Monday, April 29, 2013

SHOWERed with LOVE {pt. 2} & Oh Boy, a NAME reveal!

Oh Boy, I know I owe ya'll a recipe post today. But I'm just too excited and have other news to share - so let's just pretend this is the recipe for a great baby shower shall we?


Have I mentioned that I have the best friends in the entire world? If I haven't I'm doing ya'll a serious injustice - because they seriously are.  We're a close knit group of girls, sometimes a little too close for comfort with the amount of information we share with one another. But, I wouldn't have it any other way.
I know I've told ya'll about our infamous weekly gals nights (which I was actually "uninvited" to twice during the baby shower planning phases, because the gals turned gals night into crafting night :) hehe).  Thinking about gal's nights, I probably need to start sharing a little more on these - because they never seem to fail at generating great topics. Nevertheless, the gals successfully planned and orchestrated the very best baby shower known to man and have seriously outdone themselves this time.  I still can't fathom how incredibly perfect it was.

The shower invites alone were enough to let me know it was bound to be adorbs.


They ran full speed ahead with a "Little Gentleman" theme and incorporated adorable bow ties throughout the decor.  It was so stinkin' cute.  And again, such great attention to detail and crafting galore.  The party was so much fun.  We had a "real invite" gals shower during the day, and then all of our boys and Shane's buddies and their lady friends joined us for a cookout that evening.  It was an entire day surrounded by all of our besties.  It was so fun to gush baby deetz with everyone, and watch Shane's buddies come to one of their first "friend baby" events.  Their conversations and baby questions never fail to be hours of endless entertainment :)

Here are some of my fave photos from the day {thanks to Baili for capturing all the details!} ... Starting with the super cute bow tie wreath made by my gal pal Megan on the front door of our good pal's Chris and Laura's home ... the hostesses with the mostesses ... TRULY! They are the best.
 (BONUS: I got to keep the wreath! Yayyyy)



Bow Tie adorned Mason Jars (seriously, so cute) and a Mimosa Bar.  And they were even sweet enough to get me Alcohol Free Champagne, so I could play too :).  Side note: I was the bride who served all cocktails in mason jars at my wedding, so this was BEYOND the perfect fit.





They seriously did NOT miss a single detail.  Even Otis, Chris and Laura's pup, was sporting a bow tie!  Toooooo much!


Ridiculously adorable signs and crafts for all the tables and places around the house. Big shout out to Teddi and Quinn for the majority of the crafting, or so I am told.  I mean, are they talented or what?!
{Sweets, Bubbly, Gifts, you name it ... hint: the signs will be Lil' Man's name reveal!!}



The most delicious food and desserts. The cake was ... wait for it ... SNICKERDOODLE flavored. Yes, like the cookie. It was amazing and I want more. Right now. 


 And here they are in real life folks, Teddi Cakes. In all their glory. I had way too many than I care to admit, and even took some home. The things I would do to get my hands on that recipe.


 The gal's had everyone in attendance write sweet wishes for baby.  I then read these aloud before opening that person's gift.  Lots of giggles came out of this I can assure you :)



I was also gifted the incredible owl made of diapers, blankies, bibs and yep - BLUE DAISIES!  I mean, seriously, do these girls know me or what!!??!  Crafting props of this little fella go to Ms. Quinn of Quintessential.



Even the grand mommies were impressed :) Aren't they the cutest?!  My momma's on the left and Shane's momma is on the right. 

 

 Now, the one fail of the party? We completely forgot to get a group pic of the whole gang.  This picture was snapped late night, so at least we captured a few :( But fail on not getting a group gal pic.


Now, to be clear there were 14 "hosts" so how on earth is one supposed to adorn them with hostess gifts and not break the bank?!  I came up with a cute and relatively cheap idea that incorporated our girly nature with the Little Gentleman theme.  I sent all the gals home with a personalized goodie bag including springy polish, a nail file and a fun polish remover sheet. Just a little something to say thank you for all the hard work the gals had put in.




Okay, okay ... so are you ready for the name reveal?!  Here it is folks ... the definition of B.U.B.


We will soon be welcoming Bennett Bernard U to the clan!  Bernard is his daddy's middle name, and has been passed down from generation to generation, so our sweet little B is the next!  Bennett has always been one of our front runner faves and also conveniently incorporates some family ties as well.  Bennett was hub's grandmother's maiden name and my grandfather was Benjamin - so we successfully incorporated family history, which I LOVE.

Ahh, I can't wait to meet our little bean. And can't say thank you enough to all of our family and friends who SHOWERED us with Love.  Seriously lady pals, I love you with my whole heart and am so, so grateful for each and every one of you.

Thursday, April 25, 2013

SHOWERed with LOVE {pt. 1}

I cannot even begin to tell y'all how incredibly blessed I've been feeling.  I can't even find the right words to describe how absolutely, perfectly, adorably, special my weekends have been lately.  My baby showers have begun and although I had wedding showers and felt so much love then ... a baby shower is a whole new thang.

It seriously leaves me almost speechless at how much love Baby U is receiving and no one even knows him yet. Shane and I are so blessed to have so much love in our lives. And to be surrounded by people who care for us, it such an incredible feeling. Whew. Emotions on emotions on love on love. I'm a happy happy happy soon-to-be-mama.

SOOooo enough sap -- here are the deetz.  Our first shower was thrown by my Mother-In-Law and "The Bee's".  It's her group of 11 gal pals that call themselves the Bee's, yes like a bumble bee, and the Queen Bee of each of their families :)  There's a whole lot more I can share about these ladies ... and Oh.Em.Gee. their recipes {they have their own cook book y'all} are to DIE for. Like finger lickin', perfect for party entertaining good.  But we'll save Bee's news for a later post.

It was a Sunday shower at Hurstbourne Country Club and it wound up being the PERFECT spring day :) Such great weather and the sun was shining BRIGHT on my ole' Kentucky home.  They stuck with my Nerdy Nautical Nursery Theme and hosted a Nautical themed shower. 


Their decorations were seriously adorable. Paying attention to detail is definitely their forte. 


I couldn't get over how cute the center pieces were! I didn't take a great picture, but they were all hand made.  The little rods holding the sails were thread spools, how stinkin' clever - Ahh. I die.


Love, love the little rope tying the napkins. :) Again, details.


And last but CERTAINLY not least, the cake. OMG the cake.  Not only was it the most delicious thing you have ever eaten, but seriously SO CUTE!!!  And don't worry - I promised a name reveal - that's coming in part 2 - but here are the initials - B.U.B.


BUB! Are you kidding me?! How did I not realize his monogrammed initials are BUB?!?! It's the perfect little name and I didn't even realize it! In my head, I kept thinking BBU -- not monogrammed BUB. Seriously, I have to pinch myself because it's so cute {I don't care if I am bias...agree with me it's cute}.

And of course they didn't stop with cake.  There were also matching cupcakes. With INDIVIDUAL polka dot holders. BEYOND perfect.  I may or may not have taken 3-4 home after the shower ... I mean, I would have felt bad if they went to waste! ;)



Next came the gifts, SHOWERED with gifts.  So overwhelming and so fun seeing all of the miniature items.  That was one of my "bazinga" pregnancy moments. Yep, I just used the word BAZINGA - deal with it.
 The lovely hostesses had everyone bring sweet Baby U a book in lieu of a card {cutest idea ever by the way, if you're hosting a baby shower anytime soon}.  Everyone wrote the sweetest notes in the books and now little man seriously has an entire library of all kinds of great books, with personal messages included. He's gonna be so smart!


My mother-in-law and I rounded out the day by handing each of the hostesses a fabulous concocted hostess gift in true Bee fashion.  We worked on them for hours the week before, and were pretty happy with the way they turned out!

Each little basket included:
 2 bumblebee hand towels from a local little shop | Work the Metal
An adorable little bumblebee dip bowl and bumblebee spreader | Cartwheels
A delicious little jam or salsa jar | The Fresh Market



We filled them with goodies, extra tissue paper and crinkle paper for garnish.  Then wrapped them in love with shrink wrap and topped them off with adorable honeycomb and bumblebee ribbon {Shout out to Susan for finding the awesome ribbon, it was the PERFECT accessory!} and we even stuck a little baby bumblebee in the center of every bow :) Adorbs, if I must say so myself.



A Big, BIGGG thank you to all of those that helped to host the shower and all others in attendance.  Seriously, makes my heart smile!  Little man is coming into so much love.


Blog Hoppin'

No new content today, but ventured over to visit my pal Megan at A little bit of this and that and decided to join the blog hop.  Read on pals!


DelightfullyChic


I'm also claiming my blog on blog lovin' so when we start live in our sans Google Reader world come July {GASP!} I'll still be accessible.  Bout time right!? Geeze, I know. Sorrrrrry :)

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It's almost the weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeekend! Woohooo!!!


Wednesday, April 24, 2013

peanut butterless

It just became a sad, sad Wednesday my friends.  Three weeks ago I brought a fresh jar of peanut butter to accompany me at my desk to help me combat mid day hunger, keep my sweet tooth at bay, to give my morning banana a little something special, and if I'm really being honest - mainly because I'm pregnant and have been craving peanut butter like it's going out of style and enjoy eating monster spoonfuls of it for no good reason {THERE I SAID IT!}.  


To be clear, there is only 1 kind of peanut butter I like: JIF | CREAMY | REDUCED FAT. Otherwise, I am sad.  But, I wanted to share with all of you ... today, Wednesday, April 24th at exactly 2:45 pm the unthinkable happened.


We've reached the bottom of the tub, and I AM HEART BROKEN.  How did I not see this coming?!  I could have had a spare ready, I could have grabbed some at lunch, I could have brought different snacks to work to cope. But no, nothing. I am now stuck at my desk with nothing but an old package of saltine crackers and water.  Cue my first set of "food pregnancy tears" beginning NOW.


Exactly Bill, exactly. "If you can't control your peanut butter, you can't expect to control your life." So, there it goes. I've lost all control.  I'm blogging about peanut butter, I may or may not have shed a real tear when I at the last bite .. this is what my life has come to.  Way too pregnant and not enough peanut butter. GASP!  

Meanwhile, I imagine little man in my belly just swimming around in an endless supply of my daily consumption. Oh Baby U, how jealous I am of your endless PB tasting.  Can't you just picture him?  All smiles and licking delicious peanut butter off his fat little fingers. 


Alas,  I will try and make it through the last few hours of my day, peanut butterless.  Please no one come visit me ... because I'm in a sad state and you may or may not find me under my desk -- resembling the following picture -- poor pup. I feel your pain.