baby showers!

i just have to say first off that i find wedding and baby showers to be truly mind-blowing.  when i was planning my wedding, a friend gave me some excellent insight.  she said, “no one is as excited about your wedding as you are.  be ok with that.”  i found that to be wonderful perspective, not just on my wedding, but pretty much into many areas of my life.  it’s always a big deal when it’s happening to YOU – don’t expect people to have the same level of excitement and interest.  and if they do – consider it a wonderful blessing!  so when it comes to showers, i find myself so amazed that people would take time out of their full schedules and lives to celebrate something with me that i am very excited about (but that isn’t nearly AS exciting to them – although they graciously do share in my joy)!  and on top of that – they will BUY me stuff to help get me started on this new season!  who DOES that?!  seriously.  showers blow my mind.  they are such a neat picture of community coming together to help a new bride or a new mom as her life is about to change quite dramatically.

also?  i find showers to be SO MUCH FUN.  i mean, what could be better than getting together with a bunch of women i love, chatting it up over all things girly and eating yummy food?? 

when it came to baby showers for us/jack, i quickly realized that i am overwhelmingly blessed by so many people who desire to share in our joy and excitement.  my mom and i came to the conclusion that, if only for the sake of space/size, it would be best to have 2 separate showers.  my cousin becky and my sister in law jessica threw the first one on a friday night for gals/ladies closer to my age/season (singles, young marrieds/moms, etc).  we used this invitation from evite.com and then just piggy-backed off the colors to create a theme:

taking some of my current loves as a cue, they included a donut cake and iced tea in the food.  soooo delicious!

basically, we all just hung out, ate and chatted…

my dear friend courtney brought one of her newly adopted twins, hazel!  babies at a baby shower?  yes please!!!  isn’t she just the most precious little girl you’ve ever seen?!

my sisters-in-law even drove over from california for the weekend!!  i was SO happy to have them there!  aaaand this is the best pic i have of all 4 of them.  sorry. 😦

and of course, we opened presents!  apparently i am very animated and expressive while opening gifts… and make a lot of really weird faces…

it was a super fun, laid back shower and i loved being surrounded by so many wonderful friends (some of which drove nearly an hour to come!) and i look forward to sharing mommy-life with them all very soon!

the next morning was a shower that my mom threw for me.  we invited ladies from a more “mature” season of life to this shower (older/grown children, married children, plus my own aunts/grandmas, etc.).  and while they all have at least 20+ years of life on me, i LOVE being around this group of women.  they are all so much fun to talk with and hear from, and many of them have known me since i was very young, so it was all the more special to have them there! 

we (ok so i may have contributed to the shower planning a bit with my mom) used the theme and colors of jack’s nursery (airplanes + red/navy/tan) as the theme for this shower.  i love my mom’s style – simple & elegant with fun details!

we gave out peanuts and pretzels as favors (you know, like what you get when you fly on an airplane??)

aaand the faces continue…

it was extra special having my mom-in-law and HER mom (zach’s grandma) present as well!  they braved some crazy traffic to get here and we are so grateful they made it!! 

i was beyond blessed by both showers, the community of women i am surrounded by and the outpouring of their love and support.