Friends and Family Baby Shower

The baby shower on Sunday was awesome!  My friend, Liz, is an expert party planner and I couldn't have imagined my shower going any better.

I started off the day by going to church.  My aches and pains along with my constant need to pee make it so difficult to sit through a church service now!  During the Sunday School hour Brandon ran some errands for me and I was able to talk to the women.  We're having our 3rd Annual Mother Daughter Banquet this weekend along with my other baby shower (it's going to be a BUSY week).  During the second service, it was our last weekend to help in the nursery.  We had some super cute little baby boys with us!

I've mentioned previously, but after we announced our pregnancy it was like there was something in the water!  There's a group of us in the church all having babies now, and they've started referring to May as Baby Boom 2013.  One of the other girls in our pregnant group is close to delivering so we had a small fellowship luncheon for her.  I was only able to stay a few minutes because I was feeling so terrible and I knew that I needed to ride with Liz and help her set up for my baby shower.

We had my baby shower at Superior Grill on Hwy 280.  Brandon and I had one of our first dinner dates there and have returned many times.  Elliana will probably laugh looking back that we had her baby shower on the patio at a bar, but our first choice was a winery!  :)

Well, here's some (a lot) of pictures.  We've been so blessed by Shannon to photo document our pregnancy journey.

Decor

My invitation created by Liz.  
She knew my favorite colors and love for Lilly Pulitzer and Vera Bradley!

Liz did such a great job with the decor for my shower.  Not many people have their baby showers on the patio of a local bar, but I'm not most people!  It was so much fun and it didn't matter that we were loud.  

I've become girly from working in the jewelry for the past few years.  I'll never be a big "pink girl" but I do love some lime green!  Our decorations were easy and simple, but they looked great!

You can barely see the flamingo in the glass.  I'm a sucker for flamingos now.

These jelly bean topiaries were no easy task!  I have no idea how many jelly beans I ate in the process of constructing these centerpieces.  The first two we made took longer until we figured out a process.  They were lots of fun and Liz and I have both agreed to try and use them as MUCH as possible in our future events!

Gifts and Well Wishes

Instead of having a traditional guest book, I opted for the guests leaving notes of well wishes for Elliana.  I thought this was less traditional and something that she could hold on to versus a guest book that would sit collecting dust

Liz printed a calendar and asked everyone to guess the date of Elliana's arrival.  I'm not really one for games at showers, so this was something neat that everyone could participate in, and again, it was something to keep in her scrapbook!

The Food

Menu

Mini Chicken Quesadillas

Mini Steak Quesadillas

Mini Chimichangas

Sopapillas with honey

Chips & Salsa

Chips & Queso

Sweet Tea & Water

The People

Sweet O- Tiff's daughter

Showing my Aunt Charlotte pictures from our 3D ultrasound

Aunt Gina

Aunt Liz

Tiff & O

Rachel and her mother, Melissa

Aunt Gina and Aunt NeeNee working on Liz's madlib 

Aunt Roo (my sister, Beth)

Joy with Sia and Mia

Si didn't complain one bit about being the only boy at my baby shower!

GiGi (my Mom) with Sia

I love this little girl!

Gran- my Mom's Mom

Mia (B's Mom), Aunt Gina (B's sister), Me, Aunt Stephanie (B'sister), Aunt Sheri (BEST SIL ever and BFF)

With Liz
You've gotta love our background for the picture!!

With Joy

With Tiff, my BFF Prego Buddy
I look SO much bigger than her here and she's due a few days ahead of me!

My little sister was amazing at the shower!
She even guessed my belly size PERFECTLY!

Me, Mom, Roo

Roo, Me, Gran, Mom
3 Generations; about to be 4

The Anthony Family

Posing with Gran and the quilt she made for Elliana, her first great-grandchild

With Jenna
I'm going to miss our Moe's lunch dates at work!

My Uncle David made an appearance with my Aunt Jan before the shower began!
 He couldn't believe how big my tummy has grown.

The Presents

O was such a good helper!
She enjoyed picking out which gift for me to open next.

Nanny picked out some of the cutest outfits for Elliana

I'm a Vera Bradley JUNKIE!

Beth picked out the most adorable swim suit with matching sunglasses and sandals that Elliana can wear this summer!  

from Gran

Gran made this for Elliana

The Aftermath

I was exhausted!
Can you tell??

Mass CHAOS in my living room!

Our goodies for Elliana

Overall I had a GREAT baby shower.  It couldn't have been more fun unless I had been feeling better!  I'm excited and looking forward to our other baby shower at the church this weekend and then it will be about time for our little girl to make her grand entrance to the world!