin, Kim, and friend, Launa).  I thought it was a great event, and I really appreciated the time that I got to chat with many friends.  The attendees included 7 family members, 2 high school friends, 3 previous co-workers, 2 ladies that I met through the church I attended while growing up, 1 friend from college and 1 friend that I originally met while at camp as a teenager!  Quite the mixture of friendships, and I felt loved by the overwhelming excitement and joy for this new child.

Thank you to everyone who attended!  I appreciated having you there!

Preparations

David and I began taking birthing classes with a local, independent teacher at the end of September, and we are both enjoying it. But, much more important than our enjoyable experience, we are learning a lot! Our instructor, Morgan, has been teaching this class for over 10 years, yet it is still obvious to see her passion for a natural birth process. It is encouraging to hear someone talk about childbirth in such a positive way, instead of with the anxiety and trepidation that many in our culture associate it with.

Costume Party

This past Friday David and I were invited to a surprise 50th birthday party, which was also a costume party.  We stayed up way too late on Thursday night getting our costumes completed.  Here's David, making the wall that would become part of my costume.

The party was in honor of a friend of the Cundey family, so David's mother and sister were at the party too.  Here we are with Mom Cundey, Cherish (daughter of the guest-of-honor) and Marney.  And yes, that large, crazy looking "lady" in the purple moo moo is my darling husband!  We found his outfit at a local consignment store and, because of the embroidered cats, David thought it would work perfect as a "crazy cat-lady" costume (over his fat-lady costume from many years ago).  A lot of people commented on the originality of our outfits and said that we had the best costumes of the whole party!

Here is the finished product of the costume that David helped make for me... Humpty-Dumpty!  Unfortunately I cannot claim to have thought of this idea myself because I saw the instructions on a homemade costume website.  Also, except for stuffing Humpty's legs and buying his shoes, David was the one who made the entire costume a reality!  Thankfully it was warm at the party, so my painted, but bare belly didn't get too cold.

This was the first time in years that I've actually enjoyed dressing up for Halloween.  And, even though I have some fond memories of Halloween costumes when I was a child, I know this was my favorite Halloween party ever.  I used to dislike the extra attention that comes with wearing a costume, but this year, the costume wasn't about me, it was about my baby belly!  Also, since I've gotten to the point where my stomach gathers a lot of looks, it was fun to "show off" the area that, at times, has brought me some unwanted attention.  I never thought that I could have such a great time at a costume party!

Linvilla Orchards

After church today David and I went to Linvilla Orchards with some friends.  Neither of us had ever been there even thouh it's only about 20 minutes from our house. 

Fall used to be my least favorite season of the year... the end of summer, going back to school, the cold, rainy days and everything in nature dying.  But, ever since moving to NJ, I enjoy it just as much as the other seasons.  In Upstate NY it seemed as though autumn would sneak up and overwhelm us within a matter of days.  But in southern NJ the transition from summer to fall is a mostly smooth ride, highlighted by crisp mornings and cloudless days.  Now I embrace fall and the beautiful days like this one!



Baby Growth

I love to read, so I've enjoyed reading about the growth that Baby Cundey is making each week.  Here's a few things (from AmericanPregnancy.org) that I found interesting...

Week 22 - his/her eyes have completely formed, but the iris still lacks pigment

Week 23 - he/she weighs approximately 1 pound

Week 24 - Baby Cundey's taste buds are developing

Week 25 - Baby's home (my uterus) is approximately the size of a soccer ball

As you can see, growth seems to be happening at a rapid rate these days!  But, thankfully, except for nightly backaches and being tired, I'm feeling well and enjoying my pregnancy. 

Get Away

David's birthday falls at a perfect time of year. The humidity of the summer is (usually) gone and the stressfulness of David's summer work schedule is behind us. It's a wonderful time to get away for a vacation, or at least a mini-vacation.

Since we had a great time in Sandbridge, VA last year (for the Crosby reunion) we decided to go there again. We rented a pet-friendly house only 1 block from the beach and arrived on Thursday night, September 29th.

Sophie didn't let us waste any of the beautiful weather on Friday... she woke us up at 7am and we took a walk on the beach before breakfast.

The day warmed up to about 80 degrees, so we spent part of the afternoon hanging out on the beach. There were too many people on the beach to allow Sophie off her leash, but she didn't seem to mind the limitations to her movement.

(Thankfully I still can wear my non-maternity swimsuit... but it was a tight fit!)
Like any young child, Sophie played on the beach until she was past the point of exhaustion, then crashed onto her bed at home for a nap before dinner.

We spent Saturday visiting with some of my college friends, Nate and Deb Barnhart and their son, Micah, who drove up from Northern NC to see us. It had been about 5 years since we'd seen them, so we really appreciated them making the drive to hang out!

David's parents also arrived on Saturday, en route to their Myrtle Beach vacation. They stayed with us until Sunday afternoon, and, as always, it was lovely to spend time with them.

Sunday afternoon, David's 33rd birthday, we took some pictures on the beach before Mom and Dad Cundey continued on their trip to SC.

I was so thankful for this vacation! I've been stressed lately (letting my pregnancy hormones get the best of me, I fear), and it was very relaxing to be away from the day-to-day responsibilities at home. This was just what I needed!