First True Family Outing

With not having anything to do until we find jobs, Drew and I have been trying to come up with ways to get out of the house and not be bored out of our minds. We decided that free trips and places to go would probably be the best idea. There are tons of things to do in Indy that are free. One of the prettiest this time of year is the Lilly Estate at the IMA (Indianapolis Museum of Art for people not knowledgeable in Indy slang). The gardens are absolutely amazing!! Lola at first was not so pleased with this idea. She needed a diaper change so we decided to lay her changing pad down on the grass in an open field since we had no other options. This was much to the dismay of a lady trying to read a mere 100 feet from us. Lola screaming probably distracted her from a few pages of her reading...oopsy! After that Lola was down to look at flowers. I don't love flowers nearly as much as Drew does. Don't get me wrong, I do love flowers. I like LOOKING at flowers. Drew loves analyzing them and telling me absolutely everything about them. I'm so thrilled that they make him so happy and that he is so interested in them, so I will happily stand by while he tells me what it means that a flower has 5 petals and what a stamen is because I love him and man is he cute when he starts rambling about flowers. I was much more interested in the many photo ops that were along the way. I just really wanted some cute family photos and pictures of us with Lola. I think we accomplished that in the amazing flowers yesterday. It was a beautiful day and we all loved being outside!!

This isn't our new house. Wish it was, but sadly nope. This is still a great family photo in front of the Lilly Estate.

Lola was not a huge fan of getting her picture taken at this particular moment. This is the "Lola Dark" face.

She warmed up to the idea with Mommy though. Gotta love that little smirk!!

I guess she really started to like those flowers.

Gotta love my cute little chunky monkey. I mean come on look at those legs!!

Welcome Baby Liam: Sweet Pea Baby Shower

Yesterday was an AWESOME day for me!! Although I have never in my life hosted a baby shower or any other sort of party for someone, I feel like I pulled off my cousin Julia's baby shower quite nicely. I couldn't have done it without Drew's help and my mom's help (not to mention the amazing pattern that I found at Party Gallery!!) Hosting any type of party for someone takes an immense amount of planning. Invitations have to be sent out and plans made for food and decorations. Needless to say I spent most of Friday baking and cooking. My grandma said that I have officially become domesticated. I don't know how I feel about being called domesticated, but I guess it's what happens when you have a fiancé and a baby. I do know that I feel great about how Julia's baby shower went.

Julia loves ice cream cakes from Dairy Queen so my mom and I decided that would probably be the best idea. They even put the picture from the invitation on the cake!!

Julia in front of her spread of great food. We had turkey and cheese puff pastry roll ups, bacon and green onion mini crescent rolls, chips and dip, veggies, and mini cheesecakes. Other than the chips, I made everything.

We started off with mingling and food so everyone could talk to one another and get to know each other. I think everyone enjoyed the food (at least I hope they did). We didn't have much of it left so my best guess is that I satisfied the guests. The turkey roll ups actually called for ham, but I know Julia hates ham so I figured substituting turkey would probably be the best idea.

The "Party Committee". Lola helped out with the dirty diaper game. Haha.

After everyone ate, it was time for games. We started off with an easy one: fill in the blank nursery rhymes. There were definitely some on there that I didn't know. Poor Lola! I need to work on my nursery rhyme knowledge before she really understands them. The next game that we played was "Guess Mommy's Tummy Size." Almost everyone grossly over-estimated how big Julia's belly is. I guess I didn't measure the right spot on Julia's belly so I had to remeasure to satisfy everyone.

Julia modeling her belly for us for the "Guess Mommy's Tummy Size" game.

The next game was the dirty diaper game. I melted six different chocolate bars and put them in six different dirty diapers and had people guess which was which. I must have made it too easy because 4 people got all of them right. I should have come up with some tie-breaker questions before the shower, but I didn't think that so many people would get them right. Ooopsy!!

Julia smelling a dirty diaper. Ok, I promise Lola didn't actually help with this game or else I can assure you that Julia's nose wouldn't be this close to that diaper.

The last game we played was to diaper Pooh blindfolded. I had tested out this game with Drew. Well to be honest, I actually made him do it because it was hilarious watching him diaper Pooh with his eyes closed. Pam did a great job in only 20 seconds. The next best time was 28 seconds so I would say Pam won by a long shot!

Grandma Pam getting her diapering skills up to par. She diapered Pooh blindfolded in 20 seconds for the win!!!

After all the food and all the games it was time for Julia to open all of her presents. She got some amazing clothes and a few great things for Liam's Lodge. Some toys and books were thrown into the mix, along with a Boppy Pillow (greatest thing ever!!) and a baby food maker. Little Liam has a good start on his wardrobe!!

Julia showing off a great picture frame to go with the theme for Liam's nursery: Liam's Lodge.

Our great aunt painted this amazing picture. There's a picture inside the picture. It's a picture of a couple standing looking out over the lake. But if you look closer the branches of the tree make a picture of a baby. I think it's absolutely gorgeous.

Overall, I think Julia had a good time and so did all of the guests. I might have a future in party planning after all. We could move to Bluffton and I could help out with the party store. I think my mom might kill me for that. Haha. But most importantly, congratulations Julia! Not too much longer before you're holding your cute little baby boy in your arms and thanking God for the little blessing that has come into your life.

Easter with the Drew's Family

This past weekend, Drew, Lola and I made a trek to northern Indian to visit with both sides of Drew's family. We left early Saturday to get to Bluffton early to spend time with the Isch family (this is Drew's mom's side). Before we could do that though, I had to make a pit stop at his family's party store, Party Gallery, to get supplies for my cousin Julia's baby shower that I am hosting this weekend. They had the PERFECT pattern for her baby shower so I was unbelievably excited about that. Off to the Isch's we went. After a board game and some snacks we went out to dinner. This was great until Lola decided she wanted to poop through her pants. It completely shot out the side of her diaper. This was probably user error on our part and not necessarily super power on Lola's. Oops. After dinner, we went back to Grandpa and Grandma Isch's house and had a chance to visit with the family. It was great because a few of Drew's aunts and uncles, along with their families were able to come to visit and meet Lola. It was a long night for Lola though and she was ready for bed by the time she got to it.

All generations of Kipfer and Isch women. I think we are a beautiful bunch of ladies.

Sunday was our extended Easter celebration with Drew's dad's side of the family. We woke up early to go to church. Lola was with the program this morning, which made getting ready for church much, much easier. The church service was wonderful and I felt very much at home there. Afterwards it was time for lunch and visiting with some of Drew's family. We then made our way to Drew's aunt's house for an early dinner. The girls colored Easter eggs, while everyone else watched the Master's. I'm not the biggest fan of golf so I sat and read. Lola was being passed from aunt to aunt and cousin to cousin. Stacey, Drew's uncle, took his turn holding Lola too (although, Lola just passed out laying down on him. Haha). Grandma Judy "hid" eggs for Marshall, Drew's cousin, to find. Watching him find the eggs just made me think of what Lola is going to be like next year. She'll be toddling around looking for her own eggs. I'm gonna love it!! Soon it was time for dinner, promptly followed by more visiting.

I love spending time with everyone in Drew's family. I always feel so at home with everyone. I am so blessed with a wonderful new family to add to my own. I would say that my Easter celebration this year was one of the best I have ever had.

Lola in her Easter dress trying to be a big girl and sit up by herself.

Marshall kept putting Lola's pacifier in her mouth, even when she didn't need it. But it was so cute I just couldn't bring myself to tell him not to.

Aunt Alyssa and Marshall on the Easter egg "hunt".

Family picture. Drew definitely wasn't this dressed down. He had been playing basketball and had taken off his shirt, but he still looks good.

Let A Sleeping Baby Lie

So the one thing that I have learned as a first time parent is that one of your main goals is to get your baby to sleep. An even bigger goal than that is to get your baby to sleep through the night. I think that we've been blessed by the fact that Lola will sleep from about 11:30 p.m. until 7:30 a.m. This is highly unusual for a baby of her age. Most babies don't sleep through the night until they are much older. Our secret...absolutely nothing. We haven't done anything special except feeding her a 6 ounce bottle before bed instead of a 4 ounce bottle right before bed. This seems to fill her up and keep her that way until she wakes up in the morning. This means that Drew and I actually feel like real people instead of walking zombies. This means that the time that we get to spend with Lola is much, much better. And believe me you don't want to miss those precious moments with your little one because you are too tired.

The other thing that I have found very, very funny is that Lola for her naps during the day does not like to go in her crib, but she will definitely sleep in there at night. My thoughts are that she doesn't want to miss what's going on and if she gets put in her crib she can't hear all of the action that's going on. So we've been laying her on the couch so we can get stuff done and still watch her sleep. She is just sooo darn cute whenever she's sleeping that I really enjoy watching her sleep and all of the cute little things that she does. The other thing that I would suggest to new parents is to do normal activities while your baby is sleeping so they get used to hearing the sounds and they can still sleep through it. I just can't believe how good Lola is at sleeping in general!!

Lola taking a nap on mommy. She eventually slithered her way down my belly all the way to my leg.

Lola taking a nap on the couch with Pooh.

Easter Sunday with the Family

I love Easter! I love the meaning of Easter and I love being able to rejoice in that meaning and spend time with my family. This Easter Drew, Lola and I spent the entire day with family. We started off the morning with an absolutely beautiful (but long due to all of the basketball fans in town) church service downtown at my family church, Christ Church Cathedral. I enjoyed spending time with my aunt and cousin that were visiting from Maine. I really don't get to see them that often so it was nice to spend such an important holiday with them. The fellowship only made the holiday that much better for me.

Lola and I with her Great-Grandpa and Great-Grandma Jones

Mommy and Lola at Church

All of the grandchildren with the new great grand-baby.

First family Easter picture.

After church, we quickly made our way to Terre Haute, Indiana to spend time with my mom's side of the family. My mom's side of the family spends the day grilling out and having a family Easter egg hunt. If there's only one thing that my mom's side does well it's food. Drew and I ate until we were most definitely past our fill line. This is a regular occurrence for me at any family functions. The food is sooo good!! After everyone had their fill of food (or at least their fill for the first round) my aunt hid all the Easter eggs in preparation for the hunt. We scurried around the yard trying to find all the eggs that were hidden. After all the eggs were found we spent the next hour or so having a dirty Easter bunny gift exchange from the numbered eggs that we found in the yard. Lola didn't really get to participate in the Easter egg hunt this year, but next year we'll have to have an Easter egg hunt for the adults and for the little ones. Liam will be joining the family in just a few short weeks (7 to be precise and they will be short because they definitely fly by) and so we'll have 2 little rug rats that will need to participate in the family festivities. I can't wait to see Lola and Liam toddling around the yard trying to find Easter eggs. They won't be very well hidden, but it will still be fun to watch. Spending the day in the beautiful weather with my loving family celebrating the joyous holiday of Easter was a great first holiday for Lola!

Great-Uncle Mike and little Lola. He was her heater for a little bit.

Aunt Julia practicing her mommy skills. I think she definitely has it down and is ready for Liam to be here.

Easter family photo number two.

Lola was passed out from all the traveling and all the activities for the day.

Great-Aunt Pam getting ready for Liam. Aunt Pam has promised to make Lola a girly-girl with arts and crafts. I hope Lola's ready for that. Haha.

Fun in the Sun!!!

So I've been blogging all day because the only thing that I have been doing today besides taking care of Lola is...NOTHING!! I've been enjoying the Spring weather while Drew was detailing our car. I took out a blanket and my computer for myself. For Lola, I took her bouncy seat and a huge umbrella. For awhile she was in her clothes. This was all well and good until I went to pick her up to change her and she was a little moist from sweating. After a change in diaper and a change in wardrobe we went back outside.

Lola outside in her cute little outfit.

She was much more comfortable in her diaper and nothing else.

She is most definitely my daughter. I ran around in a diaper ALL the time when I was a baby.

Do's and Don'ts of Parenting

I found these amazingly helpful do's and don'ts of parenting. Gotta love the internet!!