Party, Babies, Expo...and a Sad Story

Last Sunday April 6th, my dad and his siblings threw my Grandma an 80th birthday party. It was fun, because I got to go to my home church and see everyone, plus loads of my relatives who live far away came for the weekend! It was good to get to see everyone. Here's a photo of the ones of us who were able to make it to the party. There are actually several missing! My dad is the 2nd of 8 kids, and there are 20 grandchildren, and so far I think 12 great grandchildren. But everyone couldn't be there due to distance or jobs and such, but there are still an awful lot of us there! It was fun! I also got to see my friends who still go to the church I grew up in, and we got a picture of the babies together.
First, a picture of us all pregnant at New Years.
Then here we are with the babies, 3 months later:
Ellie, born Jan 11th; Morgan, born Feb 15th; and my Cohen, born Feb 7th. So cute!

Johnny did help me take some more shots of Cohen for his 2 month pictures last week. Good thing we did it before Thursday, because that's when he had his 2 month Dr. checkup and had to get shots. He ran a fever for 2 days, slept a LOT and was very grumpy!

I know, this one above is such a Sears photo, but I wanted to show what's on his shirt! :)
I think this one might be my favorite, he looks like he's talking to me! Which he has started to do some, lots of smiling and cooing. It's great to see some personality in him!

Yesterday, I did a bridal expo, and it went pretty much awful. They must have not advertised it well, or no one wanted to get out in the cold rain, but there was like no one there. I think I talked to 3 or 4 brides total! Unbelievable, and very disappointing, especially after I have worked for two weeks to get ready for it! Designing and printing marketing materials, having a few new big prints made, putting together a slideshow, not to mention the booth space money I wasted, and driving all the way over there twice! (once to set up, and once for the show) That has never happened to me before! I did 4 bridal shows last year, and they were always very well attended, and went great for me. Oh well, I guess you live and learn, and I learned that I will not attend that show again! Here's a picture of my booth though (which I took with the point and shoot I keep in my purse for just such an occasion where I forgot my other camera...or brought it but forgot to bring a memory card! lol)I thought it looked nice...too bad only other vendors got to see it! I felt especially bad for a caterer who was there and had a full spread of food including a chocolate fountain. They even had an ice sculpture! But it looked like their sole purpose of the afternoon turned out to be to feed all the other vendors...sad story! :(

But even after all that, that is not the saddest story that I have to tell. Ava has truly outdone herself, I don't think it can get worse than this. On Friday night, Ava somehow managed to lose my WEDDING RING! That is just something that should not happen, and I still can't believe it. I took my ring off and set it on the counter while I was making some homemade pizza, and left it there the rest of the evening. This is something I do a lot when I am cooking, and it's never been a problem before! I saw it there later, Maddie Kate remembers seeing it there, but that night when I went to take my earrings out, I realized I had left my ring in the kitchen, and I went to get it. But it wasn't there, and the only person who would have moved it was Ava. She told us she did it, but can't tell us where she put it. Johnny and I stayed up until 1:30am looking for it. On Saturday, Johnny looked for it almost all day, and didn't find it, and we looked a little while yesterday afternoon when I got home from the ridiculous bridal show, and didn't find it. We have looked in all the toys, down all the vents, Johnny has even cleaned out all the junk drawers in case she had dropped in in there, and he took our exercise bike apart to see if she had dropped it inside the plastic casing. It is still lost, and I am sad! We have about given up, but Johnny thinks we could try a metal detector with a gold setting. If anyone knows where I can borrow or rent one of those, please let me know! And pray that we'll find it!