21 weeks

November 17, 2014

Gender Reveal Party

I am beyond excited to share these images.  I can not thank my amazing and talented friend,  Vanessa, enough for coming to our party and capturing these for us.  If you don't know who she is, Photography by Vanessa, you should check her out!

I have to say that I always loved the idea of a gender reveal party.  I never really said, yes, I'm definitely having one of those when I get pregnant.  However, after telling the 36th Street girls, we decided that this would be such a fun party to throw.  I'm so spoiled by creative, talented people in my life that I love any reason to get loved ones together and celebrate.

I'm not much of a pink girl, so when I picked the colors, I went more untraditional with apricot and mint.  One of the girls lives by townlake and has this amazing roof top deck that we threw the party on. What's not to love about this view?

When that Sunday morning finally was here, I couldn't believe it.  It felt like years since our sonogoram.  I remember waking up thinking I should just look.  I was feeling anxious to know.  So to pass the time, D and I decided to clean out my car.  Why not, right?  The day was passing fairly quickly, and then the next thing I know, we were rushing around to make it there on time.

I hate the feeling of being rushed and being late.  Well, I ended up being both that afternoon.  We headed out the door at 1:45 PM, when I wanted to be there at 1:30 PM.  I had a few items that needed to be placed, so this made it even worse, I wasn't just showing up.  I had stuff I needed to do.  Needless to say, this didn't help my feelings of anxiousness.  I told D in the car that we are totally having a girl, since that was just the way the day was going.  You see, I was a good 98% sure it was a boy, and I've always thought in my head we'd have a boy.  We got there before 2 PM and guests started arriving.  Since I hand made these adorable tissue pieces for behind the cake, I wanted to get them up, even with the wind not on my side!  D took the honors to test out the mint julep, just to be sure it was still right.

Vanessa snagged some pictures of us before a ton of guests got here, which are adorable.

We had some pretty great decor for this party.  I figured not all the boys would know which side to choose, so I looked up some old wives tales to display:

We had to have a 'boy' drink that was mint, The Mint Julep.

Then, of course, the girlie drink was a peach bellini with a gold sugar rimmed glass:

This is the ridiculously yummy cake that the lovely Polkadots created for me.  The gold bottom I just loved, and her macaroons are to die for!

Had to get a few shots of the invitation too = more confetti!

Before we knew it, guests started arriving and it was just a whirl wind.  I always feel like I never get to talk to enough people.  I'd much rather be the designer/planner than be the guest of honor.  However, I loved seeing each an every person that was there.  I think at some point, I said that I was fine just not finding out.

Well quickly 3 PM rolled around, which was our reveal time.  I had one friend on her way, which actually was the perfect distraction from waiting on getting people together.  Once she arrived, I got to just step in the middle and the countdown begun.

Let me just say that the 36th Street girls did an absolutely amazing job with this confetti.  Bethany and I had tested out the push-pops and decided how it would work best, but they got to cut all these pieces and put them together.  Girls, you rock!!   It turned out a hundred times better than I could have imagined!  The wind was absolutely perfect.  These pictures are the best:

It really was one of those moments that I can't put into words.  These images bring happy tears to my eyes, so much emotion.  I just love it all.  I had no idea what D's reaction was and I'm so thankful to see these.  Of course the confetti was so great.  We took endless pictures with it!

I was actually quite surprised by the emotions I had post finding out it was a baby girl.  I think it was just such a build up, I of course started crying.  Happy tears and just overwhelmed, I think.  My mom was just as much of a mess as I was.  Oh momma...

We then had to dive into that amazing cake and see the apricot there too.  My hubby is such a dork.  At our sonogram, we had the technician put the images in an envelope and boy, did she get a good shot of her.

I was actually surprised by all those that chose girl, but they were so right.

We spent the rest of the afternoon with our dear friends and loved every minute of it.  I can not be more thankful for all those that came and added a little love into our lives that day.  To the girls of 36th Street, love you all!

Week 21

Size of Baby Walker  12.7 ounces = size of a bell pepper! 

Symptoms  Nothing different this week.  I still hate the cold, non-baby related.  No stretch marks so far, figures crossed!!!  I am putting on some amazing oil a friend gave me at the GRP.     
Cravings/Aversions  I still don't love chicken, but nothing makes me sick.  Me and the hubs may have eaten WAY too much buttered popcorn at our movie date yesterday, oops!  It's okay to indulge sometimes though right?!?
Exercise  Hmm, this cold weather is not good for me getting outside.  I really want to get better at this.  Hopefully next week I can say I got outside and ran a few miles **note to self.

Sleep  Yep, been good this week.  The cold makes me just want to stay in bed all morning long.  I have been pretty good about not sleeping in quite as long.  I am usually good about waking up around 7:30 AM every morning.  We still have been going to bed around 9:30 or 10 PM every night.  Yep, we are old.              

Best moment of the week...  That the hubs is home for the holiday week.  I enjoy him being around, even if he is busy doing other things.  I love the amount of hugs I get during the day.  I loved that we got to start a fire in the fireplace this week and just relax a little.

Changes We now have started our gift registry, which is SO exciting.  I've decided to do an online registry (myregistry.com), so I can gather items from all different stores in one place.  It's been a little difficult to make some decisions, but I think I have a good view of how I want her nursery to look.  I still need to venture out and look at some items in person before choosing.  We've also been trying to look at names and man this is tough.  We have three right now that are contenders, but nothing is definite yet...    

Looking forward to Thanksgiving this week!  I can't wait to just have some family time.  I love cooking with the family and breaking out some old recipes mixed with new.  It can't get any better than that.