Cheers to all the years...

One of the main reasons for my trip home was to surprise my parents with a birthday party.  They both turned 60 this year, so Shannon, Ryan, and I wanted to throw them a nice party so they could celebrate their "youth" with family and friends. Here are some photos from the party....which was quite nice, if I do say so myself ;)

Family

Friends

Décor

Thank you to everyone who came and made the day special for them!

Baby Bump, Bump, Bump...

From left to right by due date: Melissa (November), Me (October), and Stacey (September). 

Stacey and I are having boys and Melissa finds out Friday what she is having...can't wait! We all have an exciting year ahead of us, although this is Stacey's second, so she knows what she is getting herself into. I'm sure we'll have many stories to share.

Baby Shower ~ Numero Uno

The Lovely Hosts: Aunt Jan, Mom, and Shannon

I'm very excited to be home to visit with my family and friends before Levi is born. They were kind enough to get together to celebrate him with a baby shower.

It was nice to catch up with everyone and exchange stories filled with laughter. And even though Levi and I were the guests of honor, someone else definitely stole the show :)

She is my niece, Evy. It was so nice to have a little one at the shower, because it reminded everyone of the true joy a baby can bring to our lives. Thank you to everyone who was able to make it to the shower to celebrate with me and for all the precious gifts.

Still learning...

I thought this whole blogging thing would be easy, since I've created a website from scratch before. But, I'm finding it much more complicated than I expected. I thought if you became a follower, you would get notices of when I create a new post, but I'm finding that not to be true. So, I have added a 'Subscribe' tab, which should do the trick.  I am also putting it in this post:

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If you don't like receiving emails, you an always save the URL as a bookmark. Thank you for your patience!

Levi 3.0

Technology is so advanced these days, it's amazing what you can do and see. After some converting of files and editing, here is a 3-D video of Levi at about 22 weeks.

If you were wondering what was by his head, yes, it's his feet! I think he was a little camera shy. I'm glad I was able to share this precious moment with you all.

This is how it's done in Costa Rica...

People down here don't miss golf time because of kids, they improvise:

 She's definitely enjoying herself too!

This is little Nikki and her Daddy, Don, enjoying a lovely round of golf. They were kind enough to let me use their photos for my blog. I just couldn't help myself when I saw these pics! JB and I will definitely be using this technique with Levi, so we can enjoy our sunset rounds all together. (Moms ~ I recommend you share this technique with your husbands, as it may help you get some free time :).

It's not a tornado, it's just rainy season

I woke up the other night to some strange noises. But every time I jumped in bed, of course the noise would stop. I'm not sure what JB was thinking, but I can imagine it was something like this ~  crazy pregnant girl...I can never get any sleep between her tossing and turning, and now her hearing noises. Well, eventually he heard them too and he got up to see what it was.  To his surprise, a tree had uprooted and fell on our house.

The rainy season has just begun in Costa Rica, and with that, anything can happen ~ rivers overflow, roads wash out, bridges break, all kinds of creatures appear, and apparently trees uproot and fall over. I'm just glad it wasn't a really big one that could have done some damage. 

There are tons of "unique" things that happen in Costa Rica and I'm planning on posting an "Only in Costa Rica" section once a month. I think you all will enjoy the posts...some will be shocking, some will be humorous, and some will make you wish you were here. Pura Vida!