Shower #2

Last Sunday my friends in Prior Lake hosted me a baby shower. All of my friends were home from school for Angellfest the night before so I'm glad everyone could make it! Thanks to Michelle for hosting the party at her house and Lauren and Kelsey (and their moms) for putting everything together beforehand, Kelly for all her help and making my favorite dessert :) and everyone for coming!

the hostesses :)

Winona Girls

Angellfest 2011

Angellfest is an Octoberfest celebration for brain tumor research in memory of my friend Marissa Angell. Last Saturday would have been her 22nd birthday. It's a good time to get together with friends and Marissa's family to celebrate her life and raise money so someday there will be a cure for brain cancer.

Maternity Photos

I am lucky that one of my girl friends is an amazing photographer and offered to take maternity photos. She was really excited to do her first "maternity shoot". Luckily the timing worked out perfectly and we had AMAZING fall weather. When she asked a couple weeks before I was worried about being cold, but that was not the case! We took the pictures out by Lake O'Dowd in Shakopee. She took a ton of pictures but here are my favorites :)

33 weeks 

The next day I had class, but all my classes can be taken in either Rochester or Winona so Meghan offered to come with on a road trip to Winona and wanted to take some more pictures! The drive went by much faster with good company :) Luckily fall is the best time to be in Winona so she found things to do while I was in class. Here are some of my favorite pictures from Day 2 up in the bluffs.

Thanks so much Meghan!!

Winona- Shower #1

My roommate last year in Winona and also a friend from Prior Lake, Jayme, threw me a baby shower a couple weeks ago. We decided to have it on a Wednesday to save time on driving. I went there straight from class in Rochester Tuesday night and then went back to Rochester Thursday morning for class. It's a lot nicer drive from Rochester to Winona then from Rochester back home! Since it was a school night a lot of people were busy or could only come for a little bit but it ended up being a lot of fun!

Jayme and her roommate Cait, the wonderful hostesses of the evening

Some of the girls: My roomie sophomore and junior year Maria, Shay, Heather, Me, Jayme, and Cait

the "Nuk" game!

Spring/Summer 2011

Alright, I meant to start one of these this summer when I wasn't busy with school, but let's get serious I get way more stuff done when I'm finding things to avoid doing homework  (like studying for an exam tomorrow)

I'll just sum up my pregnancy in a nutshell. The first 3 months really sucked between finishing spring semester and May term at school, puking, and trying to figure out how my life was going to run with a new baby. Since June the puking has gone away and the heartburn has begun, but I'll take heartburn all day over puking. Otherwise it's been a pretty good and normal pregnancy (at least that's what my doctor keeps telling me). But I think a timeline of pictures can sum everything up pretty well.

I had my first doctor's appointment at Winona Health in April and got to hear the heartbeat right away, and then got my first ultrasound a couple days later to figure out the due date. November 23rd, 2011!

The little peanut was hanging on my fridge at my house in Winona and I enjoyed everyone's reactions of what they thought the baby looked like and their predictions for gender (especially after bar close).



Once my May class was over, I packed up and moved back to Prior Lake. I decided on going to the hospital in Shakopee and found a doctor I really liked. On July 6th we found out we're having a baby girl! I would have been happy either way, but I know all my girl friends were beyond excited to start shopping :)



The next day was one of my favorite days of the summer, Relay for Life. My grandma and a good friend from high school both passed away from cancer so it's a special time to remember them and raise money fo a very good cause. The last two years a group of us girls started a team in memory of our friend Marissa.

Here's a picture of me with Marissa's parents and evidence of a bump! ( I thought it was huge, others still denied it was a baby hehe)

A couple weeks later was my golden 21st birthday. A few friends and I went out to dinner at Mongolian Grill and then went to see the new and final Harry Potter. I'm very thankful to my parents, boyfriend, and wonderful friends who made this day special, even though it wasn't what I had been planning the last..few years.

Summer has always been the best because of my birthday and then three of my best friends all have birthdays within a week of each other in August. Also one of Joey's best girl friend's birthday is a couple days after mine. So I had a lot of celebrating to do...but at least everyone had a safe ride home :) A couple pics of my growing boo boo.

Sara's Birthday: The first pictures everyone agreed it was a baby bump and I felt like I wasn't just chubby :)

Kelly's Birthday in La Crosse, sooo happy she finally came home from Europe :)

Twins game downtown Minneapolis for Amy's Birthday

Brianna's birthday downtown Minneapolis, getting trickier to find outfits to wear

I finished off the summer with a great trip to the State Fair with my high school friends Brianna, Lauren, and Britney and some of their friends from Mankato. A good and tasty way to end the summer. Sad to send off all my friends to college this year.

Well, I should get back to that exam now... more later