My Baby Shower!

Have I mentioned how fortunate I am to have such amazing friends recently? When I was pregnant with Ava, I had a lot of good things going, but I had yet to even imagine the type of friendships I would make with other mothers. I have been blessed with the most amazing group of friends that I met through my Meetup moms group - most of whom have similarly-aged children, and a lot of whom have two or three or more - and they are my backbone when I am at my wits end and need some advice or a helping hand. Long story a little less long, I have some great mommy friends, and they threw me a baby shower this past weekend!

To make things even better, my grandmother flew into town the night before the baby shower, and is staying for through this next weekend, and so she was able to be there, as well as my great-Aunt. It's rare that I have any family around me, so that was particularly nice.

Our nursery is whale themed, and so the decorations went perfectly and were absolutely adorable!

How adorable are these decorations?!!? And how delicious were those cookies? YUM!

Here are some other shots from the baby shower:

Happy baby showering!!!

Diaper Shower/Happy Hour

A couple weeks back, I received an email from one of D's coworkers asking if I'd be okay with them throwing us a diaper shower & happy hour at Trudy's, one of my absolute favorite restaurants! Would I be okay with it? HECK YEAH!

It was set up to be a surprise for D, since she knew that being the type of person he is that he wouldn't want anyone to go out of their way or do anything special for him, but she figured if she got me in on it that he'd be happy with it in the end. Boy was she right! There were so many times that the surprise could've been ruined, but in the end, even having ran into a coworker while parking the car, we managed to pull it off and he was completely and totally in the dark :) I'm pretty proud of myself for not having spilled the beans...there were a few times where I almost told him out of either sheer excitement, or fear that he might be mad...the only surprise I've ever had a hand in since we've been together was the baby (which, for the record, was a huge surprise to both of us!) :)

Anyhow, the shower was amazing! Having heard in passing about our previous shower and knowing that we were pretty stocked full of baby gear, everyone brought packs of diapers - almost 900 total in sizes ranging from NB-4. We now have over 1300 diapers waiting for Baby B's arrival...while I'm sure we'll have to buy some packs here and there, I think it's a safe bet we're pretty set for the time being! We have the most size 1 & 2, which is great, and I cannot even imagine the Pampers Gifts to Grow points we've accumulated now!

Also, D's coworkers are fantastic! I've met them a handful of times, and know some better than others, but they were so wonderful and generous and interested, and I think that their support is really important to D. I know that having the D's on my side has been extremely helpful, so I'm so very grateful to them for having done this for us and being so supportive - they're truly amazing and I am so very, very blessed and thankful!

Here are some pics, including the most badass Longhorn diaper wreath EVER (made by some of his office-mates), and evidence suggesting Baby B is the most spoiled child ever...oops.

This is what nearly 900 diapers looks like:


And an up-close shot of the magnificent diaper wreath:




Stacks of diapers/clothes/baby gear:


Holy moly! That's just the size 1/2 diapers, and the NB & some 0-3 mos. clothes. I think it's safe for me to stop shopping now...

Baby Shower - 9/12/09

Today did NOT start out well. For starters, seeing as how September is the second hottest month of the year in Austin and we've been in the midst of a serious drought, we planned our baby shower at a park, not wanting to have to host 50+ people in our home. Sadly, when we went to sleep last night it had been raining for nearly 24 straight hours, and while we prayed it would be quick and short-lived, we awoke to a torrential downpour throughout the Austin area. Oh crap.

We went to scope out the park site, hoping maybe it was raining at our house but not there (stranger things have happened!), but no such luck. After much debate and hmming and hawing, we decided to go against our best judgment and change the location to our house.

Surprisingly enough, the end result was BEAUTIFUL! We were nervous about the parking situation, seating for that many people, and having the house be a disaster area, but I can honestly say now that it's all through that it was wonderful, and we had zero issues, besides some probably pissed off neighbors since we had 30+ cars lining our street. Oh well. Everything else went down without a hitch, and we got some absolutely beautiful and essential gifts. Thank you SO MUCH to everyone who came out in the rain and 'showered' us...we are so incredibly thankful and grateful - I have no words. We're so honored to have such amazing, supportive people in our lives :)

Here's some pics from the big event:

I don't know how other people do things, but to me it's not a party without booze :)

Let's just say that childless single women and gay guys aren't that great at Baby Word Scrambles...this went on FOREVER!
Our insane gift table! Holy cow!
Present time!
One of the many random piles of baby things we had to sort through and put away after the shower :) - definitely one of the best parts. A finished room pic to come soon!!!
I just want to reiterate how thankful we are to everyone who came and/or was there in spirit. We appreciate you all SO much and are so infinitely thankful to have you in our lives to share this joyous event with! I can't wait til she gets here :)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Longest Day EVER - 9/11/09

Yesterday whooped my ass. Seriously. We baked and frosted and decorated TEN dozen cupcakes from scratch..holy schnikes! On top of that, in case that wasn't a monumental enough task, we also painted baby's room and prepped for the baby shower....here's some pics from our adventures. I was DEAD tired by the end of the day.


We had to move everything out of our fridge to accomodate them on the big shelves :)
Before...
After...
It was a very long, very productive day.