My last shower, thrown by my friends from work, was held, quite conveniently, here at my house! Since I’m on bedrest, two of my girlfriends Hallie and Jenn brought the shower to me. It was odd to have other people come in and completely take over my house–but odd in a fabulous kind of way.

It ended up POURING on the day of the shower, but that didn’t stop the inside of our house from looking bright and springy!

Jenn arranged a variety of white flowers and herbs (how unique!!!) in these little white vases all over the house. They were so adorable, and the basil, lavender, and rosemary sprigs she stuck in with the flowers made the arrangements smell wonderful!

I am a cheese FANATIC. And these were three wonderful cheeses! I was especially partial to that rosemary encrusted asagio. Yum!

Hallie and Jenn set up this great little “Bubble Bar” with sparkling water, champagne, and lots of mixers. I would have killed for a glass of champagne with that pomegranate juice, but I was good and had sparkling water with lemonade instead…which I will say was a close second.

We did some socializing…

And then dug into the delicious spread! Jenn is an amazing cook and Hallie is an amazing baker, so it worked out quite well! Jenn recreated several of my favorite meals from local restaurants and did a FABULOUS job. I especially loved the honey mustard chopped salad with chicken and the avocado/cheese stacks (I had about 12 of these…no joke).

And Hallie made those adorable little cupcakes which were awesome! I was happy that there were a lot of leftovers for me to munch on over the next few days!

And after we ate, of course, there were lots of fun presents to open!

I was truly amazed by this group of ladies, lots of them made amazing handmade gifts: handsewn burp clothes and flannel blankets, ribbon embellished burp clothes, hand-stamped onesies, a CD mix of kids songs, and look at this adorable baby blanket:

I also loved the stack of books I left the shower with (lots of teachers attended ). And the coworkers from my office pooled their resources and got both the boys carseats AND pack n plays! I am continuously blown away by the generosity of my friends.

Very sadly, after all the hard work they put into the shower, I didn’t get a pic with the two hosts! How sad! So here’s a photo from last summer, when we went wine tasting together. How much has changed in less than a year!

I am a very, very lucky girl and have some incredible friends. You may remember that back in December, when we were home for the holidays my best friend Leslie and my mom hosted a beautiful shower for me. It was great to see so many of my friends from high school and my extended family.

Last weekend, my girlfriend Leighanne and the women from the Officer Spouses’ Club threw an oh-so-appropriate Nautical Themed shower. Here’s Leighanne and I together (I’m kind of annoyed because I don’t think I even look pregnant in this picture)!

And yes, while I was there I was good and stayed sitting down resting the whole time–no crazy baby shower relays or anything. I figured I could sit on Leighanne’s couch just as easily as I could sit on my own for a few hours. And God knows for my own sanity I needed to get out of the house for something other than a doctor’s appointment!

The shower was just adorable–I had to share some of the details! Leighanne borrowed some Nautical flags from a friend, but she also made these to hang around her mantel. And I just LOVE that anchor–too cute!

This was the set-up for the delicious brunch. Aren’t those little paper boats cute? I loved them! Leighanne made a bunch of those in different sizes and they were tucked all over her house. And I didn’t notice until the end of the shower that even the napkin and silverware holder was a little boat!

Here’s a close-up of the cake:

I still can’t get over how thoughtful and generous our friends are. I start to tear up a little bit every time I think about it (and no…that’s NOT just these crazy hormones). We have received so many amazing gifts from people–some we don’t even know! Seriously.

Luckily, I DO know a friend who has just had twin boys who has already passed down a wealth of twinformation (I just made that word up, and I think it’s pretty amazing). She got the boys a few things, but my favorite were these adorable leather shoes with little owls on them–they made me make this funny face:

And last but not least, here’s a pic of our Officer Spouses’ Club. It’s a pretty fabulous group of ladies–I’m so happy to have them all in my life!

Thank you ladies for a fabulous shower!!!

As I wrote in my last post, my best friend Leslie and my mom (with lots of help from my sisters!) threw me a baby shower a few days ago. You may remember that we’re doing a beach cottage theme for the nursery. The ladies used the beach theme, combined with the middle of December shower date to throw a beautiful event, which I’m calling “Winter By the Sea.”

When you walk into the main part of my parent’s house, where the shower was held, you see the dining room table. The ladies made this lovely centerpiece out of branches spray painted white and blue sparkly sprigs stuck in a tall vase with artificial snow. And to add that beach feel, they set out starfish, blue stars, and seas shells. Lovely!

And then as you can see, there was quite the blue and white candy bar. It always amazes me how versatile clear vases and white serving dishes can be! Some blue confetti, white votives, and seashells spray painted silver finished off the look.

The ladies served a light dinner of salad with walnuts and blueberries, delicious artichoke dip served with blue corn chips (seeing a color theme here), and then white pizza served on these pretty silver plates.

And to drink? Beer and wine, and an assortment of blue beverages: water, Blueberry Izze, Blue Raspberry lemonade Jones Soda, and a blue Cream Soda. It all looked so pretty in this big silver tub.

All around the house there were little touches. Like this crystal bowl that held blue and silver christmas ornaments, shells, and starfish:

And this one, too:

And this garland that hung over the door into the house:

Then, of course, there the shower gifts! My friends and family were very generous and we now have the beginnings of a stockpile of baby clothes, blankets, and the sort! Thank you everyone!!! Now…we just need to finish the nursery so we have a place to put it all!

After opening the gifts, I prepared to cut into this adorable little cake.

Funny story: because we got married in such a small town, I decided that rather than have a local baker attempt to do a fancy wedding cake, I’d just ask them to make four individual white cakes, and then garnish them with sunflowers (our flower of the day). I loved the way the turned out, but my mom has never let me live down the fact that I did not have a tiered wedding cake. So, she had this cake made, and, of course, it was two tiers.

Here’s a pic of me with a few of my friends from high school (the blond on the far left is Leslie, who was responsible for putting it all together).

It was a wonderful evening filled with family and friends. I couldn’t have asked for a better way to kick off the holidays! And a huge thanks to my mom, my best friend Leslie, and their assistants Caroline and Sydney for putting it all together, and also a thank you to everyone who came out to celebrate the impending arrival of Seamonkey and Pollywog!