Pink and Gray

For weeks, I have been planning a surprise baby shower for my best friend in the entire world. She has been by my side through all the big moments in my life. When I turned 16 and got my license, when we graduated, went off to college, needed a shoulder to cry on the first time I got my heart broken. She was outside in the waiting room for almost 30 hours (with Lauran too :}) while I was in labor with Hayley. She stood by my side when I promised to love Chase forever with my whole heart. She drove down late at night to come see Holden when he was born. She threw me beautiful showers for my wedding, bachelorette and two baby showers. She's the absolute best friend anyone could ask for and I'm blessed that I get to call her mine. I cried through my entire speech at her wedding because trying to express what's she has meant to me over the years is hard... point of the story, I just love her :)

Chase, Kristen, Kristen's parents and I went into the city to see the Cherry Blossoms, which weren't there. No biggie, we just walked around, playing the sight seeing role and then we went and had dinner. Sunday morning Chase and I said that we had to get back to get the kids.  Little did Kristen know that I had everything packed away in the car for her baby shower, so we drove over to Danny's sisters house and set everything up. Kristen was supposed to come over for her birthday lunch later in the day. (The story that Shannon and I came up with changed about a zillion times before Kristen had any idea she was coming over.)

I planned every detail of this day out and I wanted everything to be perfect for her. Here are some pictures from the shower.

This is the table once I put everything out.

 It's a girl sign! with balloons

 baby cupcakes

 Mason jars I made for the drinks. I hot glued pink ribbon around the edge, then put a piece of sheer gray around the pink.

 Pink and White marshmallows in a vase, and pink and silver gumballs. Not to eat (unless you wanted to) just for some pretty coloring

 I painted the letters for the Emerie sign and glued them to this piece of wood and added an elephant. Somehow "elephants" became the theme of the shower. It's because it's the only gray animal. 

I also made this BABY GIRL sign using scrap book paper, wooden letters, and ribbon. Probably my favorite decoration that I made!

 Everyone seems to be making diaper cakes for baby showers now, so I decided to make a diaper basket instead, filled with goodies! loved it

 Pink and White pom poms that Chase and Kristen's niece Ashley pulled apart for me

 Clothesline (staple at every baby shower)

 presents for Emerie Grace

 I made pink chocolate dipped oreos (very yummy) I even put pink jelly beans into lifesavers to make "binkys"

 I pulled out our white Christmas lights and got pink and silver mini cupcake liners and put them around each light. It just added a little something extra to the room.

On the back of the invitation, I put "Although cards are nice and read once or twice, a book is a treasure forever and ever. So instead of a card to be put to the side, please bring an unwrapped book with your name inside." I wanted to start Emerie's library.

 For a guest book, my friend Stephanie painted a tree and wrote Emerie Grace underneath it. Then as people came in, they used a pink stamp pad to put a thumb print on the tree and sign their names.

eating baby food! (Amanda, another mommy to be won this game (she's ready for her baby girl I see!)

How BIG is the belly (not very, she's still so tiny

pretty mommy to be

I had so much fun planning this baby shower! I even had some of Danny's friends come to surprise him too, they played games and pool downstairs and brought diapers and wipes.(Thank you to Shannon for letting me use her house, Anne and Shirleen for helping with food, Danny for getting Kristen to Shannon's and everyone who came for keeping it a secret!)
Then I tortured Danny by making him take a few pictures when we got back to Kristen's house.

Did I mention it was Kristen's birthday?? Yes, for her 27th birthday, she got a surprise baby shower and surprise guests because Chase and I went back and stayed at her house. Kristen and I cleaned out the closet and put baby stuff away and Chase and Danny put the crib together.

After a long weekend away, I was happy to get back and get my babies. I had to take Holden back to the doctor to check his ears. His ear infection is gone but he has the start of thrush because he has been on 3 different antibiotics for the past 6 weeks. Lucky for us, we caught it really quickly (as in he woke up with it this morning) so it's not too bad yet. Thank goodness. Now that I'm done planning this shower, I can start planning Hayley's 4th birthday and Holden's 1st!

Hayley was doing a little bit of puddle jumping last weekend when it rained

Look at this fat little happy face, I just eat him up!

Here's Holden with my dad last weekend

"Yes little one, I love you as the stars love you, constant and bright above you, giving you joy and peace and wonder. I love you as the stars love you, forever, and ever, and always"