Cutest Baby Shower

Well, it was a few weeks ago, but I am just now getting around to posting about a darling baby shower I helped put together for a friend out here. I kept waiting to post about it because I wanted to include a tutorial for making the best kind of diaper cake ever. Observe how glorious to behold: But I misplaced the photos I'd taken of the assembly process. And what's a tutorial without photos. But anyway, this diaper cake is my favorite variety since it has smooth sides and hidden gifts in the center, and I had trouble figuring out how to make it since if you google "diaper cake instructions" or the like, it doesn't pull up this variety in any of the top hits. But anyway, I figured it out partly by memory (this was the type of diaper cake given to me in Lo's shower last year). And I am delighted how cute it turned out. Here are us mommy friends at the baby shower; Lindsay, Courtney, Chelsea, and Kristen. We all live in the same apartment complex, are in the same church congregation, our husbies all work in the same program/for the same company, and we all have babies around the same age. It feels like such a natural friendship.

Since we ended up last-minute not doing a birthday party with that Lo's friends a few months ago, I had a couple dozen chinese takeout boxes sitting around unused. Kristen, one of the girls who co-hosted this shower, is the type of person who adds instant cuteness to anything she touches. Sort of like a Midas touch, only a crafty version. So she had the idea to pop some flower power cupcakes into all those chinese takeout boxes, add ribbon and tag, and voila, the perfect take-home thanks for guests at the baby shower. Seriously, I felt really impressed by how adorable the whole shower turned out. Welcome to mommyhood, Chelsea!

**this is sort of an incomplete record of the shower, since I didn't even talk about the games we played (all the best ones of course), foods (themed!), and gifts (plentiful)...but for some reason I feel silly about this post being so long after the fact, that I just hit a few main points and left it at that. meh.

It's a Jungle Out Here

My friend Jocelyn organized such a fun Jungle/Chinese themed baby shower for Little Tam this past weekend. Yes, jungle/chinese--it blended beautifully, that's how creative she is.

I have to say how amazed and grateful I am for the people out here who show generosity and love to us Tams. We just moved here such a little time ago, but already feel welcomed and supported. Thank you to everybody who made the baby shower a success, and to all the others who have been helpful to us during our entire adjustment to this new home. I feel especially secure in realizing my transition to motherhood will be aided by dozens of wise and experienced women who have proven themselves poised to assist where their talents can best be used. Speaking of talents, here are some artistic endeavors...We did a lot of games at the shower, most of which went beyond the typical ones. Pictured above is our winning face from the "make a baby" game. I loved this little face's spiky Asian hair and Chinese eyes. Can hardly wait to see what Little looks like in real life--but I bet this sculpture captures some of his key features. :)

Here is a pic that shows 5 of my favorite things from this shower: on the table, note origami animals (I am planning to string them on a garland for the nursery); a bag of bead binkies, which we guesstimated and counted for a game; a "sock rose" boquet, created by my crafty Young Women; a pile of socks on the floor; and crazily laughing women trying to match/wrestle over those socks in competition for a prize. Best game ever, and I am thrilled to note that Little now owns a bazillion pairs of socks, in every conceivable pattern and color. (yeah, he probably won't wear matching pairs very often).

Here I am folding the socks after the matching game, and also note in the background a lineup of bags which held the prizes. Jocelyn was so detail-oriented for this baby shower--I loved it! She wouldn't let herself be in any pictures, but this one has her arm in the corner, so haha, she is preserved for posterity anyway.

The take-home party favors had gorgeous fortune cookies and mini candy pacifiers for people to "suck" on, getting in touch with our inner child.

Happy chatting women. Here on the table is a better shot of the sock rose boquet created by the Young Women. I don't want to ever dissemble it, it looks so lovely.

The food! A few favorites were grog punch, cupcakes made from scratch (decorated to look like rattles) as well as Jocelyn's famous cheese balls. Those lovely tiered cakes were sculpted of diapers, of course, and were the best I have ever seen.

Here is a close-up of one of the diaper cakes. I loved the brown "grass" and velvety chocolate-colored burp cloths that lined this cake.

As I mentioned in a previous post, Little's nursery had no "theme" to it, but rather consisted of whatever random colors and objects we had acquired over the past few months. Jocelyn let me keep so many decorations from the shower, I now have enough jungly stuff to tie together the nursery! So fun. I will have to post pics when the room gets put together.

We now have just about everything we could ever want or need for this baby. Thanks again to all who have helped get us ready to go!

"Yep! I'm a Boy"

We had a lot of fun in the weeks preceding our move, but didn't blog about any of it because we started to get busy packing.

Here are the pics from my Boise baby shower, hosted by my cute sister Jessica. We all loved the balloons that gave their declaration, "Yep! I'm a boy!" and also visible in this first pic is a GORGEOUS handmade quilt made by one of the sisters who was in my ward during my growing up years.

To add to the baby theme, my brother-in-law brought in an armful of kittens for me to cuddle. It may be hard to count them, because most are solid black, but there are SIX little guys nestled in my lap here. My sister and her husband live in a farmhouse, and used to have a huge mice problem until they got a few cats. Well, now they have more than a few cats, so if anybody is searching for a good mouser, be sure to let them know.

These three women are all from my original home ward. We also had aunts and cousins come--what a fun group to reconnect with! It had been years since I had visited with some of these ladies.

From Left to Right: Childhood friend Holly (she is expecting a baby at the same due date as me!); Jessica the greatest sister; and me, enjoying another darling little boy outfit. Who knew BOY clothes could be so fun? We got cowboy gear, dinosaurs, little planes and dirt diggers, aardvarks, puppy decals, and all kinds of exciting themed clothes as well as lots of other useful items as well. Thanks everybody who came--we feel so loved!