Its a Wonderful Life

Halford Family Shower

Most of the Crew Minus a few!

Saturday was the day for my side of the family shower! It was the second shower that week so I was totally exhausted to be honest, but I was super excited to see everyone :) My awesome mother and aunt Jeana threw me the shower and were busy bees all day getting everything ready! They did such a great job, and everything looked so cute. My mom was so sweet and wanted to make sure everything was a surprise! She said "I want it to feel like Christmas morning tomorrow!" haha so she sent me to bed and her and my aunt were up until 4am! Yes, I felt so bad they were up so late and then so pleasant and happy the next day! I know I have big shoes to fill with how awesome she is.

We had lots of family come from Idaho and then northern Salt Lake. I was so grateful people took time out of their busy Saturday to come support our family, I felt so blessed and grateful. It was so good to see family that I haven't seen in a while.

My sweet cousin Krystal was also another mommy to be at the shower with me :) She was so amazing to come and she is due in just a little over a week! She looks amazing, and is having a little boy too! It was fun to have another mommy to be there, she is a a little farther on her journey but i'm almost there!

Mothers to be :)

We played a couple of games to start off the shower and we all had a pretty good hoot. We played the "Price is Right" Baby style and guessed how expensive each item was such as: baby food, diapers, baby ointment, shoes, wipes, etc. I was wanting to play because I was super curious to see what everything would cost because I had no idea! It was pretty hilarious to guess all the prices and then to have the right answers ready off, the only thing I guessed close were the diapers. I was guessing 14 dollars for a pair of shoes, and about 4 dollars for baby food...totally off! Ha, everyone was cracking up at how expensive I thought things were- so I guess it was a good thing because it relieved me more than stressed me out. My total was around $100 and the key came to only $73 so thank goodness I don't make the prices!

We also had everyone write down words of wisdom as they were visiting and then leave them before they left, Danny and I really enjoyed reading over the different cards, all these women truly have much more experience than me so I will take all I can get! We were cracking up at Danny's moms card, if you know her it makes perfect sense- ha we love Foxy Roxy.

Then we opened up all the fun gifts, and it was such a ball seeing all the adorable baby things people came up with! The biggest surprise to me was how many people sew! Half of my family are basically expert seamstresses and I had no idea. It really touched my heart to see how much time and thought people put into their gifts. I received so many cute clothes, and tons of homemade blankets and burp cloths. Each of my grandmas Danny's grandma as well all made me blankets! And my sweet great grandmother crocheted her first blanket, she has 105 great grandkids so she said she would make her first blanket for her first great, great grand baby. She really touched my heart with that, it has been such a cool thing to have her be apart of everything, Brooks will be the 5th generation!

The Woman of the Hour!

It was such a wonderful day and felt so nice to be spoiled by some of my favorite people. Big Shout out to my awesome mother for all her support this far. More than just great parties she has been there to hep me find somewhat of cute maternity clothes, cry with me when I feel insecure, and just understand when different things hurt and poor Danny has no idea what I'm talking about. I am truly blessed to be living close to her during these few months and I am grateful to her for all she is and all she continues to teach me!

Brooks is 29 weeks and 3 days old today-So we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel! It was such a great day, and Brooks I know can already feel the love from everyone around him. We are so excited for this new adventure and thank everyone who has been such a big help already. Here's to just a couple more months and then we will put all these blankets, and burp cloths to some serious use! :)

Seriously the cutest "Diaper Trike" I have ever seen

Lots of Nike apparel for Brooks :)

My sweet dad wanted so badly to get Brooks his first pair of Nike's along with him having the same pair! ha ha So he picked out his whole Nike outfit from the sweat suit, sweat pants, to his adorable little sneakers. I can't wait to see my dad be a grandpa!

My sweet sister gave me burp cloths that she is going to make for me!

My Grandma Diane let me pick out the fabrics and then made me all my receiving blankets. The surging thread was beautiful. I have grown up watching her make blankets for all her girls and listened as she would teach me, so I was excited to know that I could have the same thing for my little guy. Can't wait to use them!

Such a beautiful quilt my grandma Shannon had made for me. I absolutely love the bright colors and beautiful animal print! Pretty much just want to put it on his wall because it is is such a beautiful quilt!

Dannys mom Roxann and Grandma Karol

My sweet sister in law Alexi and her two awesome girls, Jocelyn and bella, made time to stop by my shower after throwing me one just two days ago. Great girls, love them so much!

5 GENERATIONS

P.S For all you expert mommys out there I am asking for your help! I would love to hear some of your favorite products you have used with your kiddos. From a infant bath tub, to humidifiers, etc. Anything you want to share, I am all ears! If you have time to share I would love to hear what you have found works for you!

Sorensen Shower

The First of the baby showers started this past week! It was a great kick off to celebrate our little guy :) Danny's sisters Emily, Alexis, and Nikki thew the party and did such a great job! We played fun games, had a diaper changing competition between my mom, Roxann, and myself and of course I was sadly last place. haha, the diaper had exploded inside with chocolate frosting and I obviously didn't have as much experience as my other two mothers. Ha, but it was funny trying to clean up the baby and get it dressed.

We played fun guessing games, had delicious treats, and opened fun awesome gifts.

I was so grateful for everyone who took time to come! A lot of the family is from north Salt Lake area so it was a lot for some of them to make the drive. I'm always amazed at how thoughtful and kind people are with their time and willing to support Danny and I as we start our family. It was a great night, filled with awesome family. I came home to show Danny what we had been given and we were both so amazed and grateful for everyone's generosity.

Thank you Sorensen's for a wonderful baby shower and for spoiling baby Brooks!

BIRTHDAY TIME!

So this week was Danny's birthday week! And boy did I make sure we celebrated every day! He didn't have much of a choice, but what better way to have an excuse to plan parties and celebrate your favorite person all week long! I had a great time and I think he did too :) He was so cute, he wasn't sure how he felt turning the big 25- so I wanted to make it a great birthday and help him feel regardless of the age its going to be a great year and 25 looks so good on him!

It's probably good we are having a child soon because planning his party was simply way too much fun! I made a trip to Zurchers (a local party store) to get some supplies for his family party on Wednesday night, and I was dying! So many cute decorations, all different themes for each year of their lives- I couldn't wait to start planning Brooks first birthday (oops!ha) So I decided to do a racing theme, with flags and checkered table cloth- the theme tied into some of his gifts and the activity we were doing.

Wednesday morning I did breakfast in bed with his favorite things, his birthday started early this day because Thursday he has workouts and I knew he wasn't about to eat donuts, bacon, orange juice, and eggs right before workouts. So that was fun doing breakfast in bed and making him blow out a couple candles on his donuts :) The rest of the day he was busy with school work so I continued with the rest of his birthday. Danny's major gift was a new mountain bike, he has been researching and searching ever since we got to Utah and that was the one thing he wanted. His brother has a bike too and has been quite influential to helping him get this bike ha ha. So it was quite the journey to get the bike-my mom, myself, and our good friend Hannah set out in a truck to go get the bike. Danny's bike was getting shipped so the bike store let us take home a loner so he would have something to see that night. So us girls strapped the bike down in the back of the truck and were on our way. There were moments on the freeway we stopped to rearrange the bikes, fearful that it might pop out of the truck. Ha, we were definitely needing some men to help out with the logistics on that one, but I was pretty proud of us girls for getting the bike home safely. We couldn't have gotten the bike without Hannah's help- so thank you Hannah for helping us with your truck!!

Once the bike was hidden in my moms closet I ran around decorating the kitchen before Dan got home. He was so funny, he came in the door and tip toed around the house when he saw his decorations he was like, "Whats going on? Where is everyone?" ha ha I was like its your birthday thats all! Ha Ha he gets so curious and surprised that we would want to celebrate him and have a little party, but the longer we are married I'm sure he will come to figure it out :)

That night we made Dan's favorite dinner: delicious bbq chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, salmon, asparagus, and his favorite birthday jello for dessert.

Once dinner was eaten I sent everyone but my mom up to the office to hang out and hide for a couple of minutes. He had no idea what was going on- which was perfect! He said the suspense was good. Once they were all hid I made them all swear to stay inside and not come out until told to. I was going to send Dan on a scavenger hunt around the house and outside to find each of his presents. I had 25 clues for his 25th birthday and the last clue would lead him to his bike. So my awesome mom helped me out and the two of us race around the house putting clues and presents in the oven, under the stairs, in the mailbox, and to our neighbors house down the street! It took a good 20 minutes but we were finally done and called everyone out of the room. We both were a little out of breath and everyone was like "what is going on?" ha ha Danny once again tip toed out of the room looking around really carefully not sure what was going on, I was getting a kick out of it.

We led him down to the kitchen and told him I was going to send him on an adventure, we then gave him his first clue-

"To begin this night of fun, we are sending you on a little run

as you can see its a special night

and we are ready to party hard with all our might

But oh wait something is a miss, where are the bows, strings, and ribbon?

We promise this is a birthday party-we ain't fibbin!

So use your hints, and your brain inside

and lets get ready for a fun little ride

To begin, turn to your beautiful wife

gaze into her eyes and give her a small kiss

Be sure not to miss for she holds the clues

which without may bring you the blues"

Danny's face- he wasn't quite sure what to think ha ha

And if you know Danny you know he is a little boy at heart and loves fun adventures! So with the first clue, he was off before I could say go! He did such a great job and looked like he was having so much fun. I loved watching him light up with each clue and working with my siblings to figure out where the next location was. His smile was truly genuine and it was impossible to deny he was having a great time. He doesn't do too much for himself so it was fun to spoil him that night. We also decided to celebrate a day early due to school, tests, and traveling out of town on his actual birthday the next day.

So he ran all over the house and by clue number four he was asking "how many more clues are there?" ha ha my mom and I just laughed until he figured it out that he had a total of 25 to go! He said he was nervous at each clue because he wasn't sure if he was getting his bike and if it would be at the next clue or not- so I guess we did a good job to drag out the anticipation!

His final clue was set at our neighbors house, The Ritters, down the block. I had them run down there as my parents and I set up his bike for when he walked in the door. I was freaking out that they would be too fast- everything Danny does is fast!

So we got the bike out of the closet and set it up right in front of all his accumulated gifts. I was so excited to give it to him. They eventually made it back and walked through the door and Danny was so shocked! ha ha he immediately saw the bike and couldn't wipe the smile off his face. His jaw dropped and he yelled in excitement. Its a picture I will definitely not forget. He was so gracious and thankful to me and was like a little boy who go his first bike on Christmas morning. He could barely wait to go outside and ride it! He was so great, he also wanted everyone else to try it too. He kept telling me "everyone has to experience it, its the best bike they will ever ride" I thought it was so sweet he wanted to share his gift with everyone. So after he opened his gifts and ate his jello we all went out and he rode his bike and showed us all the cool tricks of the bike.

It was a successful night to say the least. My family was so great to all be apart of it, and make time out of their day to do my crazy birthday party ideas and to support Danny on his day. I have always been so grateful to my family for their support and their genuine desire to be apart of whatever is going on, I felt so blessed and grateful for them that night. Danny stayed on the bike for quite a while and couldn't wait to wake up the next morning to talk to his brother at workouts about his awesome new bike ha ha. His poor brother broke his foot but they have a countdown for when he gets his boot off and the two of them will be riding every day until we leave back for KC.

Thursday was his actual birthday which to him felt like we already celebrated. But we went and got his actual bike that day and had lunch together at Bam Bams BBQ, which compared to KC was pretty good. The rest of the day he was busy with school and tests but lots of phone calls from family and friends made it a fun day. That night we headed to St. George with the family to start a week vacation of baseball tournaments and then the WCC in Vegas.

We made sure to end the night with his favorite cake doughnut, with white frosting, and sprinkles :)

It was a great week and I hope he had a great week too. He deserved more than a day to celebrate the awesome friend, brother, husband, and soon to be father that he is. I am grateful for him everyday but was especially reminded that day how much I love having him by my side everyday as my best friend and companion with everything in life.

Happy Birthday babe, year 25 is going to be a great one!