Ashley's Shower

My sister-in-law and I hosted a baby shower last weekend for my sister, Ashley, which turned out to be 4 days before her baby was born. Whew! Close call! She had an excellent turn out and got some much needed baby items as well as some really adorable clothes. I just love baby showers and after having hosted her bridal shower a year earlier, I've decided I love hosting baby showers more. Not that getting married isn't a special time, but there are so many more fun, crafty things you can do for a baby shower.

Knowing that I was going to throw Ashley a shower, I had been bookmarking tons of things I wanted to make- HOPING they turned out as cute as the blogs that I took them from. One of my faaaavorite blogs is Homemade By Jill, who is super creative when it comes to all things baby (and gives tutorials for everything she does!). When I saw the diaper cake that she did for a co-worker, I was blown away and knew it would be the perfect centerpiece for the food table. Below is my version, but you can find her tutorial by clicking here. *Hindsight: I would make sure the diapers I bought were all white and not ones with purple trim. Hindsight, Hindsight: I would make sure I didn't take my 2 yr old with me so I could pay attention to this little fact.* The color of the flowers and ribbon look kind of red, but are in fact hot pink. Anyone who knows Ashley, knows no other shade will do.

Another blog I love is Bakerella. I swear if I made every yummy looking dessert on her blog, I would weigh 300 pounds because anyone that knows we well, knows I don't share dessert well. But I pretty much think she is a genius so when I needed some inspiration for cupcakes, I naturally started with her blog. As soon as I saw these cupcakes, I knew I wanted to do something similiar. Now, I am no Bakerella, or anything remotely close, but I do think they turned out pretty cute (especially being that this was the first time I ever used a tip and bag for icing), and even better, they tasted soooo good. I used her buttercream frosting recipe found here.This is the entire food table pre-guests. I was only responsible for the desserts (I also made chocolate chip cookie truffles- you've gotta stick with what you know) but the rest of the food was excellent as well. Many thanks to my sister-in-law, my grandmother, and a good friend of Ashley's.

Some other pics from the shower...

Ashley and mom

My grandmothers

Me and my sister-in-law, Robyne.

Me and my sisters

In addition to the diaper cake, I made Ashley some burp cloths...

and a tag blanket, which I have seen on several blogs out there. It was so easy to make and I think turned out adorable! I used tutorials from Mama's Doodles and The Creative Homemaker, making adjustments to get the look I wanted. The pink swirl fabric is flannel and I already had the white minky fabric so I went with it, but in hindsight, I wish I had used a light pink minky fabric. But I love it and am already making more for upcoming baby showers.

Hopefully, Ashley had as much fun as Robyne and I did at the shower. Now, I get to sit back and hold that sweet little baby while Ashley puts all of her wonderful gifts to good use.

Welcome, Addison!

2 years of playing with baby dolls has prepared Audrey for this moment...

Her cousin, Addison, was born last night. Unexpectedly, 2 and 1/2 weeks early. Thankfully, everyone is doing well. We went and visited them this morning and Audrey did a lot better than I thought she would. She loved holding the baby and wouldn't let anyone else hold her. The funniest thing was when Addison started crying, Audrey quickly shoved the pacifier in her mouth. Can you tell that we don't put up with a lot of crying at our house. ha ha I am so happy for my sister and can't wait to get back up to the hospital and hold this sweet little bundle of joy. Lucky for her, I owe her a gazillion nights of babysitting and this is one I.O.U. that I will gladly deliver on!

Congrats, Ashley and James! She is a beautiful baby!

Nashville

Audrey and I broke up the mononity of every day life and took a little girls trip to Nashville last week. Brett's mom put together this amazing festival for children's choirs around the country and since Brett couldn't get off work, Audrey and I decided to head east to show our support. Of course, no girls trip is complete without a little shopping and thanks to the Opry Mills Mall, we were not disappointed. I decided to stop first at Build-A-Bear, hoping that Audrey would be so excited about her new bear, that she would sit quietly in her stroller the rest of the afternoon and let me do a little shopping. I know, I know, quit laughing. I knew it would never happen... but it COULD. Anyway, Audrey picked out her bear (with a little guidance from mom- seriously, $22 for A BEAR?) and off she went...

(sorry for the weird lighting) Audrey "meeting" her bear and putting a little button in the hand that says, "I love you, I love you." I can't tell you how many times I heard that during the day.

Her favorite part- giving the bear a bath and brushing her hair. Even after the bear was named and clothed, Audrey wanted to go back and continue to bathe the bear.
The finished bear. Audrey named her "Addison," which is what my sister is naming her baby. I thought it was sweet. Audrey luuuvs her aunt, Hashey (aka Ashley), and I think the arrival of baby Addison is going throw Audrey for a loop.

Next, we headed to the carousel. Have I told you how much I hate carousel's? Well, I do. I get nauseous just thinking about them. But try to explain that to a 2 year old and it's like talking to a wall. No sympathy, whatsoever. So, being the good mom that I am, I bought 2 tickets because I knew 1 ride was never enough. She rode her horse (and I tried to not throw up- do they really need to go so fast??) and as soon as it stopped, Audrey said, "Ok, eat pizza." Seriously?! I should of just threw away that stupid $2 ticket, but since I hate to waste things, I made her ride it again. Doesn't she look thrilled???

After pizza, we hit mommy's stores. And we hit them fast. Turns out Addison Bear and pizza do nothing to sway a 2 year into being good in a store. Oh well. That afternoon, we met up with a friend of mine from high school. We hadn't seen each other since high school so it was really fun to see her and catch up a bit. She has an adorable little girl who's just a few months older than Audrey so we decided to go to the "Rainforest Cafe" thinking maybe they would be entertained while we talked. Audrey loved the large fish tanks at the front-and all the animals- from a distance. But oh my word, she freaked out when the "thunner" (thunder) started and she would not loosen her grip around my neck. She finally begged to go, "Ni Ni," and so I stuck her in her stroller thinking that she would never in a million years sleep there, much less in the middle of a rainforest filled with "thunner." I guess there is a first time for everything because within a couple of minutes, this is what I saw...

Out cold! I have to admit, it was quite nice to just sit and talk without worrying that Audrey would end up on top of a monkey or swimming in the waterfall. After dinner, I got to enjoy the incredible concert with my sister in law while Audrey played with her cousins back at the hotel.

Sidenote: Audrey is sitting next to me as I type this and every time she looks at the above picture of her sleeping, she says, "Audrey not like thunner. Scary."

The next day, Audrey woke up bright and early (and in my face saying, "Momma! Get up. Ready for fun.") so we got up and ate breakfast and explored the hotel while we waited on Brett's family to get ready. After weeks of sitting outside and being eaten alive by mosquitos, I sure enjoyed the feeling of being outside with the comfort of being inside.

We then took a little boat ride around the hotel with Brett's family. I think Audrey looks more like them than any of the other cousins.

So beautiful. We ate lunch at that little restaurant before I left.

It takes about 3 hours to get home and I was hoping Audrey would sleep most of the way home since I left at nap time. I got 30 minutes of peace and quiet before she woke up- and stayed awake the rest of the way home. Thank goodness for DVD players but they can only entertain for so long. Unfortunately, Audrey is not a child who will sit and watch movies for very long. She much prefers to play. Outside. Alllll day long. So, I gave her my old camera and she took pictures the rest of the way home. It really started because I looked in the rear view mirror and saw that she was watching a movie with her blanket on her head and I just had to get a picture of it. But then, Audrey felt like she needed to take some pictures so I thought I would share a select few from the series of about 50.

I kept hearing, "Say cheese, truck." "Say cheese, trees." "Say cheese, cwouds." "Say cheese, toes." And after each she would look at the back of the camera and say, "Awww, cute." She just cracks me up. I decided that I'm definitely taking that camera with us to Florida. 12 hours in a car with a 2 year old, we're going to need all the distractions we can get. I'm so glad that Audrey and I got to go to Nashville together. I hadn't planned on taking her but I am so glad that I did. It was fun to spend that time with her away from every day life at home and spoil her a little bit. I'm looking forward to doing it again next year!

Tuesday, Schmoozday

Our day in a nutshell...

Zero naps, 1 exhasuted little girl, 1 equally exhausted and frazzled mom, lots of whining, even more crying, smashed fingers and scratched up faces, spitting, hitting, and talking back (sometimes I miss the no talking days).

Yet, in the midst of a really crappy day, she can still make me laugh.

Audrey is eating corn straight from the can-- cold. This little girl loves corn so much that she isn't patient enough to let me heat it up.

In spite of this, I really hope that Audrey decides to nap tomorrow because I'm pretty sure one of us isn't going to survive another day like this.

Update

Sorry for the lack of posting lately. It's been a difficult couple of weeks and when I've had time to myself, I haven't felt like blogging. But I thought I'd catch you up on what we've been doing lately...

*Audrey has discovered a love of horses.* Every couple of weeks, we meet Brett at the park during his lunch break and recently found out that they give pony rides. The only problem is that the helmet is too big.You can also buy bags of horse food for $1. Audrey isn't brave enough to feed them yet but she loves watching them. *We celebrated Brett's birthday.* I would have taken a picture of the yummy chocolate chip cookie dough cheesecake that I made him, but I couldn't stop eating it long enough to take a pic. I gave him an introductory flying lesson, hoping that he would hate it and quit talking about wanting to take flying lessons (that backfired), and Audrey made him this personalized plate.

*We went and saw Wicked.* Soooo good! LOVED it!

and *Had a wonderful 4th of July.* We spent the day with Brett's family and then my sister, Natalie, and brother, Justin, joined us for some fun at the fireworks. Audrey would rather do somersaults than actually bounce in the moon bounce.
She also rode the little train...
and obviously loved it.
She is not a fan of fireworks and once they started, she was in my lap with my hand pressed against her ears. Just what I love doing in 90 degree heat! But at least this year, there was no crying involved, so I feel like we made progress.

The 4th of July is one of my most favorite holidays because it makes me to really think about how blessed we are to live in a country where we are free to be ourselves and makes me so incredibly grateful for those who have given their lives to secure that freedom. I hope you all had a wonderful 4th as well!