You'd think that I'd have more blogging done since I've been home for over a week. Obviously that's not the case. One of the biggest reasons is that my laptop has been unaccessible.
Life at our house for the last few months has been full of projects. We ripped out all the carpet and moved pretty much everything into storage. Chaos!!! It was super hard for all of us, but particularly for Buddy. Poor pup felt very displaced and had nowhere to really chill because we had no carpet or furniture (besides our bed). Below you can see he found a comfy place to chill while Rob was unhooking the bathroom sink (in preperation for the new tile floor to go in).
Hard to survive remodeling while mega prego, attending birthing classses, having baby showers, etc. Fortunately, my wonderful sister came for a couple of days to attend a family shower and to help out. She didn't get to stay long (I was still working at the time, anyway), but she was a FaBuLoUs help! ...and Buddy loved snuggling with Aunt Toni on the new furniture. :)
Her visit was in perfect time because my parents were also coming to town for my shower and we had just found out my brother got a job in Denver and is moving this month. We had a last-minute family holiday dinner party which was FANTASTIC! I'd been really bummed about the holidays this year because our family was unable to hook up for Thanksgiving and I knew I wouldn't be making a trip to visit my folks over Christmas because I'd be too close to baby day (and would NOT have this kiddo in Idaho!). The family party sure perked me up, though. And the shower the next day was a blast. I'll see if I can track down a few pics to share on that, too.
My holiday blues are now much relieved because my parents are coming to town on Christmas for my nephew's ordination the next day. They're going to hook up with Rob & I at my in-laws' for our holiday evening. AND, now they've made arrangements to stay in town a little longer visiting other relatives so they can be here to meet baby Matthew next week.
All this goes to show that if you talk to the right "elf", "Santa" will provide. I'm so blessed!
As far as everything else going on, we'll post pics of the nursery soon - it's almost completely done thanks to a soon-to-be Daddy who is having a blast...and some assistance here and there from Grandpa.
We're continuing to progress and are on a waiting list to possibly be enduced on the 28th - please say your prayers folks, cause we need a 3-generation birthday!!! If we don't hear from them about being enduced, the plan is boot camp starting Monday evening to see if we can't get going on our own.
That's all for now, my friends. If I don't tune in sooner, you can expect to see a report on Baby Sparks by the first of the year. :)
Rob working on his homemade stuffing.
Kids (and Grandma) attacking the veggie platter. I've always been impressed with what great eaters some of my nieces and nephews are...but the pickles were still the first thing to need a refill.
Check out that spread! Yummers!
My awesome parents. Who else drives hours and hours for their daughter's baby shower? Glad we were able to have more family time to make it worth the drive (they stayed the night at my brother's house so they'd be here and not have to drive freaking early).
Here I am with 2 of my sisters - Shelli's in the middle and Toni's on the right - my California sister (if I thought it was wild my parents would drive down for the shower, Toni flew in!!!).
The next day was my family shower, hosted by my mother-in-law and sister-in-laws. These ladies know how to throw a party! Best yet - no games. :D Everything was coordinated and the food was amazing!
Check out my sister-in-law's jello masterpiece! She's AmAzInG!
Here are all the Sparks women - Pam, Kim, JoAnn and me. (That's almost the entire Sparks family! We only had a couple who couldn't come - one of which had just had knee surgery, so I guess that's a pretty good excuse.)
All my side of the family who came - Aunt Janet, cousin Lindsey, Mom (Leah), me, sister Shelli, sis-in-law Danielle, sis-in-law Tracy, sister Toni and little niece Danielle Lila in front.
A final shot of my sisters, mom and me. :)
