Shower Part Three...

Gifts Galore! My next few posts on the shower will showcase some of the wonderful gifts we received for little Miss Lily. I of course must start with the funniest as I still can not stop laughing! This first gift post is in honor of the wonderful Jonny who can always make me laugh! For those of you who dont know Jonny he was one of Dan's groomsman and is Dan's Best Bud. Jonny is the "hip portland dude" with his own style and taste. Now...Jonny bought us 3 gifts. One that was more for me, then one that was more for him and then one that was for Dan. In that order! Lets see what Jonny purchased....First is a little something for me (which I LOVE!)



Cute right?

Then a gift that is more "Jonny" style! LOL. (dont worry we love them...just makes me laugh as its totally a Jonny gift)




And for the final gift "A little something for Dan". First lets see the leading photos to opening this gift....




And the DRUM ROLL PLEASE.....



In case you missed it...



Yup thats right. Jonny thinks he is Funny! And the best part? The little booger was entered into the Diaper Lottery Drawing for those diapers! Guess we didnt specify that the diapers were supposed to be for LILY! LOL. We love you Jonny! Thanks for the gifts and the laughter! We Loved it ALL! Cant wait for Lily to meet her "Uncle Jonny".


~Whitney

Shower Part Two...

Round two of photos! This post will be for games and a few people shots!

First we have a cute shot of the prize table. Who wouldnt want a prize in one of these boxes. Funny thing is we were trying to make them gender neutral as we had a couple of guys without significant others attending...and guess what happens? Two of the single guys win prizes! LOL. Well one was an itunes card...but the other was dishes (sorry jonny!) But I think he actually might need them in his bachelor pad!



The first silly game we played was "Mums the Word" which was to not say the word baby. So we had made necklaces with cute little clips on them that you had to give up IF someone caught you saying it! Here is a shot of Jamie passing out the necklaces...



Next we played "Belly Bump" where everyone had to guess how big my tummy was. We passed around string for them to "guess". This was FUNNY and completely entertaining for me. Watching the guys push their tummies out and measuring themselves was hilarious. It was also entertaining to see just how LONG people cut their strings...Ummm...Im NOT that HUGE! LOL. Most people were way too long. Two however just about nailed it! Here is Tom being silly with his tummy and me measuring for the actual winner...




The next game I dont have any photos of but I do have a shot of the actual thing that was filled out. This Candy game fit perfectly with my "Sweet" themed shower. Can you guess all the matches?



Opening gifts in front of people has always been awkward for me so I embraced the idea of a distraction for the guests...or something to keep them busy. Solution was Baby Bingo! Guests filled out blank Bingo Cards with gifts they anticipated I was going to get. They could mark off one square per gift we opened (in other words if its a basket of goodies they cant WIN off that one present...at least 4 if use free space MUST be opened). The winner of this game was Jonny...who was so confident of his win that he left a whole line on his card blank. Guess he was right as he won super fast...



The final game...was really just a raffle. We called it a "Diaper Lottery". Since Diapers are not really a "fun" gift to buy but it is something that is really needed...Jamie added in the raffle. For each pack of diapers guests brought they got their name entered into the drawing. All I can say is HOLY DIAPERS! And we were assured we would use all of them! Oh boy! LOL



And to finish off this post...Just a couple of guest shots with a snuggle pic of Dan and I. (and Jenn...dont kill me for your shot! It just cracked me up!)







Stay tuned for Round 3! :)

~Whitney

Shower Part One...

There are soooo many photos from my shower that I figured it would be a bit overwhelming all in one post so this is going to get split into a few posts and you will just have to check back to see them all. There are a few things that need their own post and I dont want to have the importance of them get lost in the shuffle.

First things first: About the shower....

It was such an awesome day filled with love and support from so many friends and family members! One of my best friends, Jamie was the host of the shower but there was several people who contributed and helped make the day perfect. So first...A HUGE thank you to Jamie for all her hard work and for making it all come together smoothly! I know I am not an easy person to plan for OR easy for me to let go and let someone else take the reins! Only you could put up with me and still make it the best ever! For that I LOVE YOU! :) And appreciate everything you did and will not be able to say thank you enough!

Next we have my wonderful mom who also helped Jamie with the planning. Mom was in charge of the fun games but also helped with some of the decor, decorating and much more. She also flew in from Reno for the event and helped make it that more special! YOU ARE AWESOME MOM! Thanks for all the help! I will make sure Lily knows just how wonderful her grandma was! I hope you can be to her what my grandma was to me! (tear).

Then we have my sister-in-law Jenn who also flew in from Reno to help with the party. Jenn was in charge of the BEAUTIFUL cake and cupcakes which as a baker myself I know what a chore it can be (a fun one...but still time consuming). Jenn was also the creative person who made the Lillyville sign among many other fun crafting projects! Jenn...You were such a big help and I know Jamie really appreciated it as well. Thanks for flying in and being here for me! Lily is lucky to have you as an "Auntie"

Just a few more...Sorry...I know this is a lot of writing before the photos but its important that I start here as this shower would not have been what it was without all these people. I am usually the party planner so to see so many people come together to plan something for me just makes me all warm and fuzzy :) And I want to make sure each person gets a little love on the blog....

The final little helpers are going to be my sister Destiny who worked VERY hard on the bingo tags...right Dest? As well as spent her time pampering ME! And when I say pampering I mean it...She not only did my hair and makeup for the special day she also SHAVED MY LEGS! Yes you read that right! I cant reach! LOL. Now that is sisterly love! LOVE YOU DEST! Thank You! My sister Courtney took photos for me and drove up from Eugene last minute (she was not going to be able to make it) THANKS for coming Court! Love you! One of my other best buds Connie...drove up from Cottage Grove to the shower and also was in charge of the guest book/advice cards! What a fun craft project....I will post those pics in the next post! Thanks Connie! I LOVED IT! Dawn was in charge of blue balls....but read below for more on this...as well as helped with the glass tags! Thanks Dawn! It as a blast making all the goodies with you. :) And awesome Ali helped with the craft details...Ali is my crafting BUDDY! We had fun working on some of the last minute details together! Thanks Ali.....

So lets get started. I will explain and fill in a little more as we look at photos but that at least gets a few Thank You's in this post first!

The shower had about 30 people attend! WOW! Really that is all I can say. I was so thankful and happy to see everyone. This was a coed shower so it was entertaining to have the boys attend. They were all troopers though and I am happy we made it coed. The very first thing everyone saw was this sign made by Sis-in-law, Jenn upon entering our house...




Here are shots of the cake/cupcakes that Jenn made from scratch. She even cut out/ designed the stand up purple butterflies! She is so creative!







Here is the old fashioned candy and jars used for cute decoration. The tags were all handmade as well!








A few more decorations that were on the fireplace mantel...








Non-Alcoholic DELICIOUS drink...plus the cute glasses with tags that were hand made...





Part of the food table...




NUTTY BLUE BALLS! Yes...thats right! There had been an ongoing joke about Dawn's famous peanut butter balls. Dawn makes them for lots of parties and they are SO GOOD! But for this party Jamie asked her to decorate them with blue sprinkles...aka blue balls so they went with the theme. This joke continued for quite awhile and no one would let it go. So named them NUTTY BLUE BALLS and decided to embrace the funny! Thanks to Dawn for making them! You cant just eat one....they are addicting!





A couple more fun food shots...







And that is it for Round One! Stay tuned for more posts!

~Whitney

34 Weeks...

Our baby now weighs about 4 3/4 pounds (like your average cantaloupe) and is almost 18 inches long. Her fat layers — which will help regulate her body temperature once she's born — are filling her out, making her rounder. Her skin is also smoother than ever. Her central nervous system is maturing and her lungs are continuing to mature as well. If you've been nervous about preterm labor, you'll be happy to know that babies born between 34 and 37 weeks who have no other health problems generally do fine. They may need a short stay in the neonatal nursery and may have a few short-term health issues, but in the long run, they usually do as well as full-term babies.

Fun facts from....
www.babycenter.com

A 4 pound baby in this tummy! WOWSERS! And nothing like comparing her to a cantaloupe...I prefer bowling ball :) LOL. Crazy to think its already 34 weeks. I want to hold this girl in for 2 more weeks then I am going to start encouraging her to GET OUT! She needs to start listening to her mom now right? Yup. We will see...The count down begins!

~Whitney

Stork Parking...

I know many of you are waiting for shower pics...Dont worry I PROMISE I will post soon. I will probably turn it into posts all week as there is TONS to share. This weekend was not only my shower but I had many family members fly in and spend the weekend with me. So that meant lots of running around shopping and errands. Today is my first day in a quiet house and I am not sure if I love it or hate it. I guess in not too long I am going to be praying for a quite house? LOL.

Anyway...One of our outings was a quick trip to Babies R Us to get a few items I was missing. I know of course that they have special parking for prego people but at our store any parking space is close so it does not matter too much. But because I thought it was funny and hard a car load of people we went ahead and took advantage (first time ever!). Couldnt pass the moment without a quick shot so here you go...



Now the real kicker here....Is I have only seen this type of sign and Babies R Us. So when the group of us took a trip to Brideport Village it was raining, cold and of course I was tired of driving around looking for a spot. So its there I was saying they should have prego parking too. I mean come on! Could be fun to take advantage right? Wishful thinking? Well surprise...suprise...we pull in the parking lot and the very first space was open. I was excited until I realized there was a reserved sign on it....



IT WAS RESERVED FOR ME!!! ha ha! So yes...I admit I took the spot. Thank you Bridgeport Village that was very kind of you to have closer spot for me to park in! There are days when that can come in handy and other days when it does not matter. Yesterday it was MUCH appreciated!

More posts soon...

~Whitney

Gifts in the mail...

ARE SO MUCH FUN! What a wonderful thing to check your mail and see a colorful package right? Makes getting all the bills out a little more tolerable. Well today I pulled a beautiful red package out of the box with the name Miss Lily Harlacher! I dont know which was more fun? Getting the package OR seeing Lily's name on it? Here is a pic...(sorry blacked out the address for the sender...)



So I happily opened up her gift (I mean she wont be able to right? LOL) and inside was this...



I am a sucker for adorable packaging what can I say? The photographer/artist in me comes out so I of course had to snap a pic before I opened them up! Next we have the contents of these goodies...







ADORABLE!!! I love both outfits! A HUGE thanks to my cousin Stacy who sent these fantastic gift for Lily! That was very kind of you to do and I look forward to dressing her in them down the road! And I hope you dont mind the blog post about it :) Sorry cant help myself...wanted to share!

~Whitney

Shower...

Is coming up in just a bit and I am so excited! So many friends and family coming to celebrate this crazy idea Dan and I had to become parents :) I am excited for my mom, sis and sis-in-law to be flying in just to help out and celebrate! So awesome of them! I will be taking lots of photos of all the fun details. You better believe the shower is going to be just as fun and creative as Baby Lily's room! My wonderful friend Jamie has been hard at work planning with some help from my mom and a few others who have added their love to the shower! I wont be able to thank everyone enough! See many of you soon....and stay tuned for photos from the special day!

~Whitney

No baby yet...

Dan went out of town for a few days and his only request was for me to NOT give birth while he was gone! It was his last official trip before Lily is born. Luckily we had success. I am still prego! Thank Goodness...And my hubby is back safe and sound with me! I can honestly say I am pretty "done" with being pregnant. It was fun while it lasted but now its overstayed its welcome! LOL. But I am not really ready to have a newborn baby here. Scary when I think about it. We still have a some time hopefully. And a note to Miss Lily...Lets hang in there till we are closer to the due date so there are no complications! But you can quit beating me up anytime now! ha ha :)

~Whitney

33 Weeks- Fun Facts

This week your baby weighs a little over 4 pounds (heft a pineapple) and has passed the 17-inch mark. She's rapidly losing that wrinkled, alien look and her skeleton is hardening. The bones in her skull aren't fused together, which allows them to move and slightly overlap, thus making it easier for her to fit through the birth canal. (The pressure on the head during birth is so intense that many babies are born with a conehead-like appearance.) These bones don't entirely fuse until early adulthood, so they can grow as her brain and other tissue expands during infancy and childhood.

Thank you www.babycenter.com

~Whitney

PEE!?!?!?!?!

Okay this post might be a "little" TMI...so if you dont want to hear about prego peeing...sign off and wait for another post! LOL. Dont say I didnt at least warn you!

So I am NOT trying to complain...Really. Just pointing at an annoying fact of being prego. PEEING! EVERY 5 MINUTES! Okay...maybe not quite that bad...but I tell you what... this is one of the most annoying parts I have had to deal with. I am one of those people who can pretty much hold it all day...Or at least all night no matter what. I NEVER get up in the middle of the night to pee. So getting up 3-4 times every night to pee is just plain annoying. I know the argument is "Its preparing you for baby"...Fine. But really? Dont I deserve all the non-interupted sleep I can possibly get NOW. Why should I have to be tired all the time before Miss Lily arrives? Makes no sense...thats all I am saying. Obviously I am surviving and obviously its not that bad of a "side effect" as I like to call these prego things that happen. But I still think the peeing should be kept to a min and should LET ME SLEEP!

Okay Im done...ha ha ha. Hope you guys agree :)

~Whitney

Mobile...

Dan and I worked on the baby Mobile this weekend and I am so happy with how it turned out. I couldnt just have a "traditional" mobile...that would be to easy :) So together we made one! Now all we have left is the frames/images for above the crib! Frames were ordered yesterday and should be here in a couple weeks! Stay tuned...

~Whitney

32 Weeks...

By now, your baby weighs 3.75 pounds and is about 16.7 inches long, taking up a lot of space in your uterus. You're gaining about a pound a week and roughly half of that goes right to your baby. In fact, she'll gain a third to half of her birth weight during the next 7 weeks as she fattens up for survival outside the womb. She now has toenails, fingernails, and real hair (or at least respectable peach fuzz). Her skin is becoming soft and smooth as she plumps up in preparation for birth.

Information thanks to www.babycenter.com

~Whitney