baby shower

I have truly come to learn, first hand, why people value living near their families. Not only do you get to be physically close in location to people that you love and perhaps understand you a little bit more than other people, but there are also major perks. Like delicious weekly dinners, people to play games with, and trusted opinions and support whenever you need it.

And, I discovered, a new perk. They throw awesome baby showers.

My Aunt Linda and my cousin, Annalise, offered to throw me a baby shower almost immediately upon their move to Utah in May/June. Little did I know what kind of party planners they were! The shower was September 10th, and I was seriously blown away by the cute decorations, delicious food, and the totally-fun-and-not-involving-"poopy"-diapers games.

I took pictures of the decorations before everyone arrived. This was the entrance table, complete with:

 --Cute name tags (made by my momma) that had you put your name, and your relation to baby. 

For example, "Hello, my name is Leanna, I am Baby's Best Friend."

--An awesome tree (created by my aunt/cousin) to hang these bird pages (made by my momma) for guests to write a note to Baby.

--The beautiful bird cover to hold the book together (made by... of course, my momma).

There was the snacks table (pictures do not show the full extent of the snacks), including:

--Bird cages to perfectly follow the theme of the party.

--Awesome banner that I kind of want to replicate for the baby's room.

--Birds, flowers, and candles placed throughout the table layout.

--Super awesome milk-jug styled vases and glasses for drinks.

Then there were the party favors. Bird houses!!

Pretty amazing, right? This was a Pinterest perfect party.

Besides the decorations and delicious food--(hummus and cinnamon rolls? Reminds me of my wedding... yum)--there were wonderful people there as well. However, it seems as if the camera didn't capture many shots of these beautiful people. I do, however, feel comfortable posting awkward photos of myself--which it seems like all pictures mid opening a gift are pretty awkward.

In this one, I seem to be saying "Whoa-ho-ho! I am a large pregnant women and that is a small baby jacket!"

finally! a post!

So much for photo a day...

Aside from the actual pictures of our baby girl, this picture is the next best thing

We had our ultrasound on Tuesday and came prepared with this card, an envelope, and a permanent marker. After looking at the baby's legs and arms and brain and placenta and other stuff I couldn't distinguish, the tech told us to look away while she took the gender picture. After a minute or so of her squishing my belly, trying to find the right angle, I assume, she said "Ok, keep looking away while I label it." For some reason in my head I thought, Ah ha! It must be a boy! It wasn't until we left the office and were in the car that we figured they would probably label girls parts too.

In anxious confusion we drove around trying to figure out where we should go to open the envelope. Somehow we ended up at a little park that we have never been at before. We sat at a metal picnic bench and slowly opened our envelope. Ta da! It's a girl. I think after the initial sounds of excitement died down, the next thing I said was "Humph, I wanted her to make a check mark."

We stayed there for a bit, discussing our excitement, then decided we better go to Provo Bakery and get too many donuts to eat in one sitting.