Baby Shower in Des Moines

My sister, bf from high school and two of my bfs from college hosted an adooooorable baby shower for me in Des Moines on February 19th. I was surrounded by awesome friends from all stages of my life, cousins, my aunt, moms of my friends, my sister's two best friends who are like big sisters to me, my MIL and my mom. It was quite the crew! And I felt so loved. It was held in a perfectly sized back room at a local Clive restaurant.

Everyone (except those who forgot) brought a baby picture. I had fun guessing who was who and for the most part, got almost everyone right!

The invites said:

An Irish Blessing as Good as Gold...a Wee Little to Love and to Hold.

The Barntsens are expecting a new addition, so join us to celebrate in Irish tradition.

With this little seed sprouting in the Celtic lands,

wouldn't a little bit of blarney and Irish cheer be GRAND!

Every one was asked to wear a touch of green as well. 

Everyone hard at work on their scrapbook pages. There was some real talent in the crowd.

I'm looking forward to using them for a baby book and remembering this special day.

My cousin's new daughter, Lindee. Are those dimples not to die for?!

Squish!

The food was fabulous - shrimp, crab cakes, chicken skewers, fresh fruit, three different kinds of mini cupcakes (double chocolate, raspberry lime and almond vanilla - uh, I'll take one of each!) and green punch.

See - lots of green! 

College friends and sorority sisters - Michelle and Malynda

Charles City girls - Tara, Kara, Amanda, Libby, Laura and Megan (with Drew)

After college friend and old roommate - Elizabeth

Best friends from college - Celeste, Liz and Sophie

The pregnant girls!

Me, my sister (late April), Libby (early May) and Liz (late May)

Me and my thoughtful, giving, loving shower hosts.

The greatest hubby in the world!

My MIL, Pam, and my mom, Lin. 

My parents, sister, her hubby and son and Tom and I stayed in a hotel for the weekend. We invited a few people over for dinner. It was one packed hotel room, but we made it work. We're flexible like that.

Next time my sis and I see each other we'll both have new babies in our arms.

Crazy!

Tom made a new friend. Aaliyah, my sister's friend's daughter loved Tom and was crawling all over him. 

It was so sweet. I'm pretty sure he'd handle a girl just fiiiiiine *smile.

After a six (normally four) hour drive home without stopping due to rain, slush and snow, we finally got the car unloaded and unpacked. This was our nursery after taking all of our gifts upstairs. 

I'd say we're pretty blessed, wouldn't you?!

 The love and support that has been shown to us and our baby overwhelms me. Everyone was so generous and giving.

I continue to feel great and am feeling confident and ready. I loooove surprises, so the anticipation of when will I go into labor and where and how long will it all last and is it a boy or a girl and what color hair will it have is so exciting for us right now. We talk about it every night before we fall asleep while we feel the baby kick and move for a little while. I cherish that time. We just lay there in amazement.

This is a typical conversation:

Me: "honey, we're going to have a BABY."

Tom: "I know. It's so CRAZY."

Me: "you're going to be a DAD."

Tom: "ohmigosh."

Me: "and I'm going to be a MOM."

Tom: "I know, you'll be so great honey."

Me: "what do you think it is?!"

Tom: "I have no idea, but I hope it's sweet and smart and funny like you."

Ok, I made up that last line, but I'm sure he's said it at one point recently *smile.

There are a lot of unknowns right now, but it's all in God's sovereign hands and for that we are so very, very thankful.