babies and leaves

I flew to STL on Friday for Hannah's baby shower. Maybe I haven't mentioned this enough but Hannah is my bestie. We roomed together in college since our freshman year, mere baby 18 year olds, and lived together until I got hitched and moved up to the Great Artic. Needless to say, we've been through an obscene amount of life changes together, we've shared in our good moments and in our yucky ones. We've laughed our butts off until our faces hurt, we've sobbed the ugly cries, and we've shared parts of our engagements together. But sharing in our first pregnancies together has probably been one of the most fun times we've had, even though most of our discussions take place with lengthy emails. (And note, I say 'one of the most fun times' because really....can we ever top our famous college shenanigans? I think not).

So of course, when Hannah announced she was with child I immediately started to envision the baby shower I'd throw her. I mean, I threw her a bridal shower and bachelorette party but a baby shower? It's so different! Enlisting the help of some mighty fine ladies down in MO, we went to work planning the big day for Halloween....or when Hannah is 35 weeks along. And can I just say that the shower was a success and SO much fun?

Here is the lady of the hour, pregnant glow and all:


And of course, I had to figure out a way to do arts and crafts ahead of time and pack them in my carry on bag for the plane. These paper pennants made the trip just fine! And now I totally want to do something like this for our nursery:




Every baby shower needs a diaper cake, right?


And how about a newborn baby, just one month old, attending the shower to give us pregnant ladies a taste of baby life?


See what I mean? Out of 13 guests, four of us were knocked up. Maggie is 12 weeks, I'm 21 weeks (and holy hell, my belly is huge in this picture...I must have been sticking it out to compete with Hannah's!), Amanda is 33 weeks, and Hannah is 35 weeks. Aren't we cute?


Hannah got a creative photography gift from me, for the nursery. Three frames with pictures of baby block letters and tiny animal figurines in each one. They spell out 'Baby' 'baby's name' 'baby's last name' and I think she really liked them! I mean, she did sort of ask me to take 3 photos for the baby's room and we brainstormed together, so it's not like it was a total surprise. But what a fun project!


Hannah and I with our moms....about to be Grandmas for the first time! Needless to say, they are way more excited for this stage in our lives versus the one where we moved off to college. Yeah, that was a little less fun for them:)



And after the shower, Lindsey (who had the shower at her house as the newest newlywed with lots of fun kitchen supplies to use!) asked me to take some pics of fall colors for their back room. She's going with reds and oranges in there and wanted a few prints to hang on the wall. She didn't have to ask me twice...since I have been a slacker and haven't taken any pics of fall leaves up here, I needed my autumn fix anyway.









So all in all, a great weekend. Next time we are back in STL it will be driving through to my parent's house in mid-Missouri for Christmas. Hannah will be a mommy and I will be 7 months pregnant. SO WEIRD!! Where is the time going?