Andrea's First Baby Shower

Let the baby showers begin! My sweet, little niece, Tinsley, is due to make her arrival sometime around the beginning of August, so baby showers for our newest little blessing have started. A couple of weekends ago, Eli and I traveled to my parents house so we could attend Andrea's first baby shower. This baby shower was hosted by several of Andrea's mom's friends, who were teachers with her (Andrea's mom just recently retired from teaching Kindergarten). I was so excited to get to see Andrea and her baby bump, because I hadn't seen them since the Gender Revealing party back in March. 

My dad had to work, so Eli came to the shower with us. Normally, I would have been really nervous about this, but thankfully, my cousin, Emily, was in town for the week so she was able to help with Eli.  She brought her Nintendo DS and that kept Eli occupied for the ENTIRE two hour shower. I'm not a huge fan of him playing games like that just yet, but in this case I gladly welcomed it!

My brother Caleb's girlfriend, Kailey, also came with us to the shower. She, like everyone else, is super excited about the newest addition to our family.

Kailey and me

Mom and me

My grandmother with her two granddaughters

The food the hostesses prepared was so good! Everyone filled their plates and then found seats to watch Andrea open her gifts for Tinsley.

Andrea asked me to take pictures of the shower and she asked Kailey to write down the names on the presents. She got so many cute things for Tinsley! My niece has so many clothes already and she's not even here yet!

Mom gave Tinsley a pretty dress.

She also ordered this onesie off Etsy. Andrea loved it!

I couldn't resist giving Tinsley some bright zebra clothes :)

Caleb and Kailey got her this really cool onesie. HAHA!

Kailey gave Tinsley this sweet little blanket. The top side is pink damask and the underside is white minky dot. It's so soft and cute!

Eli took a break from the DS to drink some juice. He was really good the entire time.

Andrea's mom gave her this precious embroidered blanket that she wanted.

One of her aunts ordered her the diaper bag she registered for but it was backordered. She gave Andrea a card  and cut out a picture of the diaper bag to show her what her gift was.

After all the gifts were opened, we took some pictures of Andrea with the hostesses and different family members. Doesn't she look great to be 8 months pregnant?

Andrea and all the hostesses

My grandmother and Emily

Andrea and all the great-grandmothers

Andrea and her mom

Andrea with both grandmothers

We were instructed the do "The Amanda", which involves turning your head to the side and cheesing really big for the camera. I had a camera in my face from birth so I got really good at posing for pictures. Mom got a kick out of this one :)

Kailey, Andrea, me

Mom with all of her girls :)

It was a great shower! Andrea and Tinsley received so many wonderful clothes, gifts, and other things that will come in handy when Miss Tinsley arrives. I'm just very ready for little miss priss to get here!!

Happy 33rd Birthday, Josh!

On June 7th, my sweet husband turned 33 years old. We didn't plan a huge party or anything, we just invited Mammy, Uncle Clare, and Josh's mom to go eat with us at the newest restaurant in our area. We were even surprised when our cousin, Brian, showed up. He moved several months ago and we haven't seen him that much. We've really missed him a lot, so it was great to visit with him even if it was just for a day. 

After a delicious cajun inspired supper, we walked outside to take some pictures with the birthday boy. I am beyond blessed to be married to this wonderful man. He takes care of me like no one else could ever do! He makes me laugh, is a great provider, and is an incredible daddy to Eli. I can't wait to celebrate many more birthdays with him! 

Our precious family :)

Josh and his mom

We drove back to Josh's mom's house for coffee and dessert and I managed to squeeze in just a couple more pictures. As the designated photographer on both sides of the family, I have my work cut out for me :) 

My favorite two boys 

I love this guy so much!

We were so glad that Mammy and Uncle Clare could join us for Josh's birthday celebration. They were a huge part of his life growing up, and now they're a huge part of Eli's life. They are cherished friends!

We went inside and Josh opened his birthday gifts with some help from his little buddy. Mammy and Uncle Clare got him some stuff for his grill that we can't wait to try out soon! Josh's mom gave him some shorts, and she bought us six knock-out roses for our yard. They look great!

Rather than making a cake, Sue made Josh a blueberry pie. He was very excited about his birthday dessert! Eli helped us sing "Happy Birthday" to Josh and then helped him blow out the candle as well.

Happy Birthday, Josh! I love you so much and wish you all the happiness in the world! I can't wait to celebrate many more birthdays with you!

Beach Getaway with the Girls

The last week of school my friends, Dara and Brandi, invited me to tag along with a group of girls to the beach. I was completely surprised and after talking about it with Josh, I quickly agreed. I had not expected a trip to the beach at all this summer, so I was very excited about getting to go. Josh and I made arrangements for Eli while I was going to be gone, I packed my stuff, said my goodbyes, and hopped in the car with my girls.

My friends, Megan and Diane, rode with me on the way to Gulf Shores, and the weather was AWFUL the entire way there. When I say AWFUL, I literally mean if you had looked at the radar during the time it took us to drive there, we were under the red dot (the area where the storm is the strongest) the ENTIRE time. My hazards were on, the wipers were going full blast, and you couldn't even hear the radio because of the rain. God watched over us and we arrived in Gulf Shores safe and sound that night. After a yummy supper at The Oyster House, meeting another part of our group of girls, and shopping for groceries, we crashed into bed at the condo. We all said prayers that the weather would be nice and sunny the next day.

We woke up to overcast skies and after some coffee, sour cream blueberry muffins, and a quick call to my boys, we all decided to go shopping that morning and wait for sunny skies after lunch. We drove to Foley and shopped the outlet stores and then came back to the condo for lunch. The weather was BEAUTIFUL by now, so we all changed into our swimsuits, gathered our sunscreen, magazines, books, chairs, and towels, and headed to the beach. This is what greeted us when we arrived...



My new friend, Lindsey, took a lot of these pictures and really captured what we did our entire trip. Pretty much every day was a version of this...

It was so nice to relax and spend some time with these girls!

Friday night we all went to Tacky Jack's for supper. Since the wait was at least an hour long everywhere we went, we spent our time waiting taking pictures.

Megan and me

Diane and me

Megan and Diane

Our Whole Group of Girls

Diane, Jamie, Dara, Megan, Angela, Lindsey,

Brandi, Crystal, me, Shannon

Dara, me, Diane, Angela

View from the pier

Saturday was spent enjoying more of this...

That night we went to a very nice restaurant called Cobalt. Once again, we had about an hour wait, so we took some more pictures :)

Me, Dara, Angela, Diane

Group Shot

Beautiful sunset on the bay

Me, Mega, Diane

After devouring our dinner (the tuna was DEVINE!), we passed by the cupcake display and each decided that we had to try some. For $2 how could you not?

Diane and I shared a salted caramel cupcake and OH. MY. WORD! That cupcake was wonderful!!

After inhaling  devouring eating our dessert, some of us went to The Hangout to go listen to some bands. It was lots of fun!  

Me, Brandi, Diane

Me and Diane

My last day at the beach was Sunday, so I stayed out as long as I could to soak up all the sunshine I could. For our last meal in Gulf Shores, we ate at an Italian restaurant called Grazie. Yum-o! We took one last group shot to remember our time together and then headed back to the condo to get ready to leave the next day. 

I'm so glad I got to spend some time at the beach with this great group of girls. We talked and shared and really got to know each other a lot better. I made some new friends and made deeper bonds with old ones. I left the beach feeling refreshed and invigorated. I couldn't wait to go home to my boys, who I missed so incredibly much! Thanks, girls, for an incredible trip! Love you all lots and I can't wait for next year's trip!!