More baby shower pics

For those of you who didn't get enough in the last post, here are a few more:




Okay, I know this is the same picture as in the previous blog, but in this one you can see the super adorable little shoes that Levi (my nephew) got for the baby.













I like this one because our baby bellies are actually touching
so you can see where the little guys are at. It does, however make me feel like our baby is going to be huge because Laura is 8 weeks further along than me. Oh well, too late to go back now.








Here I am with Andrew's side of the family (who had a pretty impressive showing at the shower by the way). His cousin Kyrstie was also here, but was out in the car with her little one at the moment.





From left to right:
Lily, Aunt Debbie, Me, Jack, Cousin Katie, Shelley, Levi, Heidi, Holly and Grannie (who will become great grannie to our baby once he is here)








Me with my nephew Levi (giver of the cute shoes) and sister-in-law Heidi. Levi was feeling squirmy so this is the best we got.

Baby Shower!

Editor's note: If you are of the male persuasion you may want to avert your eyes from this post. May contain significant amounts of estrogen and ooh's and ahh's familiar to the female set which would make absolutely no sense to you.

This Sunday we had a baby shower for the whole of Southern California, which was tons of fun and more complicated to organize than it sounds because these wonderful friends and family were coming from all over the place: Bakersfield, Fresno, South Pasadena, Huntington Beach, Seal Beach, Orange County, and Alta Loma to name a few.

The shower was at our good (and dearly missed!) friends Adam and Laura's house, although he wisely ducked out after helping us unload chairs and heavy things. You will see from the picture below that she is indeed quite pregnant and we were so thankful that 1. She was willing to host a shower at 4 weeks out from her due date, and 2. No one went into labor during the shower. My roommate (not the current one :0) Holly came down from Bakersfield and did the games for the shower and my mom also did a huge part of the set up and food.

Me and Laura comparing bellies-she wins by the way!

The table for the shower looked so cute before we started that I had to get a picture to show you. The cute little things on sticks are called cake dips and were made by Laura (our hostess) and should you ever have the chance to indulge in one, go for it, they are soooo good! (this is all I am going to say about them because I don't want to make you all hungry and jealous).
















Also, I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who came and for those who could not and sent gifts. We feel truly overwhelmed by your generosity and blessed by your friendship. If you want to know just how much "loot" there was, you can ask my mother in law, since she had to figure out how to pack it all in her SUV to drive north.

26 Clips and counting

If you were wondering where I've (Danica) been and what happened to all those riveting Yuba City posts, you must not live in Southern California. Although my dad did ask me why there were no new blog posts, and I was staying in his house. I told him to take a mental picture of me and insert a few details of what I had done that day and that seemed to solve it.

I was down there for about 5 wonderful days (oh So Cal, land of my birth, and of great wonderful things like the beach and family and friends-not necessarily in that order!). On Sunday we had a baby shower for the little guy, (more about that later) and it was so great to catch up with friends even though the time went by super fast.

While I was there, I judged the public response to be favorable to my paper-clip measuring system, since you all seemed to be riveted by what my new measurement was. So to give the people what they want.....drumroll please...today Feb. 24, I am at 26 paperclips.

Although I have found this system to be highly inaccurate (you will see from the picture below that I am truly larger) it makes me feel better about getting enormous when I am really only 2 paperclips bigger. Perhaps I should refine the system and start measuring with the little clips instead of standard business size ones.

Me with our lovely friends and former neighbors in HB, Shannon (left) and Quenby (right)

Latest project

I finally finished these little guys for the baby's room yesterday while waiting for the plumber (who incidentally said he'd be back at 3 and never returned). Luckily we can still use our shower.


How cute are they? And only a buck at Michael's (unpainted). You can put photos or anything else you might want to clip in them.

(The nasty thing they're sitting on is our ironing board, really need a new cover)

With a little help from my friends

With there being some actual sign of sun this weekend, I am a little behind on the posts, so here are two in one day to make up for it.

Some days being prego and up here in Yuba City is a little weird and lonely. It makes me particularly thankful for the people and things in our life that make it better, so I would like to give a shout out to:

Mi amiga Ambre who suggested we go to the Micke Grove Zoo, in Lodi of all places, which was relaxing and fun, and who also warned me of the slippery rocks so I did not go crashing into the decorative koi pond (came pretty close though).

My mom who painstakingly addressed and decorated baby shower invites all in one day so we could mail them out on time.

A little helper, who likes to be touching me at all times now that I am pregnant, and in this shot was assisting with a painting project for the baby by warming up what little is left of my lap.
My mother in law who drove almost 2 hours with my sister in law and Andrew's grannie to meet me for breakfast just because and lugged a carload of baby stuff up so they could then drag it into my car and send me home with something to put the little guy in to sleep when he gets here.

Good friend in Huntington Beach who immediately offered to let me sleep in her bed even though she only has one while I am down there for a baby shower.

The guy checker at Target who gave me sheets of tissue paper to wrap something in so I didn't have to go all the way home before mailing it.

It is pretty amazing to have friends who are willing to be there for you even when you are far far away.

Things You'd Never See in Orange County

There are some every day occurrences here in the great city of Yuba City (yes all major signs and banners have the word "city" twice) which remind me how far away we are living from Orange County. While this list in full would be exhausting, I will start you off with 3.

1. Monster hay trucks

I was driving to the grocery when this beast pulled up beside me, nearly blotting out the sun. (For my mother, I was stopped safely at the light and not in any way driving when this picture was taken with my phone)

2. Road chickens at Wendy's

(I think enough has been said about road chickens)

3. The great horned owl
Last weekend it was actually sunny (yes!!!!) so we went to a wildlife refuge to see what types of birds we could get photos of (Andrew's new hobby). Unfortunately at this point it was starting to get dark so he is a little hard to see, and we were also sneaking up on him in the Trailblazer which is not the most discreet blind for taking photos of birds. I have never seen one of these in real life before and they are so big and awesome. It might be my new favorite animal.

Belly Progress

I've decided that I may need to rethink the measuring the belly with paperclips plan. I checked the measurement today, right on schedule with my every 2 weeks check-up plan, and miracle of miracles, I seem to still be only 22 paperclips around! I am not sure exactly how this works since I am quite sure I am larger, and maybe even a lot larger than last time I checked. I guess I will let you be the judge by the picture below. But be warned, this may be the last belly shot revealed to the public.


On another note, yesterday while we were at the grocery store one of the road chickens (see previous post) was busy cock-a-doodling and nearly got run over by an SUV in the parking lot. I suppose I would insert a why did the chicken cross the road joke here if I knew a good one. Any suggestions?