Beer, Barbecue and Baby Talk

Last weekend my parents hosted a baby shower in Iowa for us: "Beer, Barbecue and Baby Talk".  Mom wanted this shower to be as much about Bart as it was for me and the baby and it was so much fun!  Mom and Joe know how to throw one hell of a party - we learned this at our engagement party last year.  Hmm... I wonder what the occasion will be to celebrate next year!

Mom did so great with every little detail!  One thing I loved is we used some of the table decorations from our wedding.  I loved it!!!

 Those blocks say "Sweet Baby Girl".  Mom and Joe made those - cut out the blocks, sanded every single one and then decorated them.  These will go in baby girl's nursery!

 The banner at the top was also made by mom - you can't see it well in this pic - it also says "Sweet Baby Girl" and is absolutely adorable!!

 Gotta have the koozies!

We had so many family, neighbors, and family friends join us to celebrate.  I wish I would have done a better job at getting pictures of everyone.  We also had a couple of friends travel to see us, Izik & Matt, Cristie & Josh all traveled from Illinois and Carrie traveled from Waterloo.  We really appreciate you all making the trip and celebrating with us!  

 Matt, Izik, Bart, Momma & baby, Cristie & Josh

Carrie and I

 My friend of 24 years and my MOH, Crissy came to join the festivities.  

Soon to be mommy and daddy - holy moly are we ready for this???  

Maybe I should caption this "the calm before the storm"...

Mom also planned for a couple games to keep things interesting.  The first was a dressing of the baby contest.  Bart had a team of 5 guys and I had a team of 5 girls - we had 5 pieces of baby clothing (diaper, outfit, socks, hat and swaddle blanket) and had to see who could dress the baby the fastest.  I was so impressed with the guys!  The ladies barley won and to be honest, there was a little table cloth in our swaddle - the guys were fantastic.  I was very proud of Bart for his quick diapering skills - however now that I know he can change a diaper... 

The second game was a chugging beer out of a bottle contest.  There were 3 heats and then the 3 finalists did one last chug to get one champion.  This was HILARIOUS - my cheeks hurt soooo bad from laughing!! The first heat we left the nipples of the bottles very small and watched them struggle for a good 15ish minutes - mean? maybe!  but soooooo funny!!!  

Heat 1: the boys and Goober

 Izik was the winner of Heat 1!

Heat 2: the ladies - Jenn (2nd from right won this heat)

Heat 3: now this was interesting!  We have Jay, Rick and Joe (seasoned beer chuggers), Jess and Matt.  I thought for sure poor Matt and Jess would get smoked... but NOPE Matt took this one!

And the finals: Izik, Matt and Jenn.

And the winner is.... Izik!  He's kind of a celebrity around these parts, first he married us and then he won the beer out of a bottle chugging contest.  He's kind of a big deal!

It was such a fun day and so wonderful to see everyone!!  A huge thank you to Mom and Joe for throwing this awesome party and to everyone for coming to celebrate and spoil our little lady!  She officially has more clothes than I do!!