Baby K: first baby shower

My sweet and crazy family spoiled me with an adorable baby shower a few weekends ago.

One of their first questions upon my arrival was....

Did we make the blog?  Is the shower blog-worthy?

I thought that was giving this little blog a little too much credit but that is what family is for:  spoiling you rotten while making you feel way cooler and more special than you really are.

I love my family!

They went above and beyond with this shower and of course definitely made the blog.  All the details were so perfect and thoughtful. They put so much time and energy into the shower and I felt so loved.  I really am so blessed to have so many incredible aunts and girl cousins to learn and grow from.  

One special touch that I added was Baby K's first "adult" bible.  I asked each guest to "sign" it by highlighting a favorite verse and writing their name or even a message to Baby K.  When she is ready for her first bible Bran and I will give her this one so she can see all the people who love, support and encourage her, especially in her walk with the Lord.  I think Bran and I are going to write a note to her that will be sealed up and kept in the Bible for safe keeping for her to find and read when she is older.  I hope it is something she cherishes.  I know I already cherish it for her.  It was so special to have my family be the first to "sign" it.  There are a lot of very sweet and special messages to Baby K.

It wasn't all seriousness though.  These girls planned a killer craft.  My family loves a good craft - it is in our blood.  Some have it a little thicker than others but we spent a long time creating onesies for Baby K by cutting out fabric in fun shapes and ironing them on to the onesies.  They turned out so great and now we have a great collection of soft, thick adorable onesies.

While most of our time was spent crafting (people were just so darn creative and couldn't stop) we also ate some great food and I opened up some amazing gifts.  I can't wait to use them all when Baby K arrives.

As the day ended and people headed home they each received one of these yummy and cute sugar cookies made by momma and sister.  Seriously, shouldn't they go into business together?  They would kill it selling these and other designs for weddings, bridal showers and baby showers  - even birthday parties.

My mom and sister - the cookie queens.

 

My lovely hosts - Aunt Kathi, Aunt Judi (she is making me the quilt), my lovely cousin Noelle and cousin Katie (she is expecting her third daughter two days after me!)

Bump shot.

Sisters.  She will be a great Aunt and not just because she bought the baby her first Uggs.

Cousins.

Family, thank you for showering Baby K and I with so much love, support and well wishes.  I am so blessed to have each of you in my life and I can't wait for this little girl to meet each of you.  

She is pretty darn lucky.  Love you all!

Instagram week 9

It was an extremely uneventful week.  We are leaving for Scotland tomorrow and all of last week was spent prepping the house, the dogs and ourselves for the trip.

Can't wait to get away for a bit.

Be back soon!

Baby K: week 24

So I have been terrible about the weekly photos.....because it's been a month.  You are not the only ones to have noticed.  My neighbors and friends are now even asking me why the delay.  Oops.

So to everyone who follows the blog or walks or drives by my house - I'm back.  The chalkboard wall is back too so you can all know what week we are on.  By the way, I'm a week behind and now really at 25 weeks.  Sorry.

Week: 24

Baby K: Baby K is the size of an ear of corn at over a foot long or maybe a better comparison would be a Subway foot long.  She not only broke the 12 inch mark but also the pound mark and now weighs over a pound.  Her taste buds are developing as well as her lungs.  Oh and she is slowly getting rid of that translucent skin.  Now if only I could do the same, c'mon on summer sun.

Symptoms:  Feeling great.  Getting used to having a belly.  It actually doesn't seem that large anymore. 

Cravings: Salt.

Aversions:  None.

Bump: Growing and fortunately for now it is growing outwards and not sideways but I know I still have a long ways to go.

Looking forward to:  Taking her on her first trip oversees to her father's homeland - Scotland.  Of course, she will be in the womb but it will still be a fun adventure.  And easier for us than if she was outside of it.

Missing the most: Deli meat.  I never thought I would ever say that but all I really want right now is a good turkey sandwich.

Pregnancy milestone:  Well it's not exactly a pregnancy milestone but we just celebrated with my first baby shower.  We were spoiled rotten.  Oh and maybe just increased movement - I can now watch her move and kick.  So cool and sometimes kind of creepy.

Instagram week 8

This week is a little full because it includes two weekends.  I decided it was best to end the week on a Sunday like all normal people instead of right when the fun begins on Friday. 

Our week included another visit to the lake with friends, water and of course s'mores, a visit to the Kane County flea market, enjoying our new mom mobile, time spent playing in the park, watering the plants (aka drinking from the hose), shopping for nursery fabric and a beautiful baby shower.

Oh did a mention the new recipe I finally tried - bitchin' sauce.  It is great just as a dip for chips or over rice, corn, beans, avocados and tomatoes.  Yumm.  Check out the recipe on my friend's blog The Faux Martha.

My cousins and aunts threw me a beautiful and fun baby shower this past weekend.  (By the way, my cousin and I are due two days apart and both are expecting girls.  I just love that.)  The shower though was so sweet.  Everyone had a blast making onesies for Baby K and they turned out great.  There was great food, lots of family and LOTS of gifts.  So spoiled.

It was a great week/weekend and I am still trying to recover.

Baby K: nursery design plan and a baby quilt

Soon after we found out Baby K was a girl I started thinking about the nursery design.  I maybe went a bit over the top with an insane number of options which I shared in this post.  It was almost impossible to settle on a color scheme but after a little fabric shopping, inspiration finally hit.

My aunt so generously agreed to make Baby K a quilt and I wanted the quilt to be the jumping off point for the nursery.  Once I actually walked through the doors of a fabric store and was able to touch and interact with the fabric I knew what I wanted to do.

Aqua and Pink to compliment the Grey base of the nursery.

I am so excited for this quilt. I love the fabrics and I know my Aunt will do a beautiful job.  The design/pattern of the quilt is going to be a surprise but here are some quilts that I love.

        

    

I'll share the final product when it arrives - probably a good long while from now.

So with these fabrics as my inspiration and jumping off point the design of the nursery is coming together.  Light grey walls, grey carpet, white furniture with some fun aqua antiques thrown in and then pops of color in the curtains, pillows and other accessories.

I can't wait till it is all finished and we can welcome Baby K home to her very own room.

I think we will be spending a lot of time in there cuddling in the glider under her new quilt.

Apple Hand Pies courtesy of Faux Martha

I made my first crust from scratch!!

I cannot believe that little ol' me successfully made a completely homemade crust.  I really cannot take all the credit, I was forced into it by my dear friend Melissa of Faux Martha.  She didn't know she was coercing me into tackling this frightful beast.

Melissa and her husband will be leaving us and moving across the country so we had a little goodbye party in her honor where we each made one of her amazing recipes.  By the way, she has a whole beautiful blog full of delicious recipes.  It made it really hard to choose just one.  I finally settled on the apple hand pie because I adore them.  Memories of apple picking, crisp air, warm sun and beautiful colors.....ahhh fall.  I'm not wishing summer away but fall holds a special place in my heart.  

I usually make these apple hand pies with store bought pastry dough because I thought I wasn't legit enough in the kitchen to pull off the real deal.  Well thanks to Melissa and her great crust recipe I proved to myself that I can do it.  I did not want to disappoint her by totally ruining her recipe so I was very careful and followed her recipe and video tutorial exactly and came out with a flaky and buttery crust.  Melissa has a great recipe and I was so surprised with how easy it was.  I never will use the store bought stuff again.

Bran loved them too and couldn't even wait for me to finish the mini photo session.  In his defense this was straight out of the oven and they are best warm and fresh!  And they smelled really good too.

Do you notice the glaze on there?  Mix up a cup of powdered sugar, a 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon and 1 1/2 tablespoons of milk to make a delicious glaze for just a little extra something...it really doesn't need it though.

Thanks Melissa for your inspiring and extremely yummy dishes that are so attainable.  So glad that you will never be farther than a few clicks away (although I will miss having you down the hall).  So excited for you guys and best of luck!

Instagram week 7

It has been a great week.  A pretty relaxing week.

We started the memorial weekend with a little mulching....a lot of mulching.  We ordered 3 yards this year which is more than enough and were kindly delivered over 4 yards.  Our mulch is so thick we may be able to skip it next year but our yard looks SO much better.  I will have to share some before and after photos.

I also walked around our local french market with my sis eating a croissant...yum.  End of story.

Then we packed the car and headed to the lake for 2 days.  It was so hot and lovely.  The dogs love it out there.  Lots of land to run around on and nice water to cool off in.  We enjoyed a night cruise on the boat too which is always so nice.  The second day a storm blew in so we headed back a little early but it was still the perfect start to lake season.

We had no time to settle in because we immediately set out car shopping and unfortunately had to say goodbye to our truck.  We have discovered that we are not good at saying goodbye to things/people.  However, selling the truck meant gaining a new car and I can say that she has won me over.  I'll share more about her later.

And then the week ended with a fun but sad little farewell party for my dear friend Melissa.  She is an amazing designer by day and an even better baker blogger by night.  We work together and some ladies at the office threw her a party.  We each picked a recipe from her blog to share for lunch.  I picked the mini hand packed pies and learned how to make my first crust.  It was actually pretty easy.  I'll be sharing her amazing recipe, blog and video tut soon.  It deserves its own post.  In the meantime check out her blog http://thefauxmartha.com/.  I recommend also looking up bitchin' sauce.  Yum!

So thanks for stopping by.  We are off stroller shopping - again - on a friday night.

Oh and since I am learning so much about instagram these days I just learned that you can follow people - I'm slow - so feel free to follow along @cherryst.   I have no idea how I could ever link to that so you'll just have to search my name.  Sorry I'm lame.