A Vintage Baby Shower

Last Sunday the MAI women celebrated Heather and her baby girl with a beautiful Vintage Baby Shower. Kari and I hosted this fun afternoon, and besides the food, we did not have to buy one decoration! We actually had random stuff laying around our houses that when put together had the vintage feel. 

Beautiful, glowing Mama!

Gift table with a place to write special and encouraging notes to Heather

Food Table!!! Kari prepared a delicious spread with baked brie, spinach and cheese pastries, mini chocolate cupcakes, and strawberry whoopee pies...I brought the veggie tray, nuts, and punch lol

Beautiful roses from Kari's garden 

These looked so real!

Caitlin made Heather and baby Kiah a beautiful mobile for the nursery

Jaeda and Kalea enjoying the delicious food!

3 Mamas!

Jaeda and her Kiah "pillow"

Without the belly you wouldn't even know this lady's going have a baby!
She's gorgeous!

My gift for Heather was a travel case baby wipes cover and some baby wipes.
I can't wait to make one for my baby girl :)

Spending time planning and prepping for this wonderful day was well worth it! Heather is a beautiful woman and a great friend. I'm so excited that we get to share in the joy of being new mamas together and having our girls grow up together! 

This is my face thinking about my baby shower!

A Lizard Tale

I never realized lizards run rampant here in Charlotte like they do in Florida! The lizard Daikulay caught the other day was beautiful. He was a perfect green and had black around his eyes that Daikulay said was make-up haha! Daikulay loved that little guy. He played with him for hours. We were for sure he was going to end up killing him but sure enough by sundown Daikulay came banging on our door to tell us that his lizard was asleep. "No, buddy, I think he's dead," Travis tried to explain gently. "No, he's sleeping!" Daikulay said back. And all of a sudden, the lizard started breathing again! How in the world had that thing been dropped so many times, closed tight in a pink box, handled by a 5 year old for 3 hours and not have died!? It's still a mystery to me! 

The best part of the evening was when Daikulay came to tell me he'd lost his lizard. He said the last place he had it was on his head-ok, hilarious! So I jokingly suggested that he may be lost in his hair. He started searching right around where he was and feeling his hair. As he turned his back towards me I caught a glimpse of green and saw the lizard resting nicely on his left shoulder! I started dying! "Daikulay, he's on your shoulder!" Well, poor Daikulay doesn't know what a shoulder is so he started feeling his back until I pointed to my own shoulder and then he realized what I meant. He was so happy to find his new friend, and with a smile walked off with the lizard back up on his head.

The only Mango I'll be near

I wanted to learn something interesting about mangoes. I've tasted mangoes only a few times in my life and each time I wasn't too impressed, but since our little Juice Drop is the size of a mango this week I wanted to give this exotic fruit another chance. Well after searching online I have come to the conclusion that I won't be giving mangoes the time of day!

Mango peel and sap contain urushiol, the chemical in poison ivy and poison sumac that can cause urushiol-induced contact dermatitis in susceptible people.^[18] Cross-reactions between mango contact allergens and urushiol have been observed.^[19] Those with a history of poison ivy or poison oak contact dermatitis may be most at risk for such an allergic reaction.^[20] Urushiol is also present in mango leaves and stems. 

Wikipedia

I think it'd be wise if mangoes and I didn't come anywhere close to one another for the time being ever. The only mango I'll be near at this point in my life is my 19 week baby girl.

How far along? 19 Weeks (almost half way there!)

Total weight gain: 7 lbs

Maternity clothes? I received a belly band from a friend!! Today I'm wearing my favorite pair of jeans that don't button or zip but the belly band keeps them on :) And another dear friend got me a gift card to a maternity store so I'm just waiting for those clothes to arrive at my door step :)

Stretch marks? Nope

Sleep: Poison ivy is still bothering me but I'm getting used to sleeping on my side so as soon as the poison ivy disappears we'll really see how I'm sleeping

Best moment this week: The poison ivy has NOT kept me down! So many great things have happened this week! First of all, we got to see our baby on a 3D/4D ultrasound! We got to see her moving around like crazy!! Then we found out she's a SHE!!! (you can check out how we revealed her gender here) and I found out yesterday that my baby sister, Juice Drop's Auntie Em, will be going to college less than 20 minutes away from us! What a blessing it'll be just to have her near :)

Miss Anything? Not being consumed by constant itchiness
Movement: YES!!! I felt her for the first time the night we found out she's a she! I knew right away it was her and from that moment on I've felt her several times throughout the day! Travis even felt her last night, it was amazing! I can't wait until those little bubbles really feel like kicks :)

Food cravings: Water, salty foods, wheat and grains

Anything making you queasy or sick: Nope

Gender: GIRL!!!

Labor Signs: No

Symptoms: Little bubbles popping in my stomach which is her moving (that's my favorite symptom :) lower back aches and side aches if I sit for too long

Belly Button in or out? Depends on the time of day... In the morning it's an iny; by the evening, it's become an outie, ha!

Wedding rings on or off? on

Happy or Moody most of the time: Definitely HAPPY this week!!

Looking forward to: Feeling more movement, buying her sweet little outfits (check out the sweet gifts (below) we've received already!), and decorating her nursery!

The onesie, headband, and bib (handmade) was given by three different friends.
The socks will be turned into little leg warmers! :)

The onesies (ok, come on, Juice Drop embroidered!!!) and
rainbow socks were a gift. The blue socks will be little leg warmers :)

Ok, these two pretty much made Daddy and me cry! 

Ruffles and Bows (Gender Reveal Party)

Juice Drop is a GIRL!!! 

What a total shocker! We could've sworn (even though I don't swear lol) that we were having a boy! You even heard me say it so many times! So much for motherly instincts, haha!

Travis and I didn't care either way what we were having. A boy would've been a joy :) but now that we know we're having a girl, well, it just kinda knocks our socks off! What a blessing this little girl already is to Travis and me. We love her so much, and now that we know that she is a she, I feel the bond between us three tightening that much more.

We could have found out that we are having a girl at our ultrasound last Thursday but we decided to wait until our party on Saturday--and I'm so glad we did! It made finding out so special knowing our close friends and family were with us sharing in our joy. I already know that our baby girl is going to be loved so much by so many!

Our gender reveal party was quite the event. With over 30 people in our small living room the anticipation was making everyone giddy. Not everything went off without a hitch though--how could it when you have technology involved? Our guests were on pins and needles waiting for the cue to take a bite out of that cupcake and for us to cut into our cake, however, the Skype connection for Travis' mom was failing. We couldn't leave Grandma out of the big reveal! Finally, after a half hour, she was able to get it working and we were ready to go! But as Travis and I took that knife to the cake one of our friends who was Skyping in Uncle Troy and Aunt Carly (Travis' brother and sister-in-law), the connection was lost! It took a couple of seconds to get them back, and with my heart racing, we were all (including those Skyping in) finally ready to see what color was inside that cake!

Our lovely baker, Angel (Travis' cousin's wife) baked Travis and me a cake and everyone else had their own cupcake. Inside was pink filling to reveal that we're having a little girl! Guest picked a cupcake based on what they thought we were having. We had the ultrasound technician put the pictures that revealed she's a girl in a sealed envelope and we took the envelope to Angel, so we had no idea until we cut into that cake!

Almost time!!! 

 

Living room full of family and friends

Just had to get Jones Soda!

Juice Drop's name written out and ultrasound pictures for guests to see :)

Guests voted for either girl or boy.
Looks like everyone else thought Juice Drop was a boy too!

   

Little Jaxon, Abby, Angela, and baby Makai were all banking on blue

Travis trying to get a hold of his mom on Skype!

Time to pass out the cupcakes!

Jeremy just couldn't handle the excitement!
He bit in before it was time, haha!

Here...

We...

...Go!

It's PINK!!!

Oh, the joy I felt at that moment could not be contained! I kept envisioning blue inside that cake but when I saw pink I was elated, ecstatic, and brought to tears. By the way, you can actually see Uncle Troy's expression too!!

 Celebration all around!

Angela and Abby chose wrong while Heather got it right!
I was rooting for both with my pink shirt and blue vest :)

Baby girls for these two ladies :)

Ruffles and Bows...Here we come!