BabyAlbum3

We think our Baby Shower deserves it's OWN chapter!!! It was not like any normal shower...we actually
had a Baby Shower WEEKEND!!! It was wonderful. So we will try to "Tell the story" with
Photographs...we hope you will follow along!

It really was the perfect weekend and the perfect shower. I am sure you can see now why we thought it
deserved its own chapter in our story!!!! But now, that only leaves us one more major milestone...the
BIRTH of our Daughter. Wow.

We thought it was a great idea to
meet at the Cracker Barrel for
breakfast since we all love that
place so much and it was close to
the Kurtis' hotel. Little did we
remember that it was SUNDAY
morning right after everyone was
getting out of church!! Ugh...
So, we spent quite a bit of quality
time hanging out in the lobby/gift
shop. Mark & Laura had just
enough time for Mark to kick
Laura's butt in checkers and Tina's
niece Abby had enough time to
convince Tina to buy some really
cute Baby Stuff!

But, of course, the question of the day was,
"WHAT IS HER NAME!!!???" And THAT, we are
keeping secret until she is born. People tried all
day to wear us down, but we held fast. We know
what she is going to be named...we have actually
known for over a year that if we ever had a
daughter, her name would be "this". So, once we
found out our baby was a girl, we were pretty
excited that we are actually going to get to use
our "special name"!!! Now, we just need to hope
and PRAY that the doctor did not 'miss' any
pertinent anatomy on that ultrasound!!!

Our shower was scheduled for
Saturday...but Brian & Betsy made
the trip to Cleveland on
Wednesday evening so they would
have plenty of time to "pull things
together". They had to order the
cake, pick up the supplies, buy
the food, and so on and so forth.
And of course, as luck would
have it, Betsy fell and broke her
wrist on Monday, so she had to
do everything one-handed.
Thursday evening, after we had
completed all of our errands, it
was back to our house "hang out"
and relax, so Mark built a fire
while I worked on making my
famous home-made bruschetta.
Even though my roll in the shower
was "just to show up and have
fun"...I was also told by some that
I was not allowed to come unless
I brought my bruschetta!

Very early Friday morning, Brian &
Bets' daughter Katie arrived
along with her 8-month old
Daughter Haylee and the Kurtis
Family's dear friend Amy. Kate &
Amy spent the entire day in our
kitchen cooking pasta and
preparing food for the big day!
Brian did catch them lounging on
our floor on one occasion though!

This is Katie back to work on the pasta. You will notice I
have circled the red cards taped to the cabinets in our
kitchen. It seems at some point after the start of 2008 and
our 3rd Trimester...Tina started nesting.
Really nesting....yikes.
She is cleaning EVERYTHING and has re-painted the
hallways, the door mouldings, touched up scratches in the
bedrooms and nursery, and has now decided she wants to
completely paint the kitchen and the kitchen cabinets and
replace all the hardware on the cabinets. Hence, the red
paint cards all over the place. She is trying desperately to
convince Mark that red is a GREAT color for the kitchen
walls! Maybe those cards will help it to grow on him.
Again...poor Mark.

IT IS SATURDAY!!! And Time for BABY SHOWER DAY!!! We woke up so excited (and a little exhausted
because Tina could not sleep well with all the excitement going on!) But it was time to head out to the
church and have some fun!!!!

We spent time in the beginning just mingling and hanging out with our friends and family. Some of our
friends from Pittsburgh we have not really seen much since our wedding, so it was WONDERFUL to have
them back with us...even if they did make funny faces at us....

This is Lea Anne's husband
Dwight and their 10 week old son
Evan. Once we found out our
baby would be a girl, we told Lea
& Dwight that our kids will have
to be Betrothed!! They can get
married when they are older and
will merge our two families into
the greatest Saluki Dynasty
EVER!!! (Well...wishful thinking at
least...)

After filling up on the delicious food... and playing some of the requisite "Shower Games"...it was
FINALLY time to open gifts!!! Tina was like a little kid she was so excited. It was better than Christmas
morning! At least she was nice enough to share with Mark throughout!

Haylee told Aunt Laura SHE was all done and ready to go
home. Tina agreed..it was a LONG and wonderfully fun
day....but it was definitely time for the clean up and 2
mile pilgrimage back to Mark & Tina's house.

Tina & Lea Anne love to talk. Lea Anne just had her first
baby 10 weeks earlier...so she is not afraid to tell Tina
EVERYTHING she needs to know...the REAL stuff!

Mark is trying to reassure our friend Jeff that it is perfectly
Manly for a guy to be at a Baby Shower!!! See...Lee is a guy
and he is having fun in the background!

Haylee is lending her expertise to give Mark a little practice with
this "Daddy Thing" ahead of time. Mark does not have much
experience with little people..so this will be an adventure for him!!

Luckily the weather was very pleasant and Grandma
Mary was able to come out for the shower. As the
matriarch of the family, it would not have been the
same without her! Tina has grown quite attached
to Grandma in just the few short years she has
known her!

Its a wonder Tina had room left for
anything else...she "nibbled" on so much
bruschetta!!! We hope that baby will
like tomatoes when she is born...she may
be all "tomatoed out!"

It is such a wonderful thing....Tina &
Mark still have so much fun. No matter
what it is they are doing, they can still
manage to laugh with each other and
love every minute they are together!!!

Tina's sister Debbie presented her with a hand-made baby
dress that had belonged to Tina's other sister, Cindy, who
passed away 5 years ago. It was a touching moment.

Our friends spoiled us ROTTEN with all of the beautiful gifts
they brought. As usual, they completely out-did themselves!!!
We sure are lucky to have such amazing people in our lives!!
Now let's just hope they are also amazing BABY-SITTERS!!!

Mark was unnaturally excited about the "Butt Paste". I am not
quite sure what he intends to do with it...but If it ever disappears
from the Nursery...I will know who to ask!

And last, but DEFINITELY not least was our stroller/car-seat system!!!
All of the Kurtis Children went in together to purchase this for us. How
special!!! See...I am already behind the thing pushing it around...and it is not
even out of the box yet!!! Mark is sure I will spend more than a few hours
out in the sunshine this summer at the Holden Arboretum pushing her
around in the gardens!

We had a raffle...so our guests could win some stuff to
take home too!!! The Kurtis kids were VERY creative
making up the different baskets that people could put
their tickets in to win. Imagine the shock &
surprise...when Dwight...a no-longer-teen-aged MAN won
the HANNAH MONTANA themed basket!! He insisted
it is for his NIECE....sure Dwight....whatever you say......

Then, the last portion of our afternoon was when
Mark & Tina presented Betsy, Kate, Laura, and Amy
with flowers and Spa Gift Certificates as a huge
THANK YOU for all of the amazing hard work they
did in making our shower the most perfect one
EVER. I don't think they could top themselves!!!
(Gee...I wonder now what they will do with our
SECOND baby!!! Hmmmmm.....)

After hanging out for a while at our house, and unloading all of the gifts and left-over food. We showed
everyone our beautiful nursery and enjoyed a raging fire in our fireplace. We agreed to meet for breakfast
the next morning as the perfect end to the perfect weekend!