The Lovely Cupboard: Bump Pics and My Baby Shower

Happy 2013! This week all the cool blogs are posting New Year's resolutions or round ups of their best posts of 2012. I'm sorry...I just couldn't muster the energy it would take to do either of those. (I'm resolving to do my "resoluting" this weekend.) Instead I've got a post about what's happening in our lives recently. I must admit this feels like a good way to kick off the blogging year.

Excitement mixed with misery is the only way I can describe my pregnancy. I severely underestimated the amount of discomfort and issues I'd have during this time. I won't bore you with details, but the pictures sure don't reflect how I feel 95% of the time. (The night before we took these pics, I had about 4 hours sleep and woke up choking several times, so my under eye concealer was pretty much spackled on.) Then waves of pure awe and anticipation hit me, and I'm so grateful that my body even has the ability to grow a life. These 8 months have been such a mixed bag of hormone swings, physical pain, and surreal joy.?Stu and I get a little nervous anytime we have to take pictures together. We don't always have the best chemistry on camera. Let's just say that our wedding photographer told Stu that he had a "Chandler smile". (Yes- the terribly fake, all teeth, awkward grin that looks like you are being poked in the rear with a cattle prod.) When we saw some cute bump pics, we attributed it to the fact that a third "person" shook up the mix enough to give us some more photo?mojo.

The little fabric wrapped boxes were filled with salted caramels that Molly made as favors for guests. Baby pics of Stu and me were scattered on the tables in between cute place mats that Molly found. They were paper but looked so fancy on the tables.

There were plenty of savory treats as well. I think had three plates of food, and I felt no guilt whatsoever.

Tanya is explaining the "make a baby" activity. Tables had magazines and scrapbook paper for guests to cut out and create what they thought our baby would look like.?

The lovely hosts...They both worked so hard (even being mamas to little ones) to pull off a beautiful shower. It doesn't seem that long ago that I was throwing Tanya's shower for her little man who is now a toddler. Molly's precious baby is the one smiling in the pic above. I've mentioned before on the blog how much these two mean to me, but I just can't say it enough. These girls are family. Period.

One of my favorite gifts was a pre-made phtoto scrapbook. My friend Rebecca put together pages for the baby's first year, so all I have to do is print off the pics and pop them in.?

I'm so blessed to have all of these wonderful ladies in my life...I'm sure there will be plenty of freak out moments on my part in the coming months. At least I can space out the calls, so that no one gets overwhelmed by my cries for help. Most importantly,?I know baby girl has an amazing community to support and love her when she finally arrives.

Source: http://www.thelovelycupboard.com/2013/01/bump-pics-and-my-baby-shower.html

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