Double Baby Shower

This was the invitation we sent out for our Hall Family Shower for Chantel and Tosha:

	The back of the cute invitation that Jessica designed for the shower:

You’re invited to a ….

Double Baby Shower Open House

To Celebrate the Cousins-to-Be!!

When:  Friday, June 20, 2014

Time:  5:30-7:00 p.m.

Where:  Grandma Holly Hall’s backyard

2841 Bluff Road, Syracuse, UT  84041

Light supper will be served.

Chantel will be there in person for you to give all of your fun and practical “new mom” advice.

Unfortunately, Tosha will be in Oklahoma City and won’t be able to join us for the party but we will be sending our a “shower in a box” where we will include baby gifts, balloons, confetti, etc. so she can party in OKC!  Also, we will be “Facetiming: with her at 6:30 so if you want to say hi make sure to be there at that time!  Oh, and this is a surprise for Tosha, so don’t tell her.!!  J

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So as you can see we had the shower without one of the main people, Tosha, but it was fun and she was very surprised when we called her on Facetime.  I had sent an envelope to Austen with an invitation, some plates and napkins, a copy of the game we were going to play, some little plastic airplanes to put on top of their cupcakes and one little gift to unwrap.  I tried to get pictures of everyone who attended to send to Tosha later with the gifts but I didn't do a good job of that.  We held it in the backyard at Mom Hall's house.  We debated what to do as she had just gotten out of the hospital the day before, but we decided to proceed.  She was able to stay outside and visit for awhile and it was nice for many of the grandchildren to see her after her hospital stay.  I appreciated her willingness to have it there despite the adventures of the week.

Welcome to the shower

 

 

The Scarlett sign

Boy and Girl gifts

Baby Boy-Girl Banners

We also had a "Thank Heavens for Little Girl" bib hanging up as well

 I had these great plan to make cupcakes with Angie, Austen's mom, and decorate them with butterflies and pink frosting or blue with the airplanes.  WIth Gary's mom in the hospital that plan changed and I just bought two cakes and decorated them with the butterflies and airplanes.  They turned out fine and tasted great.

 

Scott hung around for a few minutes with Chantel's sister, Jessica

Nathan and Cynthia

Michelle Pessetto and Amy McNeill and her grandson, Casen

Austen's grandmother Russell

Missy and Taya

Amanda and Matt

Brianna and Emily and Nikki

Chantel opening presents

Chera with Halle and Aliyah

Scott and Chantel talking with Tosha and Austen

 Gary set up the wifi so that we could call Tosha from the outside of the house.  We all took turns saying hi.  Chantel and Tosha tried to compare their "baby Bumps" over the FaceTime but I am not really sure if that worked too well.  They both look great actually.  Very little swelling and cute baby bumps along with Missy who is due two days after Tosha.  They all look so darling.

A baby bird literally "dropped" into the party from a nest in a high
tree in the back yard.  We hope it made it back home.

Nana Giberson

Elessia and Jessica

Austen's mom, Angie

Aunt Vonette and Aunt Charon

 Others who came which I didn't get pictures of were:  Grandma Hall, Michelle Russell and her mom and grandma (Austen's step mom), Lizzy Russell, Austen's sister, Robin Berenyi, Chantel's mom, Debbie Woodrow and me.  We should have taken a picture of Tosha and Austen on FaceTime as well to add to our collection.  It was a beautiful night and not too many bugs before we were done.

Now we are going to mail these gifts off to Tosha to open.  We did open a couple of presents while on FaceTime with Tosha.  Jessica wanted to see her reaction to their gift which was a large airplane puzzle (made with large Lincoln log type of material) which Niki could actually sit on as a toddler.  Then Jena wanted her to open her present which was an outfit and rattle.  So of course I wanted to have her see the baby quilt I had made for Niki.

I didn't get the quilts completed done since we were at the hospital.  Scarlett's is almost completed done and I still need to do the binding for Niki's quilt.  Here are pictures anyway.

Niki's

Scarlett's

At first when I was looking for fabric, I was concerned about the colors which I knew that Chantel and Tosha were planning for the nurseries, but I couldn't find what I liked.  Then I decided that this quilt was from me--their grandma-to them as my grandchildren.  I decided that I could choose whatever I wanted.  Then it was fairly easy.  Niki is being named after a famous Formula 1 driver so I got a racecar print and added fun fabric to match it in strips like roads.  I choose chevron for the back because Tosha likes chevron prints.  And it just seemed right that Scarlett have a red quilt.  After some diligent searching I found a butterfly print which will work.  Scarlett's nursery has butterflies on the wall so I thought I would add that common feature.  I wanted them to share a common fabric since they are born the same year.  So they both have red with white polka dots. 

Now we are REALLY getting excited---four more weeks for Chantel and seven more for Tosha.  Tosha was born 4 weeks early so we will see how that trend works for Niki.



Camp K 2014

We had to postpone Jena's week at camp by one week so that she could go up to Utah State.  Her friend Kaitlyn also changed her week so that they could go together.  This year they were actually in the same foursome with their counselor Raven (all of the counselors take made up names--Hiccup, Burrito, Panda).  Despite rain on two days (they missed the snow by just a few hundred feet in elevation, they had a good time as always.  She swam, did crafts, horseback riding, fishing, and sports.  She climbed the rock wall but passed on the ropes course.  Here are some pictures I took on the first and last days.

Checking In

Kaitlyn getting her blood pressure checked

These are the dorms.
Jena had the bed on the bottom left

Happy smiles on Jena AND Kaitlyn
(who rarely gives good smiles in pictures

Last picture before the parents left

Views of the camp

If you look close you can see part of the ropes course
in the middle of this picture

End of the week Awards Ceremony

Jena got "Best Listener"

Dad, Jena and her award

Raven, her counselor and Jena
in their 2014 Camp K shirts

She had a fun week and plans to go again next year.  We got home in time to get right to work to put together the final part of the Double Baby Shower for Chantel and Tosha.  That will be the next post.

Funny how things don't go as planned.....

We did get Jena off to Camp K and I started working on getting things together for Rick and Linda to come and stay, cleaning the basement, clean sheets, etc.  Then early Tuesday morning (around 2 a.m.) we got a phone call from Charon, Gary's sister.  They were in the emergency room at Davis Hospital with Mom Hall because she was having chest pains.  It turned out that she had had a heart attack.  She had been experiencing chest pain mainly when she laid down at night for the past five nights. She had assumed that her breast cancer had come back.  The pain was so bad that she finally called Charon on Monday night and they took her to the hospital.

Tuesday morning, they suggested that they do an angioplasty to check the blood supply to the heart itself.  Mom Hall was definitely opposed to open heart surgery of any kind but was willing to do this procedure and allow for stents to be placed if needed but nothing else.  They ended up placing 3 stents in her artery which was 100 % blocked.  She was in ICU until Thursday afternoon when she was able to come home.  She is slow to bounce back but seems a bit better everyday.  And it explains her gradually lost of energy over the past few months.  Hopefully this will make a big difference in her energy level in the future.  She really has great health for being almost 79 years old.

It was a scary few days and everything else doesn't matter as much any more.  I didn't get all of things I hoped to get done while Jena was gone, we send Rick and Linda and their three younger kids down to my dad's to celebrate and spend the night, and life went on other places without us.  Jena is upstairs now folding laundry which I have been trying to catch up with today.

We were so busy at the hospital that I didn't even take a picture of the snow on the mountains.  June 17 we had rain in the valleys but snow fell in the mountains to the east.  It is crazy to see new snow in June.  It was beautiful against the green trees and bushes.

Such is life.....

Saturday is a special day....

for being busy having fun.  We attended the first baby shower for baby Scarlett given for Chantel by her family.

Grandma Holly Hall and Grandma Susie Bailey
printed their pinkie fingerprints on a picture
for Scarlett

Chantel opening the gift Jena selected for Scarlett

Here were the Hall representatives!

Then we came home and hung out for awhile.  We thought Gary was at Grandma's helping him so we were waiting around at home to go over to the Grand reopening of The Rush (formerly the Syracuse Fun Center).  He was actually over there waiting for us to join him.  It worked out.  I got to read a couple of hours in my book "Madame Curie" by Eve Curie, her daughter.  (I have loved that book by the way.  If you like biographies you would also probably enjoy it.  I like science, but I am definitely not a scientist.)  Jena took a nap and cleaned up her room.

Then when Gary got home, we headed back to go swimming:

The Fun Center has just opened up two swimming pools, outside splash pads, 16 more bowling lanes, go karts, and other activity rooms.  It is a big expansion and so nice to have so close to our house.  We plan to make use of the pool to exercise and have fun.  They have two basketball hoops in the deeper pool and Jena was hot swishing basket after basket.  All that practice in the Ipsons' pool paid off as she was impressing other swimmers with her skills and embarrassing me who wasn't having quite the same luck.

And then today, Happy Father's Day!  I am so lucky to have the dad I have and the husband I have and for knowing the reality of our Heavenly Father and His plan for each one of us.  Hope your day was a Happy one!

And we are caught up with the blog.  Good thing--Jena is leaving tomorrow for her week at Camp K; Rick and Linda and their three younger kids are coming for the night Wednesday night and my dad and Karla are coming as well to celebrate his birthday and play games. And on Friday then there is the Hall shower for the soon-to-be arriving grandchildren.  And we are talking in Church on Sunday.

I will have a few things to write about next Sunday......if I am not too tired, that is.

Flag Day 2014

With Gary at the campout, I was left in charge of opening the garage and handing out the maps for the scouts to post flags for flag day.  I remembered to set part of my alarm (the change in time) but forgot to actually set the alarm so my first clue was the dogs barking like crazy.  I literally threw clothes on and put on a hat to go open the garage.  Fortunately it was two moms with some scouts (likely their husbands were at the campout) so it wasn't quite as embarrassing to have bed-hair covered with a hat.

I helped post some of the flags on our street.  It is a great tradition for our neighborhood and I love seeing all the flags flying.



Our flags

Happy Flag Day!

It was a perfect flag flying day with blue skies, some puffy white clouds and some nice wind.