It's a Baby Shower! ~Getting Ready for Sophia

This is our son, Ben, and his wife, Lisa. They live in Pittsburgh, so when they were home for Christmas, on Saturday it was time to have a baby shower! Their first baby is due on March 23. They already know that the baby is a girl and have named her Sophia.

When I shared about making this diaper cake for Lisa in a previous post, I promised to show pictures from the shower.
Lisa's shower was held at my house, but the planning and food were supplied by Lisa's sister, Julie, - her sister in law, Stephanie, her mom, Lori and my other two daughters in law, Jess and Kristen.

There were Games...

In this game, the guests were to cut a piece of yarn the length that they thought would correctly measure the length around the expectant mother's tummy.
In this picture is Lisa's sweet mom, Lori (standing, in the lovely pink sweater). By the way, the invitation urged each of us to wear pink that day. Well, you'll see in a later picture that I forgot that memo:)
(Notice Tozer sleeping on the floor:)

Have you ever played the "Identify what kind of Candy Bar is melted in the Diaper" game? Yeah, I'll just say it looks very realistic.

Did I mention that it was a very relaxed and fun atmosphere? Here is Ben and Lisa's dog ,Tozer, taking a nap in the middle of it all:) He's saying, "What baby? I'm the baby around here!"

In another fun activity, each guest chose a bib or Onesie, personalized it with iron-ons, and gave it to Lisa. It was a lot of fun to see each one's humor and creativity! And it is a great way to supply Lisa with lots of bibs and Onesies! Each time Lisa pulls one of these items out of the drawer, I know it will bring back sweet memories of the day.

There was Food...

The food was planned around a tea. Lisa and her sister, Juli have wonderful memories of having teas with their grandmother when they were growing up. There were several flavors of tea offered, as well as punch and coffee.
On the food table were cucumber sandwiches, pinwheels, a delicious spinach salad w/strawberries, veggies and dip, salty snacks with dip. For dessert there were cookies, strawberry shortbread cake and chocolate cake.
It was all very delicious!

There were Gifts to open...

Sitting by Lisa is her sister, Juli.

Amanda, sitting on the stairs,enjoying herself during the gift opening.

These two little dresses were worn by Lisa when she was a baby. Her mom passed them to Lisa in a gift for her little girl. How beautiful!!

There were friends...

Lisa's good friend and her sister who had never been to a baby shower. They are from Germany, and explained that where they are from, christenings are a big event and celebration given for the birth of a baby.
It was nice that so many friends and family from out of state were able to attend because of being home for Christmas. So nice for Lisa to see so many in one place!

Glowing...

And family...

These are my beautiful daughters in law:)
Jess, Lisa, Kristen

The Collier Women

Isn't she a lovely mother-to-be?:)

Here are two quotes from Ben and Lisa's blog that chronicles their journey into parenthood:

"...and inside Lisa beats the heart of a person I will love deeply for the rest of his/her life. What new mystery is this, what world have we entered into, what magic has fallen on our lives, and who are we to have created a miracle." ~BEN

"What a magical moment to start thinking about this wonder and to envision this little girl crawling up on her daddy's lap asking him to read her another story... I am greatly anticipating the day when I will hold my daughter and tell her she is loved and that she is worth dying for. ...She will know how beautiful and priceless she is and I pray she will never doubt that." ~LISA

"Nothin' Says Lovin' Like Somethin' From the Oven...

...and Pillsbury says it best!" Remember that tv commercial jingle?


Yesterday I decided to do some baking. I pulled out my trusty homemade bread recipe, which as you can see has been around for awhile. The print is too small for you to see, but down in the corner it reads, "The Pillsbury Company 1975".

I know you will excuse the sorry condition that this old friend is in. This has been tucked away in my recipe box over all these years. The folds have been taped together where they have begun to tear. It's not been pulled out to use often enough, I'm afraid. I admire blogging friends out there who bake their own bread as the norm.

Tucked up and inside the lid of that same recipe box is a church offering envelope. On the side that faces out is where footballs were drawn by a little guy keeping himself occupied during a service many years ago. On the back side is a tuna and noodle casserole recipe--(I must have written it down for a church dinner:)
When I open that recipe box and see that little drawing, I am reminded of another season of my life.
Nathan, our first-born, was that little artist. He was 2 years old then---he will be 33 next month.
Along with his kind ways and many talents, Nathan continues to be very good at drawing. It all started with those footballs:) And he continues to make me very happy and proud to be his mom!

Remember in Luke 2, the Bible says that after her Son's birth, "Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart." ? (NIV)

Isn't that what we do, ladies? I know I do - pictures and little tokens that I have tucked away bring back those sweet treasures. I am so blessed to have so many of those treasures with all of our six kids. And in this new season of my life, new treasures are added all the time with them, and now, with grandchildren:)

Okay, --back to the baking. I began gathering all the ingredients and made two batches of the bread recipe--( I'd forgotten how much fun it is to knead bread!) --
one batch for loaves of bread,

and one sweetened, for cinnamon rolls. This is one basic recipe with several variations given for different breads. There is also whole wheat, and rye bread recipes given with variations added also. So, you can see why this has remained in my recipe box for all so long:)
When Lon arrived back home last night after going in to work for a few hours, and Amanda came home from a weekend church group activity, they were greeted by the welcoming smell of warm bread and cinnamon throughout the house. Do you think the Pillsbury Company knows what it's talking about?:)



And guess what was for breakfast this morning? Well, okay, Amanda asked for a fruit smoothy --- but Lon had a cinnamon roll with his eggs :)

What are your very favorite smells that came from the kitchen during your childhood ? Mine are coffee brewing, bacon cooking, bread and cinnamon rolls baking:), and fried chicken. It's healthy if you just smell it, right?

Show and Tell Friday - Two Happy Little Girls

I am joining in on Kelli's Show and Tell Friday. Visit her and enjoy all the treasures being shared.

I wanted to show you a picture that hangs in my living room that came from my husband's parents. Both of his dear parents have been gone for quite a few years now and we still miss them.
This is a photograph of two little girls having fun playing a guitar, singing and dancing.

This used to hang above the piano in my mil's home. And I am thinking of moving it near my piano, too. The musical theme would fit.

It appears that while the girl on the left accompanies her, the sweetheart on the right is singing and dancing along with her song:)
I wonder whom they are entertaining?

I love their dresses! These two precious girls look like sisters --maybe even twins. But I do know that they were not our relatives.

I have always liked this picture and was just happy to have it.
I think I will start asking some of my husband's relatives if they have any information to offer about how this picture came to the family. My husband's aunt and uncle were antique dealers, so I will start there:)

No matter where this picture came from,--it makes me smile everytime I look at it:) I hope you enjoy seeing it, too!

Picture Tag

I have been tagged by Lisa over at Pockets of Time to join a meme called picture tag. The rules for this meme are:

1. Go to your 4th folder where you store your photos.

2. Select your 4th picture (no exceptions)!

3. Post the picture with an explanation and link it back to your tagger.

4. Tag 4 people to do the same!

The fourth picture in my fourth folder is this picture of our son Jonathan's 20th birthday last year. We had cupcakes instead of the traditional cake. But I was not going to deny him the pleasure of blowing out the twenty candles!:) And yes they all fit on the cupcake!

Jonathan was home from college on the weekend after his birthday and was wearing a tee shirt that reads, "Today is not my birthday". The story goes...Two of his friends in high school had birthdays on the same day and added lettering to their shirts that said, "Today is my birthday" and wore them to school the next day. Jonathan joined them in wearing the matching tee shirts, only his shirt had the additional wording:)

I am tagging the following four bloggers for this meme:

Becky at Holiday in the Sun
Heidi at Bargain hunting in the Corn
Belinda at What's Cooking in a Southern Kitchen
Linda at LBP Sews and Grows

If anyone else would like to play along, just leave me a comment and I will visit your site:)

Show and Tell Friday-- A "Bear" of a Winter

I am joining in on Kelli's Show and Tell Friday. Visit her and enjoy all the treasures being shared.

With the weather being so cold all over the country this morning, I thought I'd show you how I am warming up with a little help from my Polar Bear teapot. Isn't he cute?:)
He looks good coming...

...or going:)


This is what it looks like outside my patio door this morning.

Even my concrete goose is thinking about flying south for the rest of the winter!

But I've got the secret to keeping warm and warming my heart at the same time. My husband and I can have some nice hot tea in our mugs that we received for Christmas from our little grandson, Sam!
We can look at his sweet little face as we enjoy our morning cup of tea or coffee.

Notice the message at the bottom--I Love Grammy!

...and I Love Granddad!

Our toes might be a little chilly, but our hearts are warmed each morning by this sweet face:)

Thank you, Sam! Grammy and Granddad love you:)

Show and Tell Friday -- Baby Shower / Diaper Cake

I am joining in on Kelli's Show and Tell Friday. Visit her and enjoy all the treasures being shared.


Meet our daughter-in-law,Lisa, who is married to our son Ben. Ben and Lisa are expecting their first baby--a little girl on March 23rd! Our little grand-daughter's name will be Sophia.




Look what I "baked up" for Lisa's baby shower that was hosted at our home the weekend after Christmas.


I came across this idea visiting blogs, and thought it was really cute. I then googled "diaper cake", and watched several tutorial videos.

Here is the "recipe" for making a diaper cake;)

Items you will need:

One bag of newborn diapers (I bought a bag of 78 diapers) I used about 60 diapers for the cake.

Rubber bands (many, many rubber bands)

A base of 14" to 16" for the cake (I used a 14" glass cake plate and then transferred it to a cardboard for Lisa to take it with her) The videos recommend one from Wilton sold at Walmart.)

One empty paper towel cardboard cylinder

Small items to place inside the ribbon with the diapers for decorations: shampoo, socks, powder, hair bows w/clips, wash clothes rolled up into rosettes, lotion- this is where you can get creative- fill in with any little items you like. The bib on mine used up a lot of space, added color and drew the eye to its script of "Thank Heaven for Little Girls".



Wide ribbon

Hot glue gun and glue sticks for gluing the ribbon around each layer to hold the diapers together and hide the rubber bands.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
How to Assemble the Cake:

In the center of the cake is an empty paper towel cardboard cylinder. This anchors the layers of the cake together.

Begin by rolling up diapers and wrapping the rubber bands around them to hold them closed. Start standing them up (pretty side out) on your base around the paper towel roll to form the bottom layer. When you have the bottom layer full, wrap the ribbon around the diapers and hot glue it together -taunt but not too tight. (To clarify- do not glue the ribbon to any diaper- glue the ribbon only to itself.) You will be adding your little gift items when the cake is fully constructed.


Add each layer of rolled diapers to form the number of tiers you want. When all the tiers of the cake are finished and ribbon is glued around each one, begin placing your little items around the cake, tucking them inside the ribbon. When I added the baby powder I removed one diaper and replaced it with the powder. Larger items will require this step, but be careful not to add to much weight on top of the diapers.





Little baby washcloths

Shampoo


Cute little Socks



The bunny on top fills in the hole where the diapers are taller than that cylinder. You could also use a large bow with flowing ribbon draping down the sides of the cake. This bow that I tied is attached to the head of the bunny with a straight pin.



Lisa is as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside and we are so blessed that she is in our family. This was such a special day for a special young mom-to-be:) We love you Lisa!! You are going to be a great mom:)


Be watching for more pictures of the shower in the days to come:)