Pretty Pink Presents

This past weekend Brian's Aunt Kathy and Aunt Ruth threw a wonderful baby shower for our little girl and me - her Mama-to-be!  We all gathered at his Aunt Kathy's where there were lovely pink table cloths with orange runners, wonderful bouquets of pink and orange spray roses in white urn vases, and little plastic jungle animals scattered about the tables.  The food was delish - chicken salad on croissants, fruit salad, veggies, M&M's, cupcakes and cookies!  And the company, as usual, was divine! 

We played two games - jeopardy and guess the belly size!  I have to admit, the jeopardy game was quite challenging!  Brian's Aunt Kathy definitely made it so not everyone would have every answer!  There were three categories - Baby, Books, and B & E.  I think I knew 1/3 of the correct responses in the Baby category, um, zero in books, and 3/4 of B & E.  Let's plan this game in another year though.  I bet I'll take everyone under the table!

We all really had a lot of fun chatting, opening presents filled with pretty pink items and enjoying the lovely fall day.  It really was a wonderful shower and so thoughtful of Brian's family to host and attend.

Surprisingly, my Mom flew into town as well to attend the shower.  I had no knowledge of this whatsoever, so it was a big surprise, and when I returned home from work on Friday Brian asked me what I was doing home.  (I had planned on stopping by the grocery store on the way home, but needed a cat nap.  I was exhausted.)  I understood later that he was so concerned with me being home because he had planned on getting everyone inside the house and surprising me upon my arrival; however, in typical Erin fashion, I changed my mind and plans and decided to go to the grocery store later.

My Mom quietly crept upstairs a few minutes after I had layed down along with Mary and Tom and Brian and Jack and surprised me.  (She came in a dire time of need.  I'm not going to lie, I was slightly upset that Brian was so concerned that we didn't have granola bars and burritos, which I promised to get when I went to the grocery store, when his pregnant wife just needed a 20 minute nap.  For the record, he felt terrible for upsetting me and I can honestly say that there were probably some pregnancy hormones mixed up in those emotions too!  So sorry about that, Bri!)

Either way, when I saw my Mom I said, "What the hell?!"  (My true colors (and profanity) just shine when I am caught off guard...And, no, this isn't the first time I have expressed myself in such a colorful way.)  I jumped out of bed and gave her and her entourage big hugs.  It really was wonderful to have her in town to attend the Baby Shower and be able to spend some quality time together.  As usual, it was just too short, but it was so amazing to see her.

Unfortunately, I have no pictures of my own from the shower.  I know that there are some floating around, and I will be sure to update this post if I can manage to get my hands on some, but you'll have to trust me when I say it was lovely!

Thank you, Everyone, who made this day and weekend possible.  Our baby girl and I appreciate it so very much!

UPDATE:  We have photos!!!  Click on the image below to view the shenanigans of the day!

Our OH Baby Shower!

Jungle Boogie!

This past weekend my wonderful Mom, sister, and best friend Tamara threw me and our little bambino (aka "Little E") a jungle themed baby shower at my Aunt's house.  That's right.  I packed up all 1.5 of us and hopped on a flight to Maryland to celebrate.  My doctor technically said no travelling after August 22, but I think it'll be fine to push it into late August or early September.  If our little girl decides to make her debut this early, we've got other things to worry about besides not being in our home state.

Anyway, WE HAD SO MUCH FUN!  There was tons of good food: two quiches, fruit salad, a salmon ball, cupcakes, punch, and more!  The decoration was adorable: lots of colors and animals and cute girly things!  And the company was simply divine!  It was so nice to see everyone and celebrate such a special occasion!  (We all can't wait to meet you, sweet girl!)

We played two very fun games: the Rice Bowl game and the Guess the Belly Size game!  I was first up at the Rice Bowl game.  In this game you had 30 seconds to fish out as many safety pins as possible from a bowl of uncooked rice while you were blindfolded or did your due diligence to keep your eyes closed.  (For those of you that think, "oh, I woulda had that in the bag"...think again.  It is not as easy as it sounds.)  I pulled out a whopping goose egg.  (Not a real goose egg.  There weren't other surprises in the bowl, but a big, fat zero.)  Joanne was the winner with FIVE safety pins found in 30 seconds!!

For the Guess the Belly Size game, everyone stretched a pink streamer to a length that they thought would be the circumference of me and Little E combined - my tummy, that is.  My Mom won this game with a very, very close estimate of this wide load, and Tamara's Mom came in at a very close second!  Mom's just know best, don't they?!

After we played the games, we opened up presents, ate some cupcakes, had some fruit slices, and enjoyed the afternoon.  We received so many wonderful items for our little girl!  She is one lucky little lady, well, we both are, and she is going to be added to a family of the.most.amazing.women.  I can't wait to tell her about everyone.

OH, and last but certainly not least, everyone left with a little favor: a bun in the oven.  It was a cinnamon bun candle in a little homemade cardstock oven with a note on the back that said "Brian & Erin's "bun"dle of joy!"  Adorable!

Thank you to everyone who made this day possible.  You all mean the world to me and I am grateful to have each and everyone of you as part of my life!

It's a jungle in here!!

Falling Into Place

We are well underway with our plans for our wedding! We had an extremely productive last week and weekend, and with 60 days left in the countdown, we've got an extremely exciting week ahead of us!

Last, last Saturday, May 29th, we received our box of final invitations. They look absolutely incredible! We are super impressed with the outcome and so happy that we were able to incorporate our own originality and creativity into our design. We had originally planned on getting the invitations in the mail a bit earlier than the eight weeks, which is typical for wedding invitations (mainly because we've got quite a few out of town guests), but we really didn't have a choice, and the final product was well worth the wait! In the end, we met the standard deadline and we were able to send our invites out on Tuesday, June 1st.

Then, over this past weekend, Brian and were able to scan in some of our old photos of our younger years. (Note to our future kid(s): If you ever decide to have a digital slide show at your wedding of pictures of your younger years, you are going to have it so easy.) Technically, I suppose in that amount of time there will some sort of advanced technology that our human minds just cannot comprehend right now. There will always be a technological advancement. (Sometimes I need to remind myself.)

We also had the opportunity to create our seating cards. They turned out incredibly, and we had a blast making them! That's all I'm going to say about that! :)

On top of it all, we also had time to create our rehearsal dinner invitations! (They also have turned out awesome! This entire wedding is just going to be unbelievable!) We're working on our wedding program and menu this week. (They will both turn out incredibly. I am very confident!) Once those are complete, we will be off to the print shop and we'll have three more items to check off of our list!
(Like I said, we've had a very productive last week and weekend!)

(And finally, on to this week:)

On Wednesday, I have my first dress fitting. (This is much more exciting for me than it is for Brian!) While I have seen my dress (once) since I bought it, I have not put it on. It will surely be a special moment. AND, in less than one month, my dress will officially be ready for me to wear...as in completely done! That is just a fantastic thought! I am so excited for Brian to see what I've selected. Actually, I am so excited for him to see the entire get up - hair, make-up, dress, flowers... I think he is going to be extremely impressed! He has certainly been quite curious throughout the last few months!

We also have our first shower in Columbus, Ohio on Saturday. Brian's Aunt Kathy, along with some very helpful hands, are hosting a 'Couples Shower' at her house. We are certainly looking forward to seeing our families, friends, and special out of town guests.

I am sure that there will be little things that Brian and I will be able to take care of throughout the week. If you weren't aware, we are both very excited about our upcoming nuptials, and as the time gets closer, the excitement level gets higher. Everything really is ... falling into place.