S.S.S.S.

S.S.S.S.=sunsets, sharing time, shower, and scar. That's what's been going on with us lately. This beautfiul sunset the other night reminded us we really do live in California.
We had never seen such long, skinny clouds before. This must be those beautiful desert sunsets we've heard about.

I had to do my first sharing time after our Primary Program. I was SO nervous, and worked on it all week. It was supposed to be full of activity, involve a treat, and last 45 mins. That's a lot of pressure, and remember how it was my first one? Not to mention, I'd only watched two, so I just didn't feel prepared. Luckily, children are forgiving. :) And, once again, with the help of my creative, artistic husband, I survived sharing time. We learned about pie! Here is Nate's masterpiece: (though I did do the coloring)

I was so pleased. I'm pretty sure the only thing Jr Primary got from the lesson was that I love blueberry pie, but we still had a great time learning about how we can better SERVE our families. I'm so greatful for my dear husband, who always puts up with his crazy wife's antics; couldn't have pulled it off without him. Now I only have one more to do this week, and then I won't have to worry about it for a couple of months!

The wonderful women of Ridgecrest threw us a baby shower last week, and it was so fabulous! They fed me incredible homemade Mexican food, because that is all I have wanted since moving here, and haven't found a decent restaurant to satisfy my craving. Here is the cute invite:

It was such a blast to spend an evening with lots of friends and learn more about this whole baby thing! Muchas gracias to Megan and Rachel for thinking of us and putting it all together. We feel so blessed.

Here (we) are, me and the watermelon, before the shower.

I sure don't know how this can get much bigger, but he is supposed to gain about a pound a week until delivery. Yikes! I think my back is going to break.

I was SO very excited to open presents! It started to make it all feel so real!!

Grandma Susan's gift from Utah was a huge hit with Nate, obviously:

And matching Jazz blankies, of course:

This babe was spoiled with goods, for sure. Loads of cute outfits, blankets, hooded towels (which his mother thinks should be made in big people size), and cool gear like toys for the car seat, diapers, and an awesome car seat cover, just to name a few things.

I was overwhelmed by all the goodness of the gifts.

There was also a group gift, which was so completely generous, and we were able to get a stroller and car seat for the little rugrat because of it. So now he has a way to come home from the hospital!

It was a lot of work trying to decide, but we got this travel system that has all the perks we were looking for, and I think it's a pretty dang cute pattern, which is a huge bonus. Ok baby, you can come now! :)

Nate had a blast sandboarding with the scouts this last weekend on his first campout. No pics of that, but more S's for my title! It is basically snowboarding down sand dunes, and he really enjoyed it. The last S was for scar, but Nate won't let me take a picture of. He now looks like Harrison Ford, with a nice crescent moon shaped scar on the bottom of his chin. This makes the SECOND wound to come from Nate playing basketball at lunch on the Base. The first was what I thought to be a broken nose, but he refused to see a dr for it, so I guess we'll never know. With this most recent wound, I still don't understand how an elbow made a GASH in his chin, unless the guy's elbow had a dagger attached, but once again, Nate would not see a dr for it. I've tried to ban him from playing lunchtime basketball, but he doesn't seem to hear me when I say things like that. Here's to hoping the future holds less scars and sharing times, but I wouldn't mind more showers and sunsets. :)