SHOWERed with LOVE {pt. 3}

I know what you're thinking ... 3 showers ... seriously, is that necessary?  The answer is likely no, no it is not. BUT I've said it before and I'll say it again. I truly have the greatest support system, and little BUB is being born into so much LOVE it makes my heart melt.  So, yes I have had 3 showers. 

Mom and Pops are both Cincinnati | Williamsburg | Newport | Ohio | Northern, KY natives, so the bulk of my extended side of the family still lives there. So, mom wanted to throw a shower for both her and dad's side of the family, as well as momma's gal pals.  And she did SUCH A SPECTACULAR job!  My Aunt Toby worked her hands to the bone right alongside momma and also deserves a BIGG shout out! Smooches to you both!

But before I start sharing details of the day I need to say: THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU ... to all of my family that drove over 2 hours to come spoil me and little man.  Seriously, that means so much to me. 

Okay, now onto the deetz   :0)

For starters .. we decided on a Saturday shower, because so many of the guests would be traveling. So we wanted to let them be able to come down ... head back home and still have some weekend time of their own.  But ADDED bonus! ... because the shower was Saturday, that meant that MaKenzie and Maebyn came down Friday night to stay with me!!  So I got an extra dose of love and extended play time ... simply. the. BEST.

We hadn't seen each other for a while ... and remember MaK is pregnant with IDENTICAL TWIN GIRLS, and is about 10 weeks behind me. We were SO excited to compare bellies ... moving right along ... cannot wait to meet those pretties! 

We headed back to the casa to dish all things pregnancy, babies, and just catch up (Hubs was loving every minute of it, let me tell you ... hehehe)

We gave sweet baby Maebyn a bath, and oooed and aahed at how she is the most adorably precious thing I have ever seen. I mean seriously, can you even try to tell me she is not the SWEETEST!?

I am still so amazed at how beautiful she is, and how quickly she is growing up :( UGH I absolutely HATE that they live so far away. I want to see them all the tiiiiime!

Okay, enough pouting.  Onto the beautiful shower! The house was adorned with the most precious decorations, and I forgot to snag a photo of the invite (DANGIT!), but it was awesome.  The theme was "No Pink Allowed" and totally ALL BOY :0)  MaKenzie helped Mom's bring her vision to life and created all of the print collateral. - SUPERB job ladies.

 LOVE the Blocks and the truck!

 There was a station set up (sorry, photo is kind of dark), but everyone was supposed to write wishes for sweet baby boy. And reading through them was such a treat after I got home. I 've put some of my favorites in his baby book and stashed the rest away for a rainy day when he is older :0)

Duhh ... Daisies ... My fave!

And, to satisfy momma's sweet tooth ... a Little dirt pudding for those messy boys :) and and BOY OH BOY an oh so adorable cake! I'm a sucker for cute cakes I've decided. And all of my showers have been crazy CUTE!

And then, of course: cookies from the infamous cookie lady to take home! Adorned with another cutesy card! I may or may not have taken the leftovers and eaten them at work nearly everyday sporadically, for the next week or so...

Biggest fail of the shower ... I did not get one single picture with my momma ... the greatest hostess of all! :( WHAT in the world were we thinking?! SO STUPID.

However, We did happen to capture this great shot of me and my main gal.  So I guess I can go one living :)

But seriously, thank you for all of the hard work put into making it such a perfectly special day. I loved every second if it, and Bennett cannot wait to meet all of you!  Especially his sweet Grandma he has heard so much about and thank her for his big party to help bring him into the world. We LOVE YOU! Counting my blessings today, in a big way.

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.

will you be my ____?

Choosing your wedding attendants is so fun - but was so hard to choose (and we had 10 ya'll - I'll introduce them individually later)! I know everyone always says "we have the best friends and family in the entire world" - but we really do. And were so proud to have them stand by our side on our big day. See what i mean, aren't they great?

Shane and I got engaged in a hot air balloon in 2009 - after almost 4 years of dating. if you want more deetz on how this sweet lil' guy popped the question

you can reference the story here 

aside from being the MOH in my cousin sister MaKenzie's wedding and being in a couple of weddings as a young gal - Shane and I were one of the first of our group of friends to tie the knot - so wedding planning, choosing attendants, the whole "what you're supposed to do while planning a wedding" mindset was a bit foreign.  And i didn't have a lot of people to talk to about it either.

mind you people - believe it or not this was BEFORE Pinterest - or well before i had learned about it anyways (it could have very well been out there, but I'm frequently a little late to the game).  so there was no "dream wedding pin boards" or "what i want on my big day" ideas aside from google images when it came to "creative ways to ask my bridesmaids".

yes, guilty - i googled that. 

*NOTE -- we're referring to asking the wedding party here, not the actual wedding.  when it came to actually planning the wedding i had been introduced to Pinterest at this point and it's safe to say it quickly consumed my every moment.  and thank goodness, because it helped to pre-occupy my wedding obsessed brain. i even learned how to share boards with people (so cool!) Kristen of Five Dot Designs and I shared an invitation inspiration board which helped us to share ideas easily despite being a decent distance apart and the invitations turned out BEAUTIFULLY (don't care in the slightest if I'm biased - they were the bomb) - if you're in the market for invites - follow her blog to get your own inspiration. (more details to come on these beauts later - but I'm still obsessed with our lace envelopes *GUSH*).

However, we still had to formally ask our attendants - so here's the deetz:

Asking the Bridesmaids...with COOKIES!

well - if you know me at all, then you know how much i love delicious treats. and if you're a member of my family (or a close friend) then there is a good chance you have encountered on one occasion or another - the "Cookie Lady's Cookies".  I'm sure she has a real name, and if i asked my mom i know she could tell me, but she seems so much more magical when i just refer to her as "The Cookie Lady"

Long and short of it - her cookies are delicious, extremely inexpensive, decorated by hand and a general great addition to any holiday or event.  So, it only seemed fitting i incorporate a batch of goodies for all of my lovely soon to be maids.

i had her personalize each batch by writing "(NAME), Will You Be My Bridesmaid?"  I then had my Junior Bridesmaid (Tatum) accompany me in delivering each set of cookies to everyone on a random weeknight :) (aside form the out of town girls - i sent theirs *BUBBLE WRAPPED* to their apartments and texted them nearly every day obsessing over a mysterious package.  Such a fun time - again now with the introduction of Pinterest, i likely could have been more clever, or used a cutesy poem - but my way suits me juuuust fine.

*****************************

Asking The Groomsmen - You Got Iced.

Shane was in the same boat as me when it came to coming up with a fun way to ask the dudes - NO INITIAL IDEAS.

He too however, wanted to ask his groomsmen in a unique way as well - to make the experience as memorable as possible (yes, husbands a sap and we love him for it).  So we thought and thought and finally concocted a plan we were content with.

He invited all of the boys to his house for a "guys night cookout" and during the festivities Shane made sure everyone was on the back deck cooking burgers and what not and snuck inside to "grab something" and instead brought out his little surprise for all the fellas.

He then presented each of them with a personalized Smirnoff Ice and "iced" all of the attendants.  For those of you unfamiliar with "icing" it is a game people play in which you inconspicuously present someone with a Smirnoff Ice and the victim then has to get on one knee and chug - if you're really interested - google it or visit wikipedia to learn more :)

the ideas are endless, and anything goes. but no matter how you ask, I'd vote to make it a little more personal than just a phone call  - I'd love to hear your ideas or stories of great "Will You By My ___" stories!