Searcy Baby Shower

Savannah, Birc, and I are so blessed with people all over that want to shower us with goodies to get ready for her big arrival.  We had a shower in Searcy at my home church a few weeks ago, and it was simply wonderful.  My neighbors Linda and Libby (Mama's friends) and my best friend from home Melissa all threw the shower and no details were left out! It was so pretty and everything was dainty and lovely. 

pretty cupcakes

yummy goodies-lemon bars, raspberry granola bars, brownies, and cupcakes!

the Wesley Room at my church before everyone arrived

so glad Mama went to get GrandJoyce so she could be there for her first great-grandchild's shower!

Jen!

 Anna!

Ann, my MIL!

Mama :)

 So many goodies-we felt so blessed and loved!

all the boys came after to help the girls load up, and they got a few snacks in exchange :)

 Melissa (normal pic)

 Melissa (not-so-normal belly pic!)

They surprised me with pictures of Birc and me when we were babies! He was so cute :)

 Wonderful hostesses-Linda, Melissa, and Libby.  Such wonderful girls!

Here's a special close-up of Birc (on the bottom left) in an ET shirt, and another in a towel bossing whoever the photographer is around. hah!

The whole shower was a super fun time and I am so grateful and blessed to have such wonderful people in my life who want to help out and celebrate baby Savannah's upcoming arrival! Thanks again to everyone who helped and came!

Gender Reveal Party [that was in July]

So even though this was FOREVER ago, I'm still going to document this event so I'll have it for memory purposes.  Birc and I had a 'gender reveal' party back on July 22.  This was the day I was scheduled for my 20 week ultrasound and it was also a Friday, which turned out perfect for party time! We went to our appointment that morning and had to totally avoid all contact with everyone so that we wouldn't leak the secret out!

Here we are in the waiting room.  I was SO EXTREMELY NERVOUS.  I was just ready to hear that the baby was healthy and all the main organs and legs and arms and all were present and accounted for.  We hadn't seen an image of the baby in forever and I was so very anxious.

This is right when we got back from our appointment.  CRAZY!  [and Birc and I both coincidentally wore purple so we weren't in blue or pink accidentally! hah!]

For the party, I wanted everything in pink and blue.  I was stressing about this party, but ended up having lots of fun getting ready and decorating for it. 

We had pink and blue kool-aid and had a big blue bucket of beer and blush pink wine.

Here was one table, and this had the dessert cupcakes on it.  Half were homeade chocolate cake cupcakes and the other half were my brother-in-law's mother's carrot cake cupcakes [which are to die for!]

I made some garland out of scrapbook paper and sewed it together for the light fixtures around

Parmesean Artichoke Dip! YUMMY!

We had burgers and hot dogs from the grill, creamed corn, baked beans, and rosemary potatoes. Another YUM!

Here's another place for folks to eat in the Dining Room.  See garland again and the pink/blue napkins and cups. :)

Here's the banner I made out of scrapbook paper and ribbon, and just sewed it together.  It says 'baby morledge'

Another look at the table in the DR

And here's a close-up of the cupcakes and the cupcake toppers I made.  All so yummy!

We then thought we'd show the ultrasound video we got that morning and let that be how our families found out about Savannah being a girl.  Here are some pics of everyone before the video.

Team Girl! [everyone dressed in pink or blue for their guess on what he/she was]

Team Boy! [obviously my low belly had lots of people fooled]

Birc videoed the 'reveal' I guess you could call it, and it was great fun watching back. I tried getting it to load but somehow can't get it to work. :( I'll try to fix that for tomorrow.

And Birc and I both wore both pink and blue so we wouldn't appear biased in any way :) We forgot to take a picture of ourselves until everyone had left though, so we got one in the bathroom [pre-makeover, obviously].

All in all, it was great fun telling our families a baby girl was on the way!

Birthday Fun

Boy I sure am lucky and had such a great time celebrating my birthday! Last night, Mama, Daddy, Anna, Aaron, Granddaddy, Birc and I all went out to Bravo [italian restaurant] and it was SO yummy! We came back to our house and had some cake that my sweet hubby surprised me with, opened some perfectly WONDERFUL presents, and then passed out from all the celebrating! 

Here's the yummy Baskin Robbins Ice Cream Cake! I've always wanted one and talked with Birc about them recently and he remembered! YUMMY :)

Then tonight, my awesome in-laws took Birc and me to Arthur's Steakhouse.  Let me just say I am so full and happy from a wonderful meal of filet, 3-cheese au gratin potatoes, broccoli, bread, and KEY LIME PIE with RASPBERRY SORBET.  YUM is all I can say! I'm a blessed girl!

[Key Lime Pie, before I got involved with it]

What was left after I enjoyed the entire thing!

Also this past weekend, Anna came over to lend a [big] hand to me in cooking 6 [double] recipes to freeze for after Savannah's arrival.  We cooked Wild n' Cheesy Chicken, Lasagna with Italian Turkey Sausage, Chicken Tortilla Soup, Turkey Chili, Black Bean and Polenta Casserole, and Spaghetti Sauce.   All of which either Birc, Anna, or I tasted and approved.   Now here's what our extra freezer [in the garage] looks like:

We managed to cook all of those dishes in less than 6 hours, but we didn't go without aching feet or tired backs! I even sent some home with Anna so she wouldn't starve this winter either ;) hehehe

I am back!

Hopefully, that is! With all the things that have been going on in the past few weeks, blogging has been put on the back burner.  Hopefully I can get back in the swing of things and manage my time a little better! The past few weeks for me have been filled with sewing with my mama for Savannah's room, resting, organizing her little closet, sleeping, keeping our house clean, napping, celebrating birthdays, and did I mention sleeping? I have been SO TIRED the past few weeks, I can hardly keep my eyes open when I finally hit the pillow.  I think that is because my mind is going 90 miles an hour with things I think I need to get taken care of [which really I am sure could wait] and I am staying up way too late and waking up early with my mind already racing.  [you don't have to explain to Birc what nesting means, that's for sure!]  For today, I'll just say Happy Birthday yesterday to my wonderful sister Anna.

[this pic is from when we were about 24 and 26 respectively, because I am busy wishing for and reminiscing about my body pre-baby]

 We had a great big 3-0 party last night and I slept very well when I finally got to sleep!  I'm so very excited for Anna and Savannah to meet.  I'm sure Savannah will want Anna to steal her away from her crazy mama all the time when she realizes how much fun Anna is :) 

In other news, guess who's 33 weeks today? This mama and baby are! And we are feeling every day of that! I can't imagine how my belly can get any bigger, but I am pretty sure I said that back in week 25 or so also.  Savannah weighs in at almost 4 pounds this week and is over 17 inches long.  CRAZY!

She has been moving around All. The. Time and has the hiccups at least once a day, and usually after every time I eat [which I find very odd??].  Anywho, we're getting ready and excited to meet her and I'm going to pack the hospital bag this weekend so I can put my mind at ease about that one thing.  Any suggestions on something you were so glad you had?

How we told our families about our baby

So, for memory purposes, I want to have written down how we told our families that we were expecting a little one.  We found out on April 5 but my doctors appointment wasn't scheduled until April 20 [which is a crazy long wait period for newly expectant parents].  Just after April 20 was Easter Sunday on April 24, and we had already planned to have all of our families over for lunch at our house for the first time as a big meal.  Everyone was invited to come to St. James for the church service, and then we came back to our house where I had cooked a roast with potatoes and carrots, herb-butter rolls, broccoli salad, and lemon ice box pie [all the night before, as church for us is a 4 hour affair since I volunteer to sing in the choir and all].  No one had ANY idea.  And we didn't own a camera anymore [mine got stolen from my car when it was broken into back in November] so all we have is the video! After lunch, we decided to give everyone an Easter egg with a little surprise picture of the ultrasound inside.  I handed one to everyone and asked them to wait to open them, and then it was time for SURPRISE! Here's the video below: [and you can see how unsuspecting everyone is, just relaxing and visiting, all the while Birc and I were nervous wrecks!]

Neither one of our sisters or their husbands/kids could be there, so we had to tell them separately.  We went over to Anna and Aaron's house the Thursday before and told them we had them an "Easter happy" and gave them this:

I had it embroidered a week or so before, and they were extremely surprised and happy! [and we totally were 'indian givers' or whatever that phrase is, cause we took back the bib so Savannah could wear it!] hah!

We also called Melissa and her family a few minutes before we went out to tell our families, and here's a couple pics of us chatting on the phone:

And then here's the pic we sent the rest of the world at 12 weeks [thank you Facebook]

Next up-Gender Reveal Party Pictures!